Andrea Crawford
Chair, Community Board 9
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Andrea Crawford is serving her second term as chairperson of Community Board 9, which covers the neighborhoods of Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven and Ozone Park One of the board’s top priorities is to fight for land use issues. “I’m not anti-development,” Crawford said. “I’m pro rational use of existing building stock before we just tear down and haphazardly put up structures that just don’t fit and serve the neighborhood.”The board also attempts to save historical districts, which are prominent in Kew Gardens and Richmond Hill. Crawford is also concerned about rising rents, decreasing green space in the city, which impacts water drainage, and quality of life issues. “Quality of life is what makes you get up and go to work and come home every day,” she said.
PERSONAL: Crawford is 49 years old and has been married for 23 years. She first moved to Queens in 1982, but moved to Long Island after three years. Crawford then moved to Kew Gardens in 1997 for its proximity to Manhattan, where she works as an attorney. “I love Kew Gardens,” she said. “It very much has a small town feel to it, but we’re just a quick jump away to Midtown, and I love being able to come home to trees and birds.” Crawford is afraid that the area might lose its grass and trees, which is what got her involved in community activism. She was a member of the Kew Gardens Improvement Association before joining Board 9.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “Land use,” she said. “Helping to stem the flow of tearing down single-family homes and putting up these terrible apartment buildings that are built poorly.” She said this is an issue for CB 9, as well as the rest of Queens and Brooklyn. “Trying to maintain a balance, meaning let’s have development where development makes sense, and neighborhood preservation is one of the biggest things that we face,” she said.
PROUDEST MOMENT: Crawford is proud that she was able to go back to school and obtain a law degree at the age of 39. “I always wanted to go to law school,” she said. Due to numerous factors, she couldn’t attend school earlier. “Life takes you in different directions and you start along different paths,” she said. “Some paths work out and some don’t.”
INSPIRATION: “All the community activists and elected officials that I have come in contact with who give so selflessly of themselves,” she said. “Especially community activists. We all have day jobs and families. Somehow these people find the time and the energy to really run with something that is important to them.”
