It was another eventful weekend on North Main Street. While I have video to corroborate the event that took place, the police have asked me to withhold from posting it for the time being to give them some time to look for the person involved. Not to mention the images are not exactly safe for public posting.
On Saturday morning, I woke up to find emails from my video surveillance system that something had triggered the alarm in my driveway at around 3:25am.. The emails included pictures of a man standing in my driveway with his coat pulled halfway down his back and facing away from my camera. Naturally, I then reviewed all the video footage from around that time.
Starting at 3:20, I could see the man standing in front of La Dolce Vita interacting with one of the bouncers. He handed him something, but I couldn’t tell what it was. A moment later, he walked down the street with one of the girls who I believe dances at the club. I says this because she arrives with a van full of the same women every night the club is open.
They walked down as far as my neighbor’s house, where her van was parked out front. She opened the passenger door and leaned into the car. He stood directly behind her, pressing up against her from what I could tell. The door was open and they were standing behind it, so I can’t be 100% certain of what was going on there.
They stayed there for about a minute, and then she took his hand and they walked back towards the bar. He didn’t seem interested in going back there, and eventually she walked away and left him standing alone. He waited by himself for another minute or so, then turned and walked toward my house.
Once he reached my neighbor’s front steps, he climbed them and hopped over the wall into my driveway. At which point, figuring he was in a private area (my private area, not his, but whatever), he undid his pants and, well, I’m just going to say he took care of unfinished business.! He did this right behind our car, using it as both cover and target. Sated, he climbed back over the wall, got straight into a taxi and went on his way.
I have no words to describe how I felt when I saw this. If these are the kind of individuals these places are bringing into our towns, it’s an understatement to say that something absolutely needs to be done. It’s bad enough there are numerous houses surrounding this club, but in addition there is an elementary school only two blocks away! How our village allows these places to conduct the kind of business they do, that attracts the kinds of clientele they do is simply beyond any reason I can fathom.
The law was passed by Mayor Pilla, then these requirements of the Law were repealed by Mayor Pilla after protests from bar owners three months later. Would these requirements have worked? The police and I say yes because for those three months that the requirements were on the books, THERE WERE NO APPLICATIONS FOR CABARET LICENSES. No cabaret license means NO DANCING, NO ENTERTAINMENT and NO DANCE area for dancing to recorded music (juke box). It remains worth trying to re-institute the requirements but Mayor Pilla filibustered my effort and just wore down the issue and the support I had. I know that this is starting to sound like a broken record, but I have been trying since the first video of the man who was passed out, was assaulted and then robed. Meanwhile, Mayor Pilla is doing nothing but talking about rapid deployment cameras, which no one in the Village government is consistently working on and will require finding an outside funding source. Mayor Pilla lied to a resident at a BOT Meeting that we have a "Quality of Life Issues Task Force", we don't and that was proved by a FOIL request I filed for any information about such a task force. Talk is cheap, leadership is tough. If Rudy Giuliani could get rid of people looking to clean your windshield, why can't Mayor Pilla lead us to get rid of this stain on our community? It's time for a new Mayor.
If that was the case, then homes of sale would have to include such descriptions in their sale material. But here's the serious stuff. Your statement is an almost-admission that the sleaze-folks have won. They own that area ... and they are free to do with as they please. Where do we plant the white flag? And are we all ready to replant that white flag again and again as these slobs take over?
Trustee Didden makes some good points with his proposal, what is there to lose in trying? Closing bars earlier is never going to happen in NYState and I don't think that would even make a difference Mayor Pilla, your silence here is amazing to me, actually it is sickening ! Bart is right, Rudy cleaned up Times Square as well as the window washers. What are you doing Mayor Pilla ? The problem is clear whatever Didden says or suggests Pilla goes the other way...grow up and act like the professional you claim to be !
As to closing times, don't waste your breath, it's dictated by the county and will never be changed due to Yonkers and White Plains. As to Aidans comment that we will be letting the slobs take over and we will be in constant retreat, please keep in mind that Port Chester has less than a 1/4 of the bars it once had. It's they who have been in retreat not the residents. We need more police end of story.
It's only a matter of time before that p/o North Main Street transforms into something different. How long that takes is dependent only upon the answer to this question: What is the collective future vision for that area of the Village?
Racman63 is correct, we have been evolving to gentrification of the downtown section for years and with the Mariner taking move ins later this month will show just how strong this trend is. In the meantime, the community must develop standards of accepted uses as well as a standard of conduct that will be tolerated within our Village. The lack of leadership from or elected officials in not acceptable. Currently there is no communication from the Mayor or the BOT as a whole to the Planning Commission or the Zoning Board of Appeals or the Architectural Review Board. These three Boards or Commissions have the ability to set and enforce these new, yet to be formed, Standards. We will never get the bar closing time changed to 2am, because the change would be a State wide event and while NYC may be able to maintain its own standard at 4am, the neighboring communities such as those in lower Westchester & Rockland, and Nassau County would see customers leaving their merchants to go into the NYC. That will be the people fighting us to keep the time as it is. Additionally, if NYC proposed closing at 2am, all of their merchants (Times Sq, Union Sq, etc) in the tourist or trendy night spots would fight against an earlier closing. Even our own Mayor has been observed in NYC in the early morning hours in NYC intoxicated. Challenging the closing time is a fight I don't think we can't win.
Hello Mayor Pilla - where are you, speak up I / we can't hear you from under the rock you're hidding under
Mr. Didden, to his credit, has weighed in ... and offered information not usually in the public realm. But he sounds as exasperated as all of us. But let's be honest. There's a lot of political mayhem ... here, on the local level, and even beyond. If there is one thing that is truly "American" about us all it's that we do possess the inner will and determination to solve even the most cringing situations. It seems to me that a new, local-level force has been unleashed ... and it better be acknowledged. If not, some politicians are gonna find their chairs yanked from under them. The breaking point is here. People want their village back. And they want it back today. Hear that?
Yes we have had many more drinking establishments, yes some of them were for kids, bikers, older adults, etc. Like groups of people found each other. Now we have a handful of places that don't operate above the moral standards that we want as a community. Sean is not wrong for moving to Port Chester as much as we are wrong to not do the right thing for one or more of our neighbors and the image of the community as a whole. We can do better, we must do better and I invite all of those on this site to come to the next BOT meeting, October 15th, at 350 N. Main, 7pm and tell Mayor Pilla what you think and what you want done for YOUR Village. I am doing my part, my best even if the Mayor does not like it, but all of you have to do your part as well. If this is not fixed by election day next March, you must make a change by voting. I hope to see all of you a week from Monday. I will be there, will you?