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Chronicle Editorial: Only a village-wide referendum will solve the divisions over housing development in Croton.
Threats to call the police at one meeting and thinly veiled race baiting by one trustee at another point to the need for a more democratic process in making these decisions.
MICHAEL BALTER
It’s been a very contentious week in Croton. On Tuesday evening, the chair of the Planning Board, Rob Luntz, threatened to have the police remove protestors against what they see as rapid “urbanization” of the village. Then, at last night’s Board of Trustees meeting, things got very heated again when Trustee Cara Politi stated plainly that the nearly 60 Crotonites in the audience did not represent the village.
For reasons not yet explained, the video of the meeting was not posted shortly afterwards as usual, but did not appear until after 11 am this morning. (As we write, the video of Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting has not yet been posted to the village Website.)
Trustee Politi’s remarks can be found at about 1:56:48 on the video, but we are reproducing here what we believe is an accurate transcription of what she said:
“I want everyone in this room to look around at who’s in this room right now, at 8:32 [PM] on a Wednesday. Look around. Do you notice anything about the people in this room? I understand where you’re all coming from but I want to be very clear—that just because there is a large majority in this room that feels one way does not mean that you represent Croton.”
[At this point many audience members begin shouting objections to what Politi is saying, and she starts to shout loudly herself.]
“You do not represent our entire population! Hey, hey, you are all going to get your chance to speak. You do not…cannot…”
At this point Trustee Nora Nicholson interrupted Politi with a point of order that the Board was not supposed to respond to comments from audience, and Mayor Brian Pugh suggested a short adjournment to cool things down.
Politi’s outburst came shortly after organizers of the anti-urbanization protests had presented the Board with about 1100 online and paper petition signatures opposing what is seen by many as over-development in the village. One petition organizer had stated that they probably could have gotten two or more times as many signatures if they had enough time.
In our view, while Politi did not make explicit reference to race or skin color, her suggestion that participants “look around at who’s in this room right now” was a thinly veiled attempt at race-baiting the audience. MORE AT Chronicle Editorial: Only a village-wide referendum will solve the divisions over housing development in Croton. (substack.com)
Threats to call the police at one meeting and thinly veiled race baiting by one trustee at another point to the need for a more democratic process in making these decisions.
MICHAEL BALTER
It’s been a very contentious week in Croton. On Tuesday evening, the chair of the Planning Board, Rob Luntz, threatened to have the police remove protestors against what they see as rapid “urbanization” of the village. Then, at last night’s Board of Trustees meeting, things got very heated again when Trustee Cara Politi stated plainly that the nearly 60 Crotonites in the audience did not represent the village.
For reasons not yet explained, the video of the meeting was not posted shortly afterwards as usual, but did not appear until after 11 am this morning. (As we write, the video of Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting has not yet been posted to the village Website.)
Trustee Politi’s remarks can be found at about 1:56:48 on the video, but we are reproducing here what we believe is an accurate transcription of what she said:
“I want everyone in this room to look around at who’s in this room right now, at 8:32 [PM] on a Wednesday. Look around. Do you notice anything about the people in this room? I understand where you’re all coming from but I want to be very clear—that just because there is a large majority in this room that feels one way does not mean that you represent Croton.”
[At this point many audience members begin shouting objections to what Politi is saying, and she starts to shout loudly herself.]
“You do not represent our entire population! Hey, hey, you are all going to get your chance to speak. You do not…cannot…”
At this point Trustee Nora Nicholson interrupted Politi with a point of order that the Board was not supposed to respond to comments from audience, and Mayor Brian Pugh suggested a short adjournment to cool things down.
Politi’s outburst came shortly after organizers of the anti-urbanization protests had presented the Board with about 1100 online and paper petition signatures opposing what is seen by many as over-development in the village. One petition organizer had stated that they probably could have gotten two or more times as many signatures if they had enough time.
In our view, while Politi did not make explicit reference to race or skin color, her suggestion that participants “look around at who’s in this room right now” was a thinly veiled attempt at race-baiting the audience. MORE AT Chronicle Editorial: Only a village-wide referendum will solve the divisions over housing development in Croton. (substack.com)
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And the week before there was Murtaugh's dog-whistle comments. These people are so predictable. They'll never put it to the people because they know it will never fly.
ReplyDeleteThere's a reason why Pugh and Nora immediately jumped in to stop her and that's because they HEARD what we did. Stop the gaslighting! And thank you Mr. Balter for getting it on the record. Between this and Ian's dog-whistle comments, it's clear. You don't like what we're doing? You must be a racist!!!!!! Typical dem go-to in Croton.
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