Echo and Huguenot:  Where the rule of law goes to die

In the words of longtime New Rochelle resident and activist Lisa Burton, “strange things happen at the corner of Echo and Huguenot.”  

That’s the corner where a zoning variance was approved to build a polluting Starbucks drive-thru next to a public housing project and children’s playground, and where rules prohibiting noisy overnight construction mysteriously disappeared last week, allowing jackhammers to disrupt residents’ sleep after midnight. 

That corner is also the location of the Peter Bracey Houses, the city’s last remaining public housing project and a possible target for private developers.  A coincidence?  

Addressing the City Council at its “Citizens to Be Heard” hearing last night,. Burton suggested that New Rochelle’s “Bermuda Triangle” might be a good place to look for other missing assets, like the long-delayed roof for the Mascaro Boys and Girls Club, the overdue Civilian Complaint Review Board, and the recently-disappeared members of the Municipal Housing Authority Board.  See. Burton’s full statement here.