Echo Bay will never ever be developed under the plan endorsed by Mayor Noam Bramson.
The math is quite simple.
In order for the Forest City Plan to go forward the City Yard must be moved somewhere else. There is currently no suitable place to move it and even if there was the estimated costs to do so are between $25-35mm dollars.
That’s it. That is really all you need to know.
If you want some details here you go…
The City cannot function without an active City yard operating every single day. Even a week without a City Yard would mean piles of garbage all over the City. A month would be a disaster. If you do that in warm months you will have rotting garbage all over the City; do that in cold months you have no snow removal capability. In short, the City Yard can never not be operational.
Going forward on Echo Bay without a precise plan on where to put the City Yard is your classic cart-before-the-horse scenario.
The Mayor and his cronies want to wave their hands and distract residents from this catastrophic gating-factor. No matter how many MOU extensions are granted to Forest City Ratner, without first resolving the location of a new City Yard the entire process is a farce.
During the February 15 City Council meeting Council Member Richard St. Paul raised concerns about the location of the new City Yard (the proposed site on Beechwood Avenue is in his district) and the cost (estimated a decade ago to be about $25mm). At the 1:02:15 mark of the video tape, Development Commissioner, Michael Freimuth says:
…my thought process for this money was to go back to that original study and say “hit the refresh button” what’s different today than yesterday and how you project it out to tomorrow assuming this is the site if the numbers come back where we can’t plug ’em back into the assumptions of the model then it’s a, it’s a, it might be a fatal flaw.
Chuck Strome says study was “before his time” and professed to be hazy on details of the report. He offered to recirculate the report. Freimuth later called the City Yard issue the “big kahuna” but that he was working on the assumption that the planned move to Beechwood Avenue would work. Abe Naperstak of Forest City Ratner acknowledge that the new Forest City Plan depends entirely on resolving the City Yard issue.
The Mayor’s recent announcement about the Council vote to extend the MOU makes clear that the real purpose is yet another game of “pretend” by the North End Cheerleading Club. In the first sentence, Mayor Bramson writes:
“Plans to improve the Echo Bay waterfront are back on track.”
How? The stated purpose of extending the MOU was to give the City a year to evaluate the feasibility of a scaled back plan which eliminates most of the features which were touted as reasons to support the plan. Even Democrat stalwart Marianne Sussman expressed reservations, noting that the open spaces, walkaways and public access to the water front were no longer part of the planned “Phase One”.
In his announcement, the Mayor cites as significant that the City will get $100,000 from Forest City Ratner. Setting aside that $100,000 compared to tens of millions to move the City Yard is a meaningless comparison, the Mayor misrepresents even that paltry amount. The City is not getting $100,000. Development Commissioner Michael Freimuth said there is $26,000 in an escrow account put up by Forest City Ratner. As part of the MOU extension, Forest City Ratner agreed to add funds to increase that to $75,000. Later the may add up to another $25,000. So, while that all adds up to $100,000 what New Rochelle is actually getting is $50,000 in addition to a previously negotiated $26,000 and maybe another $25,000 later. When the Mayor cannot even do this basic math to add $50,000 and $25,000 to get $75,000 why should anyone think he can do the math to figure out the true cost of the City financing with public money a private development.
When developers and politicians talk about public-private partnerships what they mean is that public takes most if not all of the risk and the private company gets all of the upside potential while the politicians get rewarded with campaign contributions and God knows what all — in Yonkers Forest City Ratner was handing out phony consulting contracts to buy Council votes.
And don’t even ask who is going to pay the $30-40mm to build a new elementary school.
This wonderful plan of the
This wonderful plan of the Mayor’s was only construed so he could lead people into believing that the armory would be saved. The plan is a ploy to convince people he cares about this building and he is using as a re-election tactic. After the election, assuming he wins, the MOU will be changed and you can kiss the armory goodbye.
Furthermore, who in their right mind would allow a developer to have, for free, two pieces of city owned land just so the developer can get richer. Not only will the residents on NR have to foot the cost of relocating the city yard, but we will have to suck in the loss of revenue due to this land give-away.
Here we have another Avalon in the making. This is not about what the people of NR want. This is about the pipe dream of a mayor who is eager to see the waterfront developed. If he is successful, he will have his picture in the centerfold of the Sound Report. If he fails, guess who pays the price? That’s right, the 75,000 residents of NR.
Leave City Yard Where It Is
I have always advocated against moving City Yard to Beechwood. Besides being too close to the downtown commercial area, the Beechwood site is uphill from two ancient Catholic cemeteries, one of which contains a lake. Both cemeteries and the lake are over 150 years old. The sewage would ultimately leach into that lake.
On Beechwood, the stink from City Yard’s garbage trucks would have nowhere to drift, other than towards those cemeteries, and towards Pelham, and towards Webster Ave and its artists lofts, and towards Main and Huguenot Streets, and as the winds blow, towards the Avalons and the train station, towards anything in its path.
You won’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
In comparison, currently City Yard is in the ideal location. It is next to the Sewage Treatment Plant, where City Yard’s stink is hardly noticed, if not appreciated. Being proximate to the Long Island Sound, the current location of City Yard affords a better place for its stink to drift, as well as the best of places for ocean air to circulate and refresh City Yard.
There is no rational reason to move City Yard from its present location, let alone move it to Beechwood.
To move City Yard to Beechwood, so as to create a public park at the current City Yard location, would be Sewage Folly, and an insult to the public.
The good people of New Rochelle must stand up to protect our environment. The status quo is much better than the alternatives.