New 'voting bloc' forming in Ramapo

By STANLEY H. DWORKIN
(December 4, 2007)

Despite what amounted to monumental and commendable efforts on the part of Preserve Ramapo to bring out their supporters in this recent election, the winning team in Ramapo were the incumbents, led by Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence. While Mr. St. Lawrence should, no doubt, relish and enjoy his victory, it would be a mistake on his part to ignore the fact that there is terrible unrest in his town, and that he and the Town Board needs to address that unrest accordingly.

All one had to do these past months was to drive any local street in Ramapo to see the thousands of green and yellow signs not placed on rights of way, but on residential properties, showing support for an organization looking for a change in direction for our local government. It would be foolish and inappropriate for Mr. St. Lawrence to ignore the presence of those signs, for although the residents on whose lawns those signs were erected did not win the election, he is, nevertheless, responsible to deal with their needs as well as those of the constituency that voted for him.

Specifically, there are two diverse philosophies as to how the future Town of Ramapo should look. One of those visions would see the town downzoned with cluster housing to accommodate the large growth and influx of the "religious" population. Proponents of this vision would like to see greater areas allowing for three- and four-family homes on smaller lots, dormitories for adult students and apartment clusters, each of which would result in further taxing of our infrastructure, roads and school districts.

The other vision is that of people who want to maintain the same quality of life for their children as that of which they were able to appreciate while growing up in Ramapo. These people, many of whom belong to Preserve Ramapo, do not want downzoning and do not want the residential and rural nature of what is left of our town to disintegrate into a "mini-city." After all, most of our town, as our entire county, is inhabited by people who fled the ills of New York City. They want to keep whatever green is left in our local environment.

It would be easy for Mr. St. Lawrence to ignore the messages given to him by the 10,000-plus voters who expressed their dissatisfaction of his performance, but a decision to disenfranchise these people can only backfire.

The past election, as with so many other elections in the past 20 years in Ramapo, was determined by "bloc" voting habits.

It is incumbent upon Mr. St. Lawrence to direct his efforts to ease the unrest and stand up against further unrestricted growth. He must give equal effort to provide the kind of services the majority of residents of this town want of him, even if it costs him points from his 'bloc' of support. If he does not, it will not be unlikely to find that in the next election there will be a new voting bloc, but not one from within the confines of Kaser and New Square.

The winds of change are fickle. They can blow in an entirely different direction in two years.

The writer, a Monsey resident, is a former Rockland county legislator.