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CATHERINE MCVAY HUGHES TO STEP DOWN AS CHAIRPERSON
OF COMMUNITY BOARD 1
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| | Catherine McVay Hughes at the World Trade Center construction site. April 16, 2010.
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At Community Board 1's full board meeting on April 26, Catherine McVay Hughes announced that she would not seek re-election as chairperson of Community Board 1. Her term will end on June 26.
McVay Hughes has chaired CB1 for four years. She did not say whether she would remain a member of Community Board 1 nor did she give a reason for not seeking re-election as chairperson.
Before her election to the chairmanship of Community Board 1, McVay Hughes served as vice chairman for six years. During that time, she was also chair of CB1's World Trade Center Committee and was intensely involved in issues surrounding the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and in health care issues affecting first responders, volunteers who helped to clear the smoking debris of the World Trade Center, and local residents.
She campaigned ceaselessly for passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, making numerous trips to Washington, D.C. to support its initial passage and subsequent reauthorization.
McVay Hughes, an engineer by training, has also worked tenaciously to get Lower Manhattan the protection it needs from future flooding caused by sea level rise and climate change.
There are 12 community boards in Manhattan, all under the jurisdiction of the Manhattan Borough President. Each community board is made up of 50 volunteers serving staggered two-year terms.
They have specific responsibilities relating to land use recommendations and approvals, making city budget recommendations and monitoring the delivery of city services such as sanitation and street maintenance.
Beyond that, community boards are as persuasive and effective as the people who compose them and lead them make them. For the last 10 years, under McVay Hughes and her predecessor, Julie Menin, Community Board 1 has been a powerhouse, moving the needle on issues as disparate as the fate of development in the South Street Seaport to school construction and funding.
The members of Community Board 1 will elect new officers in June. Thus far, Anthony Notaro, CB1's vice chairman and chairperson of the Battery Park City Committee, is the only person who has said that he would like to run for the chairmanship.
- Terese Loeb Kreuzer(All photos by Terese Loeb Kreuzer)|
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Catherine McVay Hughes and Richard Skinner on the bus to Washington, D.C. on Sept. 29, 2010 to support the bill in the House of Representatives that would provide health care and compensation for those whose health was affected by work and proximity to the World Trade Center. For nine years, McVay Hughes has been an activist working on health issues created by the World Trade Center attack. Skinner is on the Board of Directors of the FealGood Foundation, which organized the bus trip.
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Community Board 1 chairperson Catherine McVay Hughes and other members of CB 1's executive committee listening to people describe the damage they had sustained from Superstorm Sandy. Nov. 4, 2012
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Community Board 1 chair Catherine McVay Hughes listening to The Howard Hughes Corporation's presentation to the CB1 Landmarks Committee on its proposals for South Street Seaport development. Dec. 10, 2014
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Jonathan Boulware, executive director of the South Street Seaport Museum and Catherine McVay Hughes, chairperson of Community Board 1, on Pier 15 in the South Street Seaport at a ceremony during which the museum's 1885 sailing ship, Wavertree, departed for a year-long, $10.6 million restoration at Caddell's Dry Dock in Staten Island. May 21, 2015
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Catherine McVay Hughes with Ro Sheffe, who retired from Community Board 1 at the March 22, 2016 meeting and was given a proclamation by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer for his many years of service.
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