It’s Been Said Before

The G8 has said it before. Other residents have gotten up at Town Board meetings and said it before. Town employees, with and without contracts have said it before. The lamestream media has quietly said it albeit in a muted voice. And of course, ABG has said it before. The King of Greenburgh, aka The Paul, lies and treats those not in his close circle of giving, with distain, deceit, and duplicity. Of course, very simply, he lies to those he doesn’t like or care about: his constituents.

We continually refer to The Paul and his Stepford’s spot zoning debacles in most neighborhoods. There are numerous examples and more awaiting the sweep of his crippling hand. He has routinely spot zoned throughout the Town as lead agency for so many projects, developers recognize it as their “norm”. He made sure that those trains don’t even slow down as it approached the Planning, Zoning, Building and Codes Department stations.

When Westhab purchased the former transitional housing property in Fulton Park from “Z” that had been used by the County to house the homeless, The Paul openly lied to the neighborhood in private meetings, along with his Stepfords, saying they (meaning Westhab) would need to find another location for the proposed seven story apartment building. Did they? No! He rezoned the .7 acre property from M-22 (22 units per acre) to match Hartsdale’s worst zoning nightmare of M-174 (174 units per acre).  He maintained the value of the location because of the “walking distance” of area supermarkets, even though those supermarkets are now gone.

Next, The Paul and his Stepford’s leveled crippling demands of the Fulton Park Garden Apartments, when they applied to the Town to rezone their property from it’s current zoning to match the newly spot-zoned Westhab neighbor next door. They informed the Board that they were requesting the change so they could remove the existing buildings, rebuild in the same footprint, with no ground level apartments or utilities as they currently flood with most rain storms. The utilities would be on the roof, away from flood conditions and the apartments would be up higher. They were looking to increase their buildings by six stories to match the Westhab height. The Paul mandated they develop flood mitigation plans, offer flood control solutions throughout the neighborhood and so on. It was clear that The Paul sought to discourage this project by overburdening them with untenable demands. When Deli Delicious sought to pave almost the entire property for a flawed drive-thru window, no similar demands were made of him. Another lawsuit seems imminent. 

The Paul has tried to systematically fine many of our already beleaguered businesses with more “fees” if they put products for sale on the sidewalk in front of their establishment. One such victim was The Apple Farm on Rt 119. The Board wrestled with wording and dollar amounts continually entertaining more fees and fines for the Town to utilize for financial collections. The temporary situation for the Apple Farm is that they store their produce (and sometimes other) deliveries on their private sidewalk until their staff can bring it inside. We hope the Stepfords see the light and do what they can to help maintain this store without additional taxes through fines - just for doing business. 

Stop and Shop recently closed in Tarrytown at the intersection of Routes 9 an 119, to reincarnate into a CVS. We need more CVS stores like we need Alan Hochberg chairing another useless committee. Having been there as a supermarket for years as First National, Finast and then Stop and Shop, the corporate decision was made to close this branch and relocate to a new space on Rt 119 near several hotels close to Benedict Avenue. This is all part of The Paul’s, Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden and Westchester County’s grand plan to transform the entire Rt 119 corridor into an industrial, mega apartment building and thoroughfare like many of the “Central Avenue”-like corridors in New Jersey.

The Glenville area protested with complaints of increased traffic, flood mitigation and congestion as well as other concerns. These all fell on deaf ears. The Paul had decided along with his Planning Commissioner Thomas “Let Me Help You Build It (for my job security)” Madden, that Stop and Shop’s new megastore would be built, regardless of the objections. But the zoning wasn’t correct for this store to be built. No matter, The Paul waved his hand over the plans, the soft watercolor presentation and it was a done-deal. Interestingly, according to Councilman Kevin “Henchman” Morgan, who recently said when the Dobbs Ferry Road residents (no real count or names provided) protested the police department’s proposed move to 715 Dobbs Ferry Road (the former Frank’s Nursery), The Paul and the Stepford’s acquiesced and withdrew the plans. Given the GameOn 365 debacle currently underway, it now makes more sense than it did then. 

The old Union Carbide property in North Elmsford has continued to quietly be (over)developed in recent years. The Eastview property houses a now expanded corporate park to the west of Old Saw Mill River Road, with several huge new buildings and the requisite parking capability, increasing and adding to the impervious surfaces there. They have gotten approval from The Paul and his Stepford’s to build 400+ condominiums on the property as well. Water that would previously be absorbed into the ground will increase and head south toward the Fairview Park area, which itself has been increasingly developed.

This section of the Town no longer has the previous water absorption capability and forces its runoff south. Sam’s Club, at the sight of the old Drive-In Theatre, knew about the flooding and built their property up five to ten feet to be above the flooding problem. It worked for a while, but the over-development north of them has caused so much water flow to come south, it became the new marker for where flooding begins as water encompasses the businesses and residences south of it, culminating at Babbitt Court lake. The Paul and his Stepford’s authorized all this development with the blessing of  Commissioner Madden. They just won’t say no to any developer.

On the opposite side of the Town, in the Fulton Park lake region along the Bronx River, The Paul searches out the tiniest parcels of land and offers them up to not the highest bidder, but the most connected bidder. And while residents wrestle with the Planning Department employees, rules and high fees for even the simplest fixes, changes and additions to their homes, the developers are hand-held and walked over to the express lane for their projects. Of course, the Westhab seven-story project mentioned above is but one glaring example of this. Right next door the “former” Deli Delicious, which illegally installed signs stating he was closed for business and for lease has not been fined for illegal signage or not paying the sign permits and fees. This move was not only blessed by The Paul, but probably suggested to him by The Paul. The owner continues to work from the basement office.

While no change in taxes is an impossibility in this Town, The Paul has mastered the double-digit tax increases for property, sewer, water, building fees and so on for our residents, all while managing to drive out struggling businesses, seniors and our young couples looking to spend their twilight years and/or start their lives together in something other than the Greenburgh mecca of public housing. His tax and spend policies, along with guilty lawsuit verdicts, have driven out two key and strategically located supermarkets forcing many residents to shop for their staple food items at various dollar stores and occasional farmers markets. This just in: SanMar Laboratories in north Greenburgh, which benefitted with a $750k grant from the Empire State Development, the real Bank of New York, to stay in NY, and then an additional $250k, will be relocating to Pennsylvania. Well played.

The list of issues being pummeled by The Paul continues with other locations and neighborhoods. One project that appeared successfully “discouraged” was that of the Fortress Bible Church. Until Fortress Bible Church went to court for help. The Paul thought he had succeeded in helping out his buddy, Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti, to keep the church out of his neighborhood. When Abinanti realized The Paul would lose the case, he moved to Tarrytown! Then the Federal Courts found The Paul and the Board guilty of discrimination, perjury, willfully destroying evidence and more. The Appellate Division Court upheld the verdict. It will soon cost the Town’s Unincorporated residents millions of dollars because The Paul feels he’s exempt from laws only others must follow. We may finally be able to take advantage of the AAA Bond Rating that The Paul feels obliged to brag about at the most inopportune times. We can borrow the money to pay his fines and try to not be assaulted with his high tax increases while claiming fiscal restraint due to the NYS 2% Tax Cap. That is a sham in itself. We need a change at the top, in the middle and throughout the Town. We can only hope.

Our Residents Need Relief

A Sunday story ran about Industrial Development Agencies in New York and the “positive” affect they are having on business. While ABG doesn’t agree with IDA’s for numerous reasons, the article highlighted one company in particular, noting that they are the “Poster Child” for IDAs. That company is Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical developer at the Eastview campus of the former Union Carbide site on Old Saw Mill River Road. It has the hidden beauty of a Tarrytown (mailing) address while being in the less glamorous Town of Greenburgh.

Back in the heyday of Union Carbide, the site had several mansions on it, a holdover from the Rockefeller days when many parcels of land were owned and utilized by the Rockefeller Empire. But as we’ve previously posted, the site has been a hot bed of building activity with the projected blessing from The Paul and his Stepford Board to increase the traffic and flooding by encouraging 400-plus new condominiums be built at the location, in addition to the newly erected office buildings to the west of the “spine” that links the two sides together. Additionally, there will be another 400-plus condominiums built as part of Avalon 2 on Taxter Road. Across and farther down Rt 119 near Benedict Avenue will also see the 90 unit Brightview Senior Living Center* begin construction.

Do the prospective tenants of these condos realize the site was a chemical development and testing site many years earlier? It was replaced with the MSG training facility, occupying a larger footprint than the previous building. One of the biggest fires the area has seen was when the automotive products testing building ignited and exploded in the early evening in the late 1970’s – early 1980’s. Can you hear the gasps and outrage after the new condo owners find out they may be exposed to toxic automotive chemicals? They can query Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis as to how much testing and cleanup may cost based on his SuperFund knowledge.

One of the tenants across the street from the projected condos is Regeneron, a medical testing and creation laboratory. They have been touted as “one of the most successful IDA-backed projects in the region with nearly 1,000 employees in Greenburgh and annual revenue of $446 million,” said former Entergy Public Relations Officer and current Westchester Economic Development Director, Laurence Gottlieb. He went so far as to say Regeneron is “the poster child for a great IDA project”. Maybe it’s great for everyone at the IDA and at Regeneron, but what about the Greenburgh residents? Gottlieb claims they “just keeping adding employees left and right.”

Are the employees working at the Regeneron location in Tarrytown, actually Greenburgh residents or are they people relocated from Regeneron’s other locations in Basking Ridge, NJ, or Rensselaer, NY? If they are transferring from these other two locations, do they really “count” as adding jobs “left and right” and do they know about The Paul and how he is slowly reducing Greenburgh to nothing but affordable housing without any supermarkets near the populace? The question remains are Greenburgh residents being hired by Regeneron?

There is always an economic upside when businesses move to an area, bringing increased purchasing and property tax income to those communities. Tax income is a hot topic in the Town because of the misguided actions of The Paul. But doesn’t the IDA bring jobs and spending to an area? Sure – at the expense of the existing residents through property tax abatements, reductions and other tax incentives! In the case of Regeneron, their pharmaceutical failures frequently found them at the brink of and even in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. So are we to marvel at a company that seems to often be at the edge of insolvency that finally scored big with their macular degeneration drug or just shrug our shoulders? ABG is glad they’ve survived. Can Greenburgh?

There are millions of dollars shelled out every year by Westchester, Rockland and Putnam’s ten IDA’s that many believe could be better used to rebuild crumbling infrastructure or invest in our schools. Even with the artificial 2% Tax Cap the State passed this past year, practically every municipality has seen increases in their school taxes. Not to be outdone, County Executive Astorino recently created his own Westchester IDA because apparently his rhetoric of cut, cut, cut, is catching up to him politically as he cannot dole out money to various special interest groups in hopes of maintaining existing voters and “purchasing” new ones. Could The Paul be far behind?

Critics of IDA’s say IDA tax exemptions often temporarily lower the sales and property taxes those companies will pay, reducing revenue to the localities, county and state. This creates shortfalls that must continually be offset by residents. It’s also argued that IDA’s are said to help New York state compete with lower-costing states, as New York has a recognizably higher cost of doing business. Could it be that New York’s massive taxes (and regulations) are overburdening business in general, any of which politicians are quick to bail out, make concessions for, and promise a virtually rent-free existence? Of course they are! These same politicians do nothing of substance for the existing businesses who may find themselves silently struggling. Yet they turn their collective backs on the rest of us who could use a break but continue to pay our mortgages, rent and taxes as well as all their other bills on time! It’s disingenuous and needs to change! 

We want to see our Greenburgh companies succeed as well as our residents. We are happy that Regeneron was finally able to turn things around through the IDA’s help. The Paul, his Stepford Board and his administration continue to help his developer friends. And, IDA recipients are doing very well for themselves while Greenburgh constituents are suffering through some of the worst economic decisions made in the last twenty years. Regeneron and others continue to receive lower sales and property taxes, forcing the Town and it’s residents to pick up the difference of the reduced revenue to the Town and school districts. It’s time for companies who we have helped for so long to step up and make it on their own. We don’t want them to be abandoned, but stop dipping into the residents’ pockets that have been carrying them for years and then rubbing it in our faces. The residents need an IDA to help them! Vote; and vote differently for a better outcome. Our residents need relief. We can only hope.

* A meeting for this will take place at the Marriott Hotel, Thursday, Oct. 18th, at 6PM.