Chronicle Editorial: Maple Commons (the Katz property) has been a political football for the past four years. Now it’s a place where our neighbors live. Let’s be sure they are made to feel welcome.
It’s legitimate to discuss the wisdom of creating Maple Commons and what lessons it may hold for future development. But let’s do it in a way that does not make new residents feel we don't want them.
Yesterday, Saturday August 10, the first of 32 households that will take up residency at Maple Commons began moving in. The process may take “a month or so,” we are told by Ken Regan, vice-president of Regan Development Corporation, which developed and formally owns the complex. (The 33rd unit will be occupied by an on-site manager.)
The reason for the delay, Regan says, is that the management is “still qualifying some of the residents.” Thus persistent rumors that the village or the school district has known for weeks or months exactly who was moving into Maple Commons do not appear to have factual support, assuming that Regan is being straight with us.
As readers know, the Chronicle has routinely covered the long-running and often bitter controversies about housing development in the village. We have tried to tell both sides of the story, assuming there are only two sides. Just yesterday we ran a long Guest Editorial by Croton Mayor Brian Pugh, who has been the target of much of the criticism of the village’s housing policy, giving his own views. They were immediately met by Comments both on this site and on Facebook taking issue with many of his points. That debate will continue.
But actually, there are not just two sides to the argument. There is now a third side: The new residents, our new neighbors, who are now moving into the development. As time goes on, the Chronicle will be talking with them about their decisions to move here, and the lives they were leading before they got here. In many or most cases, they will be families who have waited months or even years to find affordable housing and a nice place to live. For the moment, we are leaving them to their privacy.
Most of us who have lived in Croton for any length of time consider it a nice place to live, even if we disagree with the changes that are taking place in the village—and even if some are now actively organizing against those changes. None of this, however, has anything to do with our new neighbors, nor are they responsible for any of these issues. We can assume that they are individuals and families who have arrived here with new hopes of a better life, exactly as those of us who already live here thought that Croton would be a great place for us and our families.
We talk to many people in the village of all political stripes, and we are not naive. We know that there has been intense speculation in some quarters about who our new neighbors will be. Some, but of course far from all, of that speculation has been based on implicit or explicit racist and classist assumptions about the newcomers. For sure, given that this is an affordable housing complex, they will inevitably add to the diversity of the village in a variety of ways. We should welcome that, embrace it, and try to bring out our better natures when we discuss it.
That does not mean that villagers should not be free to express their views about development in Croton, nor their views about what lessons might be learned from Maple Commons about the wisdom of other proposed developments in the village. But Maple Commons, as a place where people live, is here and now, and nothing is going to change that. It is no longer just a political football, nor should it be.
Some people in the village have come to feel that the slogan on the blue sign, “Hate Has No Home Here,” is a hypocritical joke. Perhaps in some cases it is. But that does not mean it has to be.
The choice is ours. Let’s seek out our own best natures, and put on our best faces. Our new neighbors will join our Facebook groups, read the Gazette (and the Chronicle), and they will soon know what we are saying about their new home. Let’s be sensitive and respectful, for all the good reasons.
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Beautiful essay, Michael.
No matter the politics, here’s the reality. That was a really important and well written piece, thanks.