Yankee Stadium Project Not a Done Deal?

According to Patrick Arden in today’s Metro, there is still much concern about the proposed new Yankee Stadium, even within the Bronx delegation. According to Helen Foster, one of the area’s councilwomen:

“Many Council members have concerns, many more than the media realizes,” said Foster, who represents the Highbridge neighborhood and opposes the project. “The Bronx delegation isn’t completely on board yet. I don’t see how between now and Wednesday the issues that we have can be resolved.”

Foster also makes an interesting point about how the Yankee plan relates to the Bronx Terminal Market redevelopment. She says that the projects are very much related but the city pursued them separately “for money reasons.” Because of this poor planning, alternate locations for Yankee Stadium (such as south of the current site) were never considered and now are unusable because they will part of the Gateway Mall.

Manhattan Councilman Dan Garodnick, chair of the land use subcommittee that will first vote on the proposal, had some interesting remarks as well:

“[Yankee President Randy Levine’s] reasons were that the footprint of the current stadium was too small and that the Yankees did not want to bear the expense and inconvenience of playing in Queens,” he said. “But in response to my questions, it became clear that this is really a matter of money. I still have some concerns.”

The major question is whether these concerns translate into credible, widespread opposition. There is still a lot of support within the Bronx Delegation so it will be interesting to see which way the Speaker will lean on this. While he hope that Councilwoman Foster is right, odds still are that the project will be approved and that the legal option will have to be exercised.

A lawsuit, though, may be quite effective in killing the project, at least according to one professor:

“If this gets dragged through the courts, it could be years,” said Baruch College professor Neil Sullivan. “Construction costs will keep going up, and it will become too expensive to build. That’s what killed the Westway.”

Butts for Terror

When Gristedes filed its lawsuit against the Indian retailers one of the complaints was that untaxed smokes is a source of terrorist financing. In response to the complaint, the tribal spokespeople took great umbrage over the terrorism link even though the point that was made was that the differential between untaxed and taxed cigarettes, and not the direct intention of the tribes, provided the opportunity for the financing of terrorist activity.

Now we have another confirmation of this point and a further indication that the tribes were protesting too much. In today's Daily Star, the largest English language paper in the Middle East, there is an article about 19 people who are charged in connection with a scheme to fund the terrorist group Hizbullah. Here is the money quote:

"The indictment charges that the group would obtain low-taxed or untaxed cigarettes in North Carolina and the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in New York and bring them into Michigan and the state of New York for the purpose of evading tens of millions in state cigarette taxes."

As the story goes on to report, "The enterprise obtained large profits by reselling the cigarettes at market prices in Michigan and New York." Just as we have been arguing till we're blue in the face. Not only do these tax disparities hurt local businesses they also threaten our country's security.

Developer Needs to Answer these Questions about Wal-Mart

On April 4th, there will be a scoping session for participants to suggest what the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Monsey Wal-Mart should examine. Here is a summary of what the Alliance will be asking the developer’s consultant to address:

• Impact on Small Businesses – How many competing store will close and what does this signify in terms of jobs and tax loss?

• Economic Impact of Small Businesses – According to the multiplier effect, small businesses, by utilizing local services, contractors and wholesalers, keep more money in the local economy. If a new Wal-Mart results in the closure of competing neighborhood businesses how will this economically affect the service-providers (lawyers, banks, graphic designers, newspapers advertising) that currently rely on the threatened businesses?

• Property Values – How will a 215,000 sq. ft. Wal-Mart affect both commercial property values and the residential property values of the neighborhoods that are proximate to the store?

• Public Safety – Wal-Mart’s all across the country increase the burden on neighborhood police precincts. What will the cost of the potential increase be and how does it compare to the projected tax gains the country will receive from the store’s operation?

• Costs to Tax Payers – It is important to examine how much the proposed project will cost tax-payers in terms of Wal-Mart workers and their children using public safety net programs and the store receiving subsidies.

Trash Talking at Waste Management

In a thoughtful article in this week's Village Voice Tom Robbins delves into the labor dispute between Waste Mangement and Local 813 of the Teamsters. The bottom line: If no agreement is reached the city could well be looking at a garbage strike in the private sector come April 1st.

What is particularly of interest here is Robbins' narrative about the evolution of the city's commercial garbage collection. He rightly points out that then elimination of the unsavory element and the ushering in of Waste created its own problems. In fact, as Ray Kerrison pointed out over ten years ago in a NY Post column, "The Hoodlums are Out, But Who's In?"

In some ways the city traded in one monopoly for another and the fanfare surrounding the elimination of the "mob tax" proved to be premature: First, the big national firms, with Waste Management in the lead, started dropping customers, complaining that the city's cap on garbage collection prices was too low. The city responded by allowing some prices to rise, with the predictable result that many small businesses complained that their costs soared by 500 percent."

As a result, disposal costs for the city's food stores and restaurants now exceeds those charged during the reign of the old mob cartel. This is precisely why the Alliance has been advocating the use of food waste disposers for the private sector. It would dramatically reduce the amount of waste hauled from neighborhoods at both the retail and transfer station points in the disposal system. It would also, if implemented properly in the residential sector, dramatically reduce the city's garbage export costs.

In the process of removing the mob, however, Waste did emerge with a strong and profitable presence in the city's transfer station and garbage export business. It is the current duopoly that puts great pressure on the city and makes the export option so expensive. Innovation is stifled as alternative methods are stillborn given the private sector's stranglehold on solid waste management.

Wal-Mart Traffic Fears

Al Meehan, a resident of Rockland County, where Wal-Mart wants to build a supercenter, writes a very good letter to the local paper describing his greatest concern about the project:

I am curious as to what is going to happen to the Rockland Drive-In. A super Wal-Mart? Route 59 in Monsey doesn't need any more traffic and congestion. Why doesn't the Town of Ramapo take over the drive-in and turn it into a park with little gardens, green grass and nature trails?

Three and a half years ago, I moved to Rockland from the Yonkers area. I soon went into semi-retirement and wanted to live in a more natural environment with peace and quiet and with a slower and more relaxed pace. I wanted to escape from the hustle and bustle, stop and go traffic, congestion and the commercialism of the Central Avenue area.

It is worse here.

Indeed!

"Standing on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona"

Just finished listening to Imus in the Morning talk about the impact of Wal-Mart on small town America. He recounted taking his wife to the Winslow, Arizona, the town made famous in the Eagles song. He told his audience that it was really sad because the town was almost completely boarded up. The reason: Wal-Mart was built on the highway right on the outskirts of town.

This is the reality in many different areas of this country and it must come into play as Ramapo begins to gauge the store's impact along the RT. 59 corridor in Rockland County, New York. The economic and social costs must be carefully examined so the putative benefits are put into the proper perspective.

The Alliance's consultant Brian Ketcham does this in his traffic analysis. He points out that consultants hired by developers almost never examine the social costs of additional traffic. This doesn't mean just the aggravation and lost work time for those stuck on RT. 59 trying to get to work or go home. As Ketcham points out in his prepared testimony the congestion can be quantified if you model the increase in the number of accidents and the environmental impact of the traffic jams: "The dollar cost of these impacts is estimated at about $30 million a year. These are costs shifted from Wal-Mart to your community."

The beguiling mantra of economic development in the case of a Wal-Mart needs to be thoroughly examined and, when seen in conjunction with increased traffic and crime, we believe that the costs far outweigh the benefits.

Governor Butts Heads With Legislature

The recently concluded state budget negotiations were not without acrimony. The governor's budget division folks are carping about the legislature's refusal to include Pataki's $1.50 cigarette tax in the final package. As the NY Times reports this morning, "The governor's staff also expressed concern that the Legislature was rejecting Governor Pataki's plan to increase cigarette taxes, which provide money for a variety of health care initiatives..."

Joe Bruno and the NYS Senate have been the strongest opponents of the increase and as John McArdle, Bruno's Senate spokesman said, "'there are plenty of other options besides new taxes to pay for health care.'" Let's hope so.

Still unresolved, however, is the fate of Mayor Bloomberg's additional 50 cent a pack increase for New York City. We certainly hope that the moolah provided by the state for the city's school system is enough to assuage the need for the legislature to cave in on this issue. As we have said before the increase will only encourage the Indian retail black marketers.

Vermin and Disposers

The papers have recently been reporting on how New Yorkers are getting fed up with rats, cockroaches and other vermin. In Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn the failure to pick up garbage has resulted in a rodent feast right by PS 32. In Stuy Town, cockroaches are such a problem that at least one resident has decided to move ASAP.

One major reason for this vector problem is that there is a readily available food source: the organic refuse thrown out everyday by New Yorkers. The City of Philadelphia realized this public health danger and decided to mandate grinders in order to lessen the amount of material being thrown into dumpsters that would attract rats and insects. We are confident that the City Council will grasp this positive aspect of disposers and pass Intro 133, which will conduct a cost/benefit analysis prior to any legalization of these devices.

Monsey Wal-Mart: Prototypical Traffic Deficiency

On Tuesday, April 4th, the Town of Ramapo Planning Board will be holding a "scoping session" before letting the developer of the proposed Wal-Mart on Rt. 59 begin to conduct the environmental review pursuant to the submission of a full EIS. The purpose of such a session is to give the various stakeholders-neighborhood residents, small businesses and elected officials-the opportunity to suggest the kind of data that the developer's consultants should be collecting if an adequate analysis is to be forthcoming.

Typically consultants for the developer try to minimize the potential impacts of a project in an attempt to reduce opposition. It is also typical that localities, and this includes a large city such as New York, don't have either the inclination or the resources to challenge the developer's self-serving data.

This leaves it up to the opponents to hire expertise to question a project's assumptions. In the case of the Monsey Wal-Mart the Alliance has retained Brian Ketcham and he has already examined the preliminary traffic data that was submitted to the Ramapo Board. It shouldn't be shock to find that this traffic report leaves a great deal to be desired.

Initially, the submitted study appears to be almost entirely derivative: the consultants did very little independent data collection and instead relied on available information from the town and NYS DOT. Cleary, one of the primary necessities here will be for the consultants to collect data from comparable Wal-Mart stores in similar milieus.

In addition, as Ketcham points out, any reliance on the Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) trip generation rates is inadequate because these numbers are not only dated but they don't speak well to the hyper-Wal-Mart phenomenon. Wal-Mart is certainly not average.

One thing we know about Wal-Mart is that the company possesses precise data on customer counts by the hour! It will not be difficult to get a better estimate than the one that the consultants have submitted which relies on the experiences of the contiguous Pathmark supermarket. Pathmark is a grocery store that services the local community, not a regional supercenter that will draw people from as far away as the Bronx and Westchester.

It is also important to point out that the regional nature of the store means that the shopping patterns of the local Orthodox Jewish community will not be the factor that the consultants are alleging in their preliminary report. In fact it is more probable that, instead of the diminution of business that Pathmark experiences on Friday night and Saturday, there will be an increase as non-Orthodox shoppers take advantage of the relative calm in the local community.

Ketcham goes on to question the parking requirements and his full report can be found here. A final point is the issue of the "societal costs" of the store. Here the issue is traffic accidents and particularly the higher rate of fatalities that characterizes the Rt.59 corridor. Community safety, and not only traffic is involved in this, will become a big issue as the debate evolves on this Monsey store.

Anyone who is concerned with the quality of life in this area of Rockland should come down to the Ramapo Planning Board meeting at the town Hall on Tuesday at 7:30 PM.

Traffic Remedy for Staten Island?

In his unveiling of a "comprehensive" plan to alleviate Staten Island's traffic problem Mayor Bloomberg takes a page out of Murray Edelman's classic book, The Symbolic Uses of Politics. As Edelman points out, politics proceeds on a symbolic level (as opposed to a tangible one where folks actually get something concrete) when public pronouncements are used to relieve anxiety, allay uncertainty and, thereby, promote quiescence.

The use of symbolic rewards (such as press conferences announcing "comprehensive"plans to address intractable problems), creates the impression that action is being taken when nothing is really being done that would deal fundamentally with the problem at hand.

This is precisely the case with The StatenIsland Transportation Task Force. As the NY Times reports,"The announcement gave Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican who received significant support from Staten Island voters during his mayoral campaigns, an opportunity to surround himself with other Republican politicians..." In other words, as Otto Schindler said, "I'm here for the presentation."

All of which is better underscored in yesterday's StatenIsland Advance. As the paper reports, "The bulk of the proposed long-term projects that could make the most difference-such as road widenings and the replacement of the Goethals Bridge-will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are in the out, out capital years." Precisely so; long after Bloomberg goes back to giving away his considerable fortune.

The Advance captures the point we're making about the two levels of politics when it indicates, "All that raises the question of how much the transportation task force will be able to accomplish." And the area that has been designated by Borough President Molinaro as a "traffic nightmare" along Page Avenue (where the Walmonster wants to go) has a "to be determined" time frame when it comes to road improvements.

This means that the proposed Wal-Mart for Richmond Valley Road and Page Avenue will potentially create-What transcends a "traffic nightmare"? As Amanda, The Dollar-a-Year Burden points out, "she did not know if those developers {including the Stop-N-Shop builders} could be forced beyond the legal requirement to improve local roadways if and when they seek approval from the city if and when they seek to build in those areas."

When, however, a project will exacerbate an already nightmarish traffic situation the city can simply say no to the developer's plans. This, we will argue, is exactly what should be done when Wal-Mart comes begging later this year.

Comparing Apples and Basketballs

The Daily News reported yesterday (with an assist to the clever playmaker Matt Scheurman) that State Senator Velmanette Montgomery is arguing that the $100 million requested by FCRC for Atlantic Yards be blocked "until a desperately needed Sunset Park high school is built..." Which might make some sense if the senator wasn't simply against any money going to Ratner at any time. Cause we all know that should the money for the school be forthcoming Montgomery's position on the project funding would still be -NO!

And of course if the AY development is not going to mean a net gain in jobs and city revenues it makes no sense to fund it at all. If, however, there is going to be a huge influx of positive economic growth, and we believe this to be the case, than trying to hold the arena plan hostage to a school building that everyone admits has been 37 years in the making is plain silly.

The refrain should be: more tax revenue, more money for schools. Which is one of the reasons that the nascent Brooklyn Amateur Sports Alliance (BASA) will be in Albany today. The other reasons are derived from the fact that the arena development will be a major boon to amateur athletics in Brooklyn, to groups in Senator Montgomery's district for sure. And we inform these folks that their senator is opposed to AY, well, we'll let her explain her position to her constituents.

The BASA will be constituted officially next week and we plan to reach all across the borough with clinics that emphasize athletics and academics-basketball as a means to an end and not an end in itself. We also plan to do a borough-wide BB tourney this summer that links the diverse Brooklyn neighborhoods together. FCRC and the Brooklyn Nets will become a major stakeholder for amateur sports in Brooklyn and the rest of the city.

Watch out NYK! With the Nets success on the court and the Knicks abysmal management it will only be a matter of time before the Brooklyn Nets logo becomes the hot ticket item in this city. We anticipate that the BASA will be working alongside the Nets and FCRC for many years to come.

The Yanks Are Coming!

As we approach the City Council hearing on the proposed Yankee Stadium more and more people are weighing in on the less than transparent political process that seems to be characteristic of the Bronx. We are particularly amused by Andrew Wolfe's take on the Yankees and how it underscores the questionable nature of the entire process.

In Wolf'e view, the use of a community benefits agreement masks the extent to which a new Tammany-like "honest graft" is being created in the Bronx. Now Wolfe sees absolutely no merit in the desire of the community to preserve its parks ("environmentalists who view parkland as sacred in perpetuity..."). But he blanches at the shakedown of the Yankees.

As he points out, "To ensure the continued support of Bronx elected officials, a scheme has been concocted to have the Yankees set up a $28 million trust fund to be run by 'an individual of prominence' selected by a group appointed by Bronx political leaders." Wolfe rightly sees this for what it is-public policy for sale.

He also sites the support that Maria Baez gave to the BJ's project in the BTM development, a project that Wolfe approves, as the same kind of "honest graft." The entire CBA charade needs to be redesigned so that the use of this vehicle doesn't get transformed into its opposite: a boondoggle that benefits the political machine much more than any putative community interest.

Confused (C) For (F) Ever (E)

In all of the hoo hah over the Campaign for Fiscal Equity's lawsuit and the state court decision saying that New York City school kids are being shortchanged, there is no better explanation of the legal issues than is contained in the article in today's NY Sun by Jacob Gershman ("A Court Without Power"). It all comes down to the fact that the court has no power to enforce its ruling.

Under our system of checks and balances it is the legislature that appropriates money and the executive that spends it (Of course when it comes to Indian retailers the governor has decided to take the law into his own hand). This is precisely why Speaker Silver has talked about the governor's "moral" rather than "legal" obligation to follow the court's ruling.

Plaintiff's lawyer Michael Rebell laments that the governor is setting a bad example for the kids by flouting "the rule of law." Others see it diferently and wonder how the violation of the legal separation of powers would enhance respect for the law. All of which reminds us of President Jackson's response to the SC's ruling on the banks: "Well, John Marshall has made his ruling, now let him enforce it."

One Burnt, Twice Burnt Again

In today’s Daily News Errol Louis has a scathingly accurate column on how the pols in the Bronx need to listen to their communities and not rubber stamp a highly problematic Yankee Stadium proposal:

But it's not clear that the Bronx's elected officials, each of whom has sworn to protect the interests of his constituents, did very much demanding at all. Shame on them all, especially Borough President Adolfo Carrion and the county's Democratic boss, Assemblyman Jose Rivera.

Dispensing with all pretense of protecting the public interest, Rivera has allowed one of his right-hand men, longtime Bronx fixer Stanley Schlein - who was on Rivera's Assembly staff throughout last year and doubles as the party's lawyer - to also collect a paycheck from the Yankees to goose the project along.

Carrion, who is busy trying to run for mayor, has his own conflicts of interest - he has collected $9,000 in contributions from Yankee executives so far - and has been roundly criticized for giving community organizations the big runaround. This week, for instance, neither Carrion nor anybody from his office - despite promises to the contrary - could find time to attend a forum on the pros and cons of the project held at the New York Foundation.

We must point out that the precedent for this type of development was set by the Bronx Terminal Market fiasco. What can we really expect from Bronx politicians who, for the most part, did not even raise an eyebrow when 23 merchants were exterminated to make way for a mall development that many agreed was one of the biggest sweetheart deals in recent memory. Unfortunately the BTM merchants were the canaries in the mine shaft, portending how unrepresentative Bronx politics can be.

The Rockland Business Association And Wal-Mart

We met yesterday with Sandy Fried the owner of The Tire Warehouse in Spring Valley, New York. Sandy is a member of a group called the Rockland Business Association. Now we have been trying to make contact with the RBA and, since Mr. Fried is a member and supports our efforts against the Walmonster, we thought it would be a good idea if he reached out to Al Samuels, RBA's president.

Which he did but not with the results we would have hoped. It seems that Big Al is suspicious of the Alliance and told Sandy Fried that he thinks we are a "carpetbagger outfit." So, without the courtesy of a meeting, the head of a group that purports to represent Rockland's business community, a group that has actually set up a Small Business Council, won't meet to discuss the impact of the largest single retailer to look to locate in Rockland.

How sad is that? What's really ironic is that of all the participants in this site fight the Alliance's Richard Lipsky may be the only local resident of the county. In addition, calling the Alliance a carpetbagger when it looks to fight the ultimate retail carpetbagger of all time is beyond absurd and is an egregious example of the toadying that certain business groups do when the Walmonster comes to town.

In looking at the membership list of the RBA, however, what strikes us is the relative paucity of retailers. The RBA clearly doesn't represent the interests of local retailers in Monsey, Suffern, Airmont and Spring Valley. What's more it also doesn't represent the suppliers of these retailers, the local wholesalers who will also be ruined when their customers are put out of business. In addition, it isn't representing the professionals--the accountants, lawyers, insurance brokers and bankers--who service the local businesses and will be shut out by the out-of-town retail giant.

The RBA should have an obligation to examine carefully the potential negative impact of a Super Wal-Mart in Rockland. We have seen the kinds of impacts that the store has had on rural and suburban downtowns all over the country and there is no reason to believe that the Rt. 59 corridor would be any different. Just think of the local drug stores, supermarkets, florists, optometrists, dress store, appliance outlets- the list is endless-who will be put at risk by a Super Wal-Mart.

Not to mention the predatory pricing practices of the company. As we have pointed out, Wal-Mart doesn't look to compete it looks to eliminate the competition with initial prices that are designed to put competitors under. Once this is accomplished the company reverts back to a more profitable price structure.

All of which is meant to underscore the serious economic issues involved in the Monsey Wal-Mart fight. This seriousness demands that a group whose charter it is to represent and advocate for local business must not roll over and become a shill for a company that will threaten the viability of many hundreds of Rockland businesses.

Roger Perb-turbed

As NY 1 first reported yesterday, and is followed up in the papers today, the Public Employee Relations Board has voted to send the transit contract dispute to binding arbitration. Roger Toussaint, Local 100's leader, nevertheless vowed to re-submit the rejected contract back to the members saying, "Today's PERB ruling serves neither transit workers nor the riding public." Nor, of course, does it serve Roger himself very well.

Clearly Toussaint has not distinguished himself and the editorial in today's NY Post underscores just how much the contract fiasco has hurt his reputation. It's not just that Roger is dislikable, a trait that a leader can overcome, he is now being viewed as ineffective. This, when combined with his lack of good looks and charm, is becoming insurmountable as union elections loom at the end of the year.

The longer this dispute keeps going the more vulnerable Toussaint appears to be. It certainly doesn't help him that as of today workers will lose a day's pay for each day of work missed during the strike. All of which makes the re-vote process that much more interesting.

Yanking Their Chain

In today's NY Daily News Juan Gonzales goes after the Bronx political machine for its subservience to Boss George and a concomitant lack of concern for community interests. In particular, he comments on the lightening-like speed that the legislature passed the bill to alienate the parkland that the Yankees will use to build their new stadium: "Steinbrenner's bill, as it will now be known, was introduced in both houses of the legislature over the weekend of June 18...and the final vote was done by June 23."

The issue of the parks has been flim-flammed by proponents and their media acolytes and ignores the construction gap-the years when the old parks will be destroyed but nothing will have yet been built to replace them. What it really comes down to is that the elected officials in the Bronx have been given carte blanche by a downtrodden and apathetic constituency. Perhaps this, along with the Terminal Market debacle, will light a spark of grass roots democracy in a borough that doesn't get to experience it often.

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

When we criticized the Bronx Terminal Market CBA we mentioned that a major concern was that the flawed agreement would become a precedent in the Bronx. It seems that our worries have been confirmed after seeing what the Yankees are supposedly offering to the community.

According to the NY Times today:

As part of the Yankees' proposal to build a new stadium, the team will contribute $28 million to a trust fund and distribute 15,000 free tickets each season to Bronx groups, according to the draft plan of a community benefits program.

The proposal also calls for the team to pay $100,000 a year to maintain parks around the stadium and distribute $100,000 a year in "equipment and promotional merchandise" to schools and youth groups in New York City.

As the paper points out one problem with this agreement is that there is no guarantee that a lion share of the money will go to the South Bronx community that is being asked to give up its park and accommodate increased traffic (and the money being proposed is a meager 3.5% of the project's total value). Another is that the fund will be administered by an “individual of promise” appointed by an elected-official controlled panel.

"It would be like the fox guarding the henhouse," said City Councilwoman Helen Diane Foster, one of the few Bronx officials opposing the new stadium.

And like the Bronx Terminal Market agreement one of the most egregious shortfalls with the Yankees deal is that the community has never been involved in the negotiations and therefore its concessions are minimal and enforceability suspect.

Bronx Community Board 4 member Lukas Herbert sums up document nicely:

After he read the eight-page draft yesterday, Mr. Herbert called the $28 million trust fund a "slush fund."

"This thing is disgraceful," he said. "It's going to be controlled by the Bronx political machine — the very people who sold out the community in the first place."

We must also mention that Councilwoman Helen Foster has been one of the few elected officials who has stood by her community:

"Everything we hear is about how this is going to be a better thing for the Yankees and their fans. But I don't care about the Yankees, I care about my constituents," she said.

Council on the Warpath?

In today's NY Sun Russell Berman reports on the City Council's weighing in on the Indian cigarette controversy. Council member Lou Fidler has introduced a resolution that calls on the governor to start enforcing the tax laws. As Finance Chair David Weprin says, "I think it's outrageous that the governor is not enforcing the law..." The Council plans to hold a hearing on the measure after the budget process is completed.

The paper goes on to recount how this dispute is pitting Pataki against Attorney General Spitzer, an elected official who feels strongly that the governor needs to enforce the law. Clearly, however, the state's claim that Indian violence is a reason for not enforcing the law doesn't sit well with the sponsor of the Council resolution. "'I don't believe it's appropriate to succumb to that'...Lewis Fidler of Brooklyn said, 'I don't believe you negotiate the enforcement of a statute when it's legal and on the books.'"

Amen to that. Things are starting to move in the right direction on this issue and the Gristedes lawsuit will certainly roil the waters further. Isn't it time for the mayor to step in and join us?

A Better Idea for Monsey

In today's Rockland Journal News the paper editorializes in favor of a "Science Academy" for a site that is being proposed for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Monsey. As the paper says, and we agree, "We bet that most area residents would prefer a school to a large shopping center which would exacerbate traffic in an already overbuilt area along Route 59."

The paper goes on to praise Mayor Darden of Spring Valley for his concern for the renewal of downtown Spring Valley, "Since he is convinced that a Wal-Mart would cause environmental and economic damage to Spring Valley, which is facing downtown renewal..."

The paper encourages the Ramapo planners to entertain this alternative idea and we agree wholeheartedly. An elite academy for math and science makes a lot more sense than a community wrecking Walmonster. "Let the idea be debated. A specialized academy that could help build the brain-trust this nation needs in math and sciences would be tempting."