New Rochelle Dems Pick Slate for Upcoming CIty Council and Mayoral Race

Written By: Robert Cox

The Democratic Party of New Rochelle held their nominating convention last night. As expected, Mayor Noam Bramson, Barry Fertel of District 5 and Jared Rice of District 3 are all running for re-election. Marianne Sussman will not run for re-election as Council Member for District 6. Instead Shari Rackman will run for the open seat. Former City Council Member Roberto Lopez will run in District 1 and “reluctant politician” Ivar Hyden will run for District 4. Hyden is known for his work as Chairman of the Municipal Arts Council.

The Democrats will not field a candidate for District 2 against Council Member Albert Tarantino. Under the Democrats redistricting plan almost all of the Republican leaning Election Districts have been placed in District 2 with the intent to giving the Democrats a 6-1 advantage on Council which will mean they can “bond” (i.e. borrow money) at will.

If they achieve a super-majority, it is expected that the Democrats would use this power to finance tens of millions of dollars to move the DPW City Yard to a new, smaller location on Beechwood Avenue in order to give away the current City Yard to Forest City Ratner, a Cleveland-based developer. Council Member Lou Trangucci of District 1, site of the proposed City Yard on Beechwood, has objected to the plans on the grounds that paying off the bond will require significant tax increases.

Forest City has several large projects going in the area most of which are the subject of Federal indictments related to bribing public officials to support local projects. A Forest City official is an unindicted co-conspirator in each of the various Department of Justice cases. A senior official at Forest City Ratner admitted recently to one Talk of the Sound contributor that the Echo Bay Project is “dead” and that “nothing is going to happen there”. Some political observers in New Rochelle believe that the entire project is a political favor to Mayor Noam Bramson based on an expectation that when Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) retires, Bramson will run and win her seat in Congress. The Ratner family have been big donors to Mayor Bramson over the years.

One thought on “New Rochelle Dems Pick Slate for Upcoming CIty Council and Mayoral Race”

  1. The fix is in
    The fix is in folks and the death of this city is coming.Noam and crew have created a monster storm for this city and its coming this november if folks don’t get out and vote this slate down.Where are we going to get the money to pay for this borrowing the Gov. is about to put a tax cap on the entire state. This means no higher taxes than 2 percent. New Rochelle we have to charge a fee for the city yard as they did with garbage years ago. Don’t let Noam and crew destroy our city Vote them out.I ask everyone to ask the Mayor this question if elected as Mayor in 2011 will you stay in office for all 4 years OR WILL YOU RUN FOR ANOTHER OFFICE if it came up(Lowey etc etc)?

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