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As we phase out of 2025, we think back on a year’s worth of reporting. Here are highlights from a riveting year.
Village of Haverstraw Feels Chill Effect Of ICE Raids; People Keeping A Low Profile
Fear Of Immigrant Roundups Impacting Local Businesses, Families
March 31, 2025 – At a bakery in the Village of Haverstraw, the lines are shorter and the cake orders are smaller.
“People are scared,” said a bakery owner who preferred not to use his name. “They are staying low, not going out, not really moving around too much, just in case.”
Fear spread by the Trump administration’s appetite to round up immigrants through ICE (U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement) raids, especially Hispanic people, is impacting daily life and economic stability in the Village of Haverstraw, and other enclaves with targeted populations.
For the baker, demand for smaller cakes has been greater than larger ones because “people aren’t throwing big birthday parties. They’re doing something at the house. So instead of ordering a custom cake for 40 people, now it’s a smaller cake for five people. Having celebrations draws attention. People don’t want to make too much noise.” Read more…
Islamic Center Of Rockland Pushes Forward On Application To Construct 30,000sf Building On Town Road In Valley Cottage
Balloon Test Scheduled For Saturday Examines Visual Impact Of Proposed Building On Peak Of Mountainview Avenue
April 1, 2025 – Hoping to chip away at the Town of Clarkstown’s concerns over the proposed construction of a 30,000 square-foot building on its property on a town road, the Islamic Center of Rockland (ICR) on Saturday is conducting a “viewshed” test to determine whether its proposed structure will disrupt prized vistas.
To make such a determination, ICR’s engineers will erect four red balloons on the corners of the building’s proposed footprint to determine the impact of the 32-foot structure situated at the highest point on Mountainview Avenue in Valley Cottage.
The test will run from 7 am to 4 pm, weather permitting. Read more…
Illegal Occupancy Of Single-Family Homes Plagues Clarkstown
Court Orders & Stipulations Don’t Deter Investor Landlords From Illegal Occupancy Of Single Family Homes
April 8, 2025 – For the past few years, a homeowner on Cooper Drive in Nanuet has been struggling with the Sisyphean task of getting the Town of Clarkstown to require a neighbor to convert his property from an illegal boarding house back to a single-family home.
“Most days there are 12 cars in the driveway, trailers on the lawn, landscaping trucks, people coming and going, loud music, explosive garbage piles, constant disturbances,” said a neighbor of 14 Cooper Drive, requesting to remain anonymous. “The house has three entrances. It’s obvious that the house is not inhabited by a single-family.”
Clarkstown is grappling with a slew of instances in which investor-landlords rent homes to home improvement contractors who fill the houses with workers, or illegal immigrants. The town’s code enforcement officer is charged with investigating neighbors’ complaints and bringing the cases to court. Read more…
Freedom From Religion Foundation Tells Haverstraw To Disentangle Itself From Knights of Columbus
Organization That Protects Separation of Church & State Says Leasing Deal Violates Constitution
April 15, 2025 – A national organization that fights to protect the separation of church and state has told the Town of Haverstraw that its latest plan to lease the Knights of Columbus building in the Village of Haverstraw violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits government funding religious practices.
This is the second time Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) has written to Haverstraw Town Attorney to request that the town disentangle itself from the Knights and its building at 56 West Broad Street. Originally FFRF objected to the town’s efforts to take the building through donation; the organization says a workaround leasing deal amounts to the same violations.
“Government funds cannot be given away to religious organizations in order to benefit their religious missions,” wrote FFRF Attorney Samantha F. Lawrence, in a letter dated April 9th to Haverstraw Town Attorney Bill Stein. “We write to ask once again that the Town of Haverstraw cease providing taxpayer funds to support this religious organization and cease any ongoing entanglement with the Knights.” Read more…
Tenants Forced Out of Sloatsburg Apartment Complex To Make Room For Jehovah’s Witnesses Volunteers
Long-Time Renters Feel Like They’re Losing A Home and A Community
July 28, 2025 – In Sept. 2020, during the COVID Pandemic, Helen Gaber and her husband moved into a newly constructed apartment complex on Route 17 in Sloatsburg. Then called Woodmont Hills, and later re-named Woodgrove at Sterlington, the Gabers were one of the first tenants paying $2,500 for a two-bedroom corner apartment. Having sold their Montebello house, Gaber loved her new digs, which had no upkeep responsibilities and great amenities. But the best part of the transition was finding a new community of friends.
Now Gaber, along with a dwindling number of paying tenants, is being forced to leave because the Jehovah’s Witnesses-owned property is turning the entire 384-rental complex into housing for its volunteers who are building a headquarters for an audio/video production center at 155 Sterling Mine Road in the Town of Ramapo. Until recently, nine of the 16 buildings’ apartments were market-rate rentals. Gaber’s rent, for example, had increased to $3,400 in four years.
Gaber, who’s been battling several cancers over the last five years, was devastated when she received a letter from Greystar Management Company, which manages the property, saying the Woodgrove apartments are transitioning to “corporate housing,” and that tenants will not be offered renewals of their leases “after July 27, 2025.” Read more…
Rockland Green Is On A Spending Spree And It’s Not Just The Animal Shelter
Public Authority Flush With Cash Building $18 Million Shelter, $4.3 Million Office Renovation, $580,000 Immersive Theater
August 4, 2025 – Those who keep tabs on government spending typically monitor village, town, county and school budgets. Maybe even the library.
But if you’re concerned about rising taxes or excessive spending, add Rockland Green (former Rockland County Solid Waste Management Authority) to the list. Rockland Green is raiding the taxpayer piggybank, spending at an alarming pace on everything from animal management to new projects you’ve probably never heard of. Legal fees to defend lawsuits are ballooning, change-orders for the proposed animal shelter have already added $200,000 to the $18 million budget, the quasi-public authority is undertaking a $4.3 million upgrade for its offices at 172 Main Street in Nanuet, and it’s spending $580,000 to build an “immersive” theater in the basement of its headquarters.
While Rockland Green has bonded $18 million for the shelter project, the public authority is tapping into a $36 million surplus to pay for a raft of improvement projects at its headquarters. Budget watchers are asking why the public will be taxed to pay interest as high as 6.25 percent and principal totaling in excess of $40 million for the shelter over 30 years when the public authority has such deep pockets. Read more…
CHPE Pipeline Project Chipping Away At Stony Point’s Business Community
Small Businesses in Route 9W Corridor Say Road Construction May Be Their Death Knell
August 12, 2025 – Rocky Alexander’s transition from corporate man to entrepreneur was personal. Shedding more than half his body weight with bariatric surgery and clean eating, the former 450-pound man originally shared his experience on social media.
But when his clean eating tips became a Facebook sensation, Alexander ventured into a bricks-and-mortar fast casual restaurant, Rock’s Kitchen, which opened at 158 Colonial Plaza at 158 South Liberty Drive (Route 9W) in 2018.
Alexander has soldiered through the challenges of opening a restaurant (most establishments fail within the first year), the COVID pandemic and rising inflationary pressures. But the disastrous traffic bottleneck and construction nightmare along Route 9W from road work on the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) pipeline might be the end of the line for Alexander’s business, which serves high-protein, low carb healthy fare, including vegan and gluten-free options, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Read more…
Thousands March in No Kings Protest In Rockland County
Peaceful Protest Draws Crowds To Protest The Trump Administration
October 18, 2025 – More than 3,000 people gathered symbolically at the “crossroads” of Route 59 and Middletown Road in Nanuet in one of thousands of “No Kings” protests nationwide and globally — many expressing fear and worry over the “crossroads” America finds itself at in this moment in the nation’s history. Toting signs about the threats to democracy, the denigration of truth, attacks on the First Amendment and other norms, protesters, some through humor, expressed visceral disgust toward the Trump administration’s policies.
The spirited but peaceful crowd stretched farther along Route 59, compared with earlier rallies. Participants included people ranging from toddlers to the elderly, and spanned race and ethnicity. Read more…
Piermont Mayoral Race Rides On Repairing A Village Riven By Controversial Development Project
Nate Mitchell & Kevin Timoney Vying For Opportunity To Steer Village Forward While Focusing On Preservation
October 22, 2025 – This is a mayoral race unlike any other in recent history in the Elysian Village of Piermont.
The tense dynamics in this political season are borne from a controversial development proposal on Main Street that catalyzed activism, ongoing costly litigation, ugly social media wars, and a political reshuffle that began long before the mayoral race.
On Nov. 4, village residents will decide whether to vote for a two-term trustee who played a controversial role in the development proposal and its fallout, or a zoning board member who is campaigning on the promise to reunite the cleaved village.
Both Village Board trustee Nate Mitchell, who is running on the Democrat ticket, and Kevin Timoney, the independent candidate, agree downtown development must adhere to strong principles and zoning codes that maintain Piermont’s sui generis charm and historical aesthetics. But how each got into the race differs vastly and might be part of the criteria for how voters cast their ballots. Read more…
Alison De Lima Greene Talks About Living in Storms Tavern House, Which Tilcon Donated to Clarkstown
Donation Gives Clarkstown A Chance To Preserve An Important 1765 House But Clarkstown Is Looking At Significant Renovation Costs
October 27, 2025 – Anyone who has purchased or inherited an historic house understands the endeavor is laden with responsibility, financial wherewithal, and commitment. Surviving houses of the 18th and early 19th century capture the imagination, preserve and enrich the character of a neighborhood, and hold the kind of history and lore that gets passed along to the next generation.
If these treasures are not maintained, inside and out, they succumb to bulldozers, as we have seen time and again.
After two decades of owning and renting the historic house at 407 Storms Road in Valley Cottage, Tilcon Minerals Inc. donated the house to the Town of Clarkstown. The donation presents an opportunity to preserve an important pre-Revolutionary structure. But Clarkstown will have its work cut out for it because it will take many tens of thousands of dollars to bring the house into repair, both inside and out.
Town officials, alongside Tilcon management, held a ceremony on Friday to celebrate the donation of the house, which the mining company purchased in 2005 for $492,500 from the De Lima Greene family. The house had been in the Greene family for a century. Read more…
Clarkstown Must Refrain From Politicizing The Four Corners
Clarkstown Republicans Should Think Twice Before Compromising An Iconic Vortex of Free Speech
November 16, 2025 – Rockland County is no stranger to political brinksmanship – hell, some would say we’re at the top of the class. But politicizing the county’s Four Corners in Nanuet, the decades-long iconic vortex for protesters, is a step too far in our increasingly fragile democracy where free speech and free assembly are under attack.
Just turn on the news or scroll your Substacks to metabolize nationwide efforts to crack down on protesters nationwide, particularly those who are using their First Amendment rights to express horror over the Trump administration’s brutal immigration policies.
Now, Clarkstown officials are undertaking a brazen effort to suppress speech and assembly. Read more…
Empire State Development Will Name Itself Lead Agency On The Chair Factory, Bringing Affordable Housing To Village of Haverstraw
Howard Phillips Will No Longer Be Able To Hold The Chair Factory Hostage Over PILOTs; Westhab Affordable Development Also Moving Ahead With Purchase & Groundbreaking
December 15, 2025 – After a long and protracted battle over tax incentives, the developers of The Chair Factory have found a way to circumvent Howard Phillips’ refusal to agree to a PILOT program that was needed to build an affordable housing project on fallow land in the Village of Haverstraw.
Town of Haverstraw Supervisor Phillips has been standing in the way of the planned project for nearly three years, saying a PILOT program will be economically disadvantageous to the town, and that Haverstraw already has “its fair share of affordable housing.”
But the redevelopment of the village’s waterfront, coupled with the pressing need for affordable housing, has made The Chair Factory a state priority. To the rescue is the Empire State Development (ESD), an economic development arm of New York State, which will acquire the property from the Village and issue a ground lease to the development team. The ESD will also declare itself lead agency for SEQRA (the State Environmental Quality Review Act) on the project this week, according to sources. Under its umbrella, the site will initially become tax exempt, facilitating the developers’ ability to secure financing. Read more…
