June 4, 2008 It’s called misdirection. It’s what magicians do to distract the audience from seeing what’s actually going on. According to Wikipedia, "One of the most important things to remember when thinking about misdirection is that a larger movement conceals a smaller movement. Consider two stories that appeared in The Journal News today. On the front page is a story about Ramapo buying land for open space preservation, and on the inside pages there’s a story about a plan to build 263 condominiums on Route 17 in Sloatsburg.
 

Buy the Freedom Rock property that the developer no longer wants to build on, and, while you’re loudly trumpeting that act of conservation, approve the variances needed to allow the Baker Residential Limited Partnership to plop 263 condos on 17 just outside Sloatsburg. Traffic?—no problem. The project will only add 524 vehicles to the morning traffic on the highway. And this is only one of 14 large projects planned for an area within 3.5 miles of the small village outside Suffern. Check the chart in this article for a glimpse of Sloatsburg’s future. A total of 3,295 new units, 14,084 new residents, 6,845 new vehicles, between 1-1.5 million gallons of water needed per day for the new building, and 1-2 million gallons of sewage going into an already overloaded system.

But don’t worry about paying for it now. St. Lawrence, as Vice Chair of the Rockland County Sewer District #1, has bonded about $200 million to augment and repair the sewer system to help the developers out, and a new water supply will soon be on its way as United Water starts processing the Hudson River for us all. That left hand is already in our pockets—most of us just haven’t noticed it yet. Sewer bonds get paid later, and we’ll soon have the highest water rates in the state—not to worry now, though.

Just keep your eye on the Open Space purchases, which, incidentally, we will also be paying for in future taxes. And, hopefully, for the sake of the show, you have missed the fact that your taxes have increased more than 50% since Supervisor St. Lawrence has been in office.

The many multi-million-dollar purchases, some of which have turned into true money pits (the stables), are all described as preserved in perpetuity as open space. Yet, to our knowledge, despite our protests during the last election, there is still only one property that has been formally dedicated by the Ramapo board as open space. And that property is wrapped around the home of the great prestidigitator himself. We have asked, The Journal News has asked, other Towns do it as a matter of course, and yet our Supervisor and Board refuse to formally dedicate the others. Watch the left hand.

Finally, don’t be fooled by the dramatic flourishes of the performers. When it is heralded on the front page that Your Town has saved another piece of land from the rapacious developers, keep in mind that they are playing the game with your money--the cost has just been added to your credit card. You have just purchased that land, and you will be paying that bill into the future. As a matter of fact, you have done more than the Supervisor himself, because, when we last checked, he was still in arrears in his personal taxes to the tune of five figures. It’s really more your grand gesture than his. And as noted, even though some of the purchases have been a good idea and some are disasters-- all should be formally dedicated so they cannot be sold in the future. Keep an eye on both hands, and when you see your wallet in one of them, don’t just applaud—tell them you want the deed made out in your name with no options for transferring the property. And if the magician wants to put his name on the piece of land (say on a sign), tell him he has to pay his fair share of the cost first—just like the rest of us. In fact, his name should probably be removed from all of the signs until he has paid his taxes—all of them, town, school, and village.

(Today’s Journal coverage of the 263 condos here. The Open Space purchase story did not appear online—it was only in the print edition.)

Michael Castelluccio