Sound Shore

Good afternoon. Here’s a curated look at the weekend’s opinion conent:

Sunday, Nov. 20
We carried a pair of editorials on budgets proposed by the leaders of county governments in Westchester and Rockland counties. Tough choices loom on both sides of the Hudson as services and programs are slated to be slashed in significant ways in 2012:

Tough choices loom for budgets
Debate over cuts, spending in Rockland

Astorino and HUD: Community View
Bennett L. Gersham, a frequent contributor on legal issues and a professor at Pace University Law School and a former Manhattan prosecutor, weighs in on the impasse between Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development over the 2009 settlement on affordable housing.

Monday, Nov. 21
Flood-insurance reform: Commentary
Eli Lehrer, Joshua Saksand and Shana Udvardy offer a comment on the need to reform flood insurance, an issue that’s sadly near and dear to Lower Hudson Valley residents affected by Tropical Storm Irene.

Good morning. Here’s a glance at opinion content published today:

Ramapo stadium: Editorial
We comment on news that a draft audit conducted by state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found that the town of Ramapo inappropriately financed the construction of Provident Bank Park, the stadium that plays host to the Rockland Boulders. We write:

… A draft audit by the state comptroller, leaked to The Journal News, provides a play-by-play description of how the Town of Ramapo used the Ramapo Local Development Corporation to push through a project that, at least during the conceptual and development stages, had little public support and even less promise of financial success. That project, now named Provident Bank Park, is home to the Rockland Boulders, which recently ended its first season in the independent Can-Am League.

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Good Monday morning. Here’s a selection of opinion content published over the weekend and today:

Saturday, Sept. 17
United Water: Community View
Bert Dahm, a West Nyack resident and member of the West Nyack Hamlet Revitalization Committee, replies to a Sept. 10 Community View on United Water’s response to Irene. Dahm alleges that the utility’s response to the disaster was devastating.

Sunday, Sept. 18
Westchester’s housing settlement: Editorial
We comment again on Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s handling of the 2009 fair-housing settlement that requires Westchester to construct 750 affordable units that are affirmatively marketed to African-Americans. We write:

… Astorino and his minions ignore all that history in their public pronouncements, which on Friday were seconded by six Republican challengers for board seats. In a news release, they blamed the Democrats for signing off on the agreement and inviting Washington officials to intrude upon home rule. In the settlement, the county acknowledged its longstanding duties under HUD guidelines to affirmatively further fair housing, including crafting a policy addressing “the elimination of discrimination, including the present effects of past discrimination, and the elimination of de facto residential segregation …”

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Rockland County Planning Department Commissioner Thomas Vanderbeek and Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney Larry Levine, in an Editorial Spotlight interview Wednesday, discussed climate change and rising sea levels, and why they will mean even more costly flooding in the Lower Hudson Valley — and not just from storms like Irene. But that doesn’t have to be our fate. They also addressed short- and long-range solutions to the threat, which imperils our infrastructure, including wastewater treatment facilities, roads and, of course, our health and homes.

Here’s a clip:

To view the interview in its entierty on demand, go to www.lohud.com/editorialspotlight.

Hurricane Irene is gone but not forgotten along the East Coast, where it shattered lives and property. The bad news is, due to climate change and rising sea levels future storms could prove just as challenging and exceedingly worse. Join an Editorial Board discussion about big storms and their nexus with climate change and rising sea levels, land-use planning and development, and public infrastructure, at 2 p.m. today on LoHud.com. Joining the discussion are:

» Larry Levine, staff attorney and water expert with the National Resources Defense Council

» Thomas Vanderbeek, Rockland County Department of Planning commissioner.

Watch LIVE at www.lohud.com/editorialspotlight and submit questions and comments via CoverItLive.

Good afternoon. We’ve had a busy four days participating in the coverage of Irene. That said, we have been commenting on the storm and its impact. Here’s a digest of opinion content published since Sunday:

Editorials
Get used to warnings, New York, Sunday, Aug. 28
Climate change may continue to prompt storms like Irene, we argue. We write:

… New Yorkers will have to get used to the uncertainty, the warnings, the abundance of caution. The reason: climate change and where we live and build. Legitimate scientists — as opposed to global-warming deniers — disagree on whether global warming will make for stronger and more frequent Atlantic hurricanes. What is beyond dispute, though, is that the damage risk has grown significantly, because of the flood — of buildings and people — to coastal areas. The growth comes as sea levels on the East Coast have increased about six inches more than the global average. …

Irene was more than we needed, Monday, Aug.29

Give recovery aid where you can, Wednesday, Aug. 31

Columns and Community Views
Suffern residents return to mess, Bob Baird, Tuesday, Aug. 30
Irene can act as a learning tool, Arthur H. Gunther III, Tuesday, Aug. 30
Chatter about Irene was more vigilance than hype, Phil Riesman, Tuesday, Aug. 30

In Tuesday’s paper we reported on the fuel-oil spill at and subsequent evacuation of The Highlands at Rye, a 99-unit apartment building in Rye. Like many buildings in Rye, The Highlands took a sustained significant damage from Irene. The building’s bottom-floor apartments were flooded and, exacerbating conditions, a fuel tank ruptured, covering much of the property with heating oil and leaving a stench that few could endure.

Tuesday afternoon, Bob Cohen, of R.A. Cohen and Associates, Inc., which owns The Highlands, said about 1,800 gallons of oil spilled. On Monday, county health officials said the fuel tank was big enough to hold 7,000 and therefore could have spilled that much.

Cohen said he’s been in regular touch, via e-mail, with tenants and has made arrangements for some at a hotel in Elmsford. Others have been told to make other arrangements and that they will be reimbursed.

Each household will get $142 plus tax per night and $71 for food and incidentals per person per day. Rents will be suspended while the cleanup, which began Sunday night, continues, he said.

It will likely be weeks, not days, before any residents can return to their homes.

“We’re doing our best in a terrible situation,” Cohen said.

R.A. Cohen bought the building in September of 2007.

The Huguenot Children’s Library, which sits in front of the New Rochelle High School, is still without power and, as such, still closed. The main library, however, is open and fully operational.

While New York City got so much of the attention, it was the northern suburbs that sustained the lion’s share of the local damage from Irene. With the benefit of hindsight, do you think better planning and development might have made for less damage?

Tell us what you think:

Habitat for Humanity of Westchester is helping families clean up from Irene, pumping cellars, removing spoiled furniture, gutting wet sheet rock and the like. The organization could use your help. Executive Director Jim Killoran said Habitat would welcome volunteers, materials and financial support. Materials can be dropped off at Habitat’s headquarters at 524 Main St. in New Rochelle. If you’d like to get involved, or if you need help, email Habitat at hurricane@habitatwc.org.