Candidates outline visions for Nyack
Nyack will elect a new mayor and two new trustees when village voters go to the polls Nov. 3.
Village Trustees Denise Hogan and Richard Kavesh are vying to become mayor. Current Mayor John Shields is retiring after eight years of service in the part-time, $18,000-a-year position.
Meanwhile, Democrats Doug Foster and Jen White and Republican Maureen Dougher are competing for two spots on the village board. Trustees Hogan and Marie Lorenzini gave up their chance to hold on to their open seats when they ran in the Democratic mayoral primary.
The two mayoral and three trustee candidates met with The Journal News Editorial Board last week to discuss pressing issues.Kavesh, the Democrats candidate, said he had heard from business owners about late-night rowdiness in downtown Nyack.
“I’m really appalled and revolted by the anti-social behavior that goes on at night in Nyack,” Kavesh said of incidents that, he noted, include assaults, public urination and vehicle break-ins.
Kavesh, a Bronx high school teacher, favors having Orangetown police get out of their cars and walk the streets.
Hogan, who is running on the Preserve Nyack and Independence party lines, is the village’s liaison with Orangetown police, and said that the police were doing “an amazing job.”"They have to drive because it’s just not Main Street that’s having the problem,” said Hogan, Rockland County coordinator for POW’R Against Tobacco.
Both candidates support further study for the development of the area around the Riverspace Arts theater, which is planning a potential $100 million revamping that would demolish its building and several adjoining stores to make room for a new arts center.
Hogan supported development but said that any plan needed to encompass its neighbors at Nyack Plaza and Depew Manor, while Kavesh added that the current concept of a “superblock” struck him as “grandiose ” and “out of scale” for the river village.As for filling up the empty storefronts dotting downtown, Kavesh said more needed to be done to make Nyack a destination.
That could happen with the planned lighting and sidewalk improvements, a pocket parking lot on the west end of Main Street and arts offerings.
ogan agreed that the first step was to beautify the village with streetscape improvements and clean up the Route 59 gateway into Nyack.
One sad sign of the times, she said, is drivers aren’t having trouble finding parking in downtown because fewer people are visiting.
As for the trustees, they all agree Nyack needs a pick-me-up:
• “The quality of life in Nyack is getting worse instead of better,” said Dougher, a cancer research scientist at Wyeth who ran for trustee a decade ago.
• “I think it looks tired, a little bit sad,” said White, chairperson of the Nyack Park Conservancy.
• “We have urban problems but a small-town budget,” said Foster, a database programmer and Web developer who worked as an urban planner in Ithaca .
The village has been working on a plan to remake Memorial Park and a neighboring marina.
White, whose group is organizing fundraising for the project, said green space along the waterfront should be the focus of the village to connect the community and attract people to downtown.
Foster said that he would work to get federal dollars to pay for the project, which is expected to cost between $7 million and $15 million and take up to a decade to complete.
Dougher favored bringing businesses down to the waterfront to make it “less intimidating after dark.” She pointed to Newburgh as an example of successful waterfront development with its mix of dining and retail.
As for police presence in the village, White said it might be worthwhile to revisit the idea of the village having its own police force. Nyack’s Police Department was disbanded in 1990 and merged with Orangetown police.
“It’s something that would have to be explored,” White said. “It’s an expensive option.”
Foster said better lighting would help but also favored stricter enforcement to “set a tone” for the rowdy bar crowd.
Dougher suggested creating some type of complimentary security service on weekends to escort people to their cars.
They all agreed, using different examples, that the village board was unproductive as it was mired in studies, ran long, disorganized meetings and had alienated the business community.
All the candidates said they were the new blood that Nyack needed.
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