Taking Away The Welcome Mat

Greenburgh has had the same leadership for twenty-two (22) years. Greenburgh has also been suffering with stale thinking and convoluted actions which negatively affect the well being of our Town. We have seen lawsuits each year against the Town due to The Paul’s illegal and unethical exploits. The Fortress Bible guilty decision against The Paul, Councilwoman Diana Juettner and of course the Town itself, comes to mind as one of the immediate examples. Also coming to mind is the willful sabotage of the 108 housing units at the former WestHelp facility, isolated on the Westchester Community College Campus and built many years ago through the efforts of now-Governor Cuomo, the NAACP and many others who recognized a need in the area. Then there’s the former Frank’s Nursery at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to the tune of what could be $3.5M to the Town now that an illegal lease for said property has been eliminated through the threat of yet another lawsuit. These are just a fragment of examples from within the last year or two. Could the same flawed thinking of the Town administration be permeating outward?

Now it seems Scarsdale, of all places known for their traditionally deep pockets, is in desperate need of money! Al Gatta, their Village Administrator is claiming they are looking to increase parking fees into the night time hours to raise revenues and be more in line with what other communities do. Interestingly, no other Villages within the Town enforces metered parking after 6PM. The only places we see this happening is in the cities. Scarsdale may realize about $15k from the 455 metered parking spaces before paying the parking enforcement officer(s) by one estimation. Is it even enough money to offset the effort and the impact on their business community? According to local retail experts with businesses in the majority of the metered parking area, it is not!

ABG has written before about the negative affects increasing the cost of metered parking throughout the Town by The Paul and others would have on our businesses. We believe his is simply another effort to offset fines and bad decisions incurred toward Greenburgh by The Paul and the Town Board. Coupled with losses of guaranteed money for the Town by his refusal to renew the WestHelp lease for $1.2M per year, the Fortress Bible Guilty verdict that will cost us upwards of $8M, the Water Department fiasco for about $4M, Frank’s Nursery for $3.5, the Library heating and air conditioning system, Dromore Road and well, you get the idea. Unfortunately for Town residents, The Paul’s business acumen is limited to models used by insurance companies: make us spend thousands to get back hundreds! Beyond The Paul’s lack of business experience in the free enterprise system, is his Board, equally as lacking. Their anti-business maneuvers antagonistically have a negative, rippling effect throughout the Greenburgh business community – unless you’ve chosen to donate to one of the free publicity events/scams he repeatedly offers.

Most communities raise their parking rates by either overtly escalating the rates or by lessening the time allotted. The latter effectively raises the rates by the need to pump more money into a meter initially or repeatedly returning to feed the meter. Adding insult to injury, many areas have a one-hour limit in the same parking space, forcing drivers to move their car from the coveted space they have found. It does keep business owners and employees from monopolizing the limited street spaces. Examples that come to mind when feeding a meter is not convenient would be when one is waiting their turn in a barbershop or salon for a haircut, grocery shopping, or having a meal in a restaurant.

One colleague shopping for a big screen television recently ventured to downtown Scarsdale, visiting Value Electronics, formerly on Garth Road (metered, limited parking) and now located in the heart of Scarsdale’s “downtown” (also metered, a bit more parking). After a brief introduction and explanation that they had numerous questions about big screen televisions and sound systems, the owner asked where they parked? He suggested they keep track of the meter expiration time as the Village parking enforcement officer was diligent about ticketing expired meters. They spent almost two hours with him and one of them left twice to feed the meter. Even though parking enforcement is important for the community, ABG is skeptical as to how this presents the village to potential patrons? This promotes a negative business climate for those businesses that have decided to locate there. It may eventually influence their decision to leave.

Another example of a unintended hardship will manifest itself during the summer months – specifically in the heart of Scarsdale’s business community at Chase Park. Every year the volunteer members of the Westchester Band offer the public free Concerts In The Park by performers young and old. The crowd averages about 150 listeners who enthusiastically enjoys these shows under the direction of Maestro Alan Hollander. Each concert is usually about two hours long. The audience members are comprised of a wide range of ages and physical conditions. Many of the seniors who attend, show up early, find a seat after navigating the uneven landscape of the small park and don’t move from their location until the show concludes. Will this new increase force the audience members to continually race to feed the meter before the parking enforcement officer arrives with their “gift”? And what of the performers who must also park on the streets? Will Hollander be forced to choose songs that don’t require certain instruments, allowing those musicians not playing to run off to feed their meters? There’s an estimated $3K for the village coffers in this two hour period of time. Is the ill will worth it?

In the end, Towns and Villages need to be more communicative and cooperative with their business partners. The Town and the Village are a sum of its parts. For most government officials, business is an abstract concept. They see their ever expanding budgets increasingly difficult to manage because most lack real budget knowledge and expertise. They routinely do what’s been done before thinking it must be the only way. So when it becomes time to do something different, they’re stymied. Their knee-jerk reaction is simply to charge more for something they cannot comprehend or is beyond their insulated world. It’s been stressed by many that this simple act of extending parking fees into the night, to whatever time is determined, will negatively impact businesses and restaurants that remain open into the evening hours.

The major ammunition a retail or service operation can do to increase revenue is to be open. If customers are afraid to venture to them, owing to increase fees and a higher likelihood of being ticketed, they will go someplace else to shop or dine and abandoned their own community resources. The business owners have spoken. It’s time for their representatives to listen to these experts! This would be one more punishment against the life of the business community, it’s residents and take away the welcome mat to shop locally. Do we really want to hurt our struggling business community during this already tenuous economy for a possible $15K? ABG believes small business is truly the engine of our communities. Do our politicians? And if so, how will they prove it? Politicians are becoming more and more of a burden to our economic survival and it must end before our downtown areas resemble the depressed upstate New York region. The Town and the Villages must do the right thing for our business partners. We can only hope.