6 Fenimore Road, May 12, 2022 - Saved !!!

I was interested in visiting a home I had featured here in 2018.

I was happy to see it renovated, still standing !!!

Saving starts one house at a time !

Revised May 13, 2022 8:12 p.m. EDT, USA
 

Post COVID Manhattan, May 5th 2022

Around Rockefeller Center. 

New York City is up and running better than ever.

Construction, tourists, eateries, Mothers' Day celebrations all were in order.

 

Revised May 12, 9:28 a.m. EDT, USA

24, 26 Overhill Road, Scarsdale

 On Monday evening, May 9th there was a BAR ( Board of Architectural Review ) meeting at Village Hall. Anyone can attend these meetings. The neighbors of a property where a new construction is coming up are usually sent notices so that they can appear at the meeting and/or voice concerns.

When I started this website the then chair of the BAR was very strict about comments and not very kind to neighbors expressing dismay, concern if not anger at all the Mac Mansions coming up. The current chair Brad Cetron at least this time around seemed kinder. 

The applicant for the site, a developer had first appeared more than a year ago and then did nothing for a year. A year ago somehow I did not receive the notice. As I told my neighbor I surely would have attended.

Anyway, there were a few neighbors expressing various concerns: the width of the proposed driveway ( why does it have to be this wide - as in for two cars - it should taper down, to the trees coming down, to the height of the structure, to its over all bulk, to its incongruence with the character of the over all neighborhood. Finally they were asked to revise their plans and come back. Do let me know if I am missing anything, down below or by e-mailing me.

I advised the applicant to look at 2-4 Weaver Street as opposed to 2 Palmer and see how those two structures differ: one a poor design and the other a carefully designed building after much public debate and input that lasted years...

So, this afternoon I thought I would drive by and take pictures of the trees, the site before they came down. Unfortunately I was already too late. Instead this is what I saw: sad stumps crying all the way to heaven. What can justify such mutilation I cannot fathom. They could have worked around these trees. I even thought I heard the developer saying the hemlocks are staying, the oak is staying. Which oak, where I wonder...

 Instead there was this village permit flying in the face of natural justice. Slowly but surely we are killing our environment.

At Village Hall Monday night, there were still these signs for "Social Distancing" and wearing masks, but no one was paying attention. 

Had we been more careful with Nature, had we not allowed for so much devastation theorists state we would have avoided Covid...If all the trees, the green space had been there would we have had Covid still ? I do not think we have concluded why or how Covid started, still. Two years later.

WebMD sites two possibilities: Exposure to an infected animal or genetically engineered by humans. However, no conclusive evidence either way. WebMD

In my opinion devastation caused by humans is certainly contributing to disease and air pollution. Had more trees, more evergreens been available where it all started in China this would not have spread. Look at this Most Polluted Countries 2022 map: most-polluted-countries

Revised May 11, 2022 6:55 p.m.EDT

5 Heathcote Road

Old house, getting rid of the trees, demolition, same old, same old...

Turns out, contrary to my assumptions, house is getting renovated by a Scarsdale resident, neighbor here.

Just getting a makeover: New trees, new shrubs, a new lease on life !

We hope and expect renovated house will have many evergreens planted for screening as well as greening.

Of course, preference should be given to native plants, trees, vegetation. 

See here:   Healthy Yards

Last revision May 13, 2022 9:35 a.m. EDT, USA.

Force Majeure - New Development Nearby -

Dear readers,

It has been almost four years since my last post on this website. But the events of the last few years has finally caused me to get out and want to write here again. 

A couple of years ago on Circle Road here in Scarsdale, there was one house on a double lot that got razed and we got two new houses on that same lot, looking like this:

This is an older house on one lot next to these monster McMansions...

We all expressed our distress when the one house on Circle was up on the agenda to be razed. We made the argument for its historical context, for the crowding, for the deterioration of the neighborhood.To no avail. Mind you among those supporting our argument was New York Times columnist Nick Kristof living nearby. No, they did not listen to him either. Maybe that is why he marched on from being a newspaper columnist to running for Oregon governor. You can read more about him here: https://nickkristof.substack.com

I wrote a letter to my neighborhood association, Overhill Neighborhood Association, so far no answer.

I wrote to our Mayor Jane Veron, she answered and said she would distribute my e-mail to the Trustees, that is what she does/ they do and then nothing else comes of it.

I copied my letter to the Scarsdale News. She said, she did not understand. I submitted the pictures. They printed one version my letter without pictures.

That same day, as all this was going on, my resident wild bunny showed up with a friend at about 11:26 a.m on Monday morning May2nd.

This is the letter I wrote to our neighborhood association, redacted for privacy concerns:

On Mon, May 2, 2022 at 1:02 PM  wrote:

Ingrid and Michael,

I am very upset at the proposed new constructions on Overhill Road. After Circle Road double insult this is yet another slap in the face.

The Village government is doing nothing to preserve our Village. All mechanisms exist, but all is being ignored, side stepped for more money, less environmental or architectural concerns.

If you look carefully at the picture below, you will see two rabbits trying to find refuge this morning in my backyard. This is within two steps of my back door. There is simply nowhere to go for these creatures, but there is no end to human greed.

<IMG_0933.jpeg>

I had started a web site for this purpose over nine years ago or on April of 2013 that I had temporarily suspended. It is now live again for you to see it all - once again: Save-Scarsdale.org.

Is this Planning or Board of Architectural Review or the Village Board doing what it is supposed to do ?

With hopeful wishes,

Lika

  Be good.
  Do better.

  Do not waste.

Only dust gathers by itself. 

              

Equal rights is not enough. Women need better rights.

Do what is right.

Be nice. It spreads.

Reduce, reuse, reycle.

Live free or die.  NH-USA License Plates.

  
   
 

 Scarsdale Inquirer published a shorter version of this in the printed edition of the paper as of today, Friday May 6th. You can access the on line version which does not have my letter, but through that you can access the printed version, which has my letter. Here:https://www.scarsdalenews.com

Good luck navigating the mazes of the Internet and the print world through the maze...

Revised May 6th, 8:10 a.m. EDT