Hasidic Townhouse Foes Seek to Dissolve Catskills Village

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Bloomberg News:
**Hasidic Townhouse Foes Seek to Dissolve Catskills Village **
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A plan to build 396 townhouses for ultra-orthodox Jews in a rural New York village is pitting residents and local officials against a developer who says he’s a victim of an anti-Semitic plot.
Opposition to the project is so strong that Bloomingburg, the village in the Catskills, is considering dissolving its local government, which could allow the larger surrounding town to block the development. Voters will decide Sept. 30 whether to fold their municipal government into the Town of Mamakating, whose population is 30 times larger.
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Shalom Lamm, the developer seeking to build townhouses and amenities meant to draw Hasidim, accused officials in a federal lawsuit of misusing building codes to keep Jews from moving to the area and violating the rights of the plaintiffs under the U.S. Constitution. Town officials say the issue is about preserving Bloomingburg’s rural character, not about religion.
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“I want the village to be like it was eight years ago when I moved up here,” said Mayor Frank Gerardi, who signed a petition calling for the dissolution. “It was a quiet place, a nice little town. Now everything has changed. There’s hustle and bustle, a lot of housing changes.”
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Bloomingburg, home to about 420 residents 78 miles (126 kilometers) northwest of Manhattan, sits in the farthest reaches of a culture war raging in New York City’s exurbs as the largest Hasidic community outside of Israel leaves gentrifying Brooklyn in search of lower-cost housing. The fight has increasingly entangled state agencies and Governor Andrew Cuomo, a 56-year-old Democrat facing re-election in November.
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Well, yeah, once they elect a Jewish mayor everyone will have to grow payos and wear tefillin.

I love the “I want the village to stay like it was.” Everybody wishes New Yorkers would stay in New York where they belong (myself included). But that’s not reality.

Btw, shalom Rosh Hashannah!
 
He should be glad his town isn’t dying like many small towns across America. My hometown seems to be hanging by a thread and it’s heartbreaking. Hustle and Bustle can be good things, they mean money and jobs.
 
Well, lots of small areas will shut down large developments in order to preserve low density and a rural characteristic.

I highly doubt there’s any plot, rather I think it’s just a case of people who live in the area exercising their rights in regard to zoning and housing regulations.
 
didymus said:
Bloomberg News:

Well, yeah, once they elect a Jewish mayor everyone will have to grow payos and wear tefillin.

I love the “I want the village to stay like it was.” Everybody wishes New Yorkers would stay in New York where they belong (myself included). But that’s not reality.

Btw, shalom Rosh Hashannah!
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That is a lot of townhouses for a rural community, no matter who is moving in. This is a tough one. But I don’t think there will necessarily have to be shopping malls created because of the influx of Hasidic Jews. Is there a local ordinance about maintaining the rural nature of the community?

BTW, I’m staying in New York City so no one need worry. A Good Year to all.
 
J_Peterson said:
He should be glad his town isn’t dying like many small towns across America. … Hustle and Bustle can be good things, they mean money and jobs.
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The small-town’s only option for survival then being to give up being a small-town altogether, and turn into a city that’ll be gobbled up by an expanding megalopolis. 🤷
 
Adding 396 homes to a town of 400 residents sounds excessive, but that’s the issue, not who is moving into them. If the town wanted to stay rural why doesn’t their zoning reflect that? If it was zoned as agricultural land you wouldn’t be able to build that much. Of course that also means you don’t get the tax revenues that come from development. You can’t have it both ways.
 
Adding 396 homes to a town of 400 residents sounds excessive, but that’s the issue, not who is moving into them. If the town wanted to stay rural why doesn’t their zoning reflect that? If it was zoned as agricultural land you wouldn’t be able to build that much. Of course that also means you don’t get the tax revenues and construction jobs that come from development. You can’t have it both ways.
 
didymus said:
Bloomberg News:

I love the “I want the village to stay like it was.” Everybody wishes New Yorkers would stay in New York where they belong (myself included). But that’s not reality.
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Some Muslim New Yorkers stayed in NY when they established themselves in Islamberg in the 80’s.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamberg,_New_York

Little Italy
Little China
Little Middle East
Little this and little that…

Little ethnic enclaves everywhere in the US!
 
Dtmccameron said:
The small-town’s only option for survival then being to give up being a small-town altogether, and turn into a city that’ll be gobbled up by an expanding megalopolis. 🤷
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Some years back, the town where my father-in-law grep up fought to keep out a Walmart because “our local mom-and-pop stores won’t be able to compete with Walmart’s prices and they’ll be forced to close.”

OK, so Walmart set up shop in the next town over, about 18 miles away – but a large number of the local mom-and-pop stores *still *closed, because the residents voted with their feet (or in this case, their cars). Turns out, many preferred to drive the 18 miles to the next town over and pay less for their purchases at the Walmart.
 
meltzerboy said:
That is a lot of townhouses for a rural community, no matter who is moving in. This is a tough one. But I don’t think there will necessarily have to be shopping malls created because of the influx of Hasidic Jews. Is there a local ordinance about maintaining the rural nature of the community?

BTW, I’m staying in New York City so no one need worry. A Good Year to all.
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Oh hey… before it’s too late, Happy Rosh Hashanah!
 
meltzerboy said:
That is a lot of townhouses for a rural community, no matter who is moving in. This is a tough one. But I don’t think there will necessarily have to be shopping malls created because of the influx of Hasidic Jews. Is there a local ordinance about maintaining the rural nature of the community?

BTW, I’m staying in New York City so no one need worry. A Good Year to all.
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Nah, you’re always welcome to move to St. John’s. 👍

A good year to you too. (I don’t think I’m too late. it isn’t sunset yet.)
 
Hasidic Jews in the NY area have very high rates of welfare use. How would that play out in the small town?
 
Thermopylae said:
Hasidic Jews in the NY area have very high rates of welfare use. How would that play out in the small town?
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This is an issue and, according to some, a scandal in its own right. Not only are a proportionally large number of Hasidim on welfare, but they also have large families in keeping with the religious injunction to be fruitful and multiply. Further, the full-time job of the husband, again based on religious teaching, is to study Torah. At the same time, three points are important to keep in mind. One point is that there are different sects within Hasidism, and that some of them value work. Another is that Hasidic Jews are not synonymous with Traditional Orthodox Jews, who are not Hasidic, and who do work outside the home, including the women in the family. And finally, we must be attentive to the individual’s behavior rather than automatically assume that the individual always follows the group they belong to.
 
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