Dying A Slow Death Until They Die In Office

The governor has sent “tax relief” checks to property owners in the guise of helping the beleaguered NY taxpayer. The Town has not. What may have helped the governor would have been to announce that instead of trying to buy your vote, he’s announcing an infrastructure overhaul that has been needed for the last hundred years or so to address the cacophony of issues plaguing New York: failing roadways, flooding, failing railways, crumbling bridges, ruptured water mains, outdated airports, traffic congestion and more. Instead, this move highlights the kick-the-issues-down-the-road practice all politicians subscribe to because it’s not sexy stuff. They profess these issues will be addressed but later become someone else’s problem if they ever leave office. But in New York, as in Greenburgh, you have to die in office to officially leave. It’s killing us.

The twin “Honda” bridges (aka New Tappan Zee) across the Hudson River exacerbates the ineffectiveness of what is transpiring with our government’s stale and feeble thinking. We recently saw two tractor-trailers jackknifed on the bridge, stalling traffic for over an hour. No one was surprised. Let’s face it, with the volume of traffic travelling that roadway, we know we can expect more. So, when the planning stages produced two bridges with a new rubberized surface much slicker in the wet weather than the previous concrete, no rail, no real HOV lanes, a bike path, viewing areas, eagles’ nests, and other millennial contrivances, traffic volume and flow appeared to have been a glaringly absent topic.

We experience daily this thinking at local, state and federal levels as project after project transform into boondoggle after boondoggle. The difference locally and in our Town is the failure to “play the game” and think outside the box is destroying what was once a dynamic Town! And, at the same time, every NY politician – mostly all democrats – have remained in office for far too long. Regardless of New York’s issues and us specifically, we have the same archaic, stale and ineffective thinking bombarding us daily. An example would be any project will have 10% low-income, ground floor retail (which over and over again stay vacant) and apartments above the retail for Millennials and of course with no parking as we’re continually told Millennials don’t drive or own cars. Yet, when you look at Hartsdale Avenue going into the center of Hartsdale, there is not nearly enough parking for those people living in those apartment buildings! When it rains and there is flooding, they must (re)move their cars to higher ground. Some thought a recently passed weak Comprehensive Plan would help the residents. It was so watered down it became a laughingly simple political document that won’t protect the integrity or longevity of the Town.

Project after project gets approved by a reticent Town Board incapable of breaking free of the servitude that grips them to their master. As long as they are instructed to vote in favor of a project, pass a code change or waive the craftily enacted standards that favor developers, they will remain on his Board. Falter from that narrative and be jettisoned in the blink of an eye, commonly referred to as being “Sonya’d.” After Town Board member Sonya Brown publicly exposed Mr Feiner’s racial bias against the minority community in the Fairview section of town, she was shunned by the Town Board, ignored by many in Town Hall (also fearful for their jobs) and dropped from the re-election ticket for now-Councilman Ken Jones. Mr Jones learned quickly that to get along he must go along. Sadly, we had been hopeful that he would exhibit a modicum of independence only to have the electorate be disappointed yet again as he tows the Feiner -line.

The Elmwood Country Club was sold to a developer who has an arsenal of attorneys at their beck and call who know how to play the approval game in Greenburgh. We’re told they met secretly with Mr Feiner and probably his Town Board as Mr Feiner laid out the groundwork they needed to follow to ensure successful completion of their yet to be proposed project. First, meet with his arch-enemy, the President of the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association and get a buy-in from their President and ultimately their members. You’ll recall that they were the ones who successfully stopped Mr Feiner’s GameOn 365 from erecting (really inflating) an 83 ft tall “sports bubble” at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road where the former Frank’s Nursery had been. Stung by this embarrassing defeat after several residents exposed Mr Feiner and GameOn 365’s collusion, Mr Feiner has worked tirelessly to find any way possible to get the flawed and failing GameOn 365 project to reach fruition. Why follow this same path of failing ideas? Do as I say, not as I do.

The Hartsdale Neighbors Association sparked a debate about their 4-Corners (4C) and it’s need of renovation and uplifting, citing that it’s been a revolving door of failed businesses and desolate retail spaces due to the Town’s permit process, zoning, lack of parking and bereft planning processes. In light of the Edgemont Incorporation effort, word got back to the Town Board about new talks of a Hartsdale Incorporation based on what happens to the Unincorporated Town (which includes Hartsdale) should the Edgemont incorporation succeed. Concerns festered over what would happen to the Hartsdale community and the town budget, town services and staff. Mr Feiner and his Board were rapt as Inspired Spaces made a presentation of solutions for the failed and ignored area. They certainly embody their motto, “We seem to care.” But since the only real beneficiaries of remodeling of the 4C area is the landlords, we doubt these plans will get much traction.

But now that the Edgemont incorporation has been successfully stalled, Town politicians needed a new crisis to divert attention from what is really going on with finances, personnel, insider developer approvals and more. Thankfully, whenever in need and there is no apparent cause to latch onto, play the race card. This time it was espoused by Town Clerk Judith Beville, an African-American woman who charged in a series of emails that she, as an African-American woman, was being targeted by all of the members of the Town Board, but not her meal ticket Mr Feiner, that had racial overtones. She made sure to not bite the hand that feeds her so to speak.

Racism is no stranger at our Town Hall, at least during the Feiner Administration(s). And while these episodes have always been craftily ignored, swept under the rug or simply ignored, racism is alive and well at 177 Hillside Avenue. Regardless of previous events, Ms Beville sent a series of emails alluding to racism and then actually charging that this was done to her specifically because she was an African-American woman in a high-profile position in the Town. Whether or not it was true almost seemed inconsequential as she began to play to her base who showed up to the Town Board meeting on her behalf. There were other statements made about the Deputy Town Clerk that appeared to cross the line regarding HIPAA requirements, legal requirements and of course common courtesy. In fact, toward the end of the Town Clerk discussion portion of the last Town Board meeting, all of the Council members as well as Town Attorney Tim Lewis were repeatedly asking her to stop talking as she was probably violating HIPAA laws by discussing the medical problems of the former Deputy Town Clerk! Punishment for these transgressions? Not in Greenburgh.

While Ms Beville was unwilling to remain silent after the Board pleaded with her, Councilman Sheehan stated that the entire episode was not a racial matter and that the Deputy said she was going to quit because she had to keep training new people as well as continuing to do her own job as well. Because of the seemingly endless stream of trainings and her workload, she said she had had enough. Apparently, it was either Mr Feiner or the Town Board (or both) who decided to create and fill a new position at roughly $70+k per year with benefits without approval, a budget item or candidate search. THIS sounds like our Town Board. They also stated that the Town Clerk’s office would still have the same number of staffers working there, but training could now be done by Ms Beville. And yet Mr Feiner seems compelled to complain about the Fire Districts personnel issues. Those who live in glass houses should not cast any stones.

Word in the Town Hall hallways is that the Town Board doesn’t have faith that Ms Beville can adequately train those new people and that’s why they wanted to keep the former Deputy, even if it was in a different position. Maybe so. This isn’t the way to run a Town. It’s also proof of why we need term limits, even though those in office will never agree to relinquish their power until they've padded their coffers enough and are ready themselves to step down. When the Democratic electorate finally wises up, maybe we will see a change and get some new blood, new ideas and better thinking. Complacency is also alive and well in Greenburgh. It needs to change. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.