Development delays? Amicone’s against them
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- July
- 31
This blog entry began yesterday when Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone’s spokesman David Simpson told The Journal News the mayor was angry that the City Council may be distancing itself from a timetable leading for the eventual approval of the huge Struever Fidelco Cappelli development in downtown. The mayor might even hold a press conference. That sounded like a news story.
Simpson then released a letter from two City Council members to the developer’s attorney Alfred Delbello, citing what they said were problems with the quality of some of the developers’ data. Because of those problems, the letter continued, the timetable should be considered provisional. The letter also cited delays in paying the city’s consultants. Later the Mayor and Simpson said a three-month spread between payments was not unusal for government or business. The letter was signed by City Council President Chuck Lesnick and Council member Patricia McDow, in whose first district the $1.6 billion project would be built.
After the idea of a press conference was dropped, we spoke to the mayor today. He sounded angry and worried that missing the target dates could cause the SFC project to collapse, especially in the current economy, dashing the biggest piece of the city’s downtown renewal effort.Republican Amicone called the concerns raised by Lesnick and McDow, both Democrats, â€minutia†and said their calling the timetable “provisional†showed a lack of commitment to the project. For his part, though, Lesnick said he thought the timetable could still be met, but the city needed better data from the developer’s consultants to approve the project’s environmental impact statement on Sept 19. That approval would mark one of SFC’s most important milestones.
Near the end of today’s 18-minute interview with the mayor, we asked the obvious question: â€What do you think is going on? What is the cause of the problem?†This is what he said:
“I don’t know. All I know is that the problem is that it’s not getting done. That’s what I know the problem is. And right now it’s in the hands of the consultants for the city and consultants from the developer. And I know that they know that it’s not getting done. And in the end it’s in the hands of the Council to approve.â€
Huh? We might be wrong, but the mayor seemed to be offering us a multiple choice:
a. He doesn’t know.
b. The Consultants for the city and consultants for the developer.
c. The City Council
d. B & C, but not the contradictory A.
The mayor was not eager to elaborate, and that’s why this is a blog entry.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 5:56 pm by Len Maniace.
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Mayor Amicone is trying to bring development money into Yonkers, where everybody speaks funny, yet wants lower taxes. People criticize him. But this: Excepting the deal with the corrupt J** Ratner, everything Mayor Amicone has done in his five years in 0ffice has been above-board, and in the best interests of the City of Yonkers.
B-H.
Amicone does not act in the best interest of the city and its residents. He and his administration are corrupt as is District Attorney Janet Difiore and Andy Spano.
Amicones goons “the Yonkers Police” go out and brutalize innocent men and woman and then Janet Difiore covers it up by prosecuting the already brutalized innocent victims.
I think the time is coming to rid our county of corruption. Clean house, get rid of these three and then we can work on some of the others.
Amicone, Janet Difiore, and Andy Spano are all part of the corrupt cabal that has helped ruin this county.
Get rid of these losers!