I Can Do This Forever

Do what? Jerk the tax-paying residents around until they get exhausted? Mr Feiner may not say this, but he certainly practices it. He continues to hand-hold any developer interested in building in the Town as they submit their project(s) for approval. He does this by having his Town Board vote to be the Lead Agency on every project put forth that he favors. We imagine he gets fed up at times and says to himself, “When are they going to learn and stop interfering with my plans? I can’t be voted out of office because no other party will put up a candidate to run against me. Hell, even the Democrats couldn’t beat me! I just wear them all down. I can do this forever!”

Two years and five months ago, as well as five years ago, issues came to the forefront that Mr Feiner has still not acted upon. Nor has the Town Board. These issues, completely unrelated and very different, highlight the tenacity of Mr Feiner when he wants something and meets with resistance. He will fight whomever is against him simply because they are against him. Think rope-a-dope.
 
Two years ago, ABG attended an Edgemont Civic Association (ECC) meeting at Edgemont High School. An Edgemont resident in attendance got up and voiced his opinion about how many massage parlors were opening in the Town of Greenburgh and Edgemont in particular. He asked for that Association’s assistance in helping to close them. Some of the reasons included the clientele, possible sexual slavery, prostitution, unlicensed massage “therapists” as well as other issues were highlighted and made for a compelling argument against them. More immediately, he was concerned for his young daughters being exposed to this when they went to a nearby or adjacent business.
 
Robert Bernstein, an Edgemont resident, attorney and ECC President, along with Community Activist Ella Preiser and others, drafted a bill that would give the Greenburgh Police Department real teeth in going after these establishments. If they were legitimate, they would have nothing to fear. If not, the Police, Fire and Building Departments would have the ability to close them down. Publicly Mr Feiner said he was against the massage parlors. But is he? His actions, or lack of, belie what he says. Another Feiner tactic.

We imagine he told Town Clerk Beville to slap together some kind of meeting about sex trafficking, invite the usual suspects and he’d send it out on the GBList to make it seem like they really cared. We wonder if anyone has questioned his use of the GBList since Worthington Woodlands Civic Association President Dorrine Livson had sued the Town under an Article 78 for access to the GBList and won? We also imagine his response to be, “Just do as I say and let me worry about the GBList and Livson.” Emails sent.
 
So did he line up the players in a closeted session, possibly including Town Clerk Beville, Town Attorney Lewis, newbie Commissioner of Planning Garrett Duquesne and maybe a Town Board member or two? We imagine he gave them their marching orders: “Anything Bob Bernstein submits must get lost, discarded, proven useless or simple fought to stall for time. I need this to go away and if you all value your jobs, you’ll do as I say!” Hence, the apparent unending opposition by Attorney Tim Lewis, in particular, as he protects his meal ticket against Mr Bernstein’s proposed bill.

We believe the relentless verbal pounding Mr Lewis was receiving at every meeting by residents regarding his resistance to Mr Bernstein's bill probably forced Mr Feiner to develop an alternate plan or two (or three) in case Mr Lewis caved. The next step was to have the bill delivered to the Planning Board, who we’ve now learned are unqualified to write legislation. ABG wonders if Town Attorney Lewis instructed the Planning Board to "take their time" and stall this bill by formally asking the NYS Attorney General’s office to review it. That request was rejected by the NYS Attorney's office but succeeded to stall the bill for another 5-months, providing the Town Board the ability to say they are awaiting an answer from the state and cannot discuss the matter further. The Planning Board created their own law so now there are two versions to be decided upon. Mr Bernstein keeps asking to meet with the board members to discuss it but they keep ignoring him. ABG believes this was nothing more than another stall tactic by Mr Feiner. Remember, he can do this forever.

Then we come to the Zoning Change Proposal that will negatively impact the entire Town. The Town Board is split on the request made by Mr Feiner's friends from GameOn 365. This started five years ago when Mr Feiner sought to illegally hand the property over to Martin Hewitt, project manager for GameOn 365, for the proverbial “song”. When a threatened lawsuit halted that folly, Mr Feiner announced a referendum, which was carefully worded to ensure its passage. In the meantime, the Federal Courts rendered a guilty verdict against Mr Feiner and certain people on his Town Boards of violating the civil rights of the Fortress Bible Church, including Ardsley’s Diana Juettner, a current Town Councilwoman.

So with all of the back and forth about how to get the former Frank’s Nursery property to the GameOn 365 paper organization, Mr Feiner has launched his campaign, being their most committed cheerleader. The property is still suffering from numerous contaminants and requests by residents for the Town to remediate it were met with blank stares and Mr Lewis’ assurances that the remediation would cost no more than $100k. Hah! The study alone cost more than that and it was a truncated one at that. The auction specialist the Town hired to auction off the property ultimately said the Town must make the property whole before anyone would bid on it. Huh? That’s exactly what the residents had said!

A number of years ago the Town, under Mr Feiner, tried to take over the Visioli’s Golf Driving Range on Dobbs Ferry Road. Now he professes that he is trying to save it. Our guess is he suggested to Mr Hewitt that he try to purchase all of it or at least some of the Visioli property as they were in tax arrears and instead of a bubble, offer a fixed structure. Whether or not this conjecture is true remains a mystery, but the relentless actions by Mr Feiner to try to make GameOn 365’s proposal come to fruition are alarmingly suspect. However, the issue isn’t about GameOn 365’s proposal, per se. Rather, it is about changing the zoning to allow commercial entities to invade residential neighborhoods. Remember, he can do this forever.

It is truly a difficult thing to start and even sustain a business. We see area businesses shuttered in Greenburgh, the County and the State all too often. In fact, ABG staffers were at a meeting where the owners of Smashburger were seeking additional signs for an "under-performing" location. We thought they were in good shape. Apparently not. It’s the one in the shopping center with Shoprite on Central Avenue. You know the one, they want to add two more buildings utilizing existing parking spaces - the latest craze from town and urban planners. Could it be that Smashburger is under performing (read: losing money) because it is already so difficult to find a parking space anywhere near your intended location unless you were born into it? We don’t want to see this zoning change. We want to see businesses operate in the appropriately zoned area for it. Only then we will see A Better Greenburgh.