A City Dreams Of Sky-Rises As Defiance Grows Among Those Left In The Shadows Cast Below

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — As the skyline of the City of New Rochelle grows evermore impressive and stretches toward the heavens, longtime residents left behind in the shadow of dozens of new high-rises are asking if the Queen City on the Sound is at risk of flying too close to the sun.

A decade ago, New York's sixth largest city embarked on an ambitious plan to both tackle a growing housing crisis, and revitalize a struggling downtown business district. A cornerstone of the so-called "New Rochelle Model" was cutting red tape when it comes to constructing new housing.

One need only glance at the city's skyline to see that the plan put in place years ago has, in many ways, fulfilled the promises that were made.

New Rochelle Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert has held up the city's overhauling zoning codes as a shining example that other municipalities across New York and around the country might emulate with similar success.

"Unlike many other cities, which approve new zoning for buildings on a piecemeal basis, the New Rochelle City Council created a blueprint to streamline the approval process, forfeiting the power to debate each development individually and expediting the environmental review process for our downtown," Ramos-Herbert wrote in a recent op-ed in American City & County. "Developers are still required to take the same steps as elsewhere, but here they can do so all at once, allowing them to bypass bureaucratic red tape that often deters new projects."

But at street-level, the support for this grand vision is beginning to crumble under the weight of nearly a decade of heavy construction that has had a similar effect on the disintegrating Main Street tarmac.

On an early Monday evening, along that Main Street, chants of "Enough is Enough!" echo through the newly created canyons of a rapidly sprouting downtown. Drivers inching along in the evening rush hour honk in support, and protesters begin their march while holding up signs that read "Green Space Now!!!" and "Stop. Think. Plan."

The crowd has gathered to protest plans for a 28-story residential tower at Main Street and Centre Avenue.

New Rochelle police look on from a distance, but the dozens gathered are focused rather than rowdy.

It would be easy to dismiss this large group of demonstrators, from every corner of the city, as the typical dissent that accompanies change, but the concerns expressed are not the NIMBY issues one might expect.

"It's been ten years of this," one of the grassroots organizers of the protest, Jim Killoran, tells those gathered. "When will enough be enough? We were promised green space. We need a dog park, not more high-rises. The Curtain Shop is gone. Talner is gone. Where is all the business we were promised? We were told if we build it, they will come. Well, they didn't. And the businesses that were here for years can't survive this kind of 'progress.'"

If the protest on the streets of New Rochelle was orderly, the New Rochelle Planning Board meeting the following night, set to consider the proposal for the massive new project, is just a bit more raucous. The gallery is uncommonly full, and the crowded room has the feel of a poetry slam, rather than a bureaucratic exercise.

There are good-natured jeers as the project's chief architect mistakenly refers to Main Street as a two-way street when discussing the traffic study for the proposed building. As speaker after speaker comes forward to voice opposition to the newest downtown tower, they are supported with polite applause, hands laid on shoulders, knowing glances, and murmured words of encouragement.

With very few exceptions, those who walk up to the kiosk are not speaking against the plans that were laid out nearly a decade ago. Instead, they are questioning whether or not that vision is being realized in the way it was intended.

Promises of a flourishing retail sector have not materialized in the way that many expected. The downtown amenities that the neighbors were promised have not yet arrived, but the compromises that were required, including an evident strain of resources and infrastructure, have become a way of life, year after year.

"Our city is failing us," Ryan O'Leary, the owner of Champ's Boxing Club, said in a statement read to the planning board. "I am okay with change, I don't like it, but I am willing to change with the times. The disruption the building has done to our city has offset the rewards and benefits the city will reap in revenue. We are losing our heart and soul. There is zero concern for the people already here. How do we lose the Curtain Shop, The Wooden Spoon, Talners? Our best businesses are leaving. Nothing new is coming."

Like many of those who spoke, O'Leary said he would like to see evidence of the benefits of a decade of rampant development, before yet another high-rise tower is approved.

"The redevelopment plan has been in place for nearly 10 years, and it has not delivered on its promises to the citizens of downtown," Co-chair of "New Rochelle: Enough is Enough," Shaun Wayawotzki explained. "It's time to pivot to a more measured, community-centric plan, not add more buildings."

Wayawotzki said that he was initially very much in favor of plans to revitalize the downtown corridor, but as high-rise after high-rise changed the cityscape, promises of retail revitalization and plans for green space never materialized.

O'Leary warns that without the pivot his neighbors are pushing for, the constituents the mayor and city council say they are championing by encouraging these sorts of development projects, will be forced out of the city.

"What about our lives and our families?" O'Leary asked of the board. "Please stop. Please let us live. Don't make us move. My grandparents were married in Blessed Sacrament, my great grandmother learned to swim in Hudson Park, I learned how to ride a bike on Union. Have some heart. Please."

After a long night, the board adjourned until the next meeting without approving the newest tower.

For those in the gallery, it wasn't a victory, but it wasn't a defeat.

The Quixotian fight to stop a new residential tower (and perhaps the ones that come after) will take more than one show of solidarity at a planning board meeting. Momentum is building among those who see a threat in what they view as development without a cogent plan, but they will be fighting an uphill battle against two time-tested truths — you can't fight city hall, and you can't stop progress.