Chronicle Editorial: Only a village-wide referendum will solve the divisions over housing development in Croton. [Updated with response from Cara Politi]

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.

Trustee Nora Nicholson (right) stops Trustee Cara Politi (left) from continuing an outburst against the audience at last night’s Board of Trustees meeting.

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. While the Chronicle has a strong anti-racist editorial policy, we do not believe that unfounded accusations or assumptions about the motivations of the protestors is warranted, nor is it an ethical or justifiable thing for a public official to do.

We have asked Politi to clarify what she meant by her remarks, but have not heard from her by the time of this publication (we did not give her a lot of time and will add any comments she cares to make.) We did, however, hear from Trustee Nicholson about the episode:

“I do not feel like the opposition to development has anything to do with racism or classism. I think residents are genuinely concerned about quality of life issues (traffic, schools, public safety) that will be impacted as is the Board.”

As a matter of demographic fact, Croton-on-Hudson is about 85% white, 2% Black or African-American, 3% Asian, and 12% Hispanic or Latino, with other racial or ethnic groups or mixes of them also present. While it is true that very few people of color have been coming to Board of Trustees or Planning Board meetings to protest, there could be different reasons for that, and no assumptions can be drawn about the pro or anti-development tendencies within those groups. Moreover, given the (we think unfortunate) relative lack of diversity in Croton compared to some neighboring communities, it would not be surprising if there would be a large white majority at meetings of this kind or any other kind.

We have seen previous attempts to brand the protestors as racists or people afflicted with “NIMBYISM,” and we do not think it is appropriate or honest, nor does it contribute to healthy democratic debate. And we condemn in no uncertain terms the attempts by some pro-housing advocates to paint the opposition with that kind of broad brush. They do their otherwise worthy cause no good that way.

(That said, we are not naive, and we recognize that racism is indeed a plausible motivation for some of the opposition to new housing, but does not characterize it in any meaningful way.)

The events of this week call for better measures of the sentiments of the people of Croton. We think that the ability of the organizers to gather 1100 signatures on a petition in a very short time strongly suggests that they represent a significant percentage of Croton’s residents. Just how high a percentage remains to be seen, as the signature gathering effort continues.

We need to find out. To do that, we suggest a village-wide referendum on the two main housing projects that are currently contested, the one at Lot A and the larger one at 1 Half Moon Bay Drive. Just how this should be done and what the wording of the referendum should be, we leave for others to decide and discuss (readers should feel free to use the Comments section below if they have suggestions.)

But calling the police, engaging in thinly veiled race baiting, and long shouting matches will not get us to where we need to be: Making decisions that are in the best interests of the entire village and its residents.

Note: We will update this Editorial as further information and comment come in.

Update: We had hoped that Trustee Cara Politi would comment for this piece and she has now done so, using text that she also posted on village Facebook groups:

…"thank you, this did get drowned out! I always try to remind us in the room that we're the ones who can make a Wednesday night meeting. The people who are working multiple jobs, caring for children or older family members, working the night shift, etc. aren't in the room with us.

As I mentioned later in the meeting, the only reason I'm able to be at meetings is by the grace of my parents who have taken on Wednesday night sleepovers, but I'm very aware that most single parents aren't that lucky.

When I was applying for affordable housing, I wasn't showing up to BOT meetings, so it's important to me that we acknowledge those in our community who aren't able to be physically present…”

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