Fear of Flooding Makes Fighting HUD Difficult

The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) lawsuit and settlement by former County Executive Andy Spano, has two, maybe three distinct camps whose feelings are absolute. One camp has people vehemently against the settlement, stating it’s a matter of economics that has segregated our neighborhoods; the other camp is in agreement with the settlement and feel there is housing discrimination against certain people of the lower income scale. Finally, there are those who have no clue about the settlement and insist on keeping their proverbial heads in the sand regardless of how it may affect them. Even though this group is a significant one, they are rarely involved and are easy and unwitting prey for the likes of politicians such as Mr Feiner and their schemes, lies and trickery.

This post is not about those groups of people. Rather, its about a splinter group which maintains the land usage in their community is “maxed” out, with no appreciable land onto which they could even build affordable housing. Per the HUD settlement between then Democratic County Executive Andrew Spano and the federal government, Westchester County agreed to participate in the building of 750 affordable housing units in what has been referred to as “white” communities. ABG believes the color is wrong. They should be referred to as “green” communities – segregated only by the ability to afford the housing prices and more importantly the ever-growing taxes in those communities. Simply because someone wants to live somewhere but cannot afford to do so does not constitute discrimination.

The Village of Scarsdale is already congested with existing buildings and claims little to no developable space throughout the village. Regardless of the amount of units mandated by HUD for the Village to construct, the rallying cry has always been, “We have no room to build any affordable housing units.” Whether the assumption of this statement is correct or not, whether the residents who would move into these apartments could afford to live in Scarsdale or not, and whether their children would be ostracized in school for not being able to “keep up with the Jones” or not seems immaterial to the federal government.

The federal monitor only wants units built. The federal government wants Westchester County to supersede local zoning to be able to force localities to build where they see fit. New York State is a home rule state which allows individual communities to determine their destiny. But the federal monitor doesn’t care as these communities took HUD monies and now they want payback. They will probably win by shear size in another case of “might makes right”. And you thought you finally outgrew the school yard bullying syndrome?

Scarsdale is not the only community making the “no room” argument. Yet, Scarsdale with the others, continue to entertain new buildings proposals, new designs and ultimately new buildings to be built. The Town of Greenburgh, ghettoized by Paul Feiner during his 22-year reign, was allowed to be exempted from having to add more affordable housing units. One down side to Mr Feiner’s affordable housing ghettoization that is witnessed in the Fairview area is that businesses are not able to be supported by the residents, close their doors and leave or are driven out by continued crime either directly or from the surrounding area. In the Manhattan Avenue area of Fairview for instance, Caldor’s closed their doors, the A&P closed theirs and this past week Lash Kia across the street closed as well. The deli one block away had a murder committed in it a while back and the apartment buildings have gangs, guns, prostitution and drug activity. Not very inviting and to the general public, a good place to stay far away from. But’s it’s acceptable according to Mr Feiner because he’s been able to control it to one area of the Town and keep it out of the others. That’s what wrong with the settlement’s “pass” for Greenburgh.

Back in Scarsdale, the KOS Building Group, is working with others to gain a six-lot subdivision in an 8-acre site at Cushman, Garden and Woodland roads. The Church of St. Pius X in a bid to renovate classrooms and create a new sanctuary entrance with other expansions, sought and received site plan approval for a house at 2 Brittany Close, a lot created as a result of a cluster subdivision. Two existing houses, at 119 Cushman and 1 Woodland, are slated for demolition. A subsequent subdivision will create four new lots and result in a net gain of two houses. Another two-lot subdivision that would create four new lots at 2 Ogden Road was on the agenda but removed and held over. Two more lots are adjacent to area wetlands were the property buffers the wetlands into the neighborhood. The argument of no space in Scarsdale doesn’t really hold water (pun intended). And that seems to be the various Scarsdale neighborhood’s argument against the increased housing: flooding. Just as is seen in the Fulton Park area with the Bronx River and the Saw Mill River area throughout the opposite side of Greenburgh, nothing is being done to alleviate the flooding for those people while Mr Feiner routinely “green lights” every developer’s proposal.

ABG is not saying Scarsdale (or any other community) should be required to build affordable housing. Greenburgh has mandated 10% of all new housing be required to include affordable housing, we’re just not sure this as a viable solution toward increasing housing options throughout any of our communities. Just having affordable housing, utilizing either DSS (welfare) to pay for the housing or Section 8, where the low wage worker/resident pays up to 30% of their income toward housing and then the balance is subsidized again by DSS (welfare), continues to perpetuate dependencies and never-getting-out-from-under government assistance syndrome.

But the argument that there is no room to build in a community, this time easily exemplified by Scarsdale’s own actions, makes it difficult to say, “No” to HUD and be convincing. Other communities are suffering from the same lack of room problem as well as other issues. In northern Westchester, ABG is told that much of the land which readily appears available is actually considered watershed property that is part of the ecosystem that supplies water to the New York City region. Simply saying there is developable land there just isn’t so. Current County Executive Rob Astorino has been fighting the HUD monitor tooth and nail. We think some of his arguments may be a bit extreme and are election scare tactics. However, it is good that someone is standing up to the schoolyard bully known as HUD, even if for the wrong reasons.

Lash Kia – Gone?

We’ve spoken to Lash representative Michael Basta (like pasta), about our original post that the Lash Kia was closing their doors. He insisted they were not. In a subsequent meeting with him he assured ABG that they were very much operational and not closing their doors. He explained and we wrote a follow-up article stating precisely that. He had explained that Lash Kia was selling the Kia dealership to one of the northeast’s largest Kia distributors. However, at the day of the closing for the sale, Kia USA put a stop to the transaction. One of our readers recounted her story of trying to get her car serviced there and was told they were no longer an active Kia dealership.

Mr Basta explained that our story was part of the catalyst the Lash attorneys were using in the struggle to move forward with the sale despite Kia USA trying to put a stop it. No explanation was given as to why it was being blocked by Kia USA. Mr Basta had explained how difficult it was to do business in the Town of Greenburgh between the Town’s regulations coupled with the landlord’s limitations. “I can’t put more than four cars out in the lot on display. I can’t put the cars on the grass median between the sidewalk and our lot. I can’t use balloons. I can’t hang signs. I can’t play music. This list is endless.” We sympathize with all of our Town business owners. It’s a daily struggle to just put the key in the door and we have written previously about Town fees, regulations, fines and penalties incurred just to try to make a living. Our Town Board is always seeking new ways to generate revenue through their parochial and exhaustive taxation.

Regardless, in driving by the Kia dealership location at the corner or Rt 119 and Manhattan Avenue, the showroom which previously had several new Kia models on display, several sales personnel at the desks, and customers milling in and out, is now vacant. We know Mr Basta is “safe” as his office was next door at the Lash Volkswagen dealership, but hope that the other employees continued to be employed. ABG hates to see any business close and sincerely hope the sale of the dealership is the reason for the vacancy and not that of excessive regulations, fees and fines forced another business from the Fairview area. It’s tough enough to operate a business without have the Town “pile on” business’ problems.

On an additional note, we still don’t have a retailer to take over the supermarket vacated by A&P about two years ago. There are numerous vacant stores throughout the entire campus of the Crossroads Shopping Center. The landlord has announced they will be giving the entire complex a facelift. County Legislator Alfreda Williams has coined the phrase for this Fairview area as “ghetto-ized by Mr Feiner”. We hope the facelift will attract new and unique businesses. We just have a hard time listening to proposal after proposal by developers, blessed by Mr Feiner and his Board, that continue to include whatever the developers want and then with the requisite “retail space”. With all these vacant storefronts available, why build more? Why not slow down the over saturation of buildings, lessening of green space and increase of impervious space and address the issues already at hand without adding to the problem?

There’s an election coming and ABG hopes the voters are seeing what’s going on and willing to make a long-overdue change. It’s time to transform our Town into something better.

Lash Kia To Stay in Greenburgh

In a previous post (http://www.abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2013/05/lash-kia-auto-dealership-in-greenburgh.html) we discussed the lament of a Kia owner seeking repairs for his automobile. We reached out to Lash Kia’s Manager Michael Basta, to discuss the issue with him as he had posted two comments regarding the article we posted. To be fair, when we called Mr Basta, we left our friend’s phone number so they could speak directly to each other and provide each other with specific information without ABG being an intermediary and possibly confusing the situation.

Mr Basta explained that Lash Kia is very much in business, selling and servicing Kia automobiles in Greenburgh. He was upset that anyone had to go through such an ordeal to get their car repaired and apologized to our friend. He stated that Lash Kia’s dealership was in the process of being sold until Kia-USA, the main United States “arm” for the Korean corporation, put a stop to the sale. Mr Basta explained that he has his attorney’s looking into the matter as Kia-USA is costing Lash Kia business, employee attrition as well as other issues.

ABG is happy to hear that Lash Kia is remaining in Greenburgh and still operational. ABG supports local businesses and hates to see any business leave. Whether the dealership remains as a Lash owned dealership remains to be seen, but this is good news. Our friend has dropped his car off at another dealership for the repairs he could not get done for a month at Lash. He’s accepted Mr Basta’s apology and we’re glad to learn this Greenburgh business will be remaining. ABG is happy that Mr Basta reached out to us and that we could clear this up. We wish them well.

Lash Kia Auto Dealership in Greenburgh to Close

One of our readers relayed a story he was having with his car’s front end. He contacted Kia USA to see if the parts were covered under the Kia (and Hyundai) 100,000 mile warranty. Kia USA assigned him a case number back in April, when he was also told they would have to get back to him as to the warranty coverage. You would think this would be a simple yes or no answer, all the while hoping for a “yes” and expecting a “no”. They called him back and said “Yes, it is covered under the warranty.”

He called Lash Kia, not the dealership where he bought the car and they told him they needed to inspect the car to see what parts would be needed. This was a reasonable request. The only limitation was that they could not see him for three weeks! While Kia’s have certainly increased in popularity, there cannot be that many of them needing service causing such a backup. He waited the three weeks and dropped his car off on May 20th. He was told to bring the car to the same location as the showroom. Upon arrival, he found the service department was at a different location. After finding the second location, the service person stated he had no appointment in his book. Tempers rose but remained controlled and he left his car for the evaluation. He was told he would receive a call when the inspection was done. He received no call back.

He called the Lash Kia service department and spoke with Tom, who told him they would have to order the parts. He could pick the car up and use it until the parts came in and then bring it back for the repairs. He retrieved the car and called every couple of days inquiring if the parts had arrived or not. On the last day of May, Friday the 31st he called again. He was told that Lash Kia was no longer doing Kia service and only Volkswagen service. Another call to Kia USA.

Speaking with Todd at Kia USA confirmed that Lash Kia is in fact losing their Kia dealership as of June 1st. So while the award winning and well-designed automobiles from South Korea are becoming more and more popular, it seems that not enough people in Greenburgh and the immediate surrounding area are interested in their cars. Lash Volkswagen is apparently not included in the closing of the Kia dealership.  Kia USA recommended West Nyack Kia or Yonkers Kia as an alternative dealership for current and future Kia owners. We are sorry to see any business leave, but based on our reader’s lament, it’s no surprise.