HAPPY BP HASTINGS 2014 Let's all make 2014 another great year. Let's keep talking the "green" talk and taking BP's cash, weaving them into the fabric of Hastings. Let's all continue to follow the lead of our "big toe," Mayor Peter Swiderski and continue to be used as shills for B.P.'s "greenwashing campaign." Let's smile and pose behind some more of those BIG 5,000 dollar CHECKS -- my I hope B.P. is not over extending themselves.
(L) Hastings Trustee Nicola Armacost
There is no name we are prouder to have displayed on our scoreboards, no one we'd rather have sponsor our 'Friday Night Live' street fair or throw out the first pitch at our Little League games, than the earth's pariah, B.P.. After all, we are the environmentally conscious Hastings on Hudson. Let's continue to allow BP to hijack and use for their p.r. gain, what had been Hastings' reputation for truly being an environmentally conscious village. Let's continue to follow blindly and pose as shills for BP, as our Mayor has. Let's contribute photo ops whenever and wherever we can, ensuring that BP/Hastings and Hastings/BP will be forever interchangeable, courtesy of http://oneriverstreet.com/site/. I realize we've set the bar awfully high, but let's try and maintain our epic level of hypocrisy, entitlement and delusion in 2014, what do you say? I know we can do it.
BP DOTS THE "I" IN HASTINGS
SIT HERE, HOLD OUT YOUR HAND AND SMILE FOR THE CAMERA
to the character of their Mayor and how he conducts business
Hastings' Gene Calamari
Rumor of Mayor Swiderski's plans to share a parks & recreation superintendent with neighboring Dobbs Ferry had been circulating throughout Hastings since last December. The result of which was standing room only at the March 19th Board of Trustees meeting, where Hastings residents showed up en masse to confront Mayor Peter Swiderski over his private agenda.
True to form, Swiderski began his presentation by downplaying his actions. He told residents that this sort of "sharing" has been going on for several years, offering as examples, a joint repaving program with Dobbs, and piggybacking a Dobbs contract for the installation of street light l.e.d. bulbs. Needless to say, both short term maintenance agreements had little or nothing to do with Swiderski's current agenda. Narrating a brief slide show, the Hastings Mayor introduced his "pilot program" (Swiderski loves a good pilot program, make that any pilot program), as an "experiment," which would be evaluated after the period of one year. Swiderski told residents the core reason for the program was "the chance to build trust with Dobbs, that these sort of things can work and won't hurt us." Swiderski assured residents there would be no compromise in service, describing certain rec programs as "running themselves." The Mayor stressing that his plan would not result in the merging of any programs, adding that "mixing it up" (Hastings residents traveling to Dobbs and vice versa) would be a good change for the village, "especially for teens." Most importantly, Swiderski told residents his "pilot program" would mean an annual savings of 65,000 thousand dollars for the village. A cost cutting necessity do to rising pension & health care costs and limitations placed on village revenues by the state's 2 % tax cap.
Upon opening the floor to public comment Swiderki'sproposal was promptly dismantled from a variety of angles, as with courteous distrust, residents undressed the "transparent" Mayor of Hastings forthe manner in which he'd kept his plans from tax payers. Valerie Harmon, widow of the late Jim Harmon, a legendary figure in the history of recreation department/ youth center, proposed the Mayor hire acting superintendent Kendra Garrison and eliminate her former position of supervisor. The result would be an even greater savings, while allowing Hastings to retain it's own superintendent. Ms. Harmon sited that the village has been operating well without a recreation superintendent for the last eight months, following the retirement of former supt. Ray Gomes. Ann Marie Roth challenged the Mayor on two fronts. Ms. Roth pointed out that the Dobbs Ferry superintendent's purpose long term would be to decide what programs could be combined between the villages. "To try and suggest that this doesn't represent merging more so than what has been discussed is inaccurate." Roth further instructed the Mayor, that the new superintendent would need a year just to acclimate himself to his new position and programs and the village would not be able to access the success or failure of the program as Swiderski stated. Hastings Chief of police, David Bloomer, chided Swiderski for describing certain programs as running themselves. "Programs don't run themselves," Bloomer said, "people run them." The Chief added that the Mayor might think twice about 'mixing up' teenagers from Hastings and Dobbs, a warning as to the potential for violence. Mayor Swiderski apparently oblivious as to the long history of rivalry and brawling between teenagers of the two villages. Jodie Meyer urged the Mayor to be more open and transparent, feeling the issue was aggravated by the Mayor's lack of communication, the rumors from which forced the Mayor to put out a lot of fires. This was the only resident comment with which we must take issue. Those fires Mayor Swiderski was putting out were not the result of poor communication, they were the result of no communication. Mayor Swiderski chose not to communicate. Those fires, he set himself.
what real leadership looks like. what a genuine voice sounds like.
what inspiring a village feels like.
The watershed moment of the evening came however when Gene Calamari shared what he felt Swiderski and his plan would mean for the future of Hastings. Calamari, the president of the Hastings Little League and himself a member of the rec commission, physically turned from the Mayor and Trustees and spoke directly to fellow residents. Calamari said he first heard of Swiderski's plan after receiving a phone call from Matt Arone, Dobbs Ferry's superintendent, in December of 2012. Calamari told residents. "Nobody from my own village had told me about that... Right away my feeling was that some level of trust had been breached, and I became concerned that a monumental moment was progressing without the public's involvement," After contacting the Mayor, who confirmed the plan was in negotiations, a closed meeting of the rec commission was held at which the Mayor spoke of sharing not only the Dobbs rec superintendent, but merging Hastings' and Dobbs Ferry's DPW as well. Calamari told residents he came away from that meeting feeling that Swiderski's agenda was to slowly combine the municipal services of the villages. He warned residents that Swiderski's presentation may appear "very benign," but is "no small item," as it represents a change in course. "The bigger picture is, a slow, but steady erosion of what it means to live in Hastings... We're embarking on a road that is going to remove our identity as a village." Calamari dismissed Swiderski's answer to the fiscal crisis facing Hastings, telling residents. "What we need here is not to focus on the expense side of the equation, we need to focus on the revenue side of the equation. That's where the genius is! Anybody can do the expense side of the equation, cutting jobs, cutting costs, anybody can do that. Try to bring in money, I don't know that we've had enough creative thinking in that regard." Calamari called for residents to demand a referendum. "The road we're going down is big. That is not the road that's going to preserve the specialness of Hastings. And we should fight that battle to the end. To me, this road is a assisted suicide if we go down it. And I don't think we should go down that road." Amidst enthusiastic applause Calamari returned to his seat, without once looking at the Hastings Mayor.
Mayor Swiderski felt the need to respond to Calamari's honesty. A mistake, as his calculating demeanor left much to be desired when compared to the genuine voice residents had just witnessed. Swiderski dismissed Calamari's feelings with regard to the village's special identity, telling residents, "we can talk about village sovereignty all we want, and what we gain in not sharing this or other expenses with neighboring communities," returning once again to the bottom line of the 2 % cap placed on village revenue, versus rising village costs.
For you see, the merging of services is just business to Swiderski, in the Mayor's mind there will be no loss of sovereignty. For Swiderski nothing will change, because he truly doesn't understand what is at stake. He heard the words of residents like Jim Metzger, who told the Mayor, "Part of the joy of living in this village is meeting people who are fist, second, third, fourth generation Hastings families. They talk about what it was like playing sports in the village, twenty, thirty, forty years ago. That's what makes me want to live here."Swiderski can hear the words, but sadly, they are but words. They are but concepts. He is constitutionally incapable of feeling the love that fills sentiments like Mr. Metzger's. For Swiderski, the merging of municipalities will change nothing. He will continue waxing on about what a unique and special village Hastings is, but the Mayor's words are empty. For Peter Swiderski has never truly experienced their meaning. If he had, he would never think of proposing such a thing, let alone run off to implement it. If the Mayor were capable of truly feeling what it means to live in Hastings, he would know better than to risk destroying the morale of the recreation department's employees and volunteers with such a proposal. In a downtown riddled with empty store fronts, the recreation department and community center are the very heart of the village. Compromise the rec department and the Community Center, and there will be no question, nail saloons will definitely be all that can survive in the downtown. The reason there's not a chance in hell for Swiderski to turn around the downtown, is because Swiderski is incapable of bringing people together and inspiring community. Sure he'll create committees, implementation committees of committees, and issue Mayoral messages till the cows come home. The guy loves the sound of his own voice, but it is a voice which does not inspire. For all his verbiage, the Mayor simply doesn't get it. For if he did, if he truly understood where he was and whom he represents, he wouldn't be spending his time promoting Hastings as artistic, (a ridiculous notion to begin with, and one any real artist would shudder at) and he would instead protect and cherish what is the village's genuine resource and identity, it's people.
It should be noted that Swiderski's conduct is not without precedent, he's set out on his own just like this before. Mayor Swiderski sought and received the first permit issued in the history of N.Y. state for the cruel and barbaric net & bolt slaughter of deer. He attempted to recruit Dobbs and Irvington to join him,telling Irvington's Mayor and trustees that Hastings residents, "had rolled over on the issue," and that Hastings "would be doing this (net & bolt) no matter what." The statement was a complete and utter misrepresentation of Hastings, as only 38 hands were raised in favor of a cull, not a net & bolt cull. Here too Swiderski downplayed the horrific nature of his agenda, never presenting his plans to the village prior to his personal pursuit. Naturally, neither Dobbs nor Irvington joined him in his insanity. Why won't Swiderski share his agendas, take the temperature of village residents on issues, before going off lone wolf? Why misinterpret and or misrepresent where the village stands, or for that matter, where he stands, wasting residents time and energy? One word. Arrogance. Foolishly, Swiderski fashions himself the smartest person in the room, his repeated cluster__cks notwithstanding. He wants desperately to be seen as the stand alone political architect of something, anything, it matters not what. His handling of the deer issue serves as evidence. Surreally, Swiderski who beamed over being a pilot program for net & bolt slaughter of deer, is today the very same Mayor beaming over the prospects of being a pilot program for the immunocontraception of deer. In closing, Hastings is faced with a fiscal dilemma, it's a cold hard financial truth. Sadly for Hastings, there is also another truth. Recent Hastings Mayor's, Wagner, McAndrews, Macheron, Chemka, Kinnally, all served the village as residents and nothing more. Peter Swiderski is the first Mayor in the history of Hastings on Hudson who is first and foremost, a wanna be politician, a very flawed wanna be politician at that. We are in full agreement with Gene Calamari, this is not a road we wish to go down any further. We need to change course. Enough calculating self centered arrogance. For the sake of the village we all love. We urge Hastings residents to please, please, change the arrogant, duplicitous driver, before it's too late.
This past January the seen it all, grizzly, "man's man" Mayor of Hastings, Peter Swiderski, tried to calm the nerves of Hastings residents concerned over a string of violent crimes throughout the village by issuing a "Crime and Perceptions of Crime" memo to the village, highlighting a soothing BURGLARY statistic for 2011.
"I want to reassure people that Hastings is generally a very safe village: we had 9 burglaries last year, 5 down from the previous year. There’s no upward trend here." The street wise Mayor concluding that"normal vigilance and due diligence on locking up will go a long way to making things even safer than they already are."Whew, that's a load off. I'm sure Mantung Cheng will now rest easy. The Mayor's laissez-faire memo was delivered eleven days following Mr. Cheng's thrilling morning in the "generally very safe village." In broad daylight, just as Kelly Rippa was settling in behind her morning cup of Joe, three gunmen, posing as police officers, forced their way into Mr. Cheng's Main Street apartment, tying up Mr. Cheng, his wife, his mother and father. Having locked up and done his due diligence, surprisingly the 9 a.m. armed home invasion did not leave Mr. Cheng "feeling even safer" than he had been. After being hog tied at gun point, Mr. Cheng remarked, “It’s this morning you know, not like a nighttime thing. Why do it in the morning?”
HOME INVASION VICTIM - MANTUNG CHENG
Why do they do it in the morning, indeed. Isaac Garson, owner of Slices on Main St., offers this dose of reality. “People
are nervous because of what happened at Madaba Deli, there was somebody
else that was followed and robbed and then this (the bounding and armed robbery of the Cheng family) is number three. There’s just a tension in the air. It’s
surprising, but it’s just the way the world is now,” Garson said. “People
are desperate, desperate measures, desperate times.” What an alarmist.
Yet, just yesterday a Hastings man was robbed at gunpointon the steps of his Warburton Avenue home! Hastings Police responding to a call from a woman at about 7:33 p.m. Tuesday May 15, stating that her neighbor had just been robbed. Hastings police said the victim reported he had returned to his Warburton Avenue home just after 7:30 p.m. and was walking up his front steps with bags containing electronic equipment when he was robbed atgunpoint.“The male pointed a handgun at the victim and demanded the property he was carrying.”
Now hey, before the local papers start reporting this and blowing it all out of proportion, lets all take a deep breath and ingest some more pearls of perspective from that memo sent by the unflappable Hastings Mayor, Peter "Gunn" Swiderski .
"We live in a society
where sensationalistic crimes and news dominates the television and
many newspapers: it leads to a fear disproportionate to the actual risks
we face in day to day life and can make us unduly anxious" The Mayor continues, "the local paper, the Enterprise, reports crimes in their blotter, as does the Rivertowns
Patch. They give a good sense of what is going on – and I am not
inclined to amplify that unless a pattern of behavior leads the Police
to believe a public notification is necessary. There is no such pattern
worth reporting about now."
"Hey that fellow in the camouflage hoody has got me to thinking. Whatcha say we build another park?!"
Whew, I feel much better. For as our street wise Mayor points out, there's no need for alarm or amplification for there is no pattern of behavior here. Note: the"no
need for alarm" armed robbery of the Chase Bank at 565 Warburton
(machine gun totting bank robber pictured above) went down at 8:50 a.m.,
and though Mr. Cheng was robbed at gun point at 9 a.m., this last incident took place at 7:30 p.m.!! No pattern there. Unless of course you consider ARMED GUNMEN A POTENTIAL PATTERN!!!This is not disproportionate fear Mr. Mayor, this is not one's perception of crime, THIS IS CRIME. The reality of the world we live in INCLUDES HASTINGS. The DENIAL of this reality by entitled elected village imbeciles has gone on long enough. Let's face facts, Hastings is a gated community without a gate.
It's time Hastings put aside it's dreams for the future (ie. it's unfathomable foolishly timed, "Comprehensive Plan") and start PROTECTING IT'S RESIDENTS and address the world we live in, by increasing police presence and using tax monies toPUT MORE COPS ON THE STREETS, instead of proposals for another fucking park. The last thing we need isMORE EMPTY SWIDERSKI VERBIAGE!
It's sickeningly clear that Swiderski loves to hear himself talk and is extremely fond of any and all pomp and circumstance that comes with playing Mayor, example of such the memo excerpted within. Sadly, Swiderski's insulated denial is likely to continue until such time, God forbid, that such crimes visit he and his family. It's amazing how having a gun waved in your face changes one's perception of crime. When Swiderski's mother, daughter and dog contracted Lyme disease he declared Lyme an all out epidemic and the highest of priorities, with his first order of business the netting and bolting to death of deer. (all deer if he could have had it his way) Talk about zero to sixty! Criminals had best not fuck with Swiderski's dog or there will be hell to pay!
Perhaps it is then and only then that CRIME will finally be seen as CRIME in Hastings, and not dismissed as just undue fearful perspective to be disregarded with attention devoted to the creation of yet another park. Rome is indeed burning Swiderski, this is not a dress rehearsal, it's about time you put down the marshmallows.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is still seeking the public's assistance in identifying the machine gun totting man pictured in camouflage responsible for the Chase bank robbery in Hastings.
"GREEN" HASTINGS PROUDLY PROMOTES THE WORLD'S ENVIRONMENTAL PARIAH
"GREEN" MY ASS !!! Clear evidence of the erosion of what once was a 'village' that stood for something. This deterioration a direct by product of the empty bureaucratic verbiage emanating from the thin lipped individual who is but, 'playing Mayor.' Blind to the numerous glaring signs (tough to miss this one), offered up ever so politely by it's "earthy crunchy" leader, Hastings on Hudson deserves the fate which awaits. The slow & steady transformation from that of a village with real character to that of just another faceless suburban community, the reflection of it's "Mayor." B.P.'s bitch,"indeed."
The affluent, "eco friendly" suburban community of Hastings-0n-Hudson has proudly embraced BP, prominently weaving the convicted corporate felon into the fabric of village life.
Hastings Mayor Peter Swiderski has not only turned a blind eye to the Gulf tragedy and BP's extensive resume of crimes against the environment, he's given BP carte blanche to use the village as part of it's greenwashing p.r. campaign.
B.P. DOT'S HASTINGS' "I"
THANK YOU B.P.??? Who on earth thanks a corporation responsible for the greatest environmental disaster in the history of the United States? Watch below as trustee Meg Walker does just that.
"Wouldn't Be Doing This Without You?" Perhaps then you shouldn't be doing it all. Don't get me wrong I enjoy a street fair as much as the next guy, but if the most prolific serial environmental criminal on planet earth were the only contributor able to make it happen, the boogieing would have to wait. Could the village ofHastings' memory really be that short..? Turns out it's a lot shorter than anyone could ever imagine.
On May 7th, 2010, as oil continued togush uncapped in the Gulf, Hastings was publicly thanking B.P. for sponsoring their "Dancing in the Streets" F.N.L event.Amereseventeen daysfollowing the Deep Water Horizon explosion of April 20th.
As all things Swiderski, it gets worse. B.P.'s infiltration of Hastingsdoesn't begin and end withFriday Night Live.
SHILL BABY SHILL !!!
For any questions as to just how entwined Hastings and BP are under Swiderski, a simple Google search of either 'B.P. Hastings' or 'Hastings B.P.' makes clear Hastings andBritish Petroleum are now quite literally interchangeable.
The website, purportedly designed to update the progress of B.P./Arco's waterfront cleanup, is nothing but a B.P. public relations page. Hastings' complicity in this hypocrisy evidenced by the unfathomable B.P. photo ops, found by clicking 'The Community' tab atoneriverstreet.com
'Under My (Green) Thumb' - let the parade of "big" checks begin.
B.P'S JOE SONTCHI & HIS BOY HASTINGS/B.P. MAYOR SWIDERSKI
This past July, Business Week reported that incoming BP CEO Robert Dudley hopes to recover the30-odd billion dollars that the Gulf fiasco will cost by sticking to what the company does best: explore risky offshore drilling projects that lead to big profits and inevitably big spills.
TRUSTEE ARMACOST (L) B.P.'S ERIC LARSON (C)
The BPsponsored "Take Me To The River,"with "solar powered stage" and "Eco-friendly informational booths" --The hypocrisy of much of the text approaches that of a Saturday Night Live sketch.
SWIDERSKI POSED WITH HAND OUT, ACCEPTS THE KEYS FROM BP'S JOE SONTCHI (NOT PHOTO SHOPPED BELIEVE IT OR NOT)
Joe Sontchi explains the significance of the "BP Buggy." "This vehicle demonstrates our commitment to alternative energy and to harnessing the non-polluting power of the sun... We are so happy to support the village's interest in reducing it's carbon footprint through the use of solar power."To date the golf cart has been drastically reducing Hastings'carbon footprint by touring B.P.'slogothrough the village at the annual Memorial Day parade.
BP PUBLICIST FRED YEAGER (R)
B.P.'S SONTCHI (L) FORMER HASTINGS MAYOR KINALLY & SWIDERSKI
And to make certainHastings' future isone built on ethics and principals
'Teach Your Children Well' -BP's Eric Larson throws out first pitch at Hastings opening day Little League Game. Here's a message for the kids; rape an ocean for profit, kill eleven people and hundreds of thousands of living creatures, lie to save your ass and turn the explosion into an epic catastrophe, and you too can be honored and showcased as a role model for impressionable Hastings youth. BP'ssponsorship ofHastingsLittle League also includes plans for a scoreboard, complete withBP logo of course. Get 'em while their young !! Play ball!!
In additionBPalso sponsors (believe it or not),Hastings'annual"Cleanup Day", and "Climate Action Week."
So just how does a village with a history of being environmentally conscious, allow it's reputation to be so blatantly hijacked and compromised by the corporate pariah of planet earth?
In 2000 British Petroleum renamed itself BPand kicked off it's 'Beyond Petroleum' campaign. Thought by many to be ludicrous from inception,BPbegan contributing to non-profit environmental organizations in support of efforts comparable to the waterfront clean up facing Hastings.
"Until the Gulf explosion,BP successfully ran a massive p.r. campaign, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into lying to the public," says Kieran Suckling, founding director of the Center for Biological Diversity.Suckling describes these dealings with the devil as follows: "Sure, you can get them to give you $2 million.BPpisses away $2 million at lunch. And if you take it,you are literally part of their P.R. campaign. If you don't comprehend that, you're getting used." Getting used. Getting used now has a whole new meaning. ClearlySwiderski has sold out Hastings,but the price tag was just a little bit less than 2 million. All those big paper checks are for 5, 000 dollars each. Including 35,000 dollars received by the HastingsFire Department,Swiderskiand village trustees have posed for and sang the praises ofBP,for less than 100,000 dollars. Note toMayor Swiderski:if you're going to whore yourself out and compromise the integrity and reputation of the village you were sworn to protect, at least exercise some leverage andGET PAID!Particularly given that just months ago Swiderski announced that the village was operating without a reserve fund. Those checks could just have easily been made out to 'Chump.'
Most disturbing of all perhaps is the silence in which all of this has taken place. Not one person from either Hastings"Green Team" or Conversation Commission voiced concerns over the cozy Hastings BP relationship, the hypocrisy and corporate arrogance of which clearly compromises the credibility and efforts of both groups. In a village of nearly 8,000,Hastings resident John Gonder is apparently the only soul paying attention and or willing to stand up and speak out.
Joel Makower of Greenbiz.com asks, "Is BP's money forever tainted? I'm sure a number of groups are asking that right now. Every organization is going to have to look in the mirror and ask this question." It is a question every resident of Hastings-on-Hudson should be asking of themselves. "What does this money say about us?"
Where Mayor Swiderski and the village of Hastings are concerned, the money makes clear that he and his board arevoid of any real principals. They are hypocrites, who at the end of day stand for nothing. Hastings actions are evidence that the village is willing to do just about anything in working with BP to clean-up the waterfront.
Hastings had best heed the words of Gwen Lachelt, director of the watchdog group Earthworks' Oil and Gas Accountability Project, in moving forward."BP likes to say they're a good neighbor, but we see them trying to screw landowners out of every last penny for surface damages and taking shortcuts."
NOTE:Hastings has limited control over BP with regard to the cleanup of the waterfront, however they have NO CONTROL and NO IDEA of what BP will actually do with their portion of the 28 acre parcel of waterfront real estate. Something the "transparent" Mayor Swiderski rarely if ever mentions.
We leave you with this image of the man currently representing Hastings in it's municipal dealings with BP.. Who's your money on?
'Every Picture Tells a Story Don't It' -- "In this corner wearing the red tie,Joe Sontchi of BP!The world's fourth largest corporation, dedicated solely to profiteering at any cost! And in the other corner, representing the village ofHastings,Mayor Peter 'sit here, stick your hand out and smile for B.P.' Swiderski.
In keeping with Hastings' appreciation of BPwe'd like to wish A HAPPY NEW YEAR & OFFER MANY THANKS to,Dick Cheney, Atilla the Hun, Jerry Sandusky, Idi Amin, Jon Corzine, Pol Pot, Ben Bernanke, The Bush Family, Bernard Maddoff, Hank Paulson, Kublai Khan, Karl Rove, Lindsay Graham, Rush Limbaugh, Paris Hilton, Sarah Pallin, Snooki, and of course, the "earthy crunchy" Peter Swiderski!
