Why Fix It When We Can Talk About It - Some More

Five years ago, post-tropical Storm Sandy struck at high tide, driving catastrophic storm surges into coastal New Jersey and New York unlike anything seen before. Thirty-four New Jersey residents lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed, causing over $62 billion in damage. Five years later some areas have recovered. Some have not.

But we don’t live on the coastal area and yet are equally impacted by storms. Newly re-appointed Town Councilman Sheehan discussed Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene and its impact to Greenburgh specifically and the region in general as a 500-year storm. Sadly, his account was skewed for those residents and businesses that have suffered with just about every storm. But how could this 500-year storm happen?

Some say it’s simple. Development and over-development of our suburban communities has allowed and in Mr Feiner’s case encouraged over-sized buildings on every speck of undeveloped land. Where it is apropos, such as the super Stop and Shop on Rt 119 in the Glenview section of the Town near the Marriot and Sheraton hotels, it is conversely not apropos directly across the street with Brightview Assisted Living, and their oversized behemoth sized building smack dab in the middle of residential homes. Similarly, the proposed apartment building on Dromore Road and/or the Shelborne Assisted Living facility on Underhill Avenue, the site of the former Sprainbrook Nursery. There are more examples, but we’re sure you understand the point.

Many community leaders believe super storms are the new norm, and are increasing efforts to make communities more resilient—a critical component of all recovery efforts. NOAA points to two examples:

· New Jersey’s Brigantine Island community used the recovery phase as an opportunity to elevate the road off the island, strengthen barriers along the oceanfront and bayside, and improve zoning and floodplain ordinances.

· New Jersey’s coastal management program developed a Getting to Resilience program to help communities improve hazard preparedness. As a result, many communities instituted new policies that keep people and infrastructure safer, and also resulted in cost reductions for flood insurance premiums.

This information, while germane to New Jersey and possibly other coastal areas, does little to ameliorate the issues for those Greenburgh residents as well as others who, by proximity to the two major rivers used by the entire county for drainage, are routinely ignored unless a news crew is broadcasting from a flood victims home. And, if you read the various governmental agencies websites, specifically about flooding, they mention risk and vulnerability assessments, public outreach and engagement, planning integration, disaster preparedness and recovery and even hazard mitigation implementation. All of these are things a taxpayer can do after they are flooded and the literal and figurative damage has been done. Yet, the one real solution is missing.

The Bronx River and the Saw Mill River are the two rivers that every community within their confines drain into. As more and more development is squeezed onto any undeveloped property, their storm drainage is guided to one of those rivers – maybe not directly, but ultimately. Hence, with more impervious space unable to now absorb previous rain waters, the runoff is pointed to these two rivers. Ultimately, the lower lying regions that never used to flood before are now inundated by water. Many of those same residents have been flooded so many times that they are forced to sell their homes at a fraction of their original worth. So what’s the solution?

Most flood victims know that FEMA is a pathetic and bloated bureaucracy that is incapable of helping those already affected by flooding. Having lived through numerous hurricanes, we’ve watched FEMA shrug their federal shoulders and walk away from helping those in need. As a response, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer sponsored and had passed legislation to increase FEMA flood insurance premiums to those in newly districted flood zones. So basically, the people needing help the most get walloped again after not being helped the first time.

The elections are over. The Democrats claim they came out and voted against President Trump. The Republicans are utilizing the same excuse while ignoring the country’s mandate for change by electing President Trump. Sadly, this is the state of politics in our state, county and municipalities. All of the newly elected candidates that won promised to “fight for you” or offered “a new direction.” Really? Not one of them, whether it’s County Executive-elect George Latimer or any County legislator that has one of the two rivers in their district will do anything about flooding because those constituents are too few and far between to be needed for their election/re-election.

The solution? First, a buy-in from every community. They need to participate in cleaning out the river in their community on a regular basis. Second, both rivers need to be dredged and their width and depth increased. Hopefully, the environmentalists will have more compassion for the taxpaying residents than the ducks and other limited wildlife in the rivers’ immediate path. Third, the storm water infrastructure must be upgraded and more importantly, maintained. Fourth, any new, expanded or additional construction must incorporate significant drainage solutions from that location that will not add significantly to the rise of either river during a storm that cannot be controlled. Fifth, variances, a key tool used by Mr Feiner, his Board and others, cannot be allowed for the benefit of developers. Finally, the storm water path to the rivers and the rivers themselves must be allowed to flow unimpeded. This will reduce flooding, damage, accidents and more. It’s time for some new leadership to step up and not bail on the river corridors. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Inaction and Incompetence Guarantees More Damage

While the rest of us wait for the next drop of precipitation that will eventually build into the latest flood for our neighborhoods, our Town Board keeps busy by focusing on everything except properly running our Town. They certainly are ignoring real storm and disaster preparation. Countless people throughout the Town have complained to Mr Feiner and his Town Board, to our County Legislators, State leaders and the media about the need for flood mitigation. All of them have ignored these appeals for preparation to help the ever-increasing list of neighborhoods now flooding.

First, Mr Feiner seems to only be interested in flooding if there is a press conference or press release that can get his name in the media, or, if there is a flood and he can be interviewed with the destroyed beachfront property behind him, saying how terrible this is and he will contact every other elected leader to do something. He won’t actually do anything himself except stave off those nagging residents with copies of emails sent to others. Politics: why fix it when we can talk about it?

Second, in a meeting held with several Greenburgh Civic Associations, county Legislator Alfreda Williams stated the County’s Flood Mitigation Committee (we’re sure there’s a more formal name) hasn’t met for almost a year. So while the weather has been conducive to cleaning out the rivers, removing debris, and helping improve the flow of water, nothing has been done. Several residents at that meeting gave numerous ideas to improve the status quo to help mitigate some of the future flooding. In fact, our own Victor Carosi, Greenburgh’s Commissioner of Public Works, is a co-chair of the committee. And, even after he has seen the devastation caused by the flooding, he and others remain impassively disconnected to residents’ plight.

Third, some say it’s the homeowners problem that they bought a home in a flood zone. While this may be true to a miniscule degree for a very few of these homes and businesses, there are many areas that now flood that never flooded before or when residents purchased their homes years ago. In fact, in canvassing different neighborhood residents and discussing water issues with them, most said its only in the last 15 years that they had experienced some water in their basements, crawlspaces or businesses. The common thread has been while nothing has changed to expedite the flow of the two rivers that parallel both sides of the Town, Mr Feiner’s non-stop over-development in our Town has all of these new projects emptying their storm and other drainage into either the Saw Mill River or the Bronx River. With nothing being done to accommodate the runoff water that would have been absorbed into the ground, the surrounding low-lying areas flood. Many are anxious to see what happens to the 9A corridor after the new construction in Eastview is completed.

A study published in Nature Climate Change warned that the annual costs from flooding in the world’s largest coastal cities could grow from about $6 billion to $1 trillion  by 2050. Granted, 2050 may be some time away, but its that kind of thinking and lack of planning that has currently landed us in this morass of finger-pointing and lack of action. Sure, many politicians will say this is going to cost money and take a lot of time. They've been saying that about the 9A corridor for the last 50 years - maybe longer. The current National Flood Insurance Program is $24 billion in debt! This deficit will not be washed away (pun intended) without reform of the system. It’s also a bonafide indicator that increased investment in mitigation efforts prior to an event is imperative before we are hit with the costs of the next disaster which promise to be overwhelming.

True story: One neighborhood is a “A” rated flood zone (worst) neighborhood. A young couple with a young child from the Bronx purchased their first home here. They never knew that Mr Feiner held a press conference in their driveway after Hurricane Irene. They didn’t know he promised the couple living there to have FEMA purchase their home from them so they could leave. They didn’t know Mr Feiner was lying when he told them that. The young couple’s sale went through without much fanfare - although for them it was a pretty exhilarating moment. At the closing, however, they learned that the bank holding the mortgage requires them to have flood insurance. The sellers might have neglected to mention that. Regardless, while their checkbook was out, they wrote a $2,000 check to the bank for flood insurance. Closings are like that. Bring your checkbook, be prepared to empty it on fees and payments that would shame an IRS agent.

The Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) underwrites the National Flood Insurance Program. Yes, the Federal government. As mentioned earlier, they are $24 billion in debt. These are the same people who run Social Security, who don’t have enough money to pay retirees; the Veterans Administration, who can’t take care of our heroes; the Post Office, who has its own $8 billion deficit; Medicare and Medicaid, which both do everything not to pay benefits and are rife with corruption; Education, which many believe amounts to indoctrination – or just day care, and many more but you get the point. Back to FEMA. They charge homeowners thousands to pay back hundreds when you place a claim. By the way, there’s a mandatory $5,000 deductible. Government at its best?

We just had elections. Mr Feiner wasn’t running. It doesn't matter - he’ll get re-elected next year. Job performance in Greenburgh doesn’t matter. What does matter is we keep the same people in office so we can get more proclamations, plaques with our names on them and “atta boys” from Mr Feiner and his ilk. Ms Williams is content to coast along for her base salary of $49, 200 and various stipends. And what of Mr Abinanti, handily re-elected as our “environmentally concerned” NYS Assemblyman? He remains AWOL during all of this. Why tackle something he’s impotent to fix? In fact, he used to live in Greenburgh until Mr Feiner started making too many bad decisions and moved to a safer area to distance himself from real issues. We keep electing the same people who do nothing but pander to us.

The young couple who only last year bought their new dream home? Here it is a year later and they now know who Senator Chuck Schumer is. He co-sponsored a bill that increased the cost of flood insurance. You see, after having to pay out claims for Hurricane/Tropical Storms Irene and Sandy, the program went broke. Naturally, the politicians did what they do best: they raised taxes, in the form of flood insurance premiums, but only to the people who get flooded. So they hammer the people suffering the most, again.

And what of our new homeowners formerly of the Bronx and now living in the A-rated flood prone Greenburgh? Their flood insurance went up a whopping $20,000! The Town needs to address the flooding issue they created with over-development, poor planning and developer carte blanche. It may be part of the solution to cause the Federal government to readjust the flood maps and reduce the young couple’s flood premiums. Although it’s not likely because we continue to fail ourselves by electing the same people over and over again and they always seek the latest tragedy for publicity. This guarantees them that publicity. This has to change. Only then might we get A Better Greenburgh.