If the Mayor were to be as realistic and honest generally as he is in this article, In the Eye of the Beholder: How Perceptions of New Rochelle Vary he might find he would get more respect around the City from those who disagree with this vision for New Rochelle. He would certainly get more respect from Talk of the Sound.
The Mayor begins:
Within the span of a couple of days, I came across two very different portrayals of New Rochelle in the media. The first is a column by Phil Reisman of the Journal-News, occasioned by the fire at Union Baptist Church. The second is an article from Westchester Magazine that profiles 19 new restaurants, including two in New Rochelle, Alvin & Friends and Cienega.
He goes onto acknowledge that his political opponents are not reactively negative to every new idea as he often elsewhere seeks to portray:
In miniature, these two articles encapsulate a running debate about our city’s history and future that is replayed over and over again in everything from casual conversations among friends, to neighborhood gatherings, to political campaigns. Are we doing well or poorly? Going up or going down? Who’s right? Well, perhaps the reason this debate is never really resolved is that there is enough truth in both views to give them each validity.
The Mayor recognizes that some areas of downtown are badly distressed and that how a resident perceives New Rochelle.
…one’s perceptions of trends really depends on when you start the clock. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, downtown New Rochelle was at the pinnacle of its economic success — with a humming Main Street, anchored by multiple department stores. Fast forward to the early 1990s, and downtown was nearly dead — its dominant features being an abandoned and crumbling mall, a rubble-strewn lot adjacent to the train station, and a general air of defeat. Have things gotten better? Measured on a twenty-year time scale, I think the answer is a pretty compelling yes, but measured on a fifty-year time scale, most would answer no. Given this difference in perspective, I often find that newcomers to New Rochelle hold a much more upbeat view of the city’s present condition than residents who have lived here the longest…
Instead of demagoguing the downtown development issue, the Mayor would get a lot further with a lot more people if instead of dismissing them as reflecting opposed to his ideas or vision, he would show some empathy and find ways to work with those on the other side of issues. As a start, the Mayor might want to consider the newest Echo Bay Development proposal. Forest City Ratner has now publicly committed to leaving the Armory intact. The only reason the Mayor offered for tearing it down was that Forest City Ratner needed that parcel to make their development deal viable. If Forest City Ratner is no longer asserting that then why doesn’t the Mayor take the opportunity to sit down with the veterans and Forest City to hammer out a solution that respects those “50 year time line” people otherwise known as New Rochelle residents as opposed to transient North Enders who pop into New Rochelle for their school age children to get an education and then abandon the City when their kids have flown the nest.
New Rochelle
I first came to New Rochelle in the late 1950s, it was a great place to grow up. If the people of my generation are upset with what is happening, it is because we would like to have our children and grandchildren know just a little of what we had. When I listen to my older neighbors about their childhood, etc. it was even a better place. When Mayor Bramson and Michael Boyle were on city council, I felt that the younger generation was taking an interest. I wish for the Mayor to move away from the yes men that are surrounding him. When he is given another point of view, the mayor should listen, that is the sign of a secure and mature individual. I hope he appreciates and respects all ideas.