New Rochelle, NY— The Davids Island Task Force will hold a Public Outreach meeting on Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 7 pm in the City Council Chambers of City Hall. The public is invited to attend.
The Davids Island Task Force was formed in September 2010 to shape and achieve a vision for Davids Island as both a destination for residents and the surrounding region. It is comprised of city-wide representatives from neighborhood associations, county and adjoining municipalities, the school district, regional environmental groups, as well as experts in sustainable design and development. Following their kick-off meeting in October 2010, the Task Force formed into two subcommittees: the Re-use committee, to determine future land use options; and the Current Conditions/Challenges committee, to evaluate existing challenges and conditions at the site.
At the February 17th Public Outreach Meeting, the subcommittees will present information on those discussions and provide an opportunity for the public to comment. Following the meeting, the task force will develop policy recommendations for the City Council.
Davids Island is located in western Long Island Sound, a short distance from the New Rochelle mainland. Approximately 120 acres in size (80 acres upland and 40 under water), the island was formerly home for more than 100 years to Fort Slocum, a United States Army base, until its deactivation and closure in 1966. To date, all buildings- including the water tower- have been removed under the direction of the US Army Corp of Engineers.
For further information, visit www.newrochelleny.com/davidsisland or contact Suzanne Reider via email at sreider@newrochelleny.com or by phone at 914.654.2023. Comments will be accepted.
Still Insane!
Look no further than the our city’s inability to clean up the trash in the garbage pails at Davenport Park and you will see that apparently as smart as some people may be that live here in New Rochelle…we are far outnumbered by the ignorant, greedy, and careless good for nothing citizens that will just as soon destroy another natural habitats as quick as they will throw their McDonalds wrapper on the grass at our public parks. Get out of here!
Why don’t we clean up the rampant downtown area and the 50 million dollar stores and all the pot holes everywhere—-fix what is broken before you try and build more ridiculous crap that no one will appreciate. The only animals that will be ever able to have peace in New Rochelle are the ones that are the farthest away from us humans—or the ones that are already dead.
Dollar signs is what the city may see…and if its dollar signs you want—why don’t you begin all the different dollar stores on mains street/north avenue and sprinkled throughout the lovely downtown areas that makes up New Rochelle. If you have a bunch of dollar stores than you are going to attract a bunch of dollar store people. Cleaning up that mess will be more of a project that developing on David’s Island ever will.
SO INSANE
I have lived in New Rochelle my whole life. I also went to this meeting and one person said that the land was “fallow” are you kidding me?! Guess what—–lack of humans does not a fallow land make. This is the kind of archaic attitude that caused almost the complete extinction of Native American peoples hundreds of years ago. And now flash forward 2011…here we go again. There are animals on David’s island that cannot defend their lands—like Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles ( which are btw an endangered species) , Osprey birds, and least terns, fish in the waters around David’s Island like the Winter Flounder, and Atlantic Herring and Silversides…..and guess what -it’s not our land , it’s theirs!
Now amazingly still in the aftermath of what people did to the island 50 years ago with various pollution, we should only be looking at the peaceful existence of the animals who live there and make less of a footprint…. then we ever will , or have. We should keep the land as a preserve…..if you wish to visit it, you may– by boat and at your own risk….amen.
Its really a shame, we’ve
Its really a shame, we’ve owned this vacant island for the last 30 or 40 years and still have no idea what to do with it, yet city hall continues to push Forest City Ratner on us to develop the Echo Bay waterfront.
Bramson had the Army Corp. of Engineers tear down and remove every structure on it, historic buildings that the Army Corp. of Engineers would have happily preserved if asked. I’m sure he’s looking to sell it to balance next years budget. What an idiot Bramson is, but I bet he gets re-elected by large numbers in November so who’s the fool?
Absolutely Right Fifth Ave Guy!
I’ve met with Corp of Engineer people who stated there were 4 buildings worth rehabing. The Corp had the money to do the restoration and would turn the buildings over to the city. The city only needed to maintain them. As we see when we look around this city, the administrations past and present have a terrible track record of maintaining our properties. North ave Church, Wildcliff, the Armory, Ward acres barn, etc. Fortunately, council members like Trangucci, Tarrantino and St Paul have begun the process of reversing the entropic paradigm that has led to these conditions. From a pure business standpoint, it does make sense in the long run to protect these assets even if there is no present plan for their utilization. Properly maintained and/or protected, these sites would be a more attractive product for potential business partners.
Ditto
Every comment here is dead on. Why the city keeps looking to destroy its history is beyond.
The Mayor will get re-elected, I’m sure. But that is because of his popularity in the northend where people don’t have to endure his BS. The rest of us are doomed.
If Hitler ran as a democrat in New Rochelle
He’d win. The brainless idiots that vote party line are the real problem. Don’t blame the people they vote for, blame the real problem. Idiots that vote party line as if local politicians somehow make national policy. Sorry for the somewhat offensive title, but it’s true. There are good people in both parties. Wake up, educate yourselves, then vote.
if you have to apologize
then maybe the title is not a good idea.
Usually someone introduces a Hitler analogy at the end of a heated debate not as an opening salvo.
Folks can write what they want but the first one to throw out a Hitler analogy has lost the argument.
I agree
Sorry about that, you’re right. I guess what I was trying to say is that with all you have exposed on this site, the voting public will still vote party lines. It’s more important to the majority of North and south enders to vote their party candidate than to think about New Rochelle’s future. Please replace “Hitler” with the most disgusting, vile person you can think of that will not offend anyone and then re-read it, that’s what I meant. lol
Fort Slocum / Fort Totten
For those who wish to see something approximately similar to what New Rochelle has destroyed at Ft Slocum (Davds Island), I suggest visiting Fort Totten in Bayside Queens, near the Throgs Neck Bridge, about 25 minutes drive from New Rochelle and free to the public.
Most of Ft Slocum was destroyed years ago by the corrupt and inept NR City
Manager Sam Kissinger. Any buildings that were still remaining in recent years were burned out shells. I visited Davids Island in the early 1990’s and took many videos of it at that time. Unfortunatley they were all in Beta and 3/4″ (commercial tape) formats, and I curently have no way to transfer them to digital, or I’d post the videos on YouTube with a link here.
Does anyone out there have a 3/4″ video tape machine?