"THE CURSE OF ENLIGHTENMENT"

Widewaters-Buttermilk Falls State Park Scandal enters 3rd Year

Ithaca is blessed with a treasure trove of geologic wonders: abundant waterfalls, cascades and gorges at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake in Central New York's Finger Lakes region. Buttermilk Falls State Park, which abuts Ithaca's southwest boundary, may be the loveliest of the many wonders in the area. Writer William Ehling describes this sacred place, "Unlike most falls which flow over a rock ledge and plunge straight down, Buttermilk Falls is formed by a long, steep incline about the width of a two-lane road. In their descent, the waters dance over the washboardlike rock face and take on a whitish, buttermilklike appearance. A head-on look at this water display from the base of the falls is breathtaking."

Fortunately, Ithaca's organized citizen groups and creative individuals have traditionally opposed those inhuman forces that besiege our lives and our environment. Beginning with the anti-slavery abolitionists of the Underground Railroad, Ithaca has been a center of peace, justice and environmental movements for well over a century. Cornell University's "Big Red" was a hotbed of anti-war activity during the Vietnam War. In 1983, Ithaca led the nation in per-capita signatories to the Nuclear Freeze Petition. We even created our own local currency in 1991, the now world-famous Ithaca HOURS.

In the mid-1990s, Ithaca's environmental community thought we'd finally thwarted development near Buttermilk Falls. In a remarkable display of solidarity and determination to "Stop Wal-Mart," 7,000 people signed a petition insisting that the site be protected--from a smaller development that's now proposed. Wal-Mart sued the city, and lost in New York state courts.

Utne Reader (May-June 97) cited Ithaca's victory over the powerful chain store when the publication designated this "gritty upstate city where the grassroots are green" as America's "Most Enlightened Town." Ithacans never wore the enlightenment tag easily. "Ithaca may be the most enlightened place in America; but that only means this whole country needs a lot more light," I thought. Many Ithacans know, too, that blade-runner capitalism usually gets its way here, as it does almost everywhere.

Utne's recognition of our "enlightenment" became a challenge to Ithaca's pro-development forces, and it coincided with Mayor Alan Cohen's ascension to municipal power. This is a politician who does his magic in darkness: scorning dissent, circumventing democracy and promoting monopolistic, corporate "development" to the detriment of the community he supposedly serves.

Alan Cohen

In 1999, Cohen ran for re-election against Democratic nominee Dan Hoffman, a grassroots organizer and environmentalist who'd served 12 years on Ithaca's Common Council. Three weeks before the election, 62 prominent Democrats, including members of Council, broke ranks without warning to scuttle Hoffman's candidacy. These "Cohen-Democrats" ran a vitriolic disinformation campaign against Hoffman, falsely accusing him of opposing all development. The distortions became so bad that Democratic Party leaders publicly scolded the heretics. Cohen portrayed himself as "greener" than Hoffman, and never said a word about his plans for the "Wal-Mart site." Gannett's ad-grubbing Ithaca Journal endorsed Cohen and remained editorially silent about the sleaziest political coup in recent regional memory. The lies outran the truth to Election Day, and Cohen duped this town into electing him, by a 54%-46% margin.

The Rape of the Buttermilk Levee

No sooner was Cohen safely ensconced for a second term than the Widewaters Group, a big-box developer from Dewitt, New York, bulldozed a stately old hedgerow, demolished trees and began dumping fill on the flood plain, all before there was any opportunity for public review and even before its purchase of city-owned land had been approved! "I felt very upset by the development having already commenced, because it showed that the city wanted to avoid citizen input regarding the development project," says Tim Allen, "Stop Wal-Mart's" campaign organizer. "This came only three years after city hall did an environmental review for the same sort of development proposal at the exact same site. New York's courts upheld the city Planning Board's determination regarding environmental protections for that site. "What the city is pushing through now is a blatant violation of those past decisions," Allen continues. "The current city administration wants to evade citizen input because, in New York, citizens are the only regulatory agency that bothers to enforce SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) law."

The Shifty Permit

For six months during 1999, Widewaters alternately offered glimpses of and then hid its development intentions, like a hustler dealing three-card monte. Widewaters first showed its site-specific plans for a shopping center in May 1999 to New York's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) when it applied to remediate toxic waste at the site. We do not yet know yet if Widewaters showed a site-specific plan to the city shortly afterwards when it applied for a fill permit. That application was rejected by Ithaca's then-Building Commissioner Rick Eckstrom who wrote the developer on July 2, 1999: "The fill project is associated with the development of the site. Such development will require the discretionary review of the Planning Board before a building permit or fill permit can be issued.... The City cannot separately conduct environmental review of this small part of the area encompassed by the GEIS (Generic Environmental Impact Study)." Eckstrom's judgment comports with SEQR law that strongly disfavors such "segmentation" permits, though courts have allowed it in certain instances when the latter stage(s) of a contemplated action is unknown at the initial application.

Shortly after that denial, Cohen suspended Eckstrom, on false charges allegedly unrelated to development concerns. Eckstrom's rejection letter to Widewaters wasn't made public until December, when the document was uncovered by a citizen-researcher.

Cohen Ousts Eckstrom

Ithacans began looking hard at Cohen in the summer of 1999 after he suspended Eckstrom amidst charges of racially discriminatory enforcement of building codes which were used as a means to close a suspected "drug house," the minority-owned J.C.Knight barbershop. Of course, it is exactly the mission of Ithaca's secretive Drug House Task Force (DHTF) to close suspected drug houses "by any means necessary," including selective enforcement of building codes. Conveniently, the mayor minimized his role as DHTF's commander-in-chief.

The DHTF's treatment of properties such as J.C. Knight's where drug-related activity was alleged (but never proven), may implicate Cohen and others in racial profiling, a serious institutional offense. However, the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission accused only Eckstrom of racial bias at the barbershop, sidestepping the DHTF's responsibility. The Commission's "confidential" report was leaked to the Journal, which ran excerpts. Later, Cohen suspended Eckstrom without pay, citing charges of incompetence unrelated to racial discrimination. Hearing officer John Crotty's decision initially vindicated Cohen, but Eckstrom's successful appeal demonstrated the fundamental flaws in administrative law proceedings, which tend to adhere, sometimes mindlessly, to the letter-of-the-law without much regard to precedent, nuance or circumstance. Last November, state Supreme Court Justice Walter Relihan ordered Eckstrom's reinstatement. The city failed to appeal. Eckstrom dutifully returned to work on Feb. 27, 2001, when Cohen humiliated the Commissioner by isolating him "on display" in a downstairs office, denying Eckstrom contact with his Department. Relihan placed Eckstrom on paid-leave, and the case remains mired in the courts, moving towards settlement or lawsuit. Ongoing litigation prevents Eckstrom from answering important questions: (1) What was Cohen's involvement in DHTF-operations at the barbershop and elsewhere? (2) Did Widewaters show him site-specific development plans? (3) Did he discuss his permit rejection with then-City Attorney Mariette Geldenhuys or other City Hall officials?

Specific Plans and a Segmented Permit

Widewaters submitted a map to DEC in August 1999 showing the footprint of the main buildings in the Buttermilk viewshed. On October 4, the city received plans for a 200,000 sq.' Target store from Widewaters' builder L.P. Ciminelli Management, a Buffalo construction firm. Cohen and other city officials reviewed the plans, then returned them to Ciminelli on October 18, the same day Widewaters submitted another, identical application for a fill permit. On November 12, Phyllis Radke--Cohen's handpicked successor to Eckstrom--granted Widewaters' fill permit, allowing "segmentation," on the advice of Geldenhuys, thus bypassing SEQR's requirement for an environmental impact statement or review by the city's Planning Board. Geldenhuys resigned a few months later, saying the city needed a full time lawyer. Radke told a reporter last fall, "I wish I had never been involved, although with the 'permissible segmentation' ruling, I don't know even today (that) I would do anything differently." Cohen told me, "Had we been in possession of that (DEC) information, we could not have legally justified a segmentation permit." He maintains his knowledge of the Target store plans is irrelevant, though his opponents think it's the "smoking gun" that legally nails Cohen, Widewaters and their plan. "The sequence of events shows a clear pattern of secrecy, deception and manipulation," says Dan Cogan of the Citizens' Planning Alliance (CPA).

"Facts on the Ground"

This is a case of Cohen and Widewaters establishing their "facts on the ground." This strategy required obtaining the fill permit first, without public awareness or proper environmental review. It was this strategy that also led them to build the pad for the mall they were planning, and then to tell the Planning Board that its site-plan authority had been pre-empted and the buildings HAD to be built where the pad was. The only way to accomplish all this was to maintain, at the time of the fill permit application, the fiction that "there are no site-specific plans." Cohen now admits that all of the foregoing may, with the benefit of hindsight, be seen as erroneous, although he staunchly maintains his innocence of any wrongdoing. Others simply call it fraud.

SEQR: A Feckless Law

CPA's Bill Carini thoroughly researched Widewaters' permit, and then wrote a letter to DEC with an analysis of the "Omissions and Deficiencies in the Environmental Assessment Form, Widewaters Project," completed by Widewaters and Radke Carini expected DEC to be upset about lies submitted on documents required by State law. He learned to his chagrin, however, that DEC's enforcement authority is specifically limited under SEQR. Instead of being able to turn to state watchdogs, local governments or citizens are required to undertake expensive "Article 78" appeals against large corporations with deep pockets and powerful contacts. NY State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation Political influence apparently did the trick with OPRHP. Daniel Kane, OPRHP's Director of Resource Management, initially expressed strong opposition to the Widewaters project because of its potential for destroying the scenic view from Buttermilk's trails. "(The) overlook is a key location for our nature interpreter to stop with patrons on the gorge tour and discuss the geologic history of the Ithaca/Cayuga Lake area," Kane commented to the city's draft-Generic Environmental Impact Statement (d-GEIS) on Feb. 14, 2000. "The site of the open floodplain in the near viewshed provides the opportunity to explain the appearance of the area centuries ago. The Finger Lakes Region's interpretive staff routinely hear from our park patrons how unique and diverse the landscape of the park is with the city right next door. They still experience a sense of isolation because they cannot see the high-density development along N.Y.S. Route 13." Kane also expressed serious concerns about ongoing noise associated with operation of such a large retail facility. He concluded that the overall impact of the development would spoil the experience of park patrons during the day in recreation areas, and at night in the campgrounds. Meanwhile, Cohen was playing political card games.

On Aug. 4, 1999, former mayor Nichols suggested that state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer conduct "an objective, thorough investigation of the city's actions" with regard to the barbershop matter and suspension of Eckstrom. Later that day, Cohen phoned Spitzer and formally requested an investigation of his office regarding the barbershop. The A.G. wrote back in September, retaining the option to conduct "an independent, thorough, and fair review (of) officially-sanctioned race discrimination" following the Eckstrom-related legal proceedings. Spitzer's probe must now include OPRHP's about-face, Eckstrom's denial of the Widewaters permit and his subsequent dismissal. Readers may phone Spitzer's office at (518) 474-8096 or email him at

Documentation

I received valuable research and editorial assistance from too many people to credit. The bulk of documentation for this article comes primarily from two sources: CPA's website offers extensive documentation on Southwest Park issues, including the Widewaters' permit. Also extremely valuable was Barbara Regenspan's "Targeting Ithaca," in the November 2000 issue of Ithaca's Bookpress

Readers may contact me by email at citizenjournalist@att.net

Darkness and Light

Ithacans have learned from the Cohen-Widewaters development scheme that community enlightenment comes with the "curse" of eternal vigilance, continuing education and organized activism. Please, come to Ithaca this summer and help protect Buttermilk Falls from the dark and ugly institutional forces that sometimes rage against light and beauty.