Stop and Shop or Stop and Steal?

The new 67,500 square foot Stop and Shop Super Center store will be opening this week. The location of the new supermarket is actually where the old Premier Theater had been located many years ago. The difference today is when the theater had been there, with the amount of impervious space it had, there weren't any other buildings in the area. Water drainage was not a problem back then! According to The Paul, and we quote, “Unlike many development application projects that experience significant opposition from the community - this supermarket had an enthusiastic group of immediate residents behind it from day one. I received many calls and e mails from residents expressing a desire for a quality new supermarket.” It's only a true statement when you study how the question of the new Stop and Shop was posed. 


When asked if people would favor a new supermarket offering? The answer was usually yes. Would you be in favor of a new super center style supermarket with a larger variety? Larger variety? The answer was yes. So, as people were polled about a new supermarket, the carefully asked questions guaranteed certain positive answers. No one was asked if closing the existing Stop and Shop would impact the neighborhood negatively. No one was asked about the amount of impervious space that would be created, affecting the water runoff in the already saturated and heavily flooded areas – except the Glenville Community Association, the Babbitt Court Residents and the business and home owners along the 9A and Rt 9 flood zones along with the G-8. 


Many in Tarrytown’s Rt 9 and surrounding area who were able to walk or bike or take a bus  to the existing Stop and Shop (formerly First National, and then Finast) were vociferously against the new Stop and Shop! The Paul prefers to ignore this in his post. Once the existing Stop and Shop closes, the space will be used for yet another CVS. Apparently, we don't have enough drug stores in the area. We have nothing against CVS, but there is a claim that they will have an “expanded convenience food department”. What, more Twinkies?


Also in the mix, as part of Thomas Madden’s job security initiative, are plans to create an assisted living facility nearby. This effort, along with The Paul’s devaluing of the Unincorporated Town space, has been proposed to create multiple apartment buildings, actually twelve, along the Rt 119 corridor. This all dovetails into the proposed train, bus, car corridor they plan to develop Rt 119 into with the expansion of the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement.


An issue ABG has with this expansion is not to utilize mass transit in the area, but we are a suburban area they are trying to develop into a more urban setting. There will condemnations and eminent domain utilized to take over homes and businesses properties to make this happen. The goal of the  separate elevated bus route is to have a bus stop for pickup/drop offs at all of the bus stops every five minutes and then have the buses all exit (near exit five of I-287) onto Rt 119 and proceed to the White Plains Transit Center. After this visit, it starts all over again. If you think there’s congestion on Route 119 now, just wait!


The Paul has assisted in closing two major supermarket outlets. While we recognize he didn’t do it alone, the soon-to-open HMart in the old Pathmark location will serve a limited clientele. That’s okay. But the A&P that closed in the Crossroads Shopping Center is continuing to devalue that neighborhood. As the store stands vacant, and falls into disrepair, fewer new tenants will be interested in revitalizing this store or the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it’s the neighborhood’s residents that suffer. Since The Paul and his Stepford Board have declared the Manhattan Avenue area low income in perpetuity, ABG believes little will be done by the Town to improve this area - stealing it’s future. We can only hope!

Greenburgh: WestHelp, WestHab, West-Broke

   Based on an article in The Journal News, by reporter Stacy Anderson, the Valhalla school district is suing the town in an effort to continue receiving $650,000 a year from Greenburgh under the WestHELP Partnership Grant. All the agreements in the world will not help squeeze blood from a stone. Stacy, a nice person and an able writer, fails to verify through historic actions and investigation, anything the supervisor feeds her (hence the moniker stenographer).
   She writes, "Although Greenburgh's counterclaim seeks to recoup the $1.8 million it had already given the school district, the three say that town attorneys cannot adequately represent taxpayers because town Supervisor Paul Feiner favors the agreement." Did she ask Town Attorney Lewis what he could do as opposed to just taking his word for it? Did she contact Herb Rosenberg or Bob Bernstein and ask what the alternatives might be for the town and it's attorneys? Evidently not.
   Paul Feiner has typically kept the taxpayers in the dark. He continually paints the stalwarts who show up at Board meeting as "anti-everything" he and his merry Stepford board proposes. Not true. His and their sloppiness, incompetence and ineptness are proof of their failures. What does that say of our school system?
   He references one magazine article from Money magazine about Greenburgh being the 80th Best Place to Live. That they strictly reviewed the Town through numbers and what his highness told them doesn't paint a clear picture. BTW Paul, anything but first place is a loser. And, 80 is too far down the list to be all that impressive. Based on this scenerio, Bush could have looked like a great president if he worked like the supervisor does. 
   WestHab is another mess that the supervisor insists on illegally moving forward for the benefit of a developer, not the town. He and his merry goof-ball board members rubber stamp the project along and the community, ultimately the town, suffers. This project is so bad that Sanborn, the VP of Land deals, was fired last week because he couldn't get the project to move forward, even with Feiner's illicit and illegal actions. Feiner's gotta go before the town is driven into bankruptcy. So does the Board.

Crime in Greenburgh

Latest Crime in Greenburgh: The Massaro Park Sexual Attack

   As the Journal News reported in their Tuesday edition, a 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted on Saturday of this past weekend by a group of five to seven men near Massaro Park. The girl is a Greenburgh resident and she was simply walking home. For those of you that do not know where Massaro Park is located in Greenburgh, it is along Payne Street (cross street Saw Mill River Road), in the northern unincorporated area of Greenburgh and considered Elmsford (mailing address). According to The Journal News, "She said she was surrounded by a group of five to seven men who grabbed her and restrained her while at least one of them had sexual contact with her. The girl was then released and left. She was not physically injured."

Greenburgh has seen numerous spikes in crime lately but the most heinous are those against children. This area of greenburgh has traditionally been one of problems between robberies, assaults and vandalism.

Everyone watched in amazement as the Central Avenue 7-Eleven was robbed, then robbed again and finally a third time. Not that we should expect anything different, the police department's response was simply that they were investigating. That's okay. But then Paul Feiner, Supervisor, started pontificating, basically saying nothing but trying to assure the residents that they are safe. Given the robberies in Edgemont, the 7-Eleven store and now this attack of a child, are we really safe?

If you witnessed this or have information about the attack call the Greenburgh police at 914-682-5331. All calls will remain confidential.