Community Board Member – New York
“Women should not be afraid to really put themselves out there. It is OK to screw up and fall on your face. Everybody does it.”
Martha first became involved in politics the summer after her sophomore year at Barnard College, when she interned at the New York office of Congressman Jerrold Nadler. There, she sat in on community meetings, drafted correspondence and testimony, and started to learn her way around New York politics. She learned a lot, and wanted to get more involved. Meanwhile, an Assembly seat nearby had just been vacated after Assemblyman Scott Stringer was elected Manhattan Borough President and Congressman Nadler's Manhattan Director, Linda Rosenthal, decided to run for it. Martha got involved with Rosenthal’s campaign, first as an intern and eventually as an aide. She also became well-acquainted with the Manhattan Borough President's office, as Borough President Stringer endorsed now-Assemblymember Rosenthal in the special election and some members of his staff volunteered on the campaign. After a whirlwind special election, Rosenthal won and when she ran again for reelection in the fall, she hired Martha as her campaign manager. Martha spent the summer organizing volunteers to collect petition signatures to get her on the ballot, filling out endorsement questionnaires from local unions and advocacy groups, and organizing election day operations. Rosenthal successfully won reelection to another two-year term in November of 2006.
One of Borough President Stringer's first reforms when he took office was to change the way local Community Board appointments are made and make the process more transparent and accessible. His office began taking applications for Community Board positions, and Martha applied. She was interviewed by the Deputy Borough President, and happily appointed to Community Board 9, which covers all of Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, and Morningside Heights. The Community Board is responsible for representing community interests on issues of development and planning, land use, and zoning, as well as less glamorous issues like approval of liquor licenses and sidewalk cafes. Martha’s work on the Community Board has given her a new understanding of the intricacies and vital importance of local government, and being on the Board has renewed her interest in continuing in politics and even running for office herself someday.
Martha graduated from Barnard College in May of 2007, and is excited to see what the future holds for her in politics. Getting involved is really as easy as showing up, and she hopes that young women will continue to make their voices heard in every level of government.
How did you become interested and involved in leadership and state politics?
I had a funny path. I was rejected at NPR, and I was interested in journalism. I hadn’t thought about politics. I was news junkie and I was interested, but I hadn’t thought of doing it myself. I needed to find something to do for the summer, and I wanted to be in the city. The office of Joe Nadler was the last office taking interns. He has an amazing staff. Amy Rutkin is amazing, so inspiring, the epitome of a strong woman. His office is full of women who were doing amazing work. I realized that I could do this. I could not just write about it, I could do it myself. I could not just be a reporter, but a doer.
What steps did you take to achieve your goals?
I went back to school and in end of fall semester, Amy called me and said Linda is thinking of running, would you work on her campaign? They remembered me, and I said sure. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. That phone call was the beginning of a long process. Linda was elected in special election. An entire season of campaigning was smushed into a month and a half; it was really intense. I was trying to juggle school work, and I would get up at 6 and go to subways, go to class, and then go back at night. It felt so good when she won, and she had to run again in November, and I was her campaign manager for the summer. This was a big honor. It’s funny because then the person that was the assembly member was in the middle of looking for community board seats. The process was outdated. You could get a seat if you knew someone. There wasn’t much access. He instituted policy of taking applications and I was appointed.
It has been really interesting dealing with Columbia’s expansion. Community boards are funny creatures because they have a lot of input but not a lot of authority. We don’t have many teeth, but anything big that happens, it happens at the community board level. It is the most accessible level. The decisions that determine the real quality of life and the neighborhood happen at the very local level. It is a great way for young people to get involved; it is almost under the radar. But a lot of it is volunteer work. It is a great way to get your foot in the door. If you are looking to get involved in politics and you intern at a senators office, you spend time opening mail, and you will learn a lot. I appreciate that the mail needs to be opened, but if you want to get down to the nitty gritty, then local government it is great way to go.
What obstacles have you faced in achieving your goals.
Obviously being young has advantages and disadvantages. You’re not expected to know as much, but when you don’t have that memory you can end up asking questions, and people will say, “Well, duh.” There are people on the community board who have been there longer than I have been alive. So you can ask questions that are more prevocational, and you can get away with more. It is intimidating to be around people who have such an expansive knowledge. With zoning for example, I have studied the zoning handbook multiple times and I don’t know nearly as much as other people. They can whip out the floor to area ratio with the flip of a coin. It is an obstacle and an asset. Another obstacle was balancing all this work with school. It is hard to do everything and schoolwork. The community board is all-volunteer, and is certainly not full time. They don’t expect as much of a time commitment. There is one general meeting a month. You also serve on one or two committees. I serve on the uniform services and transportation committee. We deal with the police and sanitation departments. This is stuff like the intricacies of traffic light timing and bus station cleaning. There are committees dealing with youth, health, economic level, but with these aspects the community board doesn’t have as much authority. Here, in my area, they have a big say in it. It is fun to sit there and have the police sergeant report to me. It is a fun feeling. You can ask, “When is that pot hole going to be filled.” And they say “Oh, we’ll get right on it.” The time commitment is manageable so that if you are working and want to be involved politics, it is possible. Everyone is friendly. Everyone wants to be there. It is just a great way to start getting acquainted with the political process. It is casual but it is very political. If you want to get things done, you have to build a consensus and recruit people to your position. So it is good practice in learning how to build coalitions.
How has your experience been shaped by being a woman?
On the community board it is an even split. I’ve never felt like I have been discriminated against or anything. If I’ve ever felt sidelined, it is because I am young. That being said, you wonder sometimes because the leadership of the board is mixed but being at Barnard puts you on high alert. You wonder what are the motivations etc. But New York has the most interesting and active political women. Historically, women have been able to achieve higher office with more frequency here than in other places. Chisholm, a Congress woman from Brooklyn, seriously ran for president. So it is a great place to be because there are so many great women in New York and you can look up to women who are very eager to help other women achieve what they have achieved.
What lessons have you learned from your experiences?
Being rejected is never pleasant for anyone. I adore NPR and I’ve listened to it for my life. My parents have been members for 30 years, and the lesson is to be open to what happens. You can’t plan everything. There are strange little opportunities. But the hardest thing about being a woman in the political world is pockets! If you wear skirts or suits you can’t hold the cell phone. You don’t have pockets, it is horrible. But ultimately, don’t be intimidated by the fact that it is a very public world. You have to be willing to put yourself out there. It is scary but ultimately very rewarding. Women should not be afraid to really put themselves out there. It is OK to screw up and fall on your face. Everybody does it. America’s expectation is that women have to be so perfect. There is a higher level of perfection for women than men. It is a pressure cooker environment for high up women politicians. No hair can be out of place. Nancy Pelosi owns more suits than any woman. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If girls are thinking they couldn’t live their lives in the spotlight like that, hopefully when they are old enough to be in the spotlight our society will change. We will not expect 18 shades of pant suits and the article in The Washington Post will not be about her color of pantsuit. Male politicians get away with a lot.
If you had the chance, would you have done anything differently? If so, what and why?
No, I didn’t do anything intentionally in the first place. It all turned out alright.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I’m not sure. I would love to someday be the head of a nonprofit like Planned Parenthood, or some sort of nonprofit that is involved in women’s issues. Thus far my career has been a series of fortunate accidents.
What advice do you have for young girls who are interested in local politics or have leadership aspirations?
Ease up. Speak up. Ask questions. It is OK because you are young and you are learning. Speak your mind. Don’t be a wallflower. Get out there. The hardest thing to do is put yourself out there. Barnard does it very sneakily. I didn’t realize until halfway through that my thinking of women in society has profoundly changed. I had such a consciousness of the way women are marginalized.
