Yahay Obeid, who became Community Board 11’s first nonwhite chair on July 1, has stepped down from his post.
Obeid, who was born in Yemen and migrated to the United States in 1991 at 8 years old, became the first Muslim to serve on the CB11 executive board in September 2020 when he was elected as vice chair before being elected chair this year. He won the chair position 18-8 against fellow board member Bernadette Ferrara.
Al D’Angelo, the board’s vice chair, is serving as acting chair until Obeid’s replacement is elected in January. Names will be put forward for nominations at the board’s full meeting on Thursday night, and again before the vote in January.
In an interview with the Bronx Times on Wednesday, Obeid broke down the reasoning for his decision into percentages: 30% work, 30% family, 30% the position requiring the effort of a full-time job and 10% distrust in and lack of support from elected officials.
Obeid said the community is at a “critical point,” pointing to recent proposals that he described as “battles,” such as a single men’s shelter at 2028 White Plains Rd.; the Bronxdale Avenue road diet; the Just Home project, which would house formerly incarcerated people on the Jacobi Medical Center campus; and now a proposed rezoning that would bring thousands of apartments to the east Bronx with the arrival of Metro-North stations planned for the district.
Obeid has become frustrated with city politics, and doesn’t feel like the board’s recommendations are actually considered by the city, but rather a box to check off that there was community engagement.
“When it comes to sensitive issues, I feel like someone way above us, maybe even at the mayor’s level, has already made a decision,” he said. “The process that follows that decision won’t change anything.”
As an example of community boards lacking support from elected officials, Obeid pointed to Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez’s change in her long-touted stance against the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning proposal, saying she betrayed the neighboring Community Board 10. Velázquez, whose council district overlaps with Community Board 11, did not respond to repeated interview requests from the Bronx Times in the weeks following her change of heart in October.
Obeid also said he believes individuals who disrespect board members should be banned from board meetings, which the past and current borough presidents’ offices have not allowed.
He gave the example of a September 2020 meeting where Roxanne Delgado, a district resident and frequent meeting attendee, said she doesn’t know if “a Muslim Trump supporter,” referencing Obeid, is reflective of the community, as she called for more Latino and Black representation on the board’s executive team.
The now-former chair said he was dissatisfied with giving 100% to the role, and that whoever replaces him should be ready to give it 110%. However, he said he doesn’t know who is willing to do that, and “take the ultimate sacrifice.”
Obeid, who works as an operations supervisor for the Federal Aviation Administration in a JFK Airport air traffic control tower, has struggled to balance the role with work and family. The departure of other managers and employees has added to his load at work, where he said it takes three to five years to hire someone new.
His wife told him that even when he is home, he is not present, responding to emails or attending remote meetings. He missed the first steps of his son, who is almost a year and a half.
“And sometimes I come home just to change my shoes, or just to do something real quick before I go to the other meeting, and you know, he’s crying,” Obeid said. “He wants me to hold him, but I’m leaving him. Why am I leaving him? I’m leaving him to go to a community meeting.”
While Obeid is continuing as a board member for now, he said he may move out of the city, at which point he would resign.
In an e-mail on Friday to board members about Obeid’s resignation, CB11 District Manager Jeremy Warneke said that he called a staff meeting in approximately 2015 about a “lack of connection to our Muslim community,” pointing to an influx of Muslim immigrants to the area. He connected with the former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.’s then-chief of staff, who was on the board of the Bronx Muslim Center, a mosque on Rhinelander Avenue. As a result, Obeid, the director of outreach for the mosque, applied and was appointed by Diaz in 2016.
“Yahay’s personal struggle[s] with being a board member have been existent for quite some time, and although I am paid staff, I know the feeling and criticism you all sometimes get from family and others for being involved with us,” Warneke wrote in his e-mail to board members. “When you can, please thank Yahay for his service to our board and remind him that he isn’t letting anybody down by resigning. He simply made the right call for himself and the board.”
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
