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'Bike farm' loses development rights
New York State plans to again request proposals to redevelop the 39-acre former Beacon Correctional Facility after revoking development rights from a New York City builder whose "bike farm" never materialized.
The request for proposals (RFP) process would be similar to one being implemented by the state's Prison Redevelopment Commission, which is soliciting plans to redevelop a dozen closed prisons, including the Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill. The RFP would be administered by Empire State Development, although the agency has no timeline.
The RFP will be the third for the Beacon site, a former women's prison known as Camp Beacon that closed in 2013. The state initially asked for plans in 2014 and received one proposal, from the New York City-based Doe Fund, which wanted to create a farming and job-training center for homeless and low-income people.
The Doe Fund withdrew its proposal in 2017 after a coalition of officials at the time, including Beacon Mayor Randy Casale, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and state Sen. Sue Serino, asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reject it because the plan was "inconsistent with the site's mixed-use, recreational and destination development potential."
In 2019, Urban Green Food was awarded development rights. Its founder, Eric Anderson, told the City Council that year that he wanted to create a Beacon Bike Farm with a hotel, indoor track-and-field venue and a velodrome for indoor bicycling. The property would also have farmland and bike trails.
Anderson said in 2021 that, although his plans had been slowed by the pandemic, he expected to bring the proposal to the Planning Board in 2022. Empire State Development quietly decertified Urban Green Food as the developer in March 2023, confirming the move to The Current this week after many inquiries. Anderson did not respond to a request for comment.
The prison site, which includes 22 buildings in varying states of disrepair, is hampered by location. While it has been suggested for affordable housing, the only vehicular access is by Matteawan Road, a two-lane road that already serves Rombout Middle School, Beacon High School and two senior housing complexes.
When Anderson spoke to the council in 2019, he said he hoped to open Tunnel Road - a single lane that runs under Interstate 84 and ends at Heritage Financial Park (Dutchess Stadium) - for bikers and pedestrians.
Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou has pushed for an access road that connects Route 52 with Matteawan. He said this week that he hopes Empire State Development will require a new road as part of any redevelopment effort, paid for by the state and/or the developer with a contribution from the city.
In the meantime, the mayor has asked the Fishkill Avenue Concepts Committee to study a potential route for bikers, pedestrians and public transit from Route 52 to Matteawan Road and appropriate development in the Camp Beacon area.

Education spending, eviction limits also approved
Although the Beacon and Garrison school districts lose funding in the newly enacted state budget, the City of Beacon will be better positioned to qualify for $650 million in housing funding and Metro-North will receive more money to protect the Hudson Line from climate change.
Those are some of the local impacts of the $237 billion budget for 2024-25 that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed April 20 after reaching an agreement with members of the state Assembly and Senate.
The agreement, contained in 10 budget bills, allows local governments to pass a "good-cause" law that limits when larger landlords can evict a tenant or refuse to renew a lease. It also restores $250 million for clean-water projects and requires that, as of Jan. 1, employers provide 20 hours of paid prenatal leave.
The Highlands' two Assembly members - Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, and Dana Levenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Philipstown - voted for each of the 10 bills. Sen. Rob Rolison, a Republican whose district includes the Highlands, voted for five of the 10.
The final product boosts spending for Foundation Aid, the largest source of state aid to school districts, by $934 million. The Legislature rejected Hochul's proposal to eliminate a provision called "hold harmless" that protects districts from cuts.
Despite the overall spending increase, the Foundation Aid allocations for Beacon ($21 million) and Garrison ($592,000) are equal to 2023-24. But Beacon lost $169,000 in other state aid, while Garrison gained $33,500. Haldane will receive $2.9 million in Foundation Aid, an increase of $120,000, and the district's overall aid rose by $261,000.
The enacted budget includes legislation introduced by Jacobson that requires all high school seniors to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form unless they obtain a waiver. "The biggest obstacle to college is the cost," he said. "The way you get grants and scholarships is to fill out the FAFSA."
Hochul said state legislators agreed to allow the state to require that municipalities be certified as a "pro-housing" community to apply for $650 million in discretionary funding. To qualify, downstate municipalities must have issued building permits that increased their housing by at least 1 percent in the past year or by 3 percent over the previous three years. Natalie Quinn, Beacon's planning consultant, told the City Council on April 8 that the city qualifies.
Beacon and other cities, towns and villages were authorized to pass good-cause legislation that limits when landlords can evict tenants or refuse to renew their leases. In March 2022, Beacon became one of a few municipalities enacting a good-cause law, although a City Court judge struck it down in November, after judges ruled that similar laws passed elsewhere were superseded by state law.
Supporters of good cause now have the imprimatur of the state law, which generally exempts landlords owning up to 10 units but allows municipalities to set their own criteria. The circumstances that will allow landlords to evict or refuse a lease renewal include when:
Tenants have arrears that are not due to an "unreasonable" rent increase, which the state defines as an increase of 5 percent plus the annual percentage change in the consumer price index, or 10 percent, whichever is lower;
The tenant is violating lease conditions, or causing substantial damage;
The tenant is committing or permitting a nuisance;
The landlord wants to convert the property to personal use.
Other highlights from the budget:
Hochul and legislators approved $500 million to build 15,000 housing units on state land. The state is considering the site of the shuttered Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill.
The budget includes $350 million to fund an additional tax credit for families eligible for the Empire State Child Tax Credit.
The Senate and Assembly restored $250 million for the Clean Water

Elections board tosses problem signatures
A Cortlandt Manor woman who hoped to force a primary vote against Assembly Member Dana Levenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Philipstown, fell short this week after the state Board of Elections threw out many of the signatures on her nominating petition.
Sandy Galef, who held the seat in the Assembly for 30 years before retiring in 2022, and former Westchester County lawmaker Catherine Borgia filed a challenge with the state Board of Elections on April 5 to petitions submitted by Amanda Victoria Mintz, who had hoped to challenge the incumbent on June 25 for the Democratic ballot line. Levenberg is seeking a second, 2-year term.
Galef and Borgia objected to 515 of the 655 signatures submitted by Victoria Mintz, who needed 500 to force a primary.
Last week, joined by Levenberg, they filed a lawsuit in Westchester County Supreme Court, saying they wanted to preserve the right to challenge the petitions if the Board of Elections ruled in Victoria Mintz's favor.
Attorney Robert Spolzino told Judge Charles Wood that the Board of Elections had scuttled the petitions by invalidating 150 signatories because they are not registered to vote or not enrolled as Democrats, and 23 because they live outside the 95th District.
The board found another 49 signatures invalid because of changes that had not been initialed by the signatories and one case in which a voter witnessed their own signature, Spolzino told Wood in a letter on Tuesday (April 23).
Spolzino said that statements this week by Victoria Mintz's attorney indicated she will not "oppose the relief requested in this proceeding." By Thursday (April 25), Victoria Mintz's campaign website identified her as a "former official Democratic Party candidate." On Monday, in letter to the court, Victoria Mintz said the BOE "recommended" at a hearing on Friday (April 26) that the petitions be invalidated at meeting this week, and that she was "conceding in advance."
"I had assured my signees that their voices would be represented when they nobly signed to put me forth as their chosen representative and am embarrassed to report to them that they were invalidated because of this," Victoria Mintz wrote.
On her website, Victoria Mintz says she is a "social entrepreneur" who co-founded a canned-beverage company called Siponey Spritz. She filed to run on March 27.
A 2003 Carmel High School graduate, Victoria Mintz said she is "Latina, I have a Jewish family, and am disabled (bilaterally hearing-impaired), which is largely my motivation to represent the diverse voices and needs of our growing local population."
She does not detail why she challenged Levenberg but, in an April 18 news release called the lawsuit a "disgraceful use of taxpayer dollars, donations and endorsements. We deserve a fair race."
Levenberg is a former chief of staff for Galef. In 2022, she defeated Republican Stacy Halper in the general election with 59 percent of the vote.
In the lawsuit, Levenberg, Galef and Borgia raised the same issues identified by the Board of Elections, as well as claiming some dates and signatures appeared to be altered, some people signed the petitions more than once and some addresses were "missing, incomplete or erroneous."
Victoria Mintz, through an attorney, claimed that the state's requirement that petition signers include their town along with their municipality was unconstitutional under a federal ruling concerning the presidential campaign in 2000.
The validity of signatures on nominating petitions can be serious business. A member of the Peekskill Common Council was accused this month of falsifying documents after the Westchester County Board of Elections threw out 217 of the 531 signatures he submitted on his nominating petition for a county Legislature seat.
District Attorney Miriam Rocah told the Peekskill Herald that Rob Scott was charged with a felony count for allegedly filing petitions with forged signatures for the June 2023 Democratic

For years, David Bernz taped the folk-music legend. In a new book, he shares his friend's musings and memories.
Counting the number of music store owners who have published a book, passed the bar exam and won two Grammy Awards takes one finger.
David Bernz, the humble co-owner of Jake's Main Street Music in Beacon, is a proficient musician with a distinguished pedigree in folk music circles who enjoyed a friendship and collaborative relationship with Pete Seeger, a familiar face in the city for 65 years until his death in 2014 at age 94.
Now comes a book, Chopping Wood: Thoughts & Stories of a Legendary American Folksinger, compiled by Bernz and scheduled for publication on May 3, Seeger's birthday. That evening, Bernz and friends will celebrate Seeger's legacy at the Towne Crier, 379 Main St.
The book, which is being published by Jawbone Press in London, includes Seeger's musings on music, history, civil rights and the environment recorded by Bernz during the icon's later years. Other bits and pieces from the archives include a letter Seeger sent to Bruce Springsteen in 2006 detailing his intent to give away his song royalties.
Festival Planned for 2025
After a three-year hiatus, the Clearwater Festival may return to Croton Point Park in 2025 to honor Pete Seeger, who founded it decades ago with his wife, Toshi.
A newly created nonprofit, RiverFest for Pete's Sake, based in Briarcliff Manor, hopes to raise $950,000 to hold the Hudson River Folk Festival over Father's Day weekend. Hudson River Sloop Clearwater canceled the festival in 2022 because of financial shortfalls.
The new group was created by Mitzi Elkes, a Clearwater board member; Hal Cohen, a Clearwater founder; and artist Roy Volpe. It announced its plan on April 14 and launched a website at riverfestfps.org.
Bernz wrote the preface and ample contextual material, which makes up about a third of the text. It reveals the pair's close personal and professional relationship that began in the mid-1970s when the teenaged Bernz chauffeured Seeger to gigs.
"The recordings started because Pete knew I had a four-track device," Bernz recalls. "I was a novice, but he'd call and say, 'The BBC wants me to answer three questions,' or 'I need to record a song for a special occasion.' He felt comfortable in my house."
The requests grew more frequent and the projects expanded, which provided material for the book and the Grammies.
"At one point, I figured the [spoken-word] tapes would end up in the dustbin of history, but then I thought, 'It would be crazy not to work on this,'" Bernz says. "We need to get more of his ideas out there, especially with all the rancor these days. He was all about finding commonalities."
In 2008, Bernz won his first Grammy, as a producer, for Pete Seeger at 89, which was named best folk album. Two years later, Tomorrow's Children - a project initiated by Dan Einbender in the Beacon schools that features the Rivertown Kids singers - won best children's album.
Folk music is in Bernz's blood: During a jam session at his shop on April 14, he played a song that turned "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into a Civil Rights manifesto.
He said his father, Harold Bernz, became radicalized during the Great Depression and viewed music as a way to foster social change. Harold worked with Seeger to establish the quarterly People's Songs Bulletin in 1946. It evolved in 1950 into Sing Out!, which covered the folk and acoustic scene and was published until 2014, the year Seeger died and Main Street Music opened.
The younger Bernz grew up on Red Hill in Croton-on-Hudson, a magnet for left-wing artists and activists from New York City. He moved to Beacon in 1991 because of its affordability, proximity to the river and his job in the legal profession. He named the store after his son, Jacob, who is also a musician and songwriter.
The Bernz authorized to practice law still does so on occasion but mostly enjoys interacting with musicians at the store and playing banjo and guitar on

Alleges racial discrimination led to dismissal
A former elementary school principal has sued the Beacon City School District, alleging that discrimination and a racially charged workplace led to his dismissal last year.
Daniel Glenn, hired as principal at South Avenue Elementary in August 2021, filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court on April 18. In the 17-page complaint, Glenn, who is Black, says he was the victim of "disparate treatment and a hostile work environment due to his race." He asked to be returned to his job with back pay.
Superintendent Matt Landahl said this week that the district cannot comment on the case.
Glenn noted in his complaint that the staff at South Avenue was primarily white. He said that he told Landahl and Deputy Superintendent Ann Marie Quartironi in 2022 "that his job was permeated with racial discrimination on a continuous basis in the structure of how the school operated."
For example, according to the complaint, when white employees at the school "did not get their way, they leveraged their race as a way to avoid accountability and to cast aspersion and blame on others perceived as less important, less powerful or less privileged." A minority teacher wrote to Landahl, he claimed, "unequivocally exposing the toxic and racially charged discriminatory work environment," yet, according to Glenn, "no meaningful investigation was conducted."
In contrast, Glenn alleged, the complaints of white staff members were "taken seriously and handled expeditiously."
Glenn claimed that his job performance was "exemplary" but said he was terminated for "pretextual reasons." He cited two incidents in 2023 that he portrayed as retaliation for his opposition to "unlawful discriminatory practices": an allegation that he made an inappropriate comment to a female teacher who had recently returned to work after having a child and, a month later, a charge that he failed to adequately address a student's complaint.
Glenn said he received no notice allowing him to contest allegations against him before being terminated by the school board on May 8, 2023, effective June 7, on Landahl's recommendation.
Glenn had been removed from his position months earlier; when Kelly Amendola, the current South Avenue principal, was hired in July, the district said that Brian Archer, its director of evaluation and student services, had been the acting principal for five months.
Glenn criticized what he called a "preconceived determination" to fire him, and said the district's lack of a human resources department deprived him of the right to respond to Landahl's recommendation. His "career prospects are now ruined," according to the complaint.
In addition to reinstatement and back pay, Glenn is seeking unspecified compensatory damages. The school district has 21 days to respond.
Before being hired in Beacon, Glenn taught first and second grade for 19 years in the Newburgh district and was an assistant principal for three years in New Paltz.

Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, has a new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. In it, he writes: "We've overprotected our children in the real world, and we've underprotected them online."
Last year, the state Office of Mental Health published the findings of a "listening tour" it conducted focused on the mental health of young people.
"Many young people, particularly in but not limited to rural areas, noted that there are few safe spaces to establish communities," it reported. "Young people frequently suggested more clubs and community spaces or the establishment of youth-friendly gyms and other 'third spaces' (i.e., neither school nor home) where young people can gather."
In Beacon, the city released a study in March 2023, the Community Facility and Program Report, that recommended open space and recreation initiatives, especially "the redevelopment of a city-owned building to accommodate an expanded/enhanced community center."
Neither the New York or Beacon recommendations have been acted on.
Haidt contends that the replacement of an earlier low-tech childhood centered on group play and outdoor exploration with a high-tech, screens-centered, social media and video-game childhood is driving our children crazy. He sees smartphone use as a cause, not a correlation.
Surveys by the American College Health Association since 2010 have found more than 100 percent increases in anxiety and depression among college students. Clearly, something is going on. Things were going sideways long before the pandemic. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health does not show such dramatic anxiety spikes for Boomers (born 1946-1964) or Gen X (1965-1976) as for Millennials (1977-1995) and Gen Z (1996-2015).
Haidt argues that the "great rewiring" is a convergence of "safetyism" culture, or the hampering of childhood development by overprotective caregivers, and the reliance on smartphones.
In a nutshell, Haidt maintains that we've channeled young people away from activities that are considered unsafe, such as climbing trees or roughhousing with friends, or because they involve leaving the house and wandering around in the woods, back alleys and unsupervised areas.
"Mammals need to play to wire up their brains," he writes. "First comes sensory systems, and then walking, and then talking." Social systems become active through "synchronous facial interaction. You make faces at each other; you laugh. So synchrony and embodiment are part of the scaffolding by which a child engages with the social and physical world, and the brain grows in response."
He believes that the rise of the internet has blocked that.
There was safetyism before smartphones, but the tipping point seems to be their combination about 10 years ago. "Once you take these weaker children who've been play-deprived and draw them into the virtual world - that's when mental health collapses," he writes. "It was not a gradual thing from the '80s on. It was a very sudden thing around 2012 or 2013."
Haidt acknowledges that parents who grew up in the 1970s and '80s, when there was much more crime, may be more cautious. But those risks plummeted in the 1990s, he writes. "We have continued our overreaction to the crime levels of those bad old days, so we don't let the kids go out to play." As a Boomer, he grew up with "a free-range life.… Ultimately, we survived, accumulating scars, stitches and a deeper understanding of how far we could go, and go on our own."
He sees children's withdrawal from active play outside their bedrooms, the disconnect from the challenges and rewards of discovery in the woods and playgrounds reflected in an unusual statistic: the drop in the number of visits to the emergency room by boys and teens, which is lower today than the admittance rate for girls 15 years ago.