Riverdale’s ONLY Locally Owned Newspaper!
Volume XX • Number 32 • August 8 - 14, 2013 •
FREE!
‘Strip Club Stanton’ booed off stage at debate By HAYDEE CAMACHO Andrew Cohen received good news on two fronts for his campaign for the District 11 Council seat. On Monday, he received the majority of his public matching funds from the New York City Campaign Finance Board, resulting in $87,780 in additional funds for his campaign. Cohen had participated in the Campaign Finance Program and met the necessary thresholds for public funding. Cohen has “maxed out” on donations eligible for public financing, which will enable him to receive the maximum allowable amount of matching funds from the city for a Council race. To date, Cohen is the only candidate in the 11th district who has raised sufficient funds to spend up to the allowable cap of $168,000 under campaign finance law. Opponent Clifford Stanton has raised the ire of both the Cohen campaign and residents in the district over his recent acceptance of $1,675 from Robert Gans, owner of the Manhattan strip clubs Scores and Penthouse Executive Club. Cohen called on Stanton to return the donation. “If he would just give the money back, we could all move on and we could talk about the issues,” he said after the donations came to light. But with the tainted strip club funds, Stanton, too is expected to “Max out.” Cohen said he has received over 200 donations from all over the district with a significant amount being raised from donations as small as $10. “People have
really responded to our positive message of bringing people together and building coalitions to improve our neighborhoods and ensure that we receive the city funds and services we deserve. As the campaign rolls along I will continue to look forward to meeting as many people as I can, so that we can discuss the issues and so that I can share my vision of how we can make our neighborhoods even better.” Cohen also received the endorsement of The New York League of Conservation Voters, which works to make environmental sustainability a top political and policy priority in New York State. Among his environmental policy ideas, Cohen would like to see a gradual reduction of diesel vehicles, replaced by electric buses and taxis, and wants to increase the aesthetic appeal of and access to the various parks around the borough. “Andrew Cohen is a committed member of his community and a true environmental champion,” said NYLCV President Marcia Bystryn. “His environmental ambitions for his district are broad-ranging and intelligent.” “I am very excited and extremely honored to receive the endorsement of the New York League of Conservation Voters,” Cohen responded. “I share the League’s commitment to fighting for clean water, clean air, renewable energy and open space, and will work toward those goals as a member of the City Council. I am proud to stand with the New York League of Conservation Voters and
look forward to working with them to make the eleventh district and the City of New York even greener.” This latest endorsement expands Cohen’s ability to appeal to a broad coalition. He has received a long list of endorsements from many of the cities elected officials, major unions, political groups and the Working Families Party. In final remarks during a candidates debate at the Bedford Park Senior Center on August 1st, Stanton attempted to question the integrity of those endorsements. “Think about how the power of a political machine has run our town for 20 years can accomplish a lot including buying many of the endorsements that Andy is so proud of,” he said. His remarks were met with jeers. “That is outrageous,” responded Cohen. “Do you have an ounce of proof that I paid for endorsements? You’re the only candidate ironically that has paid for an endorsement.” The audience responded with cheers. There was aleady controversy surrounding the debate as its sponsor, the Norwood News, forbade candidates Cohen and Cheryl Keeling from raising the issue of Stanton’s strip club contributions, or his apparently successful effort to remove Ms. Keeling from the ballot on legal technicalities. “It is clear,” stated one veteran observer, “that the Norwood News was trying to stack the deck in favor of Stanton by removing these two critical and potent issues, both of which would hurt Stanton.”
Protect the Palisades challenges truth of LG photo By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER Protect the Palisades has a clear message for LG Electronics USA, a South Korean-based multinational corporation—go ahead and build your new Englewood Cliffs headquarters, but just keep it below the tree line. The group calls itself an ad hoc coalition “of individuals and organizations in New Jersey, New York and across America” that formed “in response to the current threat posed by LG Electronics’ plan to build a towering corporate headquarters that will violate the Palisades’ historic landmark views.” They’ve just issued a new flier headed “An American landmark is at risk.” “There is a ‘win-win’ solution: for LG to choose a low-rise design on its large 27-acre site to gain the same office space and same jobs—and, at the same time protect the integrity of the Palisades,” the flier states. Palisades Interstate Park, a 12-mile section of the cliffs, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1983. Developers in this area have been restricted from building higher than 35 feet so that views of New Jersey’s geological wonder would be preserved. But because of LG’s local economic value, the company managed to secure a zoning vari-
ance for a building that rises 143 feet. It would be the first building north of Fort Lee to jut that high above the trees—but possibly not the last, critics fear. The variance, criticized as spot-zoning, gained traction and led to the adoption of a zoning ordinance that now permits construction of 90-foot-high buildings on parcels of at least five acres and 150-foot-high buildings on parcels of at least 25 acres. Construction has been stalled by lawsuits that contend the LG zoning variance was illegal to start with. The matter remains in court, and a ruling is expected at the end of this month. LG Electronics USA has been established for 25 years at a nearby site in Englewood Cliffs. The new headquarters at 111 Sylvan Avenue, across the river from Ft. Tryon Park in Manhattan and clearly within view from Wave Hill in North Riverdale, will allow the 500 employees at the current location to share a single space with 450 employees from the tristate area and still have room for growth, according to a company website dedicated to this project. Last week’s new warning by Protect the Palisades features a professionally rendered simulation of how the proposed LG structure will appear from the eastern shore of the Hudson. The
photo replaces a much less sophisticated simulation featured on the group’s website. “The first simulations were done early on by Scenic Hudson based on the plans presented by LG at the various zoning hearings in Englewood Cliffs,” said Jeanine Genauer, spokesperson for Protect the Palisades. “Then, for mediation purposes, the plaintiffs—the New YorkNew Jersey Trail Conference, New Jersey Federation of Women's Clubs and Scenic Hudson—engaged Saratoga Associates, a firm with long and recognized experience in doing these simulations, to produce drawings based on publicly available plans by LG. As LG presented more detailed information and plans on the building, Saratogoa Associates then made modifications to more accurately reflect how the building would look along the Palisades.” LG claims that the too much is being made of the planned structure’s visual impact because other buildings—including two 47-story apartment towers under construction—already pierce the tree line on the cliff. However, these buildings are located in urban Fort Lee, mainly south of the George Washington Bridge. The Sylvan Avenue LG headquarters site is in a stretch Continued on Page 19
tO make up yOur OwN miNd,
YOU NeeD THe Real FaCTS: the truth abOut lg’s New hQ prOJect
Orchestrated by New yOrk-based grOups with NO iNterest iN the wider ecONOmic well-beiNg Of New Jersey, variOus parties have distributed misleadiNg aNd iNaccurate iNfOrmatiON. here are the real facts:
fictiON
LG is building a “tower,” in the center of the Palisades. The office will be a large white, obtrusive building that will dominate the tree-line, “destroy the Palisades” and ruin the view for New Yorkers across the Hudson River.
fictiON
fictiON
INACCURATE and fictitious artwork showing LG’s new building in the center of the Palisades as a white building, towering above the tree-line. As published March 27, 2013 in the NY Daily News.
fact
The reality is that LG’s new building will: • Be a state-of-the-art low-slung horizontal office building which is significantly wider than it is tall. (By definition, a tower is a building or structure higher than it is wide.)
INACCURATE and misleading depiction of LG’s new building as a masonry structure dominating the tree-line. As seen on ProtectthePalisades.org and on the organization’s Facebook page.
fact
• Be built on private land a quarter mile back from the Palisades cliff, not on park property, and not in the middle of the Palisades Interstate Park. • Be barely visible above the tree-line from The Cloisters, unlike many taller existing structures already on the New Jersey side of the river. • Be a glass building designed to reflect its surroundings and blend into the surrounding environment.
ACCURATE and honest portrayal of LG’s new HQ, as seen by the naked eye, from the The Cloisters museum on the New York side of the Hudson River. The actual building height in this rendering was verified by independent experts, Neoscape, which floated balloons to the exact height of the building, where it will be constructed — a quarter mile back from the Palisades.
To learn more Facts about LG’s new HQ visit LGEnglewoodcliffs.com.
LG’s simulated portrayal of its new headquarters as seen from The Cloisters.