Friday, February 06, 2009

MESSAGE FROM MAYOR OF ARDSLEY JAY LEON IN RESPONSE TO INACCURATE STATEMENTS ON BLOG RE: WATERWHEEL

To all,

I don't know who wrote this message, but it was apparently BCC'd to many people in Ardsley. It's from a disgruntled Greenburgh resident who feels Supervisor Feiner betrayed unincorporated residents by breaking a promise not to permit Section 8 housing in a project in the Fulton Park section of Greenburgh.

There is no provision for Section 8 housing in the Waterwheel project. There is no reason to surmise that there will be. We cannot permit negative people who are ignorant of all the facts and who have an axe to grind to sabotage our project or to distract us from a worthy cause.

To date the Town has been very open and inclusive in their dealings with the RFP process of the Waterwheel. I would ask that you make this clear to any of your neighbors and friends who may have received this message and are confused by it.

Thanks and have a good weekend.

Jay Leon
Mayor, Village of Ardsley

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry Jay if Feiner has anything to say about this project you can be assured that section eight will be considered in the planning behind closed doors.
He will screw you in Ardsley the same way he did to Fulton park.
He cannot be trusted anymore.

Anonymous said...

Feiner and the board speak with a forked tongue.

They cannot be trusted.

Anonymous said...

The above comments make no sense because the town will be turning over the property to a developer who will answer to Ardsley. Greenburgh will be paid for the property.

Anonymous said...

The above comments make perfect sense. The greater the discount off the purchase price that Greenburgh gives to the developer, the less likely the developer will need to guarantee lenders that the tenancy will qualify for Section 8 vouchers. In other words, the more willing Feiner and the town board is to give away the Waterwheel property for less than its true value -- and to hell with the taxpayers -- the more Jay Leon will get his wish that there be no Section 8 housing at that location. So it's no wonder that Mayor Leon is sucking up to Feiner and the town board right now. He knows a sweetheart deal when he sees one. And if he doesn't get Greenburgh to agree to a big enough discount off market, he'll have a helluva time explaining to Ardsley residents how he ended up having to settle for Section 8 housing.

Anonymous said...

The 10:46 posting makes no internal sense at all. He really doesn't understand the relationship between price and Section 8 housing and his posting implodes on itself.

What this shows is the venom that is spewed by some people. They would slime mother's milk.

I don't live in Ardsley but I do know that Mayor Leon is the midel of what a munucipal leader should be. Knowledgeable, honest, fair and devoted to community service.

Anonymous said...

10:46 understands exactly.

But more is at stake, the schools. This type of Section 8 in working class neighborhoods and not allowed, and govt subsidies for middle class in middle class can and has led to school desegration suits. Paul has never cared about avoiding lawsuits. No one can afford this.

Anonymous said...

Towns can't avoid lawsuits. They can win them. Didn't the town just win a big lawsuit that went to the NYS Court of Appeals? Didn't some of the bloggers predict they would lose the lawsuit?

Anonymous said...

and we have lost too. big ones. and have ones.

but more importantly, it isnt right to put all subsidized income in poorer areas. WP avoided litigation by putting all around.

so -- do you think it is right for the town to decide to put section 8 all in one part of town.

Anonymous said...

Ardsley is showing more and more willingness to combine with other parts of Greenburgh. For example, they are sharing their library with Elmsford. Maybe the time has come for ASD to expand its boundaries.

Anonymous said...

The post by 9:28am left me speechless. It's by far the nicest thing anyone's said to me since I became mayor. Thank you very much for the kind words; it means a lot to me.

Jay

Anonymous said...

Waves to Paul at 9:28

Anonymous said...

There are some nasty people out there. Mayor Leon is not a nasty man. He is a good public servant who wants to provide affordable housing to volunteer firefighters. Unfortunately, some mean people are trying to stop good things from happening. They have nothing better to do with their lives than to destroy, tear apart the community and make people miserable. Sad. The blog has become their lives.

Anonymous said...

I wish Mayor Leon would run for Greenburgh Supervisor.

Regarding expanding Ardsley School District, it's already too big, covering eastern Dobbs Ferry, western Greenburgh, as well as the village. If anything, it needs to be trimmed down.

Anonymous said...

if you live outside the ardsley school district it may be possible to buy in depending on the size of the class.

edgemont sells space to outsiders.

however, almost every student who lives in the ardsley school district attends school in the district as opposed to a private school.

Anonymous said...

edgemont sells space to outsiders ... used to sell space, like most other good school districts ... edgemont no longer engages in this practice due to lack of physical space

Anonymous said...

Lets go back to the Waterwheel, and its usage for workforce housing. The issues to me, are,

1. How will the Town insure that evryone in the Town, not just Ardsely gets a fair shot at the housing? If the Town wont, will the NAACP get involved, as they have in other place?

2. How does the Town justify forcing low-income down the throats of Fulton Park, but not Ardsley?

3. How does the Town justify selling the land below market, to subsidize racially segregated subsdized housing?

4. What effect will Town sponsered racially segregated housing have on any school segrgation issues?

Thank you for any civil responses.

Anonymous said...

It is difficult to respond civilly to the person who wrote the 11:12 blog. The reason is that he puts everything in racial terms. When you talk about race, especially when you make accusations of racism, you can'r expect to have a cvil discussion because the premise is both wrong and insulting.

Of course that won't stop the 11:12writer because he can only argue on manufactured race lines.

Anonymous said...

I thought 11:12 was very civil. I dont put everything in racial terms, but this stark contrast, only months apart, of how the Town is handling subsidized housing, speaks for itself.

Anonymous said...

amazing. The nation is getting to be more tolerant of the poor. A handful of Greenburgh residents are acting like they live in the deep south circa 1950.

Anonymous said...

The deep south in 1950s? That would be with govt mandated segregated school districts? right?

Anonymous said...

Jay Leon for supervisor, is worse than Feiner...not as evil, but just plain inept.

I live in Ardsley and the words to best describe Jay are, NAIVE & obsequious.

Alexander Roberts is a good man who is an expert on "affordable housing.' Not even the perfidious Town Board or the more than "over his head," Leon,can mess this deal up.

Anonymous said...

The above statement was probably written by a disgruntled, nasty and angry former village official. No need to insult the mayor.

Anonymous said...

hey anon - if you can do a better job then run for office.

so whats your record of accomplishment and how does it stack up to mayor leon?

Anonymous said...

A message to Mr. Leon,

You might want to consider that people are not "confused", i.e. stupid, but rather are concerned that different treament of different groups of people will come back to bite in the @SS.

Anonymous said...

Leon is a great mayor what I'm afraid of that he will fall into the Greenburgs town board trap of presenting lies to the residents.

As we all know the Greenburgh town board has sold the residents down the river.
This should not happen to any other part of town .

Anonymous said...

Jay don't get involved with the town board of Greenburgh.

They screwed up royally with Westhab and you can rest assured they will try to do the same in your area.