Opinion: FASNY: Ground Control to Major Tom

Dear Mayor Roach,

I’m perplexed as to why you don’t put your constituent’s best interests, who easily outnumber FASNY’s, first. There’s been something suspicious about this project from day one when FASNY made the specious claim that they would create no more traffic than the Ridgeway Country Club. This outrageous claim has caused concern about FASNY’s intentions from day one. Unlike our neighborhood association, FASNY has unlimited resources and undoubtedly has had your attention from the very beginning.

We continue to ask questions that baffle all of us, and yet it seems that we’re the ones who are scrutinized and not FASNY. We’ve been subjected to this never ending cat and mouse game of going to meeting after meeting and writing letter after letter appealing to your good judgment and sense of fair play, only to see the Common Council overwhelmingly vote in FASNY’s favor at every turn. Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting different results”.

It’s difficult to remain hopeful of a different result when this Common Council has been consistently and predictably unresponsive to our plight with the exception of Mrs. Milagros Lecuona and Mr. Dennis Krolian. Ironically, Mrs. Lecuona is in the best position to anticipate the reality of FASNY’s negative impact due to her background as an urban planner planner and architect.

We continue to ask questions and yet we have to fight so hard for transparency. Why did it have to take so much prodding for you and FASNY to reveal the latest traffic count where it was found that over 800 cars use Hathaway per day? And this was during a Jewish holiday! Well we know why, because it does not favor FASNY’s plans to close Hathaway, hence concealing the traffic study from the public.

It was revealed that FASNY would add 500 cars (a conservative estimate) in a peak hour to our streets. Ridgeway Avenue is an already congested two-lane road that was designed in the 1770’s and was never intended to absorb that amount of traffic.

Most of the FASNY people come in the direction of Larchmont, Mamaroneck and Scarsdale and will willingly choose Ridgeway Avenue as opposed to the Hutchinson Parkway; I know I would, where heavy traffic at rush hour is the norm. As a result the entrance at North Street is just another example of FASNY’s deception and misdirection, just like their claim that buses would mitigate traffic, which is unenforceable.

Mayor Roach, can’t you see that this is not a school but a campus where over 1,000 students, faculty and workers are disproportionate to our neighborhood, and will have an adverse impact to our quality of life? We know that FASNY doesn’t care but I’ll try and remain hopeful that you do.

Sincerely,
Jon DeMartin