All politics is local and thankfully we don't have to decide between Nancy Pelosi and that Canadian, Ted Cruz. Politics aside, our local candidates from both sides exemplify the best of Yorktown with their selfless dedication to public service. It takes a lot of time away from family, opens you up for lots of criticism, and costs a tidy sum of personal money; I applaud the all of the campaigns in their stand-up efforts.
For the most part, we agree on most everything: taxes should be low, schools should be excellent and safe (plus have awesome sports teams), roads and infrastructure must be maintained, the insane bureaucracy of the planning, zoning and building processes has to be streamlined and made more resident friendly; women should be strong, men good looking--and all children above average.
That said, there's still a clear distinction to be made between the Republican and Democratic lines. For me the election pivots on visions for the future of Yorktown, from a development perspective.
The elephants in the room, almost literally, are the Costco and State Land Corp. sites. They are easily the two largest parcels in play for radical (in a good way) and positive development in the entire town.
Unfortunately family and work time only allowed me to attend one candidates debate; that visit was cut short by the 1 (of 4) daughters I brought with me who started loudly snoring--quite literally, and loudly.
What struck me at that meeting were two comments from the GOP side:
1) Ms. Forcina is a very strong candidate. She presents her position clearly, seems reasonable, and has deep roots in the community. In the discussion of the Costco proposal, she lamented having to drive her daughter (and friends) to nearby communities such as Ridgefield for activities they enjoyed.
While I join with Ms. Forcina in promoting the site for major new development, I don't think my girls will be asking me to take them to Costco. I believe in my heart of hearts (and in my professional opinion) that the Yorktown Comprehensive Plan would hold legal water to any challenge to a denial of the application. Our forbearers weren't that dumb when they adopted it as law.
My prediction, you ask? It gets approved by the planning board before the end of the year.
2) Mr. Murphy--easily the handsomest of all the candidates--describing the State Land Corp. site as an anchor to the Costco site, similar to a mall with two anchors. Except this is not a mall, it's the greatest opportunity to develop it in a different way; it's town planning. It scares me to think of 202 as a "mall" anchored by a Costco and a Lowe's over a couple mile stretch. Instead of a 152,000 square foot, single tenant building, the 18 acres at Costco could have a mix of occupancies and uses. It could be a destination where I could bring my 4 daughters, but Costco is not that place; it's a great corporate citizen, better than BJ's (across the street), but my wife takes one for the team and does the bulk buying--it's not a fun task. And by the way, she never dwells and shops around other stores; she fills the car, drives home and then we all unload it.
Taxes are high but we are not going to get out of it through commercial tax ratables. It helps, for sure, but the Costco DEIS clearly showed it only benefited half the town--Yorktown Central School District--and was nominal, around 30 dollars. That's .03 % on a $10,000 tax bill. I think the real story is the fuzzy-math accounting used to arrive at the purported tax "decreases."
Evan, you ask, so why are the Democrats going to lose?
Voter turnout. Yorktown has 8,468 registered Democrats, 7,862 Republicans (Dems advantage of 606), and 1,757 Independents with a whopping 1,399 voting(there's one in my house). While winning the Independent vote is critical to any winner, the Republicans outvote the Democrats. 15% more in the 2013 primary and 12% more in the 2011 elections. The trend is decidedly against the Democrats in Yorktown.
No matter your party affiliation, make sure you get out and vote this Tuesday. You can't do it wrong; they have lots of helpful volunteers to walk you through it. Yorktown is a great community and your voice only makes it stronger.
