As I opened my mailbox last evening I thought I was the recipient of yet another election campaign mailer. I was wrong. It was a mass mailing from Forest City Residential Group about their proposed Echo Bay Development. The address was from their offices at 1 Metrotech Center in Brooklyn. Let the self-serving promotions begin. Pretty soon we will see the full page ads in the Journal news.
Titled:
Echo Bay: A New Waterfront.
A picture of the rendering from their artist which everyone has seen with the caption:
-Now is the time to transform New Rochelle…
-Learn more at Echobayny.com
-Echo Bay will generate $307 million in economic benefits.
-Echo Bay will generate $48 million in revenue.
On the other side was a picture of the City Yard:
New Rochelle has 10 acres of wasted waterfront…
-The site is also a contaminated brownfield.
-Generates zero tax revenue.
-Used as a waterfront parking lot for city garbage trucks.
-Costs millions of your tax dollars to maintain and repair.
Let’s revitalize New Rochelle…
Many New Rochelle residents see things differently but are not heard. There has been so much miss-information related to Echo Bay and several other projects in New Rochelle that a group called Citizens for a Better New Rochelle was formed.
Citizens for a Better New Rochelle are a non-political/bipartisan group of New Rochelle citizens with various economic, ethnic, and professional backgrounds. Many of us from New Rochelle know this group and support them.
Find out more at:
http://echobayfacts.com/
There is another group that has been following Forest City Enterprises and their antics as well. They are called Cause of Action. Like Citizens for a Better New Rochelle, Cause of Action is a non-profit, nonpartisan government accountability organization that fights to protect economic opportunity when federal regulations, spending and cronyism threaten it.
Find out more at:
http://causeofaction.org/
In August they released an article which exposes the money trail between Forest City Enterprises and its political friends that have resulted in a decade of kickbacks for both Forest City Enterprises and politicians. In the article it is said that between 2002 and 2012, Forest City Enterprises, its subsidiaries, and its employees spent $23 million on campaign contributions and lobbying at the federal, state, and local level. Read more:
http://causeofaction.org/2013/08/02/political-profiteering-how-forest-city-enterprises-makes-private-profits-at-the-expense-of-americas-taxpayers/
Many of you have seen this information. For those of you that haven’t, take the time to learn more about what is going on here in New Rochelle and across the country. Be informed and go to Echobayfacts.com, Causeofaction.org and read more than the short advertising styled words of Forest City Residential Group. If only the citizens of New Rochelle had a multi-million dollar promotional and advertising budgets and funds to draw from like Forest City Enterprises, Forest City Residential Group and many of our/their Politian’s.
I got mine
Anyone doing the math knows this project is about a developer who is being given the store so that Bramson can try and right his abysmal record in New Rochelle.The will always be those who will follow stupidity and pretend. The facts don’t lie.
It’s a dog named Ratner being walked by a guy who never had a job. In the end the tax payers are doing the scooping of what will be the results.
Echo Bay mailing
Since when does a developer do a mass mailing for one of its proposed projects………..I guess since they know the majority of citizens are clearly against that project. And I’m curious as to where they obtained their mailing list since the flyers are not addressed to “Resident.”
It’s obvious that the flyers are going out to only certain districts of New Rochelle……clearly they will omit the east end.
Thank you to Citizens for a Better New Rochelle for pointing out just how damaging this project will be for the people of New Rochelle.
Amy,
You took the words right
Amy,
You took the words right out of my mouth. Why would the developer be pushing for this project? Perhaps they feel they can make a pretty good buck after they get the land for free and then flip the project for a profit.
Bramson Probably Supplied Voter Mailing List
Wonder who did the printing? Could it have been the Democrat’s printer of choice in Long Island City, Queens? How else could they hand select the names. Did Bramson actually pay for the mailers from his campaign money like he did for the democrats running their campaigns last election?
Inquiring minds want to know. BTW still waiting for my mailing in the east end 😉
City Yard/Echo Bay Mailing
Bob,
I wonder if anyone from the east end will be receiving this mailing. I doubt it, but who is Forest City trying to reach. According to our mayor this property has not been maintained or repaired for years. If the budget shows money going into the city yard, we have been lied to by the mayor. Doesn’t Forest City realize the mayor does not believe in head counts? I am truly grateful to the members of Citizens for a Better New Rochelle who have presented the reality of what this project will do to New Rochelle.
I have been wondering when
I have been wondering when Bramson was going to start a pro-Echo Bay campaign. Funny, it’s not the ‘silent majority’ campaigning for Echo Bay–it’s Forest City. Imagine that!
Echo Bay
John –
You’re absolutely right! Once Noam started counting the ‘No Echo Bay’ signs instead of heads, he became that silent majority and Forest City took the lead.