By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — A public-housing leader, gay-rights rights activist and multimedia artist are among the new crop of appointees to Community Board 3.
Borough President Scott Stringer announced the selections last week, after sifting through 508 applications for 310 seats across Manhattan's dozen community boards.
Included in the selections for Board 3 — which covers the East Village, Lower East Side and parts of Chinatown and Little Italy — were an Alphabet City public housing complex leader, the founder of an LGBT advocacy group, a representative from Chinatown's influential neighborhood organizations, and a choreographer/artist with roots in the Lower East Side's art scene.
Charlotte Miles — president of both the Lillian Wald Houses tenant association and the community council for Police Area Service 4, which covers 25 NYCHA complexes — was tapped by the borough president to join the 50-member body for a two-year term.
Joining her is 26-year-old East Village resident Natasha Dillon, a founder of the gay-rights activist group Queer Rising, who previously served on the board as a public member.
Gary Tai, assistant to the president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and a board member of the century-old Lin Sing Association, was also picked by Stringer for a two-year term.
Jack Waters, a multimedia artist who co-founded the nonprofit arts organization Allied Productions Inc. and formerly worked as co-director of the poineering Lower East Side art space ABC No Rio, was selected by Councilwoman Rosie Mendez to serve through 2013.
The borough president selects all community board members, with half the appointees based on recommendations from local city councilmembers.
Three of the appointees — Dillon, David Conn and Karen Blatt — have all previously served on the board as public members.
Blatt was a member of the board's Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) task force, which helped shape an unprecedented community-driven development plan for the sprawling Lower East Side lots.
Waters and Lower East Side resident Carlina Rivera represent the board's brand-new members.
"Today, our community boards are platforms for robust discussion of neighborhood issues and vehicles for bringing about change in communities throughout Manhattan," Stringer said in a statement. "They are the front line for democracy in New York and the means by which we are energizing community activism throughout the city."
Of the 310 new appointments, 233 represented returning board members while 77 were new applicants.
