As the saying goes, everything that goes around, comes around. It’s finally come around to The Paul. After abusing the trust placed with him by the electorate, he continually, routinely and cavalierly tossed their concerns aside and has done what he wanted. He spot-zoned numerous properties throughout the Unincorporated Town without regard to input and concerns voiced by the neighborhoods. He granted whatever any developer asked for and continues to do this today. As part of the 1%-ers, he was able to nestle his family quite comfortably in the gated community of Boulder Ridge at the edge of the Hastings-on-Hudson border near Costco, Home Depot and Stew Leonard’s.
There are discussions underway for a proposed commercial and residential development in Yonkers on the back side or northern cap of the Stew Leonard’s, Home Depot and Costco property. This property abuts the gated wonderland that The Paul lives in and would ultimately stunt the view of the Boulder Ridge homes. How? The proposal is to build a multiple use retail building encompassing 255,000 square feet of space by the retail giant Target and 400 residential apartments. This is exactly the right place for this type of combined project for Yonkers. Unless you are The Paul. It’s a bit complicated and yet so very simple. The Paul and his neighbors cannot complain that this will hurt their cherished view, or that these apartments may become low-income or even Section 8 housing (well practiced in Yonkers), and supposedly lower the value of their million dollar homes. So, they are saying that the increase in traffic will be a big issue for the area.
Really? Traffic as a problem? Nah! Every project that has been proposed in Greenburgh and come in front of the Town Board where the issue of increased traffic was a concern has been ignored by The Paul and his “go-along” Board. Add to the woes of increased local traffic due to the never-ending and over-budgeted I-287, 15-year debacle and you have significant traffic issues. This 15-year project has caused an upheaval in traffic on local roads as well as created massive traffic jams on the highway. But every traffic study supplied for every project, regardless of the scope or results were ignored by The Paul and his Stepford Board. Several projects where these results were ignored were the super Stop and Shop on Rt 119, the Greenburgh Health Center on Knollwood Road, WestHab in Fulton Park, Brightview Assisted Living Center at Rt 119 and Benedict Avenue and Dromore Road. All neighborhood pleas were ignored.
Interestingly, when the traffic study for Fulton Park was released and discussed, the report stated that the traffic in the area was already at an “F” rating. This should not be misconstrued as an “F” that a student would receive on a test. It is part of an alphabetical rating system that has a different meaning, and yet in this case had the same result! We all know that any report and its figures can be presented to deliver the results the presenter desires. Westhab’s traffic “expert” stated that the forty or fifty car increase in traffic at rush hour and during the course of the day in an already overburdened roadway system would be “negligible”. The Planning Board ignore these findings but the Zoning Board voted against the Westhab project and actually validated the neighborhood’s complaint and voted to recommend against a zoning change and halt the project. ABG believes The Paul told his Board, in a closed-door Executive session, to ignore this recommendation and vote for the massive zoning change. Ignore the traffic report details, the nay vote from Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations, the neighborhood’s collective voices, and push his pet project through – which they did!
When the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association complained to The Paul and the Town Board against the sports bubble that GameOn 365 wanted to build at the old Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, they soon found that The Paul not only supported the 83 foot, 8-story tall sports bubble, The Paul brokered the deal! Since when does a public official get involved with pushing a private sector deal through the governmental maze for developers? Since they came to Greenburgh. ABG cannot prove collusion but indeed wonders why The Paul and his minions would do this?
The shoe now appears to be on the other foot. The Paul’s position as Supervisor, already in double-overtime and in rapid decline, cannot stop the City of Yonkers from moving forward with developing their industrial area by the Yonkers toll booth/Stew Leonard’s/Home Depot/Costco’s. Like Fulton Park, the industrial area is right next to a residential area and Greenburgh’s forefathers intent was to allow a buffer from light commercial to residential and preserve the integrity of the residential neighborhood. But not The Paul. Rather than leave a buffer for the transition into Fulton Park, a much less affluent neighborhood than Boulder Ridge, The Paul decided to build and build big.
Yonkers and their developers have decided to do what is good for them, within their city and unfortunately, ignore the surrounding neighborhood. We recognize that Yonkers is in dire straights. The Paul has created the same environment in Greenburgh as we’ve experienced a decline in our quality of life throughout the Town. Perhaps the Boulder Ridge residents will not only view these stores and apartment buildings from their back windows, but will recognize this same decline other residents throughout Greenburgh have endured for years at the hands of The Paul. Et Tu? We can only hope.
Showing posts with label Boulder Ridge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boulder Ridge. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Scent of Blood
There was a palpable tension in the air. The crowd entering Town Hall was angry. Everyone in this crowd was upset from being disrespected and bypassed. This crowd wanted answers. No, this crowd demanded answers. This time the crowd was not in the mood to let The Paul or his Stepford Board off the hook. The Town Board Work Session had spilled over from earlier in the day to a night-time continuation with every seat in the audience filled. The scent of blood was unmistakable. The Paul had done it to another neighborhood again.
The carryover meeting was to discuss the group home proposed to be built on 88 North Road on a now vacant lot. The Paul had been informed of New York State’s intent to build a home there. But The Paul refused to inform the neighborhood. Neither did newly elected Town Councilman Ken Jones, an officer with the Parkway Homes Civic Association! This is a project that The Paul wants built and he made no bones at the work session stating such. He had Tim “Remediation” Lewis even hand out a list of group homes in the Greenburgh area. Ironically, there were no group homes in Boulder Ridge. Know who lives in Boulder Ridge?
The Paul yielded the floor to the two representatives from the State, who laid out their plans. There were several audience members who shouted out comments of displeasure as these two arrogantly stated that New York State can do what they want based on NY law, regardless of what the neighborhoods want or say. It sounded just like The Paul with his pet projects. But the male representative said that even though Towns, Villages and neighborhoods protest, the State agency always wins the case because the New York State law trumps local law. The woman representative said they don’t need to follow local codes and then contradicted that statement later by saying they follow local codes. They tried to say anything to confuse the audience or simply will say what they think people want to hear.
Speaker after speaker took to the podium to explain why they didn’t feel this project should be built at this location. Several speakers asked why some group homes already in the area were not on the list? They were told by these state representatives that sometimes they might miss one. Might miss one? How can that be? But, there seems to be more group homes in the area than the NYS representatives would have us believe. One reason they can get away with this, beyond the reason that they “might have missed one” is semantics. These people were here to build a group home for developmentally disabled men with The Paul’s blessing. That’s considered different than a group home for mentally handicapped or physically disabled men – even though they can be interchangeably defined based on what you need the cause to be. It’s like numbers. You can always manipulate your numbers to give the result you want based on semantics. It’s how The Paul justifies his illegal actions for the $12M in losses the Town has experienced in the last year, beyond certiorari refunds.
The entire two and a half hours of this meeting found everyone in agreement and not wanting this group home. Everyone. While numerous valid reasons were stated, The Paul insisted that the neighborhood association have a few people sit down with the Town Board, whom we know will feign concern for the neighborhood and then go along with The Paul’s desire to have this built. The fact is, this is a Done Deal! The Paul purposely neglected to inform the neighborhood until it was too late for them to stop this from happening! The decision must be rendered by the Town to the State to accept or reject the proposal by February 1! The Paul wants it and he was doing everything he could to block the public from standing in his way of making it happen. Could he be doing this to placate Governor Cuomo after requesting Governor Cuomo’s HUD housing project WestHelp, be torn down?
The Paul unsuccessfully continued to convince this packed room to compromise with the State representatives and to meet again privately with the Board and the State representatives to come up with an acceptable solution for both the State and the neighborhood. The Paul’s insistence on making this happen, trying to schedule more meetings and run down the clock is conclusive proof that this group home has been preordained and he is going to make this happen. Occasionally, Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan would add a comment, Diana “Sleepy” Juettner just sat there and Ken “Newby” Jones mostly sat there, probably realizing he betrayed his neighborhood for the ultimate aphrodisiac – political power. No matter, the neighborhood will forget this in a few months and he’ll be re-elected.
The Board adjoined to Executive Session after abusing the audience to discuss and make decisions they are too embarrassed to have the public witness. Once in the back room for their Executive Meeting ABG can only wonder the verbal beating the Board received from The Paul.
The Paul sent an email out today:
What this email says is what the neighborhood of over a hundred residents wants doesn’t matter. The Paul has decided that this is a done deal because he wants this group home built here. There is no doubt that The Paul pointed this piece of property to the bloodhounds at the Richmond Community Services and said, “Go for it! I'll make sure nothing gets in our way.” His email says “the Town Board has a specific number of days to determine if the Board wants to object.” There is no need for the neighborhood to meet with The Paul and his Board again. They were definitive during the meeting as to what they want the Town Board to do: OBJECT! He continues, “After listening to community concerns the agency has agreed to a one week extension of the Padavan notification timetable till February 8th, 2013.” After listening? They didn’t listen. If they did, they would not have to ask for an extension, they would just OBJECT! “They will be meeting with their architects to discuss the size of the proposed home and landscaping issues.” This again indicates that The Paul isn’t interested in saying, “NO!” to the State, simply finding a way to get what he wants.
The issue at hand is not whether the group home has value. The issue is that The Paul and his Board, and specifically Councilman Ken Jones, predetermined what should happen in the Parkway Homes neighborhood, didn’t inform or include the neighborhood in the decision-making process, made a deal with the state agency and disrespected an entire community. Frankly, ABG is not surprised at The Paul and his Stepford Board’s behavior or decision to circumvent the neighborhood. While not surprised, we are nevertheless disappointed. The residents in Greenburgh are owed, deserve and should receive better from the elected officials. We can only hope.
The carryover meeting was to discuss the group home proposed to be built on 88 North Road on a now vacant lot. The Paul had been informed of New York State’s intent to build a home there. But The Paul refused to inform the neighborhood. Neither did newly elected Town Councilman Ken Jones, an officer with the Parkway Homes Civic Association! This is a project that The Paul wants built and he made no bones at the work session stating such. He had Tim “Remediation” Lewis even hand out a list of group homes in the Greenburgh area. Ironically, there were no group homes in Boulder Ridge. Know who lives in Boulder Ridge?
The Paul yielded the floor to the two representatives from the State, who laid out their plans. There were several audience members who shouted out comments of displeasure as these two arrogantly stated that New York State can do what they want based on NY law, regardless of what the neighborhoods want or say. It sounded just like The Paul with his pet projects. But the male representative said that even though Towns, Villages and neighborhoods protest, the State agency always wins the case because the New York State law trumps local law. The woman representative said they don’t need to follow local codes and then contradicted that statement later by saying they follow local codes. They tried to say anything to confuse the audience or simply will say what they think people want to hear.
Speaker after speaker took to the podium to explain why they didn’t feel this project should be built at this location. Several speakers asked why some group homes already in the area were not on the list? They were told by these state representatives that sometimes they might miss one. Might miss one? How can that be? But, there seems to be more group homes in the area than the NYS representatives would have us believe. One reason they can get away with this, beyond the reason that they “might have missed one” is semantics. These people were here to build a group home for developmentally disabled men with The Paul’s blessing. That’s considered different than a group home for mentally handicapped or physically disabled men – even though they can be interchangeably defined based on what you need the cause to be. It’s like numbers. You can always manipulate your numbers to give the result you want based on semantics. It’s how The Paul justifies his illegal actions for the $12M in losses the Town has experienced in the last year, beyond certiorari refunds.
The entire two and a half hours of this meeting found everyone in agreement and not wanting this group home. Everyone. While numerous valid reasons were stated, The Paul insisted that the neighborhood association have a few people sit down with the Town Board, whom we know will feign concern for the neighborhood and then go along with The Paul’s desire to have this built. The fact is, this is a Done Deal! The Paul purposely neglected to inform the neighborhood until it was too late for them to stop this from happening! The decision must be rendered by the Town to the State to accept or reject the proposal by February 1! The Paul wants it and he was doing everything he could to block the public from standing in his way of making it happen. Could he be doing this to placate Governor Cuomo after requesting Governor Cuomo’s HUD housing project WestHelp, be torn down?
The Paul unsuccessfully continued to convince this packed room to compromise with the State representatives and to meet again privately with the Board and the State representatives to come up with an acceptable solution for both the State and the neighborhood. The Paul’s insistence on making this happen, trying to schedule more meetings and run down the clock is conclusive proof that this group home has been preordained and he is going to make this happen. Occasionally, Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan would add a comment, Diana “Sleepy” Juettner just sat there and Ken “Newby” Jones mostly sat there, probably realizing he betrayed his neighborhood for the ultimate aphrodisiac – political power. No matter, the neighborhood will forget this in a few months and he’ll be re-elected.
The Board adjoined to Executive Session after abusing the audience to discuss and make decisions they are too embarrassed to have the public witness. Once in the back room for their Executive Meeting ABG can only wonder the verbal beating the Board received from The Paul.
The Paul sent an email out today:
The Greenburgh Town Board met last night with representatives of Richmond Community Services and the community to discuss a proposed group home for six developmentally disabled individuals, some wheelchair confined, others with limited mobility. The home is proposed to be located at 88 North Road. According to NYS law the Town Board has a specific number of days to determine if the Board wants to object. After listening to community concerns the agency has agreed to a one week extension of the Padavan notification timetable till February 8th, 2013. They will be meeting with their architects to discuss the size of the proposed home and landscaping issues. Some of the Board members expressed concern about saturation of group homes/non profits in the Fairview section of town.
What this email says is what the neighborhood of over a hundred residents wants doesn’t matter. The Paul has decided that this is a done deal because he wants this group home built here. There is no doubt that The Paul pointed this piece of property to the bloodhounds at the Richmond Community Services and said, “Go for it! I'll make sure nothing gets in our way.” His email says “the Town Board has a specific number of days to determine if the Board wants to object.” There is no need for the neighborhood to meet with The Paul and his Board again. They were definitive during the meeting as to what they want the Town Board to do: OBJECT! He continues, “After listening to community concerns the agency has agreed to a one week extension of the Padavan notification timetable till February 8th, 2013.” After listening? They didn’t listen. If they did, they would not have to ask for an extension, they would just OBJECT! “They will be meeting with their architects to discuss the size of the proposed home and landscaping issues.” This again indicates that The Paul isn’t interested in saying, “NO!” to the State, simply finding a way to get what he wants.
The issue at hand is not whether the group home has value. The issue is that The Paul and his Board, and specifically Councilman Ken Jones, predetermined what should happen in the Parkway Homes neighborhood, didn’t inform or include the neighborhood in the decision-making process, made a deal with the state agency and disrespected an entire community. Frankly, ABG is not surprised at The Paul and his Stepford Board’s behavior or decision to circumvent the neighborhood. While not surprised, we are nevertheless disappointed. The residents in Greenburgh are owed, deserve and should receive better from the elected officials. We can only hope.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Oops! I Did It Again
The January 22nd Town Board meeting found The Paul with his back against the wall – again. This time he neglected to notify the public and specifically the neighborhood, that New York State was moving forward to purchase the vacant property at 88 North Road. Their goal is to build a 3,000 square foot group home for developmentally challenged men. This seemed to be an averaged size crowd of about twenty or so people one expects for a hearing, even though this wasn’t a hearing. It also had some of the G10 in attendance. As we would later learn from every speaker, they had only just found out about this purchase either that day or the day before this meeting.
Richmond Community Services had two representatives speak on behalf of their proposed purchase. They explained that they have 11 similar group homes throughout Westchester. This home would house, “Six young men who have ‘aged out’ from the residential schools they were in as they have all turned 21 years of age.” The term “young men” was used throughout the discussions. ABG finds the use of “young men” somewhat disingenuous in these discussions. While developmentally “young”, these are still men, aged 21 and older who will reside in this home as their permanent residence, for as long as they are alive. The house to be built will have six bedrooms with multiple exits and be handicap accessible.
That these future residents in this future home will be profoundly developmentally disabled and possibly suffer from other medical issues, the representatives claim that their medical needs will be tended to by on-site staff. When pushed a bit, the staff could be specially trained high school graduates. At no point did the representatives state that a live-in nurse, paramedic, EMT or other medically trained professional would be on site. Not allaying neighborhood residents’ concerns whatsoever, the representatives claimed their would be no need for either the police or fire departments to respond to medical emergencies at this location. And while we don’t mind our emergency services responding here, the neighborhood can’t really handle it as a regular occurrence.
After the initial presentation, residents of the Parkway Homes Civic Association and surrounding area spoke. Curiously, ABG’s understanding is that Town Councilman Ken Jones is a Vice President of the Parkway Home Civic Association. Assuming this is true, why didn’t he inform this neighborhood via his position as either Vice President of the Parkway Homes Civic Association or as a member of the Town Council or even individually as a resident walking throughout the neighborhood, telling everyone of the states plans to acquire this property? We can only wonder if he didn’t because The Paul instructed him to stay silent? This isn’t the first time The Paul has not informed neighborhoods of things about to happen and yet he seems to have no problem sending emails at the drop of a hat to boast of an idea for the Tappan Zee Bridge or the Library with a broken furnace.
Speaker after speaker bemoaned the fact that there wasn’t enough time for the neighborhood to respond to this revelation and berated The Pauls behavior toward them regarding such an important change to their neighborhood. Alicia Ford, the President of the Civic Association said the area maintains a Historic Designation, that our taxes are high enough without adding more tax-exempt properties to the Town’s rolls. She stated that there were other group homes in the area, the closest one being on Wyndover Woods Avenue, with 14 residents. She asked what the neighborhood could expect to see after the state decides they no longer wants to house developmentally disabled men there?
Patricia Brown said she lives adjacent to the property and is concerned about the increase in taxes that she, a retired senior citizen, would have to pay to make up for what this home will not pay. “It just isn’t fair to do this to us after working so hard for all of our lives.” Most people agreed that any project that goes onto the 88 North Rd site must be tax generating, otherwise it should not be allowed.
The Paul defended not informing the residents of this proposal as, “It is all my fault for not telling everyone sooner.” The state can come in and simply take over the land with a kind of eminent domain for any property they want and the Town cannot stop them. The only thing they may accept as a reason to not build is a saturation of group homes in the area. Most people are not against group homes if done within reason. If they are going to build a 3K square foot home, it will not match any of the existing houses in the vicinity. It will not blend and actually stick out like a sore thumb.
Fulton Park suffered with a similar problem that Parkway Homes is going through now. The Paul decided that a .7 acre parcel of land should be used by Westhab to build a seven story apartment building and decided that Fulton Park (as well as any neighborhoods) be damned! He spot-zoned the property to accommodate Westhab and like a blitz never seen in our Building, Zoning, and Planning Departments, saw a two-year application and permit process reduced to six months. The Parkway Homes neighborhood has a legitimate complaint. But as we all unfortunately know, The Paul doesn’t care about this neighborhood, only Boulder Ridge – which doesn’t have a group home in it. Maybe the state will change their mind, maybe not. We can only hope.
Richmond Community Services had two representatives speak on behalf of their proposed purchase. They explained that they have 11 similar group homes throughout Westchester. This home would house, “Six young men who have ‘aged out’ from the residential schools they were in as they have all turned 21 years of age.” The term “young men” was used throughout the discussions. ABG finds the use of “young men” somewhat disingenuous in these discussions. While developmentally “young”, these are still men, aged 21 and older who will reside in this home as their permanent residence, for as long as they are alive. The house to be built will have six bedrooms with multiple exits and be handicap accessible.
That these future residents in this future home will be profoundly developmentally disabled and possibly suffer from other medical issues, the representatives claim that their medical needs will be tended to by on-site staff. When pushed a bit, the staff could be specially trained high school graduates. At no point did the representatives state that a live-in nurse, paramedic, EMT or other medically trained professional would be on site. Not allaying neighborhood residents’ concerns whatsoever, the representatives claimed their would be no need for either the police or fire departments to respond to medical emergencies at this location. And while we don’t mind our emergency services responding here, the neighborhood can’t really handle it as a regular occurrence.
After the initial presentation, residents of the Parkway Homes Civic Association and surrounding area spoke. Curiously, ABG’s understanding is that Town Councilman Ken Jones is a Vice President of the Parkway Home Civic Association. Assuming this is true, why didn’t he inform this neighborhood via his position as either Vice President of the Parkway Homes Civic Association or as a member of the Town Council or even individually as a resident walking throughout the neighborhood, telling everyone of the states plans to acquire this property? We can only wonder if he didn’t because The Paul instructed him to stay silent? This isn’t the first time The Paul has not informed neighborhoods of things about to happen and yet he seems to have no problem sending emails at the drop of a hat to boast of an idea for the Tappan Zee Bridge or the Library with a broken furnace.
Speaker after speaker bemoaned the fact that there wasn’t enough time for the neighborhood to respond to this revelation and berated The Pauls behavior toward them regarding such an important change to their neighborhood. Alicia Ford, the President of the Civic Association said the area maintains a Historic Designation, that our taxes are high enough without adding more tax-exempt properties to the Town’s rolls. She stated that there were other group homes in the area, the closest one being on Wyndover Woods Avenue, with 14 residents. She asked what the neighborhood could expect to see after the state decides they no longer wants to house developmentally disabled men there?
Patricia Brown said she lives adjacent to the property and is concerned about the increase in taxes that she, a retired senior citizen, would have to pay to make up for what this home will not pay. “It just isn’t fair to do this to us after working so hard for all of our lives.” Most people agreed that any project that goes onto the 88 North Rd site must be tax generating, otherwise it should not be allowed.
The Paul defended not informing the residents of this proposal as, “It is all my fault for not telling everyone sooner.” The state can come in and simply take over the land with a kind of eminent domain for any property they want and the Town cannot stop them. The only thing they may accept as a reason to not build is a saturation of group homes in the area. Most people are not against group homes if done within reason. If they are going to build a 3K square foot home, it will not match any of the existing houses in the vicinity. It will not blend and actually stick out like a sore thumb.
Fulton Park suffered with a similar problem that Parkway Homes is going through now. The Paul decided that a .7 acre parcel of land should be used by Westhab to build a seven story apartment building and decided that Fulton Park (as well as any neighborhoods) be damned! He spot-zoned the property to accommodate Westhab and like a blitz never seen in our Building, Zoning, and Planning Departments, saw a two-year application and permit process reduced to six months. The Parkway Homes neighborhood has a legitimate complaint. But as we all unfortunately know, The Paul doesn’t care about this neighborhood, only Boulder Ridge – which doesn’t have a group home in it. Maybe the state will change their mind, maybe not. We can only hope.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
They Should Resign
Rain, rain, go away, come back another day. Everyone should recognize the lyrics from this old nursery rhyme. The Paul sings a somewhat different tune, “Residents, residents, go away, come back another day.” It seems The Paul repeatedly takes the proverbial wrong courses of action at every turn and every venue regarding the Town’s involvement, finances and now tenuous future. According to him, it’s the residents that continually get in his way of doing what he wants. Although the residents are probably singing, “Paul, Paul go away, don’t come back on any day.”
Flooding
The weather experts claim we are scheduled to be hit with another 100-year storm two months after the one year anniversary of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene. It defeats the purpose of calling it a 100-Year Storm if it’s happening every year, doesn’t it? Speaking of experts, one year ago, The Paul hired Jonathan Raser, an engineer and expert specializing in flood mitigation to review the conditions in the Town and seek assistance for the flooded residents. After collecting his somewhat substantial fee, and securing absolutely no funds for the residents or the Town, Mr. Raser hi-tailed it back to New Jersey whence he came, offering no resulting help, funds, or hope! The sum of his efforts? A letter to the flood-prone residents of the Town that they do not qualify for any aid and basically they are on their own. As he was leaving, he might have been overheard saying, “My bill is on The Paul’s desk, see ya suckers!”
This once again imbues the well-known deflection tactic of The Paul seeming to care. When the flooding from Hurricane Irene hit the region and Greenburgh in particular, it took The Paul quite some time to leave the stately Boulder Ridge gated community to visit his serfdom. But once he received word that the news cameras, reporters and crews were out covering the effects of the storm in Greenburgh, he sniffed them out like a bloodhound that caught a scent. He visited Hartsdale, Fulton Park and Babbitt Court, offering any affected and suffering flood victims another false hope, this time of FEMA home buyouts. He corralled numerous Town employees, working for four years without a contract, to receive a little overtime picking up debris. These dedicated workers came through as usual and then The Paul did what he does best, deflect, ignore, babble on and disappear.
In spite of The Paul intruding with the victims’ cleanups spewing vague ideas that accumulated no traction, his next best idea was to request every other politician do something to help these beleaguered and beaten residents. After all, he’s done everything he can, which in reality was nothing. In fact, he wrote, talked and postured about how many other politicians he contacted deluging various residents with daily mailings stating as much. After the media left, so did The Paul - back to his sanctuary of the secure confines of Boulder Ridge, where flooding, traffic, homeless people, sports bubbles, over-sized stores, concerned citizens, environmental studies, and projects that devalue our residential areas are not an issue.
But why do these areas have such frequent flooding where there never was any? Overdevelopment! The state renovated I-287 and the Bronx River Parkway, routing their water runoff into Fulton Park. The Town has done nothing to address this. Nothing! The Paul helped develop the 9A corridor with more to come, routing that water into Babbitt Court. You might ask, “Don’t we have a Planning Department to oversee and control the development throughout the Town?” We used to. Most projects they “touch” mysteriously become bigger and bigger with the Commissioners involvement. They have even helped developers to find ways around zoning and planning limitations. Quietly, without fanfare they changed the departments name. It’s now known as the Department of Community Development and Conservation. The name change, slightly sexier and more encompassing with political correctness sudden makes things all better. The cost in damage to residents: MILLIONS.
WestHelp
When the County leased the WestHelp facility to the Town, it was a financially secure and rewarding deal for the Town. People in need of housing had a brand new, extremely nice place to live and the Town was earning $1.2 million a year in income. It was a sweetheart deal for then School Board President Michael Smith, now a Republican County Legislator representing the same area. Mayfair-Knollwood Civic Association former President, Ned McCormack, who is now Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s Communications Director, was also against the WestHelp deal. You see, they were both on the Valhalla School Board and protested putting those horrible homeless people on the campus of Westchester Community College and into the Valhalla School System without “something in return” for them. Did you know that County Executive Rob Astorino has now endorsed The Paul’s convoluted and illegal plan to tear down the facility to lease the property to a school for fifty years? Why? Why would Rob Astorino do that when all of the County Legislators are against it and trying to optimize housing for the low income and homeless population throughout the county? Partisan politics? Hardly. The County Executive is trying to help his Director of Communications and one of only a few minority legislative allies he has in the County Legislature get along with this neighborhood and get votes through a payback. Payback? Why?
Not to be outdone, or to lose a vote, The Paul reached a financial arrangement with the Town Board, with no checks, balances or scrutiny to pay off the Valhalla School District. Essentially, he provided them a bribe, under the guise of an “educational grant” to accept these kids. There’s your reason. How they would use the money would be up to the school board for the school district - in essence for the children. So, what did they do with the money? They took a cruise and forced the taxpayers to foot the bill! You can read more at: valhallavoice.blogspot.com/. Fortunately, the Town of Greenburgh had two residents that pursued legal action to overturn this illegal deal in court and won! Now the Valhalla School District will have to return a portion of the monies to the Town in an agreed upon settlement. Something is better than nothing. The cost for this screw-up: $1.2 MILLION per year.
Flooding
The weather experts claim we are scheduled to be hit with another 100-year storm two months after the one year anniversary of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene. It defeats the purpose of calling it a 100-Year Storm if it’s happening every year, doesn’t it? Speaking of experts, one year ago, The Paul hired Jonathan Raser, an engineer and expert specializing in flood mitigation to review the conditions in the Town and seek assistance for the flooded residents. After collecting his somewhat substantial fee, and securing absolutely no funds for the residents or the Town, Mr. Raser hi-tailed it back to New Jersey whence he came, offering no resulting help, funds, or hope! The sum of his efforts? A letter to the flood-prone residents of the Town that they do not qualify for any aid and basically they are on their own. As he was leaving, he might have been overheard saying, “My bill is on The Paul’s desk, see ya suckers!”
This once again imbues the well-known deflection tactic of The Paul seeming to care. When the flooding from Hurricane Irene hit the region and Greenburgh in particular, it took The Paul quite some time to leave the stately Boulder Ridge gated community to visit his serfdom. But once he received word that the news cameras, reporters and crews were out covering the effects of the storm in Greenburgh, he sniffed them out like a bloodhound that caught a scent. He visited Hartsdale, Fulton Park and Babbitt Court, offering any affected and suffering flood victims another false hope, this time of FEMA home buyouts. He corralled numerous Town employees, working for four years without a contract, to receive a little overtime picking up debris. These dedicated workers came through as usual and then The Paul did what he does best, deflect, ignore, babble on and disappear.
In spite of The Paul intruding with the victims’ cleanups spewing vague ideas that accumulated no traction, his next best idea was to request every other politician do something to help these beleaguered and beaten residents. After all, he’s done everything he can, which in reality was nothing. In fact, he wrote, talked and postured about how many other politicians he contacted deluging various residents with daily mailings stating as much. After the media left, so did The Paul - back to his sanctuary of the secure confines of Boulder Ridge, where flooding, traffic, homeless people, sports bubbles, over-sized stores, concerned citizens, environmental studies, and projects that devalue our residential areas are not an issue.
But why do these areas have such frequent flooding where there never was any? Overdevelopment! The state renovated I-287 and the Bronx River Parkway, routing their water runoff into Fulton Park. The Town has done nothing to address this. Nothing! The Paul helped develop the 9A corridor with more to come, routing that water into Babbitt Court. You might ask, “Don’t we have a Planning Department to oversee and control the development throughout the Town?” We used to. Most projects they “touch” mysteriously become bigger and bigger with the Commissioners involvement. They have even helped developers to find ways around zoning and planning limitations. Quietly, without fanfare they changed the departments name. It’s now known as the Department of Community Development and Conservation. The name change, slightly sexier and more encompassing with political correctness sudden makes things all better. The cost in damage to residents: MILLIONS.
WestHelp
When the County leased the WestHelp facility to the Town, it was a financially secure and rewarding deal for the Town. People in need of housing had a brand new, extremely nice place to live and the Town was earning $1.2 million a year in income. It was a sweetheart deal for then School Board President Michael Smith, now a Republican County Legislator representing the same area. Mayfair-Knollwood Civic Association former President, Ned McCormack, who is now Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s Communications Director, was also against the WestHelp deal. You see, they were both on the Valhalla School Board and protested putting those horrible homeless people on the campus of Westchester Community College and into the Valhalla School System without “something in return” for them. Did you know that County Executive Rob Astorino has now endorsed The Paul’s convoluted and illegal plan to tear down the facility to lease the property to a school for fifty years? Why? Why would Rob Astorino do that when all of the County Legislators are against it and trying to optimize housing for the low income and homeless population throughout the county? Partisan politics? Hardly. The County Executive is trying to help his Director of Communications and one of only a few minority legislative allies he has in the County Legislature get along with this neighborhood and get votes through a payback. Payback? Why?
Not to be outdone, or to lose a vote, The Paul reached a financial arrangement with the Town Board, with no checks, balances or scrutiny to pay off the Valhalla School District. Essentially, he provided them a bribe, under the guise of an “educational grant” to accept these kids. There’s your reason. How they would use the money would be up to the school board for the school district - in essence for the children. So, what did they do with the money? They took a cruise and forced the taxpayers to foot the bill! You can read more at: valhallavoice.blogspot.com/. Fortunately, the Town of Greenburgh had two residents that pursued legal action to overturn this illegal deal in court and won! Now the Valhalla School District will have to return a portion of the monies to the Town in an agreed upon settlement. Something is better than nothing. The cost for this screw-up: $1.2 MILLION per year.
Referendum/Sports Bubble
Before Frank’s Nursery defaulted on their taxes and before the property was foreclosed upon with ownership assumed by the Town, The Paul met with several people representing themselves as a company called GameOn 365. Knowing of The Paul’s non-existent business acumen, they salivated over the possibility of acquiring that property from the Town for a song. These are stockbrokers apparently tired of competing with Charles Schwab and web-based competitors for peanuts and saw this as their big jump onto “Easy Street”. Knowing how to manipulate people into buying worthless stocks, they must have thought it easy to convince a bunch of their stockbroker-jock friends to invest in this deal. The Paul met secretly and communicated with them to position them to be the preferred recipient of The Paul’s good graces when it became time to unload said property.
Before Frank’s Nursery defaulted on their taxes and before the property was foreclosed upon with ownership assumed by the Town, The Paul met with several people representing themselves as a company called GameOn 365. Knowing of The Paul’s non-existent business acumen, they salivated over the possibility of acquiring that property from the Town for a song. These are stockbrokers apparently tired of competing with Charles Schwab and web-based competitors for peanuts and saw this as their big jump onto “Easy Street”. Knowing how to manipulate people into buying worthless stocks, they must have thought it easy to convince a bunch of their stockbroker-jock friends to invest in this deal. The Paul met secretly and communicated with them to position them to be the preferred recipient of The Paul’s good graces when it became time to unload said property.
Immediately after the Town assumed ownership, the public cried for the property to be used as a temporary library. Unassuming as most people in the Town are about what motivates The Paul, many decried foul knowing the history of this property as contaminated. What to do? If The Paul pushed for the library to relocate, they would be exposing “the children” (as well as adults) to toxic chemicals and who knows what else. The Paul quickly needed to deflect; so the talk turned to using the land for a new and larger police station and court. At the last Town Board meeting, Councilman Morgan stated to a resident that the neighborhood overwhelmingly was against this. When did the Town Board start listening to it’s residents? You may recall at about the same time, The Paul announced his newest no/low cost plan to financially save the Town by having interns process millions of dollars worth of back-logged traffic tickets. Deflection at it’s best? You decide. The cost for this illegal deal: MILLIONS.
Fortress Bible
Back when Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti was a mere 20-year career County Legislator, he enjoyed a relative safe haven where he resided. Then an African American church from Mount Vernon, the Fortress Bible Church, purchased property nearby. Ever the close friend of The Paul, he may have mentioned to him his concern of their nearby move. What did The Paul do? He put up road blocks, delays, fees and requirements for them to have to meet in order to proceed ahead with their plans. What were their plans? They simply wanted to build a church and a school on the property they purchased.
Tim “Remediation” Lewis, not wanting to publicize his strategy for fighting the Fortress Bible case in court, remained silent. We’re sure this was mostly on the marching orders of The Paul. But silent he remained; and, so did the others in The Paul’s administration. Perhaps if they had shared their strategy, the residents might have been able to help them. Unfortunately for the Unincorporated residents of the Town, they LOST the court case and were found guilty of discrimination, perjury, willfully destroying evidence and more! The cost for this debacle: upwards of $8 MILLION.
The Paul’s entire administration is a model for mismanagement, misjudgment, misdirection, misspending and missed opportunities. The Paul has exhausted most normal routes to help the residents of the Town preserve what little is left of it. He and Town Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden are on a track to overdevelop what little areas of green is left in Greenburgh. Not sure about this? There is much more about The Paul’s and his Stepford Board’s actions that are crippling our Town. ABG has written repeatedly about it. The Paul and the Board should help the Town. They will do this when they resign. It has to end. We can only hope.
Tim “Remediation” Lewis, not wanting to publicize his strategy for fighting the Fortress Bible case in court, remained silent. We’re sure this was mostly on the marching orders of The Paul. But silent he remained; and, so did the others in The Paul’s administration. Perhaps if they had shared their strategy, the residents might have been able to help them. Unfortunately for the Unincorporated residents of the Town, they LOST the court case and were found guilty of discrimination, perjury, willfully destroying evidence and more! The cost for this debacle: upwards of $8 MILLION.
The Paul’s entire administration is a model for mismanagement, misjudgment, misdirection, misspending and missed opportunities. The Paul has exhausted most normal routes to help the residents of the Town preserve what little is left of it. He and Town Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden are on a track to overdevelop what little areas of green is left in Greenburgh. Not sure about this? There is much more about The Paul’s and his Stepford Board’s actions that are crippling our Town. ABG has written repeatedly about it. The Paul and the Board should help the Town. They will do this when they resign. It has to end. We can only hope.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Can You Smell A Rat?
Whenever things get uncomfortable in Town Hall, The Paul switches to deflection mode and changes the subject. The media, sycophants all, play right along as if his blather reflects their personal “skin in the game.” When the buzz was that the President cleared away hurdles for a new Tappan Zee bridge, it gave The Paul a plethora of topics to expound upon. We imagine him saying “Wow! Judith, do you realize the publicity they just handed me?” to his vociferous, yet irrelevant, Town Clerk. We also can imagine the clerks office staff, the real brains of that department, rolling their eyes in disbelief, mumbling, “Oh crap! Here we go again.”
The next phase of the deflection was to offer something so unrealistic and undoable that it would guarantee media coverage. But what could provide an unending source of coverage, and how absurd would it need to be? The Paul wrestled with this and then, realizing he was giving away untold tracts of land to developers, it hit him. Land use. A park. No, wait! Not just a park, a high-line park - whatever that is. “Judith, find me a park anywhere that was made from a bridge.” Then he found out that NYC had a high-line park and he was off! “Why not turn the old Tappan Zee bridge into a high-line park, just like NYC did several years ago?
The media jumped on this like a NYC dog walker works a pooper-scooper. His spew started and the media was all over it, buying into it without reservation. Then it spread from the local opinion and press release papers like the Westchester Guardian, the White Plains Examiner and of course The Paul’s personal media machine, the Journal News. Ultimately, it would almost go viral, but didn’t. They touted his ramblings as visionary and the stench of “Paul Poo” spread to the major media outlets in NYC. He was in pooper-scooper media heaven. Finally, when one of the major media pundits asked our presidential candidate/governor what he thought about the park idea. “Huh, high-line park? What’s that?” He originally poo-pooed (pun intended) the idea. Ever the politician, as he saw the idea gain the approval of the environmental and others fringe groups that our politicos are so used to pandering to, he did an immediate about-face! Suddenly, the idea merited consideration. Fortunately, with a record heat-wave this summer, The “Paul Poo” began to reek and the governor reversed course and abandoned the idea. What now for The Paul?
Some time around June, The Paul found himself needing another deflection as his transgressions within the Town were catching up to him and getting increased media coverage - just not the kind he was used to. Sure, the Journal News would report on some of it but it buried it on the inside squeezed between a Sleepy’s and Atlantic City casino ad, and never on the front page. After all, that just wouldn’t do. The Paul and his Town Boards were found guilty on seven counts in the Fortress Bible Church decision, he was found guilty of the WestHelp payoff to the Valhalla school districts, which is costing the Town a minimum loss of $100k per month which should have been a guaranteed income. Now that other politicians had co-opted his high-line park idea, he was no longer in the favored limelight.
He decided to to revisit the Tappan Zee bridge, an old stand-by for him, but with a different twist. His ability to generate media buzz is his greatest talent. “This time I’ll be against the bridge!” he thought, “but what can my reason be? Hmmm...it has to involve mass transit so I’ll appear green! They’re such suckers!” With the new twist determined, he landed on the all-or-nothing side of a mass transit component for the new bridge. He went public touting he was now against the Tappan Zee bridge and began writing letters to editors, knowing they would all be published, aired or talked about. He was right. Because the talk had been about building the new bridge without a mass transit component, The Paul announced he was against building the bridge if there would not be a mass transit portion built into it, and like that, he was back in the news. Governor Cuomo already said the bridge would not be able to have the mass transit portion included as it was a) too costly and would b) slow the progress he felt we were making. He never mentioned that we’re coming up to an election year and they need these bridge jobs as a key campaign issue for all the politicians to be a part of and to use.
Once The Paul started to get traction with his “Don’t Build The Bridge” campaign, and the media coverage he wantonly craves, he got another visit, although this one unwelcome. It was from a rat! The union rat, to be specific. The unions that would be involved in building the new Tappan Zee bridge wanted the project to move forward. The Paul was spearheading it’s demise. Now that he infuriated the parent union bosses, and is already extremely disliked by the Town’s CSEA members, it was time for payback. During July, the union planted their inflatable rat outside of Greenburgh Town Hall, aimed at The Paul, who by default with his new position is against the union and in this case union jobs! We’re sure you didn’t see this in the Journal News or the other papers.
While ABG wonders if the rat will accomplish much for the union’s cause, we do support the union and the jobs that will be created for everyone with this project. Stay tuned, as we learn more, you’ll learn more.
As always, we hope our readers will forward information they may learn or receive regarding this and any other news within Greenburgh’s borders to us at ABetterGreenburgh@gmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)