The days appear to be numbered for Forest City’s controversial Echo Bay Development project. It is difficult to see how the project survives beyond Thanksgiving.
November has been unkind to New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson and his hopes for leaving a “legacy” of waterfront development in New Rochelle on his way to bigger and better things at the County level.
Noam Bramson’s influence peaked in 2011 when he won victory in an especially large landslide election, defeating his Republican challenger 79-21.
It has been downhill ever since.
Two weeks ago, Bramson suffered a humiliating defeat in his attempt to unseat the incumbent Westchester County Executive, losing countywide by more than 22,000 votes despite a 2:1 voter registration advantage. More telling was his narrow victory in New Rochelle where he won the City by less than 5 percentage points, a sharp fall from his 58 point margin just two years earlier.
While a number of things have changed over the past two years and every election is different, the one issue that has dominated New Rochelle since 2011 more than any other has been the proposed development of Echo Bay by Forest City, with Noam Bramson as head cheerleader.
History will show that the undoing of both Forest City and Noam Bramson in New Rochelle are inextricably linked.
Opposition to Echo Bay has come from many quarters but the seismic shift came in August 2012 when the New Rochelle Board of Education discussed tax abatements for the developer and the costs to the school district from unfunded students coming into the school such has been the case with the Avalon development.
Over the next seven months, Echo Bay shifted from primarily a “South End” issue to one that drew the attention of New Rochelle’s influential PTA moms. By March 2013, the school board had turned entirely against the project, with long-time school board member Diedre Polow leading the charge by reading an open letter from the board during the Draft Environmental Impact Statement hearings. The board soundly rejected the proposed development, demanding changes to the tax structure of the deal.
Within a month, more “North End” residents had started to pay attention, culminating in a North End “living room” meeting with recently installed Development Commission Luiz Aragon and residents from the North End and South End.
Aragon repeatedly stated that the project was “good for New Rochelle” but steadfastly refused to explain why despite persistent questioning by those present.
The frustration from that meeting coalesced into what became the United Citizens for a Better New Rochelle, compromised primarily of North Enders who had supported Noam Bramson in the past.
By August, UCBNR was distributing “No Echo Bay” lawn signs which became ubiquitous throughout New Rochelle with just as many signs on Wilmot Road or Pinebrook Boulevard as Weyman Avenue or East Main Street.
The 2013 County Executive race signaled the beginning of the end.
Analysis of election districts showed, that for the first time in decades, Democrats were in danger of losing majority control of the City Council.
On October 8th, New Rochelle Democratic Party Chairperson Arnold Klugman spoke openly on WVOX about his reasons for opposing the project, characterizing it as a “bad deal”.
Then came the “Mayhem” City Council meeting of November 12th.
Arguably, no one did more to crystallize once and for all, City-wide opposition to the Echo Bay project than Noam Bramson by his outrageous conduct that night.
Coming a close second was New Rochelle IDA Member Greg Merchant, whose ham-handed attempts to manipulate the public by having one of his employees submit to Council a Forest City-produced, fraud-ridden petition purporting to show support for the project.
Bramson apologized Tuesday but the damage was done. At a Democrat Party meeting previous to this week’s Council meeting, District Leaders were open revolt against the Mayor and his support for Forest City.
On this past Tuesday, the Mayor consented to tabling all discussion and voting on Echo Bay until January, 2014.
At the end of that same night, Council Member Al Tarantino, the member who had put forward the motion the previous week to table all discussion was now demanding a vote on Echo Bay at the earliest available opportunity — November 26th.
Any close watcher of the New Rochelle City Council knows that Al Tarantino is the most cautious person on the Council. For him to demand an immediate vote could only mean one thing — he had four votes to kill the deal.
Sources at City Hall tell Talk of the Sound that steps are underway to prepare for the inevitable.
By way of prediction, Noam Bramson is not one to call for a vote he knows he will lose. So, there will be no vote on the Land Disposition Agreement. Instead, there will be some sort of quiet statement, quite likely put out Friday afternoon or evening, announcing that Forest City and the City of New Rochelle have agreed to part ways.
The fight over Echo Bay will end — not with the bang of a shovel striking into the dirt but with a whimper.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Below follows how Talk of the Sound has told the story of the demise of the Echo Bay Project over the past 2 years.
New Rochelle Board of Education Discussion of Echo Bay Development
Forest City/Echo Bay Public Hearing Set for March 12th, DEIS Now Online
Why the New Rochelle School Community Needs to Come Together to Change the Echo Bay Deal
Robert Cox Remarks to the City Council on the Echo Bay DEIS – Part II
Remarks to City Council on Echo Bay DEIS by Adam Egelberg
Deidre Polow, Jeffrey Hastie and New Rochelle Board of Education Statement on the Echo Bay DEIS
East End Civic Association Meeting Angers Mayor Bramson
July 23rd Will Be a Big Day on Echo Bay Hearings in New Rochelle
Four Out of Five Speakers at Echo Bay Hearing Oppose Scaled-Back Development Plan
Forest City Echo Bay Political Corruption Freudian Slip
Citizens for a Better New Rochelle’s “No Echo Bay” Lawn Signs Aim to Show “Heads Count”
What’s In Your Mail Box? Forest City Hits The Promotional Trail!
Westchester County Weighs in on New Rochelle’s Echo Bay Project
New Rochelle Planning Board Raises Concerns over Echo Bay Proposal
Why Noam Bramson is Wrong for New Rochelle and Wrong for Westchester
Noam Bramson Gets His Comeuppance
Forest City Agent Lurking Around NR Train Station Collecting Signatures to Support Echo Bay
UCBNR & UVMPA To Hold Joint Rally to Stop Echo Bay
Bi-Partisan Coalition Puts Echo Bay Development, City Yard Move Put on Hold Until 2014
Questions of Fraud on Pro-Echo Bay Petition Submitted To New Rochelle City Council by Robin Sherman
Mayhem at New Rochelle City Hall as Bramson “Water Tortures” City Council Over Echo Bay Vote
Noam Bramson Owes An Apology…To Everyone
City Council Plot Twist in New Rochelle as Tarantino Demands Echo Bay Vote Next Week
Discrepancies Found in New Rochelle Consultant’s Report on Echo Bay Tax Abatement
City of New Rochelle Releases Land Disposition Agreement for Echo Bay – Forest City Deal
How Come No One in New Rochelle Knows Nuthin’ About Army Corps of Engineers Study of Echo Bay?
A new path for all of New Rochelle! Imagine what can be done!
“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful New Rochelle!
If that is the case and Forest City has/does pull out then The City of New Rochelle needs to build on the momentum built by the citizens and City Council Members that have stepped up and fought for smart development over the past several months. Use the coverage to push for a proper development of The Armory. Follow the Waterfront Competition just as close as they have Echo Bay. Get it right, the proper use of The Armory can work as a catalyst for that area and then we can look towards the future of the rest of that area. Gather new and clean information with no political games. Work for all of New Rochelle. I leave you with what I submitted for the Waterfront Competition Ideas.
November 12, 2012
Waterfront Competition Suggestion
While all four ideas create a vision for the New Rochelle Waterfront, something must be created that follows the intent of the deed when The State of New York signed over The Armory Property to New Rochelle, the Veterans and all the citizens. We must create something for all the people of New Rochelle which includes saving the Armory in some way shape and form. I believe there should be an emphasis on The Armory being used as a Performing Arts Center as proposed by SHoP Architects, possibly anchored by The New Rochelle Opera (The Veterans Center for the Performing Arts) with a community center honoring and serving the post-service needs of veterans for New Rochelle and all the Veterans .
A Performing Arts Center should be the main focus. Use a developer that would use the idea of a Performing Arts Center and or parts of several designs while keeping the concept of a Performing Arts Center possibly anchored by The New Rochelle Opera. The New Rochelle Opera and Symphony would have a home and not have to use other auditoriums like they currently do. Create a concert venue with restaurants and places of interest with shops and boutiques, a destination place for people from outside of the city as well as the citizens of New Rochelle. Give people a reason to want to visit New Rochelle. The people of the New Rochelle Opera plus other cultural heroes of our Community can add enormous value to our commercial and tax base given a chance.
Hotels and restaurants alone won’t make New Rochelle a destination for visitors or shoppers. A proper reconstruction of The Armory just might. I don’t know why people don’t take advantage of the fact that The Armory is history. History does sell. Use the Armory as the catalyst for the waterfront area. It could become a contributor to the community in the way of taxes, services, amenities or social enrichment. This could be the first step in the right direction for the area and New Rochelle. I repeat, by using the Armory as a catalyst for the area, not the other way around. Use The Armory/Echo Bay Project as the first true effort for bringing the Citizens of New Rochelle and The City Government of New Rochelle together towards one goal, a better, brighter, thriving and community minded New Rochelle. Everyone wins especially the veterans that need our help.
Put the petty games behind us. Surely the Armory has meaning, but it is often lost by the on-going conflict between the United Veterans Group and the City Administration. The City would be blessed to take charge of this effort, restore the Armory under Sustainability guidelines and follow a plan it develops and controls to bring about its restoration, its connection to new refocused Echo Bay plan and as important, the development of downtown commercial New Rochelle.
The City of New Rochelle should give up on Forest City and use the RFI process for the Echo Bay/City Yard Area Project submits for the entire area again. The ideas and concepts would probably be amazing! We don’t need Forest City for that; we need a solid team of folks in the community under the direction of the Development Head, with oversight by the City Council.
Look to better brighter days for all of New Rochelle using “Common Sense for the Common Good”.
I am for Tar and Feathering the lot of them.
“Thomas Nast was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist who is considered to be the “Father of the American Cartoon”. He was the scourge of Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall political machine.”
Bob Cox you are like Thomas Nast you have run Boss Tweed into hiding. The Citizens of New Rochelle owe you a debt of gratitude for your undying means of revealing the vermin for what they are.
Ken, you quoted from
Ken, you quoted from Wikipedia, without attribution, something that Ted Cruz has been savaged for repeatedly doing.
Although I too, frequently use Wikipedia, I realize it often states misinformation, and so I try to verify my facts elsewhere.
Thomas Nast might be considered the father of the Modern American political cartoon, but he neither the father of the American political cartoon nor the father of the American cartoon. Probably, Ben Franklin qualifies and greatly precedes Nast.
Ben Franklin, of course, was one of the greatest of Americans, and for many reasons, including cartooning, journalism, science, politics and diplomacy.
Whatever Bob Cox has done, I am unaware of any cartoons created by Bob. If New Rochelle has some Boss Tweed type, it is certainly not Noam Bramson, nor do I know who it is. Noam controls his own career, but he is not central to determining which other Democrats runs for office.
Actually, there is a lot of democracy within the New Rochelle Democratic Committee, and our many District Leaders have much influence on candidate choices. Projects, such as Forest City Echo Bay, are determined by the individual City Council Members, and are not policies of the Democratic Committee.
Republicans tend to be confused on that, because the Republican Party is much more monolithic, less democratic and varied, than the multifaceted democracy of the Democratic Party.
Ken Lewis, you should be ashamed of yourself for your continuing personal attacks. Have you no sense of decency? Most decent people would consider that only vermin call other people vermin.
I doubt Box Cox likes his web site to host such extremely immature and abhorrent personal insults, as yours. TOTS excels when it reports facts. But TOTS’ becomes less functional when it reputation is dirtied and damaged by it is association with the inane personal insults you and a few others post here.
Tweedsmanship
Placing a cronie in you council seat to give you plural votes.
Floating eminent domain to force private land owners to sell to Cappelli Ent on LeCount Place.
Having Nita speak with Schumer so that he can campaign on the Post Office steps to try and force the Postal Service to take undervalue for the building to further help Apicella and Cappelli.
Allowing Cappelli Ent to close New Roc Ice when it was part of the terms of acquiring New Roc in the beginning.
Placing cronies on the NR IDA to force Pilots and tax incentives with no return on investment.
Allowing the DEIS to have false misleading numbers so as to insure PILOT goes through on the deal.
Placing cronies on every committee and every agency associated with the City of New Rochelle in a manner to influence the outcome.
There are so many examples in fact this entire site is devoted to exposing Tweed and his games.
You can call me what you like the facts are the facts. Boss Tweed took a ceremonial job and turned it into his personal wish list. It was going along nicely till the North End Woke up.
Tweed needs to be run out of town, along with 2 other councilman a City Manager who allowed this to go on, and a few corrupt commissioners who used the public trust to swear to Boss Tweeds lies. Without Bob Cox we would all be in the dark or complaining to ourselves. The proof is in the pudding. The only thing missing now is some perp walking and some jail time for some of these Political Crooks.
You neither undestand Boss Tweed nor the NR government
Ken Lewis:
I guess you know little of the historic Boss Tweed.
That would explain it, wouldn’t it?
If you were to cut the hyperbole and absurd comparisons, and learn some factual history you might actually make some sense. It appears you prefer fantasy to fact, which is fine, except when you declare to others that your fantasies are fact.
I suspect your purpose is that you find pleasure in making outrageous declarations to slander others, rather than to use historical context. You might find it fun and easy, but you accomplish nothing meaningful and destroy your own reputation.
Tweed did not have a ceremonial job, so that is part of the problem with your unfactual fantasy. Tweed was a Congressman, NY State Senator and member of the NY County Board of Supervisors, a member of various boards and commissions, and Chair of the NY County Democratic Party. Tweed was never a Mayor or Councilman. But Tweed was certainly crooked and went to jail for it.
It appears you don’t understand the NR City Charter.
I think you are confused by the term, ‘ceremonial mayor’. It doesn’t mean our Mayor has no real power, but rather that he is a legislator, not an executive or administrator.
The same is true of Harry Reid or John Boehner. Would you consider Majority Leader of the Senate or Speaker of the House to be ceremonial? Reid and Boehner are among the most powerful elected government officials in the USA.
The Mayor of New Rochelle is a Councilperson and President of our City Council, pursuant to our City Charter. Those powers are clearly not ceremonial.
Additionally, Noam Bramson as Mayor of NR, is empowered by our City Charter to appoint persons to various boards and commissions. All our other Mayors have done the same thing, as it defined by our City Charter as part of the job of NR Mayor. Those powers are clearly not ceremonial.
However, the Mayor of New Rochelle is not an executive office and not an administrator, as defined by our City Charter. Nor have our Mayors acted in such a capacity since 1933, when unfortunately our City Charter changed our govenment structure to make a City Manager our chief executive and administrator.
I assure you, if our Mayor acted beyond the powers defined by our City Charter and by our NYS laws, someone would have already begun a successful court action in NY Supreme Court or in USDC SDNY. Since you’re so cock-sure of your fantastic beliefs, why don’t you be the one to do so? A civil suit only need prove a ‘preponderance of evidence’, not ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’. I’m calling your bluff.
Far afield
Brian,
I am certain you do not mean it that way but please realize you are effectively hijacking this thread.
This entire exchange could be summed up as follows: Ken compared me to Thomas Nast and Noam to Bill Tweed and you felt the comparison was not apt. Rather than simply say that you have digressed into a dissertation on all the ways that Noam and the position of Mayor in New Rochelle are not the same as Tweed and the Mayor of New York City. And then Ken is responding.
Like any metaphor, the comparison is not meant to be perfect but more of a rhetorical flourish. Surely you know that.
The subject of the article is what I might call a pre-post-mortem on the Echo Bay Deal. That you can find all the many ways you can think of that Ken’s metaphor is not apt bears not one whit on the topic at hand — the apparent collapse of the Echo Bay deal and the meaning of that for Noam Bramson’s political standing in New Rochelle.
While you also know I agree that I do not approve of ad hominem attacks directed towards you or anyone else, you might find that responding to them directly or, in this case, indirectly does not decrease but rather increases the likelihood of a recurrence.
I would simply ask that all parties to this digression of a digression exchange email addresses and argue these points elsewhere — I am reasonably confident that the only people interested are those engaged in it.
Finally, if anyone cares to write a standalone article on the powers of the Mayor in New Rochelle I would encourage that so that any debate on that subject would be appropriate to the article.
New Rochelleans need a better undertstanding of City Charter
Bob, thank you. I really think the metaphor was inappropriate in a variety of ways. And as a Jew, I recoil in horror at anyone referring to any human as vermin.
I’ll write something on how our city charter and state laws describe the powers of our city council, mayor and city manager.
City Charter ARTICLE III Section 10, well worth reading!
Bob,
New Rochelle City Charter ARTICLE III Section 10. The Mayor, well worth reading! But don’t stop there.
Back on 10/11/13 I wrote “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US”, about part of The City Charter. I have done some research regarding the roles, relationships and responsibilities of The Mayor, The City Council and The City Manager. I looked into the past history of the community’s unwillingness to support a strong mayor position, and believe that the confusion or unwillingness to conform to the Charter language has been instrumental in our judgment, causing many of the prime issues we experience as a community. I am sure there is a lot more than what I have done so far. It remains a work in progress for me as I concentrate on what I mentioned for now, the roles, relationships and responsibilities of The Mayor, The City Council and The City Manager.
First for those who haven’t, I would suggest that you start to read The City Charter. While it is 75 pages, it has many sub-sections and you can look at specific areas of concentration to get going. Here is a link for The City Charter; there are also sections for codes, new laws and an index on this page.
http://ecode360.com/11975769
Back on 10/11/13 New Rochelle, “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.”
http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/new-rochelle-%E2%80%9Cwe-have-met-enemy-and-he-us%E2%80%9D
Back on 10/18/13 in that post Moises Valenica commented,
“In order to govern ourselves we must understand the role of government at every level, especially our local government, but also the very purpose groups of people have instituted governments among themselves, to protect life, liberty, and property. To be an impartial referee and allow the people to be free and independent, and not steal from them and future generations the fruits of their labor”.
All of the citizens of New Rochelle share part of the responsibility for the way our city government is run and the condition it and the city are in. So it is up to us to correct it and we should all do our share to help get it right for the future of this once fine city by the sound. You have to recognize and admit you have a problem to fix it and move forward toward recovery. Like with the Echo Bay Project, it will be a lot of work and conversation to get the message right and get it out to the people of New Rochelle. Communicating the correct information and facts are our best weapons against the many heads that believe everything is just fine in New Rochelle. Everything is not fine as the new city budget is being discussed with a request to go above the tax cap once again.
There is something wrong with our system of government that needs to be addressed by The City Council and The City Manager. Much of what is being done is beyond the scope and description of the position of mayor as stated in The City Charter. What is being done is by choice, not by design. What is New Rochelle doing with a strong mayor at 90k or so when The City Charter and subsequent referendums voted down several times by the City electorate indicated that in no uncertain terms did the community want a strong mayor? So, any statement about working incredible hours is by his choice and not the communities.
New Rochelle, It’s Our Government and We want it now! We need more informed citizens in New Rochelle. The Citizens of New Rochelle have been kept in the dark way too long. As we have begun to step up and speak out for what is right, more conversations and actions need to happen for The City of New Rochelle and its citizens to succeed.
“Common Sense for the Common Good”
Replace An Appointed City Manager With Elected Chief Executive
New Rochelle needs to change its City Charter to replace an appointed City Manager with an elected Chief Executive Mayor.
In doing so, the Mayor would no longer be a legislator or Member of the City Council.
The City Council would require a seventh Council District, to maintain an odd number of Council Members.
This would also make the City Council more responsive to local issues, and create a greater equality between the North and South Ends of New Rochelle.