Crotonblog: The blog of Croton-on-Hudson, NY

Garden Road School Hosting Holistic Flu Workshop

To the editor:

Don’t let the media hype get you nervous. Be pro-active rather than reactive this flu season.

Come to this timely and informative workshop, hosted by The Garden Road School on November 9, 2009 at 7:00pm to learn how to protect the whole family with herbal immune system supports. Learn about preventative and treatment methods for the flu and how you can put together a flu prevention package for you and your family.

Andrea Candee, MH, MSC, is a master herbalist with a practice in South Salem, NY. She lectures about taking charge of your health naturally and is an instructor of Botanical Medicine at The New York Botanical Garden. Her book, Gentle Healing for Baby and Child (Simon & Schuster), was awarded The National Parenting Center’s Seal of Approval.

The Garden Road School is an independent school for grades Pre-K (ages 2+) through Fourth Grade. Its mission is to educate children for a purposeful future through a vibrant curriculum that merges academic excellence, creativity and core human values. The Garden Road School is located at 99 Baron de Hirsch Road, Crompond.

Attendance is $15 per person. For more information please visit: www.thegardenroad.org, email info@thegardenroad.org, or call call 914-526-4033.

— Kathryn Corena

Croton Funeral Home Offering Free Planning Seminars

The staff at Edward F. Carter Funeral Home are happy to announce a new series of free, public educational seminars. “Planning Ahead For All The Right Reasons” introduces people to the funeral planning process and informs them about what needs to be done to “get your house in order.”

“We strongly believe that no one should walk through the doors of a funeral home, on what could be the worst day of their lives, without at least some basic information and preparation” said Mike Lepore, Manager of the Carter Funeral Homes in Montrose and Croton-on-Hudson.. “We feel it is our obligation to make this kind of information available to the public, whether they choose to use our services or not.”

“We want people to make wise decisions, not emotional ones,” added Family Service Counselor and Funeral Director Michelle Carter. “People will leave armed with information they need to make smart choices and save money.”

The program is less than an hour long, and includes a question and answer period as well as light refreshments. A complimentary copy of our Personal Planning Guide will also be available. Each month will feature a new topic of interest, although questions on any topic can be asked at any time.

“Many people think end-of-life and estate planning are private matters, and so are reluctant to broach the subject with family or friends,” Attorney Kathleen Riedy said. “The fact is, when a person dies, it affects everyone they know. Questions like, ‘Who do I call? What do I need to do? How much will it cost?’ will all have to be answered in a short amount of time.”

The seminars will be held the 3rd Wednesday of every month and begin at 4 pm at the Edward F. Carter Funeral Home, 41 Grand Street in Croton-on-Hudson. All seminars will be presented by licensed funeral directors along with local attorney and estate expert Kaltheen Riedy. Because of space considerations, advance registration is requested.

Upcoming topics include:

November: Trusts: why you may or may not need one
December: The Medicaid Spend Down - what you need to know years before seeking long-term care
January: New Years Resolutions: Do your planning in 2010
February: How to make sure your wishes are honored
March: Special considerations for families with a special needs child
April: Avoiding the Death Tax

“There are few things in life that aren’t made better and easier by planning for them in advance,” Michelle Carter said. “We hope our free seminars will at the very least start a dialogue within families about preparing for the future.”

For more information or to register, please call 914-271-4882.

Mixed (Up) Use Coming to Croton

To the editor,

Croton today is on the brink of making a major decision. The subject at issue is mixed use. And what is mixed use? In Colonial America it was the way of life in towns and villages. It featured a tightly clustered mix of stores, houses, churches, local government buildings, and civic uses within walking distance of one another.

During the 19th century industrialization brought factories and commercial uses that were sources of objectionable noise and odors, and often were hazardous to public health. To protect residential property values, early zoning focused on separating uses and buffering them from each other to minimize nuisances. The movement to return to mixed use in urban areas was sparked by Jane Jacobs in her seminal 1961 work titled The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Paradoxically, Croton’s existing zoning permits mixed use in the form of housing on a single floor above retail stores. Proposed legislation would more than double the amount of residential space available in commercially zoned areas as apartments above retail establishments and in ground-floor space behind them. I have been a vocal opponent of this legislation on many grounds:

(1) The total lack of research into the current retail picture in Croton. It may very well be that Croton needs less retail space rather than more.

(2) The failure of proponents to explore the impact of the legislation on the projected school population.

(3) The inadequacy of parking and the lack of outdoor space for children and pets. Because of higher densities in mixed-use developments and the commercial/office component, parking space requirements always exceed those of residential development.

(4) The total lack of adequate controls to protect the village. This mirrors the 2004 Gateway Law that bans fast-food restaurants without defining what constitutes a fast-food restaurant.

(5) The total lack of architectural standards. The only architectural requirement in the Harmon report was that the third floor within the roofline be designed as “dormers, or gables, or other architecturally pleasing design possibilities.” Even this vague and unsatisfactory requirement is missing from the proposed legislation.

(6) Technically naïve, the proposed legislation also provides for ground floor residential space behind retail space. Yet any first-year architectural student knows that retail and residential ceiling heights vary greatly and mixing them on one floor will impose additional design and construction costs. The large, high-ceilinged ground floor space without supporting columns needed for commercial uses may not be architecturally compatible with the smaller scale of walled residential space above it or behind it.

(7) Construction costs for mixed-use development currently exceed those for single-use buildings of similar size. Unanticipated architectural challenges include fire separations, sound attenuation, ventilation and egress.

(8) Mixed use developments are seen as too risky by many developers and lending institutions because economic success requires that the several different uses all remain in full occupancy. Short-term discounted cash flow has become the standard method of measuring the success of income-producing properties, making single-use properties more attractive for investment.

(9) There has been a total lack of cost analysis and feasibility studies, yet the legislation is touted as an economic panacea for Croton.

With so many issues still unaddressed, I urge all residents of Croton to turn out at the village board meeting on November 2 and demand an answer to the simple question, “Why the hurry and the mindless disregard of citizens’ legitimate concerns?”

— Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

Robert Scott on Bob Elliott

Thank you Mr. Scott for a rational presentation of what our region can offer the rest of the country in terms of both beauty and education.

As noted, Mayor Elliott’s comments were made in 2005. How sad that the Schmidt gang opted for a parochial approach in the four years following, refusing both to market what our village has to offer and to work with neighboring communities to form what could be one of the top attractions in the U.S.

Former Mayor Schmidt not only stated publicly that he didn’t want Croton turning into “another Ossining” but managed to schedule the opening of Croton Landing for a day when the Westchester County Executive was not available to attend, insuring an appearance in the press that his administration alone was responsible for its creation.

Fortunately, Croton’s present elected officials are working to connect with municipalities up and down the Hudson to insure a cohesive presentation of all of our towns have to offer. A variety of sporting opportunities, nature encounters and eyefuls of beauty—it all comes back to a river…and Croton has 2!

As far as our village is concerned, shouldn’t we be able to offer visitors from the states and abroad a place to spend their money on something other than a mani/pedi or a pepperoni slice?

— Lisa Cohen

Bob Elliott on Heritage Tourism

To the editor:

NOTE: The following is the text of my letter to The Gazette dated Sept. 3, 2009:

Given that tourism is New York State’s second largest industry, I expected the broad plan I described in last week’s letter to receive wide acceptance. As usual, a small coterie of anonymous proponents of the Harmon Plan pooh-poohed it, arguing wildly that it would not work. No respectable newspaper will publish unsigned, irresponsible comments. Initially, the plan only requires integrating Croton more closely with existing organizations to promote the new trend called “heritage tourism.”

I’d like to call a single expert witness in defense of tourism as a solution worth trying. Robert W. Elliott, seven-term mayor of Croton-on-Hudson from 1991 to 2005, and founder and past chairman of Historic River Towns of Westchester, a consortium of thirteen river communities from Yonkers to Peekskill. Under an inter-municipal agreement, this umbrella organization focuses on waterfront development, tourism and main street economics in a bottom-up approach to regional planning.

Bob Elliott authored the New York Conference of Mayors Sustainable Communities Initiative. He is the former Chair of the Hudson Valley Tourism Development Council and served as the Vice Chair of the New York Main Street Alliance. He has been the Director of Economic Development, as well as head of the Industrial Development Agency for Westchester County. Bob was also President of the Westchester Convention and Visitors Bureau. I’m sure readers will acknowledge his credentials.

On April 4, 2005, while still the mayor of Croton, Bob spoke on the subject of tourism at Buffalo’s Martin House Restoration. A five-building complex designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in his Prairie Style and built from 1903-05, this powerful architectural magnet attracts visitors from all over the country. No transcript exists of Bob’s presentation, but a Buffalo News reporter was there, and his news story captured some of the highlights.

Mayor Elliott described how communities in a picturesque 50-mile stretch along the Hudson River are working together, without being restricted by geographical or organizational divisions, with the objective of offsetting job losses and economic stagnation that have afflicted much of upstate New York. According to him, a major thrust of this “bottom-up approach to regional planning” has been the development of heritage tourism as an economic lifeline.

This makes eminent good sense, Bob pointed out. Tourism is the state’s second largest industry, and local governments (except in Croton) and groups are working together to promote the region’s history to older, middle-class travelers who constitute the primary market for heritage tourism. The special breed of “heritage tourists” stays longer, visits twice as many places and spends twice as much. “They’ve even come to see the Hudson itself as a tourist draw,” he added.

As part of his slideshow, he projected a color slide of the Half Moon on the screen, the brightly colored replica of explorer Henry Hudson’s little ship, under full sail. Above the photo, the caption read: “It’s the river, stupid.” He closed with, “It’s one aspect of regionalism that has been proven to work.”

The defense rests.

— Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

An Untapped Asset: Croton's Rich History Could Be Its Salvation

To the editor:

NOTE: The following is the text of my letter to The Gazette of August 27, 2009:

Readers may be interested in the following transcript of a question-and-answer session I recently had with myself:

Q: Okay, Mr. Wise Guy, you’ve been critical of unneeded zoning changes, what’s your solution for Croton’s economic ills?
A: The answer has been right under our noses from the beginning: Old-fashioned tourism. Give people a reason to “Visit Historic Croton-on-Hudson.” and they’ll come in droves.

Q: What’s the first step?
A: We have the nucleus in Van Cortlandt Manor to cover the Dutch colonial period. The Village should acquire and restore the nearby original Harmon sales office. Make it a visitors’ center and a Croton Museum of History with permanent exhibits about Croton’s long history of boat building, railroading, brick making, and construction of the Old Croton Aqueduct and the Croton Dam.

Q: What comes next?
A: Special exhibits can be added, such as one honoring Croton’s African-American heritage. Revolutionary War cannoneer John Peterson, whose unerring aim began the downfall of British spy, Major John André, and playwright Lorraine Hansberry (“A Raisin in the Sun”) are both buried in Bethel Cemetery.

Q: What other attractions could there be?
A: Perhaps Metro North could be induced to establish a railroad (and trolley) museum here. (The Metro Enviro site would be ideal.) Croton should explore the possibility that the colorful replica of Henry Hudson’s ship, the Half Moon, could make Croton its homeport and wintering port.

Q: Isn’t Croton’s rich history already widely recognized?
A: Not at all. Historic sites are unmarked. Would you believe there’s only one marker in the village memorializing its historic past? Most Crotonites cannot name that lone marker. (It’s at the base of the hill on which Bethel Chapel stands.) There are more than a dozen houses in Croton associated with the Bohemian colony of artists and writers that flourished here during and after the First World War. Yet not a single marker identifies any of these houses, which would make a fine subject for a walking tour.

Q: How would you overcome Croton’s handicap of widely separated shopping areas?
A: That’s easy. In keeping with the image of a tourist-friendly village, Croton’s shopping areas could be gradually nudged toward specialization. For example, Grand Street could emulate Cold Spring’s Main Street and feature shops offering antiques and knickknacks. And attract customers to its restaurants.

Q: What about places where tourists can stay?
A: The big hurdle is lack of hotel space. For year-round tourism, a hotel/conference center with a river view could easily be built on a commercial site like the tire warehouse. The railroad’s fast express train service opens up the possibility that Metro North could promote tours to Croton from New York City as package deals.

Q: What should we do about the Gateway Law?
A: Cosmetic changes will do nothing to bring new business. We must stop excluding legitimate businesses. It’s positively un-American to convict a whole class of businesses without a trial. Let’s make Croton a village that genuinely welcomes businesses. We must halt any attempt to urbanize Croton. Don’t expand the Gateway Law. Get rid of it.

Q: What are the chances of such a plan coming to fruition?
A: Good, if Croton will stop bickering and recognize that exploitation of its history can be its salvation.

— Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

Painful Truths about Croton Planning

To the editor:

The following is the text of my letter to The Gazette of August 20, 2009:

In planning Croton’s future, three indisputable facts cannot be changed:

(1) The Expressway has effectively made Croton a backwater by cutting it off from the flow of north-south automobile traffic, estimated at 40,000 vehicles a day. Each transit by a motorist bypassing our village at 55 mph means one less potential customer for Croton businesses.

(2) Croton lacks a single, centralized shopping area. Over the years, Croton planners allowed five widely separated and non-contiguous shopping areas to evolve, each heavily dependent on the automobile. Pedestrian traffic between the respective shopping areas is nonexistent because of their wide separation.

(3) Croton planners also allowed its downtown to be blighted with three giant supermarkets and their large, unsightly automobile parking areas. These encourage automobile usage and further discourage pedestrian traffic.

This may not be a picture of “the Croton we want.” Nevertheless, it’s the Croton we’ve got, and we must make the best of an unhappy situation. Planners must accept that the above special conditions make Croton different from other villages. I don’t care how many communities with centralized shopping areas our expensive hired consultants may have advised; they cannot overcome Croton’s atypical handicaps. Otherwise, any monies spent will be wasted.

Planners must stop treating Croton as a community with conventional planning problems. They should accept Croton’s unusual situation before plunging ahead with off-the-shelf, standard-issue solutions. Merely giving Harmon a hasty cosmetic makeover that violates common sense is not planning.

I have railed against the flawed 2004 Gateway Law incorporated into the Zoning Code and against the proposed Harmon-inspired changes to it. Its proponents have stubbornly clung to flagrantly erroneous beliefs: (1) that planning efforts should be concentrated on a single shopping area at the expense of the other areas; (2) that there are three magical, mystical “gateways” to Croton; (3) that all motorists who enter Croton are here to shop, so Croton must be made pretty for such shoppers from other communities.

Every community has its delicatessens, pizza parlors, supermarkets, hardware store, branch bank, and post office supplying basic needs of its residents. Croton’s underlying problem is that it lacks a “magnet” store or stores that would attract customers from elsewhere. Briarcliff Manor, for example, has a Radio Shack. When I need an electronic gadget, I travel to Chilmark. After a brief existence here, Croton’s sole magnet store, Blockbuster, is now in the process of closing.

The only businesses that manage to thrive here are those that supply basic needs—“the butcher, baker and candlestick maker.” Ironically, Croton’s Gateway Law specifically bans automobile dealerships and national chain fast food restaurants. Yet each of these categories represents a magnet business with the potential of attracting the very customers from other communities that Croton sorely needs.

The truth is Croton planners lack basic knowledge of the community so necessary for intelligent planning. Croton has no inventory of the stores, empty or occupied, in each of Croton’s five shopping areas. We have no idea of their sizes, amenities, and rental terms or even what they offer in the way of goods and services. Hard to believe, but no planner can identify how many delicatessens, restaurants, pizza parlors, or nail salons exist in Croton, nor can they tell me where they are located.

Equally nonexistent is a reliable, controlled census and projections of its school population and expected growth. Croton has no idea of the number of apartments that exist in the village, yet planners are contemplating adding more apartments in crowded human rabbit warrens. School taxes form the major portion of each taxpayer’s tax burden.

That planners in Croton should be actively engaged in planning for this village’s future despite their lack of fundamental knowledge about the nature and state of its current business and residential communities is staggering, to say the least. What Croton needs is more information, not more legislation.

Croton and other communities in Westchester have just been dealt a double whammy. One is the workforce legislation calling for mandatory affordable housing now awaiting the governor’s signature. The other is the agreement recently reached between the county executive and the federal government mandating affordable housing for minorities. The fact that Croton receives no credit for the impressive results achieved by the Croton Housing Network is only one of the many disquieting aspects of the wrenching changes.

Apparently unforeseen by the Village, the two events in quick succession came as a complete surprise. Until the questions they raise are answered, it would be suicidal for Croton’s present administration to push ahead mulishly in its headlong rush to expand the flawed Gateway Law by adding apartments whose need is highly questionable. Its first order of business should be to fill the enormous gap in information about the nature of the ventures that manage to thrive in the village and the future burdens on its school system.

— Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

Gridiron Goof

To the editor:

The Croton Harmon Gridiron Club would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the community at large for scheduling our Grand Stand fundraiser for Saturday, September 19, the same day as the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah.

Our intention was to hold an event whereby the Croton community could gather together in support of the Croton Football Team; we made a mistake by scheduling the celebration on the Jewish holiday and we regret our decision and apologize for our insensitivity.

We promise to be more prudent when scheduling our events in the future.

The Gridiron Club will host a pancake breakfast the morning of Homecoming, September 26, at the Croton Harmon High School from 8:30 - 11:30. Please join us then.

Thank you, our apologies again and …. GO TIGERS!

— The Croton Harmon Gridiron Club

Strange Doings in the Name of Zoning

To the editor:

The following is the text of my letter to the editor of The Gazette, dated August 13, 2009:

Continuing a detailed study of the flawed Gateway Law to which zoning changes will be added, here are a few of the Law’s flaws that professional planners have already bestowed on us: (References to the Gateway Law hereafter will be to “the Law.”)

Flaw No. 1 is in the fallacious concept that if we “upgrade the image and strengthen the visual identity of the Village,” visitors will automatically come to Croton regardless of the nature of the merchandise or services its shops offer.

Flaw No. 2: In the Harmon area, the Law calls for new buildings to be “designed to enhance the district’s small-scale character.” But the character of the buildings in the vast urban renewal project and associated parking areas envisioned under the proposed zoning changes give the lie to the phrase “small scale.”

Flaw No. 3: The Law next mandates a very questionable scheme. Here’s what it proposes for Harmon: “To reinforce the area’s role as a gateway, the Planning Board shall encourage the design and placement of a distinctive gateway feature such as a clock or sculpture near the corner of Croton Point Avenue and South Riverside Avenue.” Erecting a clock or a sculpture approved by the Planning Board with an incoming business footing the bill? I’m not making any of this up. It’s right there in the Law at 230-20.6-4

Because the avowed function of gateways is to give visitors “a sense of arrival,” why not a small Statue of Liberty with a variation on the Emma Lazarus sentiment carved into the base? “Give me your energized, your wealthy, your eager customers yearning to spend freely.” In other gateway areas, how about an impressive fountain, heroic statue or perhaps a miniature Arc de Triomphe? The sky’s the limit in beautifying Croton for new arrivals.

Flaw No. 4: In the Municipal Place area, the Law stresses the need for increased pedestrian facilities such as sidewalks, despite the fact that the layout and facilities of the area encourage and favor automobile usage. Pedestrian traffic is non-existent here, and it is still worth your life to try to cross Maple Street to get from one part of this gateway area to another on foot.

Flaw No. 5 is the designation of the North End area as a commercial gateway. In this area, a veritable Siberia for commercial development with no access from the Expressway, the Law is ultra-specific about prettification: “New development, landscaping and streetscaping shall be designed to preserve the district’s residential and rural feel from the village boundary line to Warren Road.”

The Law calls for sidewalks to be constructed on Warren Road from the village line south to Warren Road and west to the bridge over the Expressway. Preferential consideration is also given to site plans featuring “stone walls consistent with existing built walls along property lines to screen parking.” Street trees and shrubs should be planted on the east side of Route 9 and the west side of 9A (both are State roads and the designated roadsides are now heavily wooded) “to form a buffer between these roads and the North End gateway properties.”

In the course of human events, the power to write legislation controlling zoning in their immediate neighborhoods is not given to ordinary citizens. Section 20-3-E of the Village Code of Ethics calls for disclosure by public officials of any interest in legislation. It so happens that among the driving forces behind the passage in 2004 of the Gateway Law was an appointed Village official living on Briggs Lane off Warren Road, immediately adjacent to the North End gateway area. Because there was no disclosure, disqualification or recusal, it would seem that “somebody’s gotta lot of splainin’ to do.”

— Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

Putting the Gateway Law Under a Microscope

To the editor:

NOTE: The following is the text of my letter to the Gazette dated August 6, 2009:

The Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and Croton’s 2004 Gateway law all have one quality in common: Very few people have read them. I urge residents to study the Gateway Law, which plays a fundamental role in proposed Harmon committee changes. It’s available on Croton’s website as part of its Zoning Code.

Let’s consider first how the Gateway Law defines and identifies what it calls its commercial gateways. These are clearly characterized as “the major entry points from surrounding municipalities and roads.” But ask Croton’s residents to list entry points under this definition, and they will invariably name four: the three exits to Croton from the north-south Expressway (Route 9). They will also definitely include Route 129 coming from the east.

Peculiarly, the Gateway Law identifies only three gateways. The first two are the Croton Point Avenue and the Municipal Place exits from the Expressway. The third is a most unusual choice: “the north end of the village along Albany Post Road (Route 9A).”

The reasons for excluding two very significant gateways that meet the Gateway Law’s own definition have never been satisfactorily explained. Unmentioned are the Senasqua Road gateway leading to the remnant Lower Village shopping area, and the similarly overlooked Route 129 gateway from Yorktown leading directly to the Grand Street shopping area.

The reason for including the Albany Post Road at the extreme north end of the village as a gateway into the Village is equally unclear. Few southbound motorists use it, preferring the Expressway. By any definition, the Senasqua Road exit is the first true gateway from the Expressway into the commercial areas of Croton. Yet Gateway Law framers ignored it.

Curiously, planners who claim to have the cure for what ails commerce in Croton have never seen fit to post a sign at the branching of Grand Street from Route 129 (Maple Street and directing motorists to “Business district” or “Shopping area.” Under the Gateway Law, the Grand Street shopping area simply does not exist.

New York State traffic statistics show that Route 129 (Maple Street) funnels two million vehicles through Croton annually. As if to underscore that Croton considers Route 129 a gateway, it has erected a very large sign on Route 129 near Jacoby Street at the entrance to the village.

Does this handsome sign bid welcome to motorists entering our fair village by pointing out Croton’s rich historical heritage? It does not. With the supreme lack of imagination so characteristic of Croton’s planning, it says, “Croton-on-Hudson. Incorporated 1898.” Before any makeover of the so-called Gateway Law is attempted, the glaring omission of two major gateways should be corrected.

— Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

When Government Works Against a Community's Best Interests

To the editor:

NOTE: The following is the text of my letter to The Gazette of July 30, 2009:

Governments often work in ways contrary to the interests of those who elected them and whom they profess to serve. Croton is an example of this. With local retail businesses struggling to survive, Croton’s government recently waived permit requirements for itself and cut a rent-free deal with a for-profit corporation. By installing a so-called “farmer’s market” on public property and providing village traffic control personnel without so much as a public hearing, Croton facilitated competition with local food businesses, making their survival more unlikely. All the while it sheds crocodile tears over the sad state of retail business in Croton.

The controversial Harmon plan is another glaring example. It proposes to make substantial changes in the flawed Gateway Law, a poor foundation on which to construct anything. A small army of critics is attacking these changes that will affect all Croton neighborhoods. I am one of them. The Gateway Law mandates that new development in the Harmon area be designed “to enhance the district’s small-scale character.” Yet an examination of the plan for Harmon proposed by the committee’s consultant reveals a gross departure from those guidelines.

For the three lots described as the Dodge property, the plan shows a building containing 24,800 square feet of total floor area. Such a building would enclose 289,325 cubic feet of space. By any standard, that’s one helluva bulky building. Behind this massive structure will be an equally large parking lot, illuminated at night, containing 47 parking spaces to serve 16 retail or professional units and some 40 residential units. Despite its enormous capacity, 47 spaces are admittedly inadequate for the building’s needs. The consultant’s solution is for parking spaces to be shared by residents and outsiders in what can best be described as an intricate game of musical chairs played with automobiles.

Unfortunately, too, the Harmon committee neglected to point out to the consultant that the corner lot was a site of historical significance—namely, Harmon’s first and oldest building, the original sales office of Clifford B. Harmon. Their totally unacceptable plan calls for its destruction.

I am a firm believer in the natural superiority of women. Studies have shown that women excel in a wide variety of areas: intelligence, physical and emotional health, sensory perception, sociability, and longevity, to name a few. As caregivers women are unsurpassed. I showed the consultant’s layout to my wife, Edith. It took her about three minutes of study to detect the fundamental flaw in the plan. “Where’s the open space? Where will the kids who will live in these apartments play?’ she asked. “Will their mothers caution them, ‘Go outside and play—but watch out for traffic. And don’t play in the parking lot. It’s dangerous with all those cars backing up.’?” The nearest of Croton’s too-few playgrounds is almost a mile away, my wife pointed out.

In the 1930s many small retailers got their start by “living over the store.” This gave them reasonable rent and a way to work long hours in the family delicatessen at street level. The Harmon plan is a bastardization of that concept. Croton’s planners seem bent on creating a veritable rabbit warren of retail stores, professional offices and barely habitable attic apartments. By injecting a large number of transient renters into a suburban commercial neighborhood, they will re-create an overcrowded urban landscape—the very conditions many Croton homeowners fled the city to escape.

Opponents of the Harmon plan have taken to calling the eventual result a “housing project,” an appellation that upsets proponents. I prefer to describe it as a “visual blight certain to be sparsely tenanted and a totally unacceptable slum.”

— Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

Bookstore No Cure for What Ails Croton

To the editor:

NOTE: The following is the text of my letter to The Gazette dated July 23, 2009.

Why are would-be planners with no grasp of reality or commerce so quick to prescribe ways to get Harmon’s business district to pull up its socks when it is all retail areas in Croton that are facing problems? Among other suggestions to remedy Croton’s deep-seated woes, we are being told, “What this village needs is a bookstore in Harmon.” Perhaps the members of the Harmon Committee will chip in the half-million to a million dollars and the business acumen such a venture would require.

Independent booksellers are a dying breed whose numbers continue to diminish. It is impossible for independent booksellers to match the buying power and low prices of the megachain bookstores, discounters like Walmart or Sam’s Club, and Amazon.com. A comparatively small number of independents have survived by adding extra services. These include gift items, used books, magazines, comfortable tub chairs, piped-in music, wi-fi access, and an adjunct café selling food, latte or wine and beer. A few newcomers have gained a foothold by specializing in narrow fields, such as crime and mystery.

Every successful bookstore needs employees who are readers and who know and love the product they are selling. Today the bookstore is not only a place to buy books. It has become a place to relax and talk about them. Allow me to deflate the bookstore myth once and for all with facts and statistics:

A recent survey revealed that 27 percent of American adults admitted they had not read a single book for pleasure in the past year.
Although it represented a 3.2% decline, an astronomical 275,232 individual new titles were published in 2008. That’s 5,293 new titles every week. Imagine being a bookseller and trying to keep up with that flood of books.
The average new book has a shelf life somewhere between milk and yogurt. Unlike any other article of commerce, books are sold to booksellers with generous return privileges. After a fixed period, booksellers can return unsold books for full credit.
About 40 percent of new books—largely unsold bestsellers—are returned to publishers. Eventually, many of these are shredded and shipped to China on empty container ships. Not to worry. They will come back as recycled cardboard packaging for products formerly made by American workers.
Instituted during the Great Depression to encourage dealers to stock books, the indefensible practice of printing excessive quantities and then accepting returns is sheer madness, making book publishing one of the biggest wasters of energy and resources. Except for smaller press runs of books printed for libraries and academic use, the future of books seems destined to lie with electronic books and “print-on-demand” versions.

For some, myself included, books are almost like air, water and food—essential to life. But I am neither overly sanguine nor foolish enough to think that Croton, now a backwater community bypassed by the limited-access Expressway and offering a narrow customer base of less than 8,000 souls, is an appropriate location for an independent bookstore. A village in crisis can hardly take seriously such desperate clutching at straws.

— Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

What's Wrong with the Harmon Plan?

To the editor:

Note: The following is the text of my letter to The Gazette of July 16, 2009:

Can a community be subjected to too much planning? “You betcha,” as soon-to-be ex-Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin would say in her folksy style. The poor woman is a prime example of the too much, too soon syndrome.

The Harmon Plan made simple. Croton residents are collectively being urged to buy a pig in a poke. The current proposal involves making changes in the 2004 Gateway Law, now part of the Zoning Code. But the gateway concept is based on the erroneous principle that Croton should be made attractive—not to Crotonites—but to visitors presumably coming here to shop. This law defines a gateway as “the roads and surrounding properties a motorist or pedestrian encounters when first entering the Village. These areas create a sense of arrival and connection to the Village, and establish an image and initial impression of the community.”

Had researchers with clipboards been positioned at two exits from the Expressway for a single day to question arriving motorists about their destinations, the fallacy of that premise would have been revealed. Aside from those going directly to ShopRite from the Expressway’s Croton Point Avenue exit, few are headed to local shops or businesses. Most drivers entering Croton are either residents or are transients headed to Yorktown and points east.

The Gateway Law is straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Pretending to attract business, it declares various legitimate and socially acceptable enterprises, including automobile dealerships and fast-food restaurants, to be illegal. In its five years on the books, this law has not brought a single new business to Croton. Among the law’s other unreasonable anti-business provisions is its mindless ban on drive-through windows. Studies show that these can actually reduce the need for parking spaces.

One wonders how Croton can ban fast-food establishments with a straight face when it has pizza parlors up the kazoo. Gateway Law framers freely acknowledge that the law was directed against national food chains. Yet we have a Dunkin Donuts and a Subway sandwich shop. The ban on fast food restaurants has been an empty deterrent.

Ever since the Expressway opened in 1967, Croton has been a backwater community cut off from the traffic stream. Although most residents welcomed the change, isolation comes at a price. Because of its isolation and small customer base, Croton is a poor prospect for capital investment in retail space—a reality that will haunt any Harmon redevelopment. The only way to bring about change is to ask NY State to re-route traffic through Croton as before. Fat chance.

Consultants. Croton also has a penchant for hiring consultants to support local planners’ shaky concepts. Such experts always lack any sense of the history and continuity of the village. A case in point is the contractor, Danth, Inc. On the basis of two brief visits, its report lists the ideal types of “niche” businesses Croton should target: “a cell phone store, a pet shop, stores offering knitting, women’s clothing, prepared meals, and full- and limited-service restaurants.” Unfortunately, every one of these businesses has been tried here and either failed or closed. The consultant obviously never bothered to read Croton’s zoning code. Its report, which can be read on the Village’s website, offers suggestions about the best locations in Croton for national chain fast-food restaurants! For these examples of the fallibility of advice from quickie consultants unfamiliar with Croton, the Village paid out $15,000 of our tax dollars.

That “eyesore.” The Dodge dealership has been a thriving fixture in Croton since the 1920s. With its punitive prohibition against automobile dealerships, the Gateway Law drastically diminished the value of the business and the owner’s ability to sell it to zero. Understandably, the owner did what any sensible businessperson would do. He closed the dealership, leaving the buildings empty—but still paying taxes.

Elsewhere in the Hudson Valley, new uses are regularly found for existing empty commercial buildings—but not in Croton. Proponents of the Harmon Plan now call the empty dealership an eyesore and the rest of the Harmon shopping area “blighted.” Having caused a viable business to close, they now clamor for the removal of the eyesore they themselves created. This reminds me of the teenager who murdered his parents and then begged the judge for leniency because he was an orphan.

Reminiscent of the recent real estate bubble, extravagant pie-in-the-sky promises are being voiced about the Harmon Plan. Beautification of the Harmon shopping area will create Harmon’s new “downtown” and attract throngs of strolling shoppers. Proponents seem unaware that Harmon’s future Times Square already has three very permanent and necessary gasoline stations and an automobile repair shop along its main drag.

It’s my Harmon, too. My family and I were not looking for a picture-postcard New England village when we went house hunting here in 1963. We moved to the Harmon area of Croton because it was what it was: an unpretentious workaday post-industrial Hudson River village with a good school system and frequent train service to the city. Because Clifford Harmon was a seller of building lots rather than a builder of houses, Harmon today is no Levittown, but a delightful mix of architectural styles from modest bungalows to more imposing residences. Its shopping areas can best be described as quirky or quaint—but appropriate to the history and character of the village. Most residents like it that way.

The Harmon redevelopment concept proposes to take the tax burden off the backs of Croton’s home owners with a Rube Goldberg scheme: (1) Raise the number of permitted floors in retail buildings to three and astronomically increase the number of walk-up apartments. Add a parking scheme resembling the game of musical chairs. (2) Wait for developers to flock to Croton and (3) buy, (4) demolish and (5) replace perfectly good buildings (including a landmark). Croton will then (6) undertake to find retail tenants, and (7) soak the hell out of them with high taxes, as promised by Trustee Olver in his patronizing letter to The Gazette. If you believe this unrealistic, self-delusional plan has a chance of succeeding, especially in today’s troubled economy, I’ve got a dam I’d like to sell you.

Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

Croton's Litany of Economic Body Blows

To the editor:

NOTE: It is my considered opinion that the editor of a newspaper and its readers should enjoy the exclusivity of a letter to the editor for at least as long as that paper’s issue is on newsstands. I have been persuaded by several requests to make the contents of my letter published in The Gazette July 9 available to a wider readership by posting the contents of local blogs. This I am doing now.

Proponents of the so-called Harmon Plan are touting the revitalization of the Harmon business district as the way to get Croton out of its economic doldrums. My primary problem with this scheme is that it is spot zoning, a practice specifically forbidden by law. As usual, when differences arise about planning in Croton, ignorance of the facts rules the day. What proponents lack are a grasp of history and knowledge of current conditions.

A single cohesive shopping district along a main thoroughfare characterizes most Hudson River villages. Not so in Croton, which has five separate and distinct shopping areas, or “nodes.” These are listed here in their historical sequence: (1) Riverside Avenue (the remains of the former Lower Village), (2) Grand Street (the Upper Village), (3) Harmon, (4) Van Wyck, Croton Commons and the lower end of Route 129, (5) ShopRite Plaza and environs. Next, consider the doleful economic impact on Croton of the following events.

1923: Westchester acquires Croton Point, converts it into a park and takes its 508 acres off Croton’s tax rolls. No other village has so much public space within its borders yielding no tax revenue.

1950s to 1960s: The heart of Croton is devastated by the successive construction of three large shopping centers and their unsightly giant parking lots that should have been located at the periphery of the village. Croton added to its automobile blight by creating and paving a gigantic station parking lot capable of holding almost 2,000 vehicles—a veritable sea of parked cars stretching as far as the eye can see. These are self-inflicted wounds that beautification of other commercial areas today can never offset.

1967: The 12.9-mile long Croton Expressway opens, the only completed portion of a limited-access superhighway intended to link the Thruway at Tarrytown with Route I-84 at Beacon. Croton is thus effectively by-passed by north-south automobile traffic. Construction of the Expressway also destroys a thriving commercial area in Croton called the Lower Village.

1970: The Penn-Central Railroad declares bankruptcy on June 21, depriving Croton of its largest taxpayer and the revenue from its more than 100 acres of rail yards, shops and station.

2004: Croton enacts the calamitous Gateway Law. Not only does it specifically prohibit certain kinds of businesses, it imposes a totally impractical floor-area ratio on new construction. In five years, not a single enterprise that would be subject to the 2004 law has come to Croton. For 42 years some 40,000 motorists each day have sped past Croton on the Expressway. The most successful businesses in Croton have all been those largely able to subsist on the patronage of Crotonites.

No other village in the Hudson Valley has been subjected to such a chain of massive economic setbacks. Yet, ignoring the above realities, proponents of the Harmon Plan see adding modern retail storefronts as a magical solution to what they describe as Harmon’s image problems. They claim that such changes will result in additional foot traffic and yield higher tax revenues.

The plan also blithely doubles the apartment space permitted over stores, improbably describing potential tenants as “city dwellers who want to dip their toes in country living.” It also proposes to overcome the extreme shortage of parking space in Harmon with an impractical shared-parking concept.

Croton still lacks a business-development agency to encourage new business. It has no inventory of commercial properties in the village, and no idea of their dimensions, amenities or current rents. How can any development plans be contemplated when we have no idea of Croton’s business picture today? It may very well be that Croton should be reducing commercially zoned areas instead of expanding them.

One of the objectives of the Harmon Plan committee has been to save face for those responsible for the Gateway Law by quietly changing the floor-area ratio to a realistic number. I challenge them to come forward and acknowledge publicly that the floor-area ratio fixed in 2004 was wildly aberrant for Croton’s commercial properties.

Robert Scott, Croton-on-Hudson

TIME for Crotonbucks?

From TIME magazine:

Tough Times Lead to Local Currencies

With local economies flailing, communities across the U.S. are trying to drum up more action on Main Street. “Buy Local” campaigns are one way to go. But many towns—from Ojai, Calif., to Greensboro, N.C.—are considering going a step further and printing money that can only be spent locally.

Issuing an alternative currency is perfectly legal, as long as it is treated as taxable income and consists of paper bills rather than coins. In the U.S., where local currencies were popular during the Depression, the biggest alterna-cash system is in Massachusetts’ Berkshire County. Go to one of several banks there, hand a teller $95 and get back $100 worth of BerkShares, a nice little discount designed to reel in users.

Obama: Croton was not built by 'naysayers.'

President Obama devotes his address this week to remembering the “indomitable spirit of the first American citizens” who built this country and the lessons we can apply to the current challenges:

That is the spirit we are called to show once more. We are facing an array of challenges on a scale unseen in our time. We are waging two wars. We are battling a deep recession. And our economy - and our nation itself - are endangered by festering problems we have kicked down the road for far too long: spiraling health care costs; inadequate schools; and a dependence on foreign oil. […]

These are some of the challenges that our generation has been called to meet. And yet, there are those who would have us try what has already failed; who would defend the status quo. They argue that our health care system is fine the way it is and that a clean energy economy can wait. They say we are trying to do too much, that we are moving too quickly, and that we all ought to just take a deep breath and scale back our goals.

These naysayers have short memories. They forget that we, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America.

Watch it:

Croton Launches Community 'Victory Garden'

Using unspent money left over from the prior fiscal year’s allocation for green initiatives, the Village Board recently approved fencing, a water connection, and some starter soil to establish a pilot community Victory Garden.

In 1943, Americans planted over 20 million Victory Gardens. The harvest from those gardens accounted for nearly a third of all the vegetables that Americans consumed that year. Croton’s first Victory Garden will be located on an unused lawn adjacent to the parking lot of Silver Lake Park at the end of Truesdale Drive in Croton-on-Hudson (map). This effort is an initiative of the Village’s new Sustainability Team, which is currently in formation.

Village residents are invited to enter a lottery for a plot in a new organic garden under construction. Interested gardeners should submit their name to the village by July 17, 2009.

Details on how to submit your name are available: http://village.croton-on-hudson.ny.us/PublicDocuments/CrotonHudsonNYBoard/025C10D2-000F8513

It's the Brown People, Stupid

Recent musings from Bruce Apar’s forum on proposed zoning changes for the Harmon section of Croton:

Croton23: “The best part is…If we do start with this project, we will look more like Ossining or Peekskill- Is that what we are reaching for?”
karenmc55: “A Croton for Croton with no shame or guilt.”
Croton12: “Let’s face it. With a radical leftist single party Village Board, much like the government in Washington, the dreams of making Croton into another Yonkers, Ossining or Peekskill will come true. Greedy property owners see the gold mine in ‘affordable housing’ and staunch activists see an increased power base. Unless there is a successful legal challenge to the ruination of the Village before the majority on the board can be changed, its just time to move.”
jennifer: “The crime was more insidious. It started out as minor annoying quality of life issues: a domestic dispute here, too many bored adolescent boys hanging out there, noise and broken beer bottles. Then it escalated into burglaries and shoplifting. The small—by city standards—grammar school required a major expansion. A towering hulk of a concrete monstrosity to accommodate a surge in students became necessary.”
sensible1: “The residents, taxpayers and people with kids in the Croton schools are mad as hell and are not going to sit idle on this one either!”
wileyp86: “I want to thank you all so much for the very good info being provided. We are new in town, arrived not in time to be able to vote, but had we known this was going on, we might have thought twice. We are nons, came here for the schools, and are appalled that this is being considered here. We came here because it is a village not for the crowds, and for the schools. We are very disappointed and annoyed and you will be hearing from us if this is done.”
commonsense: With more students, and housing, comes the need for more of everything, more teachers, more room, more desks, books, labs, fields, more police, more garbage trucks, more more more more. Why on earth would we encourage that with a zoning change?
Paula Pradines: “Crotonites need to be critical thinkers and not emotional sponges when it comes to affordable housing. We all moved here to live our American Dream. This dream for many has already ended as more and more Croton seniors and lower and middle income families are taxed out of their homes. You know why your neighbors have left. Just ask the hundreds of thousands of Long Islanders who leave each year because their charming villages and lovely vistas were replaced with a kind of extended Brooklyn and Queens full of dense housing and unsustainable school and property taxes.”

Reader’s note: More racist ramblings from the North County News are available here: http://www.ncnlocal.com/bb/viewforum.php?f=1

Patriotic speeches, colonial games, a grand parade, & more. Anyone?

Here’s a chance to celebrate Independence Day at historic Van Cortlandt Manor and Sunnyside…

Participating in old-fashioned ice-cream making, listening to a spirited reading of the Declaration of Independence, marching in a grand parade, and drilling and mustering with military re-enactors are some of the activities visitors can take part in at Washington Irving’s Sunnyside in Tarrytown and Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson on Independence Day, Saturday, July 4, from 10-6 p.m.

A grand parade is part of the festivities at Van Cortlandt Manor’s Independence Day celebrations. Tom O’Connell photo.

Both sites, living history museums that are part of the Historic Hudson Valley network, will be dressed up in their finest patriotic regalia to celebrate the nation’s founding. Visitors can journey back to 1809 at Van Cortlandt Manor and to 1859 at Sunnyside. Tickets are available online at www.hudsonvalley.org.

Dramatic readings of the Declaration of Independence are a feature at both sites.

Sunnyside will feature a reading of an 1859 speech by Irving contemporary George William Curtis on abolition, who spoke “attended by a bodyguard with a great mob outside ready for violence, held in check by a large body of police. A few paving stones and a bottle of vitriol were thrown through the windows, but no serious injury was inflicted. This was one of the last instances in which an attempt was made to suppress free speech in the free states in the interest of slavery.” Curtis was also a close colleague of George P. Putnam, Irving’s longtime publisher.

Comic vignettes featuring toasts to the Republic and spirited debates about the pros and cons of temperance and women’s suffrage will also take place. On the issue of whether women should be granted the right to vote, two sisters will duke it out in a lively fashion.

Visitors can also participate in country dancing with caller Eric Hollman, join in rousing renditions of patriotic songs, witness the feats of comedic juggler Will Shaw, and play “town ball,” an early version of baseball that uses a big at and small ball. The home of Washington Irving will be open for tours throughout the day.

At Van Cortlandt Manor, the day’s centerpiece is a vast parade starting at 2 p.m. in front of the manor house. The parade will traverse the entire site and end with a special ceremony, singing, dancing, and games. Children can carry banners and all are invited to march.

From 10-2:30, a military re-enactment group will set up camp and invite one and all to drill and muster. Visitors can help with camp activities such as fire starting with flint and steel. Storytelling and 18th-century fiddle music round out the day.

While either event could be a perfect preamble to a picnic elsewhere, classic Fourth of July food from Geordanes Market in Irvington will be available, giving visitors an easy option for lunch. Of course, picnickers are welcome to bring their own treats.

Admission to either site is $12 for adults; $10 for seniors; $6 for children 5-17; and free for children under age 5 and HHV members. Tours of the sites’ houses are included in the price of admission. Washington Irving’s Sunnyside is at 89 West Sunnyside Lane in Tarrytown, one mile south of the Tappan Zee Bridge, off Route 9. Van Cortlandt Manor is at 525 South Riverside Avenue in Croton-on-Hudson, just off Route 9A. For information: 914-631-8200 or www.hudsonvalley.org.

Miss Goodie Two Shoes

“Hopeful, these forums are provided to all communities via the graciousness of the North County News.

You are once again asked to stay on the topic of this forum which is the agenda for the work session on Monday and which is still not online.

As to the rest of your comments, in this country, last time I checked, it is the right of every citizen to engage in discussion on issues that may affect their community. If you cannot see that Mr. Murray’s remarks are and were inappropriate, especially since I have no idea what he is talking about, then there is little more I can say to you.

I suggest you save your energy for the upcoming meetings on this issue. Given the backlash I am seeing against this DENSITY housing proposal, you will need it.

As for me, I am off to photograph more of the village’s wonderful HOUSES for an upcoming slideshow.”

— maria (Maria Cudequest, search) Sat Jun 20, 2009 8:19 am NCN

Bruce Apar's Baby

In 2007, North County News Editor in Chief + Publisher Bruce Apar, started a forum, aka the NCN.

At first, Mr. Apar boastfully attacked Crotonblog for allowing anonymous commentary but now he embraces it entirely (See: Bruce Apar’s Ethical Double Standard (and Goof))

In fact, Croton’s most notorious and ugliest mud-slingers have made it their home-away-from-home.

To illustrate, here’s a sample exchange between convicted vandal maria and citizen-volunteer Kieran Murray (KM) from June 18:

KM:

Maria:

I am getting really sick and tired hearing about you shooting your mouth off about me at Gabe’s. My kids friends parents hear your nonsense and I am really getting tired of it. SHUT YOUR MOUTH ABOUT ME!

maria:

Kieran:

First, I have no idea what you are talking about. My focus has been, if you have not gathered by now, promoting our village, churches, artistic and business community. It occupies a great deal of my time, joyfully. I have not attended any of the Harmon meetings although, as is my right to do so, I have certainly contributed to the many conversations about the housing project that have occurred—especially since the Gazette’s coverage of the 6/11 meeting. My commentary has been measured, deliberate, and fact-based.

The rules of this board are clear. As you have just violated them by threatening me in a public forum, I will bring them to the attention of the moderator on Monday.

In the meantime, the topic of this forum is the work session on Monday and whether or not anyone knows the agenda since it was not online. Please at least follow that one.

Thank you.

KM:

Tell the moderator all you want, just don’t talk bad about me in public where my kids friends parents can hear.

The North County News needs to be careful not to continue to expose itself to possible litigation. In my opinion, it is knowingly letting personal attacks, slander, lies, rumor and innuendo stand as fact. By knowingly providing a platform for damaging character assasinations to continue, it is acting no differently than Got Dirt, MySpace, Craigslist and any other site responsible for providing adequate monitoring and ignoring its responsibility.

Make sure you tell the moderator that as well!

One more from June 19 between one “commonsense” and Kieran Murray:

commonsense:

Kieran, PLEASE stop with the children, already. As to whether you would want to help or not, that is absolutely up to you. But you should be looking at it more as helping your village, not just any of us.

KM:

So you think it is OK that my children are being affected? Is that what you are saying?

You know you said I know who you are a while back, I think it is time to meet face to face. I’ve had enough of you knowing who I am and me not knowing the face behind the attacks.

Put up or shut up Commonsense.

commonsense:

Attacks?

Oh, I see an attack, alright, and it ain’t coming from me.

Your statements on your positions are posted exactly as you made them. They are self-explanatory, but if you don’t agree, then perhaps you can explain why you feel they’re not contradictory.

And there’s no need for you to act like a bully.

And if you’re out there, Mr. Apar… They’re talking about you.

Oh, and by the way, since you have done such a good job at tarnishing your paper’s brand by letting Croton’s-worst dominate your message board, there’s an active boycott of buying the North County News on Croton newsstands.

Slideshow: River Day 2009

To the editor:

Croton resident Geoff Haynes has just published a superb short slideshow of photos and music from the June 7, 2009 River Day. He has plenty of photos of the fleet comprising the Halve Maen, Clearwater, Mystic Whaler, Onrust and other boats as it sailed up the Hudson.

As Geoff says: “Take a look, when you have a moment, at the audio slideshow I created (below) of the River Day festivities last Sunday. So, turn on your speakers, and go full-screen on the slideshow, for the full effect!”

Thank you, Geoff!

— Leo Wiegman

Are Local Jobs and Auto Dealers Worth "Practically Nothing"?

To the editor:

Throughout our communities, the owners of local Chrysler and GM dealerships are being forced to close their doors due to Chrysler and General Motors Corporations restructuring. While the automaker companies are going bankrupt, the local dealers that sell the cars are turning profits and continue to contribute to the companies’ bottom line. These dealerships received letters from GM and Chrysler telling them they would be closed but have yet to hear any justification or rationale for why they are on the closed list.

G.M. and Chrysler make money (when they do) on new cars and on the financing of loans. Dealers, by contrast, make most of their money on servicing old cars and selling used ones. So dealers can thrive even when the automaker languishes. This week, an expert on the White House’s task force on the auto industry said that shutting down dealerships would save Chrysler and GM “practically nothing.”

Is that what these local dealerships are worth? Not in my opinion. The dealers I spoke to employ 30 to 40 people. Each auto dealership is a vital member of our community here in the Hudson Valley. Shutting them down will create a detrimental ripple effect throughout our local economy. The cutting of these dealerships and the job losses that would be caused are counterproductive to the economic growth and development that the Hudson Valley and America needs.

Watch a video that tells the story of our fight to save a local dealership in South Salem - the oldest Dodge dealership in the world.

That is why I have written to both President Obama and the head of the President’s task force on the auto industry asking them to force GM and Chrysler to reconsider their planned dealership closures. I’ve also signed on to legislation that would require GM and Chrysler to keep the commitments they made to dealerships prior to declaring bankruptcy and allow these local dealerships to either survive or die by the market.

For more information about the effort to save Tator Dodge and other GM and Chrysler dealerships, click here to read today’s article in the Journal News.

What do you think?

Chrysler and GM should be able to close profitable auto dealerships as part of their restructuring.

The market should decide which dealerships stay open or shut down.

*By answering this survey, you are subscribing to my newsletter.

Sincerely,

John Hall, Member of Congress

Croton Terror Group 'al NCN' Strikes Harmon Plan, Again

To the editor:

The usual suspects opposed to progress in Harmon squandered what may have been their last chance to meaningfully challenge the rationale for the Harmon Zoning Change Recommendations.

Rather than challenging facts, figures and calculations presented in significant detail in the Harmon Committee Report, they chose to forgo asking meaningful questions in favor of lengthy diatribes claiming yet again that lifelong residents are way smarter than the rest of us “Newbies”, and that if you didn’t inherit your house from your “grandpapy” or are not making hundreds of thousands of dollars, you must be a Section 8 immigrant criminal who will pack 15 family members in a 1 bedroom apartment and have babies like rabbits causing the schools to bust at the seams.

Of course, the opportunity was not lost to publicly slenderize Democratic elected officials past and present for partnering up with the Mafia to run Metro Enviro and line their pockets at the expense of our children’s health, or to spend ten minutes bashing one of our most beloved and successful businesses for having the audacity to receive deliveries.

Hey Minett, did you not see the shopping center at your rear property line when you bought your house?

The usual suspects obviously rounded up anybody breathing that would buy into their warped interpretation of the Harmon recommendation and carefully coordinated their alleged “overwhelming opposition”. Even with the numbers clearly in their favor (I would say 80% in attendance were the opposition), they still couldn’t even manage to do better than a neutral article in the Journal News. Congratulations!

Last night made me lose all hope of a meaningful compromise. It’s all or nothing with the NCN malcontents.

Kudos to our Mayor for extending the olive branch in the face of a continued barrage of character assassinations and personal attacks against him. The NCNers have no votes and no power so the only conclusion I can draw from their theatrics last night is that they don’t want a seat at the table to help shape Croton’s future, they are just in it for the bitching and moaning.

— Truth Hurts

Ice Cream Throwdown: Monkey vs. Pig

Monkey

Photo: Olivia W., 06/08/09

The Purple Monkey
171 Riverside Avenue (Croton Commons) Croton-on-Hudson, New York 10520

Pig

Photo: Olivia W., 06/08/09

The Blue Pig
121 Maple Street Croton-on-Hudson, New York 10520