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Downtown's Community Board 1 Welcomes Three New Members

Chow Xie, 25, has lived in TriBeCa since 1993.
Chow Xie, 25, has lived in TriBeCa since 1993.
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Courtesy of Chow Xie

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

LOWER MANHATTAN — A lawyer, a union leader and a neighborhood activist are the newest members of downtown's Community Board 1.

Borough President Scott Stringer announced the appointments Thursday, after sifting through 508 applications for 310 available seats in Manhattan's community boards.

CB1 Chairwoman Julie Menin said she was "very pleased" with the board's three new members — Chow Xie, Oliver Gray and Paul Cantor — who all have deep roots in the downtown community and will bring local expertise to their positions.

At 25, Xie, assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, is the youngest member of the board, but he is no stranger to downtown. Xie has lived in TriBeCa with his family since 1993, and he is a graduate of the neighborhood's popular P.S. 234. Xie also attended Murry Bergtraum High School, New York University and Brooklyn Law School, never straying far from his lower Manhattan home.

Paul Cantor is an advocate for quality-of-life issues downtown.
Paul Cantor is an advocate for quality-of-life issues downtown.
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DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro

After witnessing 9/11 as a teenager and then watching the neighborhood rebuild, Xie said he joined the community board partly to work on issues related to the World Trade Center development.

"I see the development as a good thing, but I want to make sure it does not affect the residential character of lower Manhattan," Xie said, mentioning concerns about traffic, air quality and infrastructure.

Cantor, 49, another new board member, is already a familiar face at CB1, where he has been attending meetings as a public member for several years. A hedge-fund manager who has lived in TriBeCa since 1995, Cantor is also a member of the 1st Precinct Community Council and an advocate for quality-of-life improvements downtown.

"My pet peeve is the illegal peddlers," Cantor said, referring to the vendors on Canal Street who hawk counterfeit goods. "I think quality-of-life issues are the ones that make the difference between this being a wonderful place to live, and not."

Gray, 69, the final new member, has worked just two blocks from the World Trade Center site for the past nine years as associate director of DC 37, a public employees union with 125,000 members.

Gray lives in Stuyvesant Town, outside of the district, but he is very familiar with lower Manhattan's needs for better transportation, new schools and more cultural and community facilities, he said.

"I would like to be an advocate for the working people and those with special needs," Gray said.

The spaces for new members opened up when three previous members left the board: Liat Silberman, Chelsea-Lyn Rudder and Jana Friedman.

Oliver Gray, associate director of the DC 37 union, with US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
Oliver Gray, associate director of the DC 37 union, with US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
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DC 37