Letter To The Editor: Downtown Gentrification Sold As Progress

PORT CHESTER, NY — Please look into the destruction of North Main Street in Port Chester, NY.

Most residents are unaware that the planning commission has rezoned our historic downtown for the sole purpose of razing it for new development and people are just finding out about these plans in the 11th hour. The board didn’t really advertise, ask or put it to a public vote.

They took it upon themselves to destroy our quaint downtown.

Signs went up detailing the proposal a week before the scheduled meeting during the COVID-19 shutdown and then they made decisions to change the face of our village behind closed doors without any significant input from the people it will most affect - the residents. The powers that be have decided to completely destroy all - and I mean ALL - of the historical buildings on North Main Street as well as the surrounding area.

Developers will erect huge ugly buildings with overpriced apartments and retail spaces. This will completely displace immigrant-owned businesses, our immigrant community and low income people and families.

The rents in the newly built apartment building on King Street are out of reach for most who live here, and their retail space has never housed a tenant. Many of the historic buildings scheduled to be torn down are solid, sound, and filled with tenants. Some have been doing business on Main Street for over 30 years. In fact, our entire downtown is dominated by thriving small businesses, which are mostly immigrant-owned, mom and pop restaurants and shops.

Port Chester resident Daunell Roller fears a vibrant and culturally diverse Main Street may be in jeopardy.

Our hardware stores have been holding their own since Home Depot arrived and most if not all our downtown merchants survived the COVID-19 shutdown because of local support and loyalty. However, they won’t survive the planning committee's wrecking ball.

Pre-COVID-19, our downtown was hopping every day of the week! There was music everywhere and people came to Port Chester from all over the county for our great restaurants and bars and especially the soccer playoffs at Copacabana.

The planning committee uses words like “recovery and revitalization” in reference to their downtown plan in order to deceive and mislead. Just like they did with the harbor community green space project which has since been condemned and fallen into the Byram River.

The shopping center which was part of the same harbor revitalization/public green space plan isn't pedestrian friendly and has stood mostly vacant for years. These new projects will create horrific traffic problems and the construction could possibly poison the Sound.

We are a Sound Shore Community and drainage goes directly into the harbor. Port Chester is a historic village with a majority immigrant population. Our beautiful downtown is loaded with ethnicity, diversity and flavor. The concepts of revitalization and recovery will force out immigrants and immigrant-owned businesses once and for all.

I live downtown, I love its history, the immigrant spice, the accessibility and affordability for everyone in our village.

Again, please expose this travesty before our village is gone, it’s history erased and our residents forcibly displaced and marginalized.

Daunell Roller
Port Chester