Noam Bramson sat for a half-hour interview for the Cablevision program “Meet the Leaders” in which he cast doubt on a key provision of the City Manager’s proposed budget.
The first segment was about dealing with budget issues. The Mayor talking about the hiring freeze, cancelled or deferred non-essential programs, seeking outside grants. While defending the decision this year, the Mayor says City Manager decision to borrow money to pay for the pension increase is “not a good long-term fiscal practice”.
The Mayor went on to talk about cutting services like traffic calming and rehabilitating monuments as well as scaled back capital expenditures, getting rid of DARE and other programs.
Based on this particular episode, it appears the show consists primarily of an artful mix of heaping praising for the guest and feeding the guest softball questions and then expressing awe at any answer given. The Mayor cannot be blamed for gratefully accepting the softball questions but Terence Michos, the host may as well have had Noam Bramson cuddling on his lap. Questions and Comments include: “Your energy and excitements comes through in the interview.”, “Years before it become popular…you were streamlining…so..[New Rochelle is] in a pretty good position fiscally.”, “Very difficult job, why do you do it?” I was expecting Michos to ask “and who does your hair?” or “where did you get those shoes?”
Dogs not barking?
Not a single question about the Westchester County District Attorney’s ongoing investigation of the Department of Public Works. Not a work about the scathing audit of the New Rochelle IDA. Nothing about the downtown parking issues, the murder of Kevin Williams in broad daylight, the pending deadlines of the LeCount Square Project or Echo Bay Development project, nothing about Capelli, the ongoing criminal investigation by the Department of Justice into the dealings of Forest City Ratner in nearby Yonkers. Just happy talk.
To a certain extent this was a policy wonk discussion with very little from the host beyond platitudes and the framing of the issues in the most gentle, positive light.
There was one amusing moment (for those who watched the shoeshine operator speak during Citizens to be Heard) when the Mayor was asked about regionalization and he spoke about getting HUD money through a regional transportation grants. The Mayor said the City would use the money to “make our train station more visible”. Most residents would like to make the station less visible — and get the homeless people out of there and keep the bathrooms clean. The Mayor went on to talk about regionalizing emergency medical response and updating the master plan.
The second segment was largely devoted to David’s Island which took up more than a third of the interview. There was a funny line of questioning when the host commented on the Mayor’s observation that David’s Island was the home of Fort Slocum for 100 years, suggesting hopefully that the Fort could be a source of new revenue.
“Is the fort there?”
Bramson, no, it’s been torn down.
“oh…it could have had tourism.”
There was nothing new in the Mayor’s observation that he feels the City has been too reactive to proposals from outside. He then talked about convening a task force of 20 members including architects and a conservation official. He called the 20 people as a “cross-section of people who have an interest” to come up with a vision which will unfold over a period of months.
The Mayor sees this effort as a way to develop a model that has community support and a basis for reacting intelligently to proposals. The Mayor added that the task force developing ideas does not mean development, that he is not ruling out open space and parkland.
Michos asked about the nature of the previous proposals which Bramson characterized as “extreme high density” or making it a County park. Asked about the issues and why people have opposed previous proposals, the Mayor said that access was a critical issue, as well as, traffic on the mainland, generating of sewage, and visual concerns.
After explaining how the task force would work to come up proposals he then said his personal hope was that the vision would involve technology and design sensibility related to sustainability, that the proposal would attract a builder who wants to make a statement, that the proposal would have no net impact on electrical grid and no impact on sewage and that David’s Island could serve as a demonstration project for the world.
Having supplanted the commission’s vision he added “…but I do not want to supplant the commission’s vision”.
The interview concluded with a discussion of the Main Street Corridor Albanese and the Church Division/Prospect Street lots which he expects will be moved by the developer so that parking can be dispersed throughout the downtown area. After explaining what he wants for the City — revenue generation, parking replaced or enhanced, affordable housing he used the term “sustainable” in an entirely alien way to his GreeNR language — that the project had to be a sustainable project in terms of its financing for the developer.
The interview ended on a brief comment on the GreeNR plan which the Mayor said he hoped would be adopted early next year and that it would then serve as a framework for policy decisions. How GreeNR can serve as a framework when the discussions before City Council have shown it to be riddled with inaccuracies, inconsistencies and incomplete thinking was not made clear.
The show will be airing on Cablevision channel 78 (in New Rochelle). It airs this week and again the week of December 19 – 25. Times are 7:30 am, 9:30 am, 1:00 pm, 6:30 pm, 8:30 pm, and 10:30 pm.
The show can be watched “On Demand” via the Cablevision’s iO service: Select channel 500, Select “On Demand”, Select “Free On Demand”, Select “News & World”, Select “Local On Demand”, Select “Hudson Valley”, Select the “MTL-Bramson”, Select “Play”.