Community Board 1 Chair Catherine McVay Hughes listens to a speaker at the board's monthly meeting, held on Tuesday. She later announced that she would not run again for the office. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
“I just wanted to let you know that I will not be running again for chair of Community Board 1,” Catherine McVay Hughes said in a brief announcement Tuesday evening at the board’s monthly meeting. “I’ve enjoyed my last two-year terms and will still be chair through June 26.”
McVay Hughes, the board’s chair for the past four years and a community board member since 1998, did not give a reason why she is abandoning the position she has served with seemingly boundless energy, passion and delight. Nor did she respond when asked by a member if she would remain on the board.
A resident of lower Broadway for 28 years, McVay Hughes was especially vigorous in her advocacy with city and state agencies around environmental and post-9/11 health concerns, construction safety and, after Superstorm Sandy, flood resiliency.
The election for new board officers will be held in June. Anthony Notaro, the board’s vice-chair, is the only member so far who has said he will run for the office. Notaro, a longtime board member, chairs CB1’s Battery Park City Committee. He also is president of the First Precinct Community Council and is a co-founder and continuing organizer of the annual Battery Park City Block Party.
Elizabeth Lewinsohn, the chair of CB1’s Tribeca Committee and a three-year board member, is the only announced candidate for vice-president.