Missing the (Park) Point

One of the many "Tax Park Point" signs around town.

New Paltz, whose residents positively beam when they can collaborate on a common goal, but at the same time are often so eager to fight that they will dress each other down for agreeing poorly, is missing a golden opportunity to bridge a longstanding gulf.

Signs protesting the Park Point project cropped up seemingly overnight this past weekend, and after reading so much about my neighbors' feelings online and in the paper, I was interested in knowing what it was all about.

The website on the signs, parkpointpetition.com, points to a petition to the IDA asking that this mammoth project not be given a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) instead of paying based on its assessed value.  Woodland Pond, the senior community which was built in a wetland and pays pennies on the dollar of its assessed value, and yet continually cries poverty, is a recipient of a PILOT agreement, which is typically awarded with the reasoning that whatever project is being built will bring in enough jobs and economic activity that the deep discount will offset the loss in property taxes.

I've had a number of people point out that the petition contains grammatical and factual errors and misleading information, and some of them won't sign because of that.  For example, taxing this project won't actually add a million dollars to the school's budget.  School districts and other property-tax authorities decide how much money they need, and then it get divided among us landowners based on how much the town assessor says our homes and businesses are worth.  So an extra million would save the rest of us a few bucks.

It's the savings that are key, here, because the petition is being championed by (gasp!) local landlords.  Property taxes are a big deal for landlords, because they are harder to get around paying.  Income tax deductions are plentiful, and the unscrupulous landlord who collects rent in cash and doesn't report it saves even more, although I imagine at a much higher risk of being audited.

So the group of people which actively opposed the middle school renovations are now arguing in favor of the children.  It bothers some people, but I say, "Who cares what their motives are?"

New Paltz is a community of politically-active intellectuals.  That means that no good deed goes unpunished, because no matter the idea, someone and their friends will think it's terrible and fight you on it, tooth and nail.  Republicans and Democrats.  Village and town.  Landlords and homeowners.  Students and residents.  Farmers and cowhands.  We are always drawing lines and looking for things to fight about, and for me at least, it's tiring.

In fact, I'm getting tired right now just thinking about how I will get taken down a peg for this view.

What matters is that, at this point in time, the bulk of concerned citizens of New Paltz don't believe that Park Point deserves a PILOT.  It's an opportunity for collaboration, but anti-Park Point activist told me, "That ship has sailed."  I urge that friend, and others who are hesitant to work with landlords, to take a step back and consider whether your grudges are what's important today.

And to the landlords themselves, particularly those who wrote the petition, please consider the legitimate criticisms of its wording for what they are:  a desire to ensure success.  Misspellings and poor grammar always undermine the message, especially in a community built around the ivory tower.  Misrepresentations, intentional or not, will both turn off the critical thinkers who might otherwise offer support, and be used by the true opposition against you.

As it happens, I don't believe that the landlords' real concern, that of new competition undermining their ability to make a living, has much merit.  Rest assured, the college will continue to add far more students than it can ever house, even if all of New Paltz is eventually shoved into its poured concrete maw with scrabbling glass pyramids of greed.  In truth, I think building it at all is a terrible idea for this community.

But on the question of taxation, I wholeheartedly agree:  if this abomination is to be built, let it be taxed like the rest of the land in New Paltz.  Fair is fair.

SUNY puts religions on a (slightly more) even playing field

SUNY New Paltz has announced it will not close for Jewish holidays any longer.  This opens the door to real religious freedom on the campus, and should be celebrated by members of all faiths.

The idea that a public institution, open to all, should close its doors for the sake of an observance of a single faith or group of faiths is one of those traditions that's been carried on for so long that most people don't even question it.  Most peoplewho practice a religion in this country, after all, follow one of the Abrahamic faiths, those which intellectually descend from the Hebrew patriarch Abraham; these include the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic sects, among others.  Among those, Judaism has the smallest number of worldwide adherents, but closing of educational institutions in particular for its most sacred holy days is quite common in some parts of the country.

Closing for a religious observance makes sense in some cases.  I am familiar with a coffee shop that closes for Yom Kippur because it's located in a religious enclave, and the owners recognize that it doesn't make business sense to open up if 95% of the customers won't be showing up.  But generally speaking, shutting down completely because some members of the community will be engaged in observances isn't a sound practice, because it's not practical to close up shop every day that's sacred to some amount of the community.

By electing to close for the holy days of one religion, the college sent a message, intentional or not, that it valued members of that faith differently.  In truth, members of any faith can opt out of work or class obligations for religious reasons; the college is, and should be, accommodating of those requests.  But in a society that takes a long break for Christmas and closes down every autumn for a couple of high holy days, an 18-year-old freshman could easily feel uncomfortable requesting time for Ramadan, Vesak, or Samhain.  Are those days less important, because the student or staff member must make a request?  Not to the adherent, they're not.

Of course, there remains the question of Christmas, which is one of the least important days on the Christian religious calendar, but is given tremendous weight by our society.  (If you're a serious Christian, you're far more interested in the messiah's resurrection than his birth.)  For good or ill, Christmas has been secularized and subsumed by our consumption-dependent economy.  As a minor religious observance it doesn't deserve the "holiday break" it gets any more than other holy days, but as a secular celebration of gift-giving it's probably going to have a special place for a long time.  (Those Christmas traditions which are most commonly trumpeted by retailers, such as the trees, the gifts, the lights, and the carols, derive from non-Christian practices that have been conflated with the messianic birth celebration over the centuries, so other than the confusing misuse of the name, they have nothing to do with Christmas as it was originally intended by Christians.)

I hope that Jewish members of the campus community see this decision as liberating, rather than an affront.  Without the undue weight given to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, observant Jews should feel more comfortable asking for accommodations to observe Pesach, Purim, Sukkot, and other major holidays which never were given to campus closure.  And it should make it much easier for members of other faiths, even more thinly represented than Judaism, to similarly embrace their faiths without awkwardness.

Good job, college.

Taking back our police

This year's graduation weekend seemed louder than most -- I was awakened around 4:30 in the morning by the sounds of partying, partying so widespread that I couldn't even pinpoint its location.  It's rare that I call in a noise complaint, but I didn't want to have to wait until past sunrise to get back to sleep, so I didn't see another option.  I heard the police arrive and start using their amplification system to get the attention of the revelers, and the effect was like throwing water on an oil fire -- the kids got louder every time the cops spoke.  It took awhile to settle them down.

I suppose I could have called the university police instead, but experience tells me that they would have kept me on the phone longer (I wasn't asked my name or specific address, just where the noise was), and they would have been less helpful.  It's not that the men and women who work on that force are less professional, they just have zero obligation to respond to me, because they don't work for me. The town police do work for town residents, and the difference is striking.

Try this experiment, like I did a couple of years ago:  identify an intersection that is patrolled by both town and SUNY police, and try to submit a FOIL request for data about arrests and traffic stops nearby.  When I attempted this, the town police accepted my request, told me it could take up to seven days to process, and had my detailed report in less than two.  Over at SUNY, I spent fifteen minutes on the phone with a sergeant who interrogated me about what I wanted the data for, tried to talk me out of it, and wouldn't even give up the identity of the information officer for the college.  I was so aggravated that I submitted a written complaint about the SUNY officer, and a written compliment about the dispatcher to processed my request for the town.

The difference, of course, is that the town police has a citizen police commission, and five elected officials, overseeing it.  SUNY cops have . . . some kind of structure, which goes up the line to the chancellor or the state police, but with no input from the community.  Which might be fine, if they didn't patrol beyond the borders of the campus.

But the officers want to widen their jurisdiction even more, and statewide their union is holding communities hostage until the state legislature acts.  Here in New Paltz, they are no longer helping out with parade detail, although apparently they will still be handing out speeding tickets off-campus.  I imagine that's a money-maker for their department, while parades are not.

New Paltz Supervisor Susan Zimet is proud that she helped get the SUNY peace officers police powers some years ago.  I think it was a terrible idea.  We have a police force, entirely within the heart of our community, over which we have no control or oversight.  I'm sure the situation is the same for many campuses around the state.  I think it's time we lobby the state to change that.

Colleges don't need police, they need peace officers.  Some municipalities need police, particularly ones with colleges, and those campuses should be paying the town or village (or state, when no local force exists) to provide police protection of their grounds.  This would require a significant increase in our local police force, but it would be paid for by the college, and its existing officers could be folded into our present force.

SUNY New Paltz is a huge benefit to our community, but it comes at a price.  They don't pay taxes.  They don't have to ask for permission when they want to build.  They don't have to participate in the community, and under the past president, the one who mused that the residents of a prison town don't expect to use those facilities so why should we expect access to the college, that participation was muted.  That participation varies by administration, and that's a bigger problem.  The problem of the police is simpler to understand: we should have local control, and towns and villages with their own departments should be lobbying together to take that control back.

Classes Resume Tomorrow at SUNY New Paltz

from SUNY New Paltz: ALL CLASSES WILL RESUME WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31ST! Classroom technology may be limited or unavailable. HAB and SUB staff, please contact supervisors for work locations. Phone service is restored. 2222 and 911 are functional. Records and Registration, Student Accounts, Bookstore, Parking, and Campus Card Services will be relocated to South Classroom Building with limited functionality.

Update from SUNY New Paltz

SUNY New Paltz All Tuesday classes are canceled.

Student Union Building basement, van den Berg Hall, and Haggerty Administration Building are closed. Employees who report to these locations are asked to contact their supervisors for instruction regarding work location.

All other offices are open, but have limited functionality.

Got Breakfast?

The bagel. It's sort of like the Switzerland of foods. I've never heard anyone say that they have a strong dislike for bagels. They are vegan, and if you are one of those gluten-free types, I'm pretty sure you can get them in that fashion. They even have low-carb, for the Atkins set. They come with all sorts of toppings, and you can put anything on them.

There is, however, one problem that the bagel faces in New Paltz. No one can seem to get it right! I have been to pretty much every place in this town that makes bagels (key word makes, not sells, as those who sell bagels can get them shipped in from anywhere), and have yet to find one that strikes me as out-of-this-world-delicious. It really is disappointing.

What makes a good bagel? I hear that the higher gluten content, the better. Not such great news for those with an allergy (or those who are so trendy, that they have developed a gluten allergy....). I also hear that it's all about the water. The reason why New York has the best pizza and bagels is due to our water supply. In fact, I hear that places in the midwest have New York water shipped to them in the hopes of making their pizzas and bagels less lousy.

My good friend Layla is pretty much the authority on good bagels. Her favorite place is Goldberg's in Southampton (my hometown, ironically). I think that she is absolutely right. Too bad Goldberg's isn't a chain and can't set up shop in New Paltz! Layla likes Lox and Cream Cheese on her bagels, and says that "New Paltz Bagels suck hardcore. The place by the movies (Hot Bagels) used to put salt on their everything bagels, and now they don't. It's all about the salt". She went on to say that "All the bagel places in New Paltz suck hardcore, I can
t pick a favorite, I'd rather buy a bagel from the supermarket". I agree, Layla!!!!

A good bagel (in this blogger's opinion) is sort of hard and crusty (but not stale-like) on the outside, and warm, bready, soft, and perfectly doughy on the inside. I am going to base this entry around my (and Layla's) opinion of a good bagel.


New Paltz Bagel Cafe (Hot Bagels)-As Layla said, they used to put salt on their everything bagels, and they no longer do. Also, they microwave their egg sandwiches. Gross! The bagels in this place taste like those large pretzels you get at the Fair or in the city, only with poppyseeds on them. They continuously win Hudson Valley Magazine's award for the best bagel in the Hudson Valley, and I can't figure out why for the life of me. People who like this place have clearly never been to Brooklyn!!! New Paltz Bagel Cafe- Always a disappointment. One final point-My brother Jimmy was always irritated that we would order "Flagels", and they would have no idea what we were talking about.

Dunkin Donuts- You would think that you would get some relief from the terrible New Paltz bagel scene in this chain that America apparently runs on. These bagels are always hard all around, and are way too large. But really, what do you expect from corporate America? These bagels obviously lack the key ingredient of love.

Stop N Shop-Actually, these are not so bad. Layla and I like these. Mike, my boyfriend, likes them too. When asked if he liked his everything bagel from Stop N Shop, he said, "Yeah! It was good". They are REALLY good toasted, and are pretty cheap. I'm pretty sure they make them on-site at the New Paltz Stop N Shop, and unlike the Dunkin Donuts bagels, you can taste the love. In fact, my friend Tommy's sister WORKS at the bakery there, and I *know* she puts love in those bagels. They are not exceptional, and cannot hold a candle to a good NYC bagel. At least they stave off the cravings until I can get Mike to bring me a good bagel from the city, or until Ariana's parents visit with the gift of Brooklyn bagels.

The Bakery-These are my favorite bagels in New Paltz, hands down. Many say that they are too doughy, but I like them. I know that my friend Sam likes them too, as I run into her there frequently in the morning. They are doughy on the inside, and have a nice bagel-shell to them. I get them NOT toasted, with cream cheese, with an orange juice. Really, I have no complaints. Ariana, who is also a person I would consider a bagel authority, prefers their Bialy's. However, many people are not satisfied.

SUNY Campus-Sodexo. Need I say more? They will do, but you can't even toast them without waiting on a long line. You pay far too much, and far too much extra for cream cheese. Then, the cream cheese is either warm or watery. It's like eating a hockey puck. Ew.

There are plenty of other places in NPZ to pick bagels up, but none of these places actually make them on premises (to my knowledge), so I don't think they count. Robin says that she won't let mediocrity hinder her enjoyment of carbohydrates, which I admire and agree with. In conclusion, I really, really, really hope that for mine and Layla's sakes, that New Paltz steps it's bagel game up. Because really, I can't keep taking friends who visit from home to Bistro for breakfast.

What's going on at SUNY?

Ira Margolis has been a tireless advocate for opening all meetings by local government to the public - even those that aren't covered by the letter of the Open Meetings Law, like the stuff that happens on campus.  SUNY New Paltz is nestled in the village, but thanks to state law is immune to local public scrutiny.  As I mentioned to Toni Hokanson not long ago, it would probably take lobbying by town supervisors and mayors in all SUNY towns to get the laws to be changed so that the SUNY system was required to participate as members of those communities, instead of the monolithic and inpenetrable powers they have become.  Like any other large company, SUNY should have to interact with local authorities and community members, particularly since it happens to be immune to our medieval taxation system.

SUNY news that comes to me is usually in the form of rumor, innuendo, and Facebook chatter.  Here are some recent tidbits:

• The Students for Sustainable Agriculture are expecting their garden to be bulldozed this summer, when they're mostly out of town.  This is an organic garden that has been cultivated since 2005 in keeping with the club's mission to get the college to support local agriculture.
• The college is planning to kill its resident geese this summer (it's a great time to "do nefarious deeds" according to Rachel Lagodka).  Canada geese enjoy the lawns and open spaces of the campus, and alternatives that have been proposed, such as plantings that would discourage them from landing, have been passed on.
• The proposed expansion of the college southwards may end up being in the Village after all - I've heard they would like to hook up to our water and sewer, which would require annexation.  Our backwards system of taxing land will influence how this pans out, because the development would be taxable for the first forty years before returning the the taxless vacuum of state-owned land.

I've sent President Poskanzer an email asking for comment on the garden issue specifically - it's the one that I have the most credible information about.  I'm very curious to see if he decides it's better PR to reply or to ignore gadflies as insignificant pests.