By Josh Williams
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Community Board 1 chairwoman and NBC talk show host Julie Menin is stepping down from her post when her term ends in July, she announced Tuesday.
"I have decided to disclose early that I will not run again for chair," Menin revealed at the monthly board meeting, triggering gasps from the audience.
The surprise announcement caps off a year of upheaval for CB1. Voters ousted City Councilman Alan Gerson in favor of the first female Asian American candidate Margaret Chin during last month’s general election, and long-time Board Member Barry Skolnik said he was stepping down at the end of this year.
Menin said she needed more time to be with her three young children and juggle the demands of her new television news show, "Julie Menin's Give and Take." The show, in which Menin interviews guests from conservative author Ann Coulter to CNN anchor Campbell Brown, airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on WNBC's new 24-hour news channel, New York Nonstop.
“As many of you know I now have a show on NBC that I am doing, that I am committed to, and I feel in all fairness, the right thing to do is to have a person that can commit themselves full time to the board,” Menin said.
Menin was elected to CB1 during a special election in 2005 and was unanimously reelected twice, according to her Web site. She is also the founder and former president of Wall Street Rising, a not-for-profit business group created to help Lower Manhattan get back on its feet after the terror attacks of Sept. 11.
