“Even a Bleak Cloud Has a Silver Lining”: One Year Later

“How’m I doin’ ?”  – Ed Koch was famous for asking that question. Putting aside the publicity aspect of the question, I’m sure it helped him to gauge just how well he was doing as mayor, based on the feedback. Believe me, when a public official asks a New Yorker that question, he’ll get plenty of “feedback” if you know what I mean.

So, it’s a year later and how are you doing? How’s the city doing?  When I wrote the "Silver Lining" story a year ago, I was hopeful that things would have turned around by now. I still believe we have opportunities around us that could benefit all of us if the city could just break its addiction to the near bankrupt developers and open up the field for other options. Development hasn’t slowed, it’s come to a grinding halt and actually taken a few steps backwards. It’s been about 3 months since Joe Apicella (from Cappelli Enterprises)promised Target and Kohls would be signed “ within a week to ten days” knowing full and well Target has no intention of coming to New Rochelle for years and sources close to Kohls tell a similar story.  In fact, we now see even more lawsuits filed against the already strapped Cappelli organization. Property owners of 5 Anderson Street have been stiffed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars as we pay our ransom to the economic hostage takers. (Go ahead and search “5 Anderson” on the Talk of the Sound site and see how much was written about this). Things are so bad, one of the city council members  finally admits there are serious issues with the developer. Nobody benefits from this nonsense. We see what the Avalon has turned into in an effort to fill apartments, and to top it off, they get to buy the property from the City for 50 cents on the dollar just because the city is in such dire straights, PLUS, they keep the tax abatements. As I said before, such a deal.

Even the Chamber of Commerce has collapsed. Businesses won’t pay dues to an entity that can’t function. They fire their director, move the office off Main St to an “undisclosed location” , and to top it off, screw every participant of the 47 year old Thanksgiving Parade. An event that nearly runs itself. The two top items the chamber website bragged about was the Haunted House at the Armory and the Thanksgiving Parade. Look at the cast of characters and tell me there isn’t a political dynamic in play. Again, who benefits?

The politicians, for the most part, can’t seem to get out of their own way as they try to strike a balance between getting re-elected and keeping the public from breaking out the pitchforks and torches. The good ones are sadly outnumbered by the confederacy of “professional politicians” who, for the most part, made the biggest contribution to  our current climate . Refusing to acknowledge the reality of economics and doing little, if anything, to address the issues. For lack of funds, they sandbag the fire, police and dpw unions, but still find the funding to go ahead and hire a new city clerk, sustainability coordinator, commissioner of development, deputy city counsel and who knows what else. All of these positions could have been placed on hold for 6 months minimum, if not a year. The city manager tells us there’s no “fat” left in the budget to cut. No kidding. It’s not about “fat” anymore. Many residents are making cuts “to the bone” just to make ends meet. They’re trying to hold onto jobs and houses, with not much prospect of pay increases. Seniors on fixed incomes watched as their savings shrunk faster than a wool sweater in a dryer and the State is clamping down on STAR exemptions. About the only things not going down are taxes and frustration levels. I know it’s easy to criticize, but is it to much to ask the city to lead by example? How many Domenic Procopios are there, how many open building permits are there, how many illegal apartments aren’t paying their fair share?

Tip of the iceberg? Who knows, but you get the picture. If you can think of anything else feel free to chime right in.

I did say “Things are bad. For many, it’s as bad as it will ever be in their lifetime. But, it will get better, and perhaps it will have more to do with what we do rather than what the politicians do.” and I still believe in that. In fact, there is plenty of evidence to support the Davids taking on the Goliaths as it were.

On a larger scale we see the outrage of the local towns taking on the Goliath United Water as they request a 55%rate increase that will be devestating to everyone. (In 2008, Suez Environment, parent company of United Water made nearly 750million in profit alone). The idea of the little guy taking on the bully seems to be catching on even with some politicians.

At the local level we’ve witnessed an amazing increase in citizen participation at every level. Hyper-local news sites (Yes, like this one, but Mamaroneck, Larchmont and many others have them too) that have empowered the average Joe with a perspective not offered by the mainstream media have fostered a movement of participation and involvement. You’ve seen the reporting, opinions, comments here. Bob, Peggy, Anthony, Warren, NRCP,NR101(amazing Lincoln School piece),and so many more. Good, bad or indifferent, you won’t see it in the Journal News or the New York Times. Raising peoples awareness enough to put leaders on notice can only be a good thing.

We have the tireless efforts of Jim Killoran and Habitat for Humanity, out and about rebuilding families and homes with his hundreds of selfless volunteers. Providing opportunity, reaching out to build on what we already have rather than what we don’t have. Advocating for the promotion of the rich history of the city. Growth and improvement of the human condition and nobody gets rich from it? I guess it depends on how you measure rich. To say God Bless You would be redundant because He truly has, but I say it anyway. The local food banks and charitable organizations saw large increases in demand for their good work and without doubt, many more people have stepped up and donated their own time and resources to try to meet the demands of those down on their luck. All good stuff.

WVOX, the local radio station has been engaging the citizens and tackling issues more aggressively to ramp up[ the involvement. Kudos to Bob Marrone for getting out to meet the civic groups and cover the community events. John, Steve, Lou and Bruce all working for the good of New Rochelle. In a time when most media is cutting back, WVOX is bucking the trend. To keep it all balanced, they’ve got Mitch with his reviews of highlights of things in the city you should experience.

The hard pressed efforts of my friends of the Save Our Armoryorganization seem to be paying off. Operating on a steady diet of passion and commitment, they’ve grown in number and gather more support everyday. More and more people are realizing the potential of a place we already own. A majestic building with a built in history of world wide proportion. Nobody would benefit more than the citizens of New Rochelle.

New development is bankrupt, existing development has fleeced the city, yet we have this resiliency to move forward and foster true improvement in spite of the city’s empty promise of the golden ship’s arrival. Getting involved at the city level, the neighborhood level, or just helping your neighbor seems to be what works best. So here’s to a better year, and thanks to all of you for taking care of the city because when you do better, we all do better. Let’s see, “More to do with what we do…” I believe the saying goes.