Letters

I hope it is not too late to RSVP to Ralph Fasano (whose application for multi-“workforce” housing is before the town) and his public invitation to come visit homes that his organization has constructed, with a side of “comprehensive conversation” to dispel my objections [“An Invitation,” Letters, July 15]. To what end? My dance card is full, and I see no need to meet with him, as I have studied his plans and can foresee their consequences. And I have had his number all along.

From the beginning, when he held a meeting at the Rogers Memorial Library and thought to gull the locals who stunned him with their specific questions and objections, his spiel has been that people are opposed when they hear he is coming with his public funds and public problems. Then, doubt is vanquished, objections are all washed away, as the public stands dazzled before his finished product.

This is his mantra. He didn’t answer pointed questions then, and he hasn’t since. The tête-à-tête he proposes in his invitation is inappropriate. It is the public he needs to provide information and satisfactory answers to.

The questions and concerns first raised remain. How can the community sustain and support 60 “units” on 9 acres on County Road 39? On a plot zoned for six houses? Why is Town Hall, a/k/a Jay Schneiderman, pushing for this dense downzoning, an inappropriate, ill-conceived development on a road paralyzed by traffic?

Why aren’t the many “client” applications from organizations nestled in town files vetted publicly? Far from “workforce” housing, these are lists of people for whom work is not in their future.

Why does the project need a gate and 24/7 security? What does “independent” signify in the name of his organization, “Concern for Independent Living”? Why import more unsolvable problems?

The need for “affordable housing” here and everywhere is a concomitant of the overdevelopment of every inch of land glommed by the rich. This is whitewashed with faux reluctance and mock environmental “reviews,” accompanied by the empty blah-blah of conservation and preservation.

And before the chest-thumpers come out of the plasterboard screeching racism and NIMBYism, let me state that elsewhere I am sure that some of Mr. Fasano’s constructions have answered a need and been welcomed by the neighbors and the people they service. Those people deserve decent housing and all that has been denied them. I don’t have a need or a wish, as he insinuates, to “judge the quality of [the houses] or the Long Islanders who live in them.”

The unresolved issue — as was voiced to him at the very first meeting — is that his project will be a disaster where he is proposing it.

Frances Genovese

Southampton