The New Rochelle City Council, at the request mayor Noam Bramson, will discuss changing New Rochelle’s animal husbandry laws to allow homeowners to keep up to 6 hens on their property. There is so much wrong with this legislation I don’t know where to begin. The initial request came from the daughter of a Daisy Farms Road homeowner. This woman was born in New Rochelle, left for number of years and plans to return and reside in New Rochelle for 5-MONTHS. The woman describes in great detail her bewilderment in attempting to decide which eggs are truly organic during her last Trader Joe’s visit. She makes no reference to currently having chickens at her residence but is overly concerned about her 5-MONTH jaunt through New Rochelle. Noam was hooked after the woman included this sentence; “ Overconfident and self-important as I’m about to sound, it is those of us with a mind towards providing for ourselves who are the future of a livable world.” Are these not similar buzzwords and terms used by Bramson in the State of the City? This sentence is followed by another sentence that begins with the word SUSTAINABILITY in quotes another Bramson buzzword as in sustainability coordinator, a sustainable community, sustainable development etc.
There was another request from two sisters who would love to have 3 hens for the purpose of egg consumption and are excited in having them as cute and manageable pets. It’s obvious from the wording that the duo had much help from mom and dad in penning this letter. This, at least, is a legitimate request although statements like, they [chickens] put themselves to “bed” at 6 pm and we learned that mass-managed chickens get their beaks sawed off are skewed statements to legitimize their request.
Enough with the history of why, let’s examine what 20-minutes on the Internet reveals about raising and keeping chickens and some very important question are raised.
- Will these be egg-laying hens or hens for meat, there are different species?
- Hens require 12-14 hours of sunlight to produce maximum egg count so an artificial light source is required for year-round egg laying.
- Hens require warm temperatures so a heating system is required in New Rochelle during fall and winter.
To keep chickens healthy a chicken run is required necessitating a much larger area than the 5 square feet per chicken in the legislation. - Chickens can’t see in the dark that’s why the go to bed at dusk which will be 9 PM or later in summer.
- Chickens are known for having diseases like chicken lice, mites and molt.
- Chicken feed attracts rats, mice and other rodents.
- Chickens attract natural predators like dogs, cats, foxes and snakes.
- Beaks are not cut off as claimed; beaks are rounded/dulled to lessen injury to chickens when fighting, if beaks were sawed off chickens would not be unable to eat.
Here are my thoughts:
Should the city council consider chicken legislation for a transient planning to live in New Rochelle for 5 months? If adopted, will this legislation allow slaughtering of chickens, as the proposed legislation is silent on this issue? If adopted, this legislation creates a slippery slope in that where do we draw the line? What if the next request is for goats or cows to supply milk or meat? The legislation does not define strict setbacks from property lines both side and rear yard setbacks leaving that determination to the mayor appointed Planning Board and the two properties in question are less than 1/3 acre in the north end, one having a Scarsdale address. What would happen if we applied this legislation to the over-crowded south end? Would 6 hens per family be allowed in a 3-family house totaling 18 hens or more on properties less than 1/3 an acre?
This legislation is a joke. The current Animal Husbandry Legislation is a direct result of political patronage. I remember connected citizens complaining about two legal horses and presto-chango a zoning change and the horses were gone. I am old enough to remember the national black eye New Rochelle received when a district leader complained to a councilman about a neighbor’s birdfeeder and the city issued a violation for a non-conforming STRUCTURE. The bird feeder beat the city in a nationally covered trial. Chickens are being discussed because a like-minded, north end former resident made this request of our sustainable mayor. This is the basic problem with New Rochelle, north end requests get fast-tracked no matter how ridiculous to benefit the few. There are major issues facing New Rochelle; Echo Bay, Albanese, LeCount/Andersen, City Yard, the Armory, ever expanding colleges that over-tax our basic city services and reduce the tax roll, bonding tens of millions of dollars and city council will waste time this Tuesday discussing chickens. Why was this necessary? The Zoning Board of Appeals was setup for anyone to request a non-permitted use when extenuating circumstances exist. This is the fatal flaw in New Rochelle; we legislate for the connected-few as opposed to legislating for the greater good.
Bramson donor requests chickens
While I am not a Bramson fan, the mayor attacked OldTimer in the most cowardly way a few minutes ago. Bramson described Timer’s post as a personal attack on citizens and children at this afternoons council meeting. This is the type of mind warfare Bramson plays to sway constituents. Timer never mentioned names, which he could have, and when addressing the children’s request rebuffed false information. It is Bramson who is shameless for hiding behind children. Timer correctly points out how ludicrous any new legislation would be when initiated by someone who will reside in New Rochelle for only five months and a cute request from sisters to keep chickens as pets.
Bramson, as usual, sidesteps the issue at hand. If there were a legitimate reason for any request, chickens or otherwise, one could file a zoning appeal and have their case heard. As Timer states, New Rochelle must learn to legislate for the greater good as opposed to the politically connected few. He is spot on and Bramson can’t handle the issue.
For the record, mommy & daddy are Bramson campaign donors. That puts things in prospective!
Overconfident, self-important elitists
The person who first requested this hit the nail on the head. This is all about overconfident, self-important elitists who occupy the north end.
Chickens
That this legislation was even introduced just demonstrates how invincible our Mayor thinks he is. He can introduce this nonsense without recourse, and his five henchmen (including his newest henchwoman) will just rubber stamp it. Outrageous.
If there are Chickens …
… can roosters be far behind?
I was born and raised here, and I lived in neighborhoods where roosters woke you up at sunrise…
This legislation is for the birds
Let’s take the area above New Rochelle High School and set it loose. Give it back its old name – Wykagyl – and Bramson can be literally, what he is figuratively : The Mayor of the North End.
Buk, Buk, Buk!
What the hell is going on here. I dont want anyone with chicken’s living next to me! would any of the coucil members want them next door.
They smell, and dont they go buk, buk buk !
New Rochelle at its best. Im gonna get some popcorn for this cocil meeting.
Of Poultry and Men
I should have known that in order to get action from the incumbent chief New Rochelle executive, I would have to talk $$$. Seems the only way to bestir this chicken is to talk $$$. Who knew? I guess I should have: the last time I tried to talk business with him, he ignored me (or perhaps his legal counsel counseled silence).
You see, at the end of 2011, I emailed the city manager, the chief New Rochelle chief executive and their legal counsel asking them to reconsider increasing the garbage tax 300 % in the proposed 2012 budget. Why? So that they would have the chance to withdraw their ludicrous legal and rhetorical dodge of New York State’s suspect, new and untried 2% tax cap (and presumably propose a simple, straight lifting of the force-of-law tax cap and then propose a simple, straight total tax increase of nearly 15%, which their tax/fee contraption totals anyway).
But that would be too direct, too straight; too honest, with the voters. Better to bamboozle a credulous electorate into thinking that taxes are not being increased (but how could anyone not understand the true state of affairs from Talk of the Sound at the very least?). Not so much as a peep from either of the three. At least the three Republicans acknowledged my communication (and two of them offered thanks for keeping the process honest; guess which two).
Now that the visit of holy justice is being sought on the benighted 2012 document, one can only wonder about the time, trouble and expense that might have been saved had the chief New Rochelle executive so much as acknowledged the warning. Now I understand how things work. You don’t get this chief New Rochelle executive’s attention unless you are a builder (e.g. Forest City/Ratner) or entrepreneur (e.g. proposed poultry producer, above). After all, nobody who goes through the trouble of writing a legal memorandum to the city manager, the chief New Rochelle executive and their legal counsel can be relied upon to contribute the $1,000 maximum donation to your campaign anyway.
I should probably stop expecting straight and honorable actions from so ethically-challenged an assemblage as this administration and its chief New Rochelle executive; and so should we all. They’re just “not THAT into” it! It’s not in their nature. Or as Immanuel Kant put it:
“Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.”
Frank is on the right track
It cannot happen via secession. What is possible is to make it painful for the four downtown councilmembers not to form a coalition of like interests and place the only reasonable priorities first; development of downtown business district, building a commercial base, following the Charter/Code, building and supporting first providers, fighting crime. Hell, you know them all and if you don’, check my blog “the government you get is the government you deserve.”
Jeez chickens. Did I read Daisy Hill Road? Isn’t that where the Mustang went off the road? Maybe there is a relationship.
Can discussing chickens at City Hall be put somewhere in the future maybe before echo bay and albanese?
Council members especially below Eastchester Road, wake up, use your charter power. Fix what needs to be fixed…. the postings here on chickens, especally the Old Timer’s blog, given you plenty of information. Don’t play with this a moment longer. Get to work.