That Kind of Thinking Is Going To Get Us All Killed
Before the holiday break, we take a look at the 8 Keith Lane Short-term Rental application in the Town of Monroe and the sad response from some of the people who successfully campaigned against it.
As a reminder, The Monroe Gazette is taking a break for the Fourth of July Holiday.
We will resume posting again on Monday, July 8th.
There will also be a delay in responding to any emails/calls/texts received during this time.
So, like yesterday, today, we will address an unsettling issue in the Southern Orange County community.
In this case, it's the attitude of "I got mine, so fuck everyone else" exhibited by a small group of members from the Round Lake Home Owners Association.
For those of you who don't live in the area, you're going to want to pay attention to this as well because, as the headline says, this sort of attitude is what will get people killed as our century rolls on.
This is a local news story, but the attitude exhibited by some of the parties within it are part of a larger national emergency.
If you think I'm exaggerating, I encourage you to look at the wave of destruction caused by Hurricane Beryl—the earliest recorded Category 5 Hurricane—and remind you that collective action is the only way to end our climate emergency, the kind our nation hasn't seen since World War 2.
There's no room in the 21st Century for what the kids might describe today as "Selfish Boomer Shit." And as far as this small group of people are concerned, "Selfish Boomer Shit" is an accurate way to describe them and their troubling attitude.
It's the kind of thing that needs to be called out, given how dangerous this thinking is in terms of uniting us and working together to end the climate emergency.
On June 3rd, 2024, the Town of Monroe Board meeting featured the following exchange between New York State 42nd District Senate Candidate — and current Town Councilwoman — Dorey Houle, and Monroe Town Supervisor Tony Cardone. You can hear this exchange for yourself at 1:52:33 in the video below:
Supervisor Tony Cardone: "I would find out who is quicker" [to post a notice of a public hearing.]
State Senate Candidate Dorey Houle: "Why don't we just do it [The public hearing for 8 Keith Lane] for July, then?"
Cardone: "Have you seen the number of objections?"
Houle: "I have not."
Cardone: "There is an overabundance of objections, and I'd like to get this rectified sooner than later." [...] "A lot of these objections have been in the office for three months, and I'm getting constant calls. This is actually in the same development that I live in."
Houle: "We can start it (the public hearing) in June and keep it open for at least one other meeting."
So, straight away, two things are established in this exchange.
The first is that Supervisor Cardone should recuse himself from any vote or discussion concerning the Short Term Rental Application for 8 Keith Lane, given its proximity to his house.
At the following meeting, he did not do this.
The second, and less obvious, thing is that Supervisor Cardone hoards information from the other Town Council members.
In this case, Mr. Cardone withheld sharing objections to the 8 Keith Lane Short-Term Rental application for at least three months.
This exchange further confirmed what Councilwoman Richardson and Councilwoman Bingham, as well as other members of the public, have pointed out at past meetings this year: The supervisor offers little to no transparency, insisting on hoarding information from his fellow elected officials.
These are facts.
There's one other thing I need to flag before we move on.
At the April 15th, 2024, Town of Monroe Board meeting — following a report in The Monroe Gazette about multiple unregistered yeshivas operating in Southern Orange County, Mr. Cardone had two members of the public speak for him to explain that everything was just fine and dandy within the Town of Monroe.
For example: Both residents who spoke on behalf of Cardone in April offered the public vague reassurances that a meeting took place to address the concerns raised about the erratic and dangerous behavior on the part of two bus companies transporting yeshiva students on Hawxhurst road: EMES Transportation and Darkei Yosher.
Detailed information about this meeting, when it happened, who was there, and what was decided, has never been disclosed publicly. Multiple residents who live on Hawxhurst Road in the Town of Monroe — and the same people who complained about these buses' erratic and dangerous behavior — have said they were never informed of such a meeting. They've also documented in photos and video that this misbehavior by the buses is still ongoing.
In fact, Darkei Yosher's bus drivers continue to exhibit the same troubling behavior in South Blooming Grove as well.
So this meeting, if it happened at all, was unsuccessful, despite public comments to the contrary.
Now, let's go to the following Town Board meeting held on June 17th, 2024.
During this meeting, Multiple Round Lake Home Owners Association members shared their concerns about the 8 Keith Lane Short-Term Rental Application.
They were right to do so. I am glad that they did. Short-term rentals turn healthy communities into zombie towns.
This, too, is a fact.
Diane Egan was one of the residents who spoke against 8 Keith Lane's application.
Mrs. Diane Egan is a former member of United Monroe, the political organization responsible for getting Supervisor Tony Cardone elected twice: First as a councilman, along with Mike McGinn, and then again as Town Supervisor.
Below is a campaign ad from United Monroe for Mr. Cardone. You’ll have to click over to view it on YouTube since it won’t let me emebd it.
Mrs. Egan and her husband, Mike Egan, were United Monroe's executive committee members.
Mr. Egan is also a current Town of Monroe Ethics Committee member, along with former councilman McGinn, and recently donated to Councilwoman Houle's State Senate campaign. This is despite the fact that Egan sits on the Ethics Board that would review Mrs. Houle's behavior should a resident bring a complaint to them about her.
Both Mrs. Egan and Mr. Egan are historically significant to note because, without United Monroe, the Town of Palm Tree would also not exist.
Some of you may not know this, but there's an actual theocracy in America in the form of the Town of Palm Tree.
In fact, Palm Tree is often referred to as America's first official theocracy.
Above: The Village of Kiryas Joel became the Town of Palm Tree through the actions of United Monroe.
You can thank the Egans and Mr. Cardone for Palm Tree’s existence.
These, too, are all facts.
It would be irresponsible for The Monroe Gazette and other media outlets covering these meetings not to note Mrs. Egan's presence, which we did in our coverage of this meeting.
Some Round Lake Home Owner Association members took offense at our identification of Mrs. Egan. Their offense is not warranted.
Although, I will confess, every time Diane Egan shows up at a meeting, it does give me an opportunity to share this absolutely bizarre exchange between her, then councilman Tony Cardone, and former Monroe Town Supervisor, Harley Doles:
Some Round Lake Home Owner Association members have also taken exception to our coverage of Supervisor Cardone. To which, again, I would point out that we have not said a single thing about him that is not factually accurate:
He lies. This is a fact.
He withholds information from his fellow elected officials. This is a fact.
He has bullied and harassed his fellow council members and other public officials in the area. This is a fact.
He has lied to the police. This is a fact.
He has bullied and harassed members of the public. This is a fact.
He has threatened to withhold Town advertising from the local newspaper in exchange for more favorable coverage. This is a fact.
He verifiably participated in a cover-up concerning sexual harassment allegations against his Town Highway Superintendent. This is a fact.
He violated New York State's Taylor Law by retaliating against another Town Highway Department employee during negotiations with the IBEW. This is a fact.
He has not condemned Dorey Houle's antisemitic campaign for the New York State Senate. This is a fact.
I could go on. But I think you get the idea.
To not acknowledge these facts is to not deal with reality.
To not deal with reality is to endanger every member of this community during a time when collective action is needed.
In order for us to be successful, we need to all agree to accept the facts, whether we like what they suggest or not.
To do otherwise is Selfish Boomer Shit.
Let's Talk About 8 Keith Lane
A very strange thing happened during this meeting involving the Short-Term Rental next door to the Supervisor's home.
Unlike every other short-term rental application that comes before the Board, Cardone and Houle rejected this specific application at the very same meeting where it was presented.
This is despite Mrs. Houle's previous, recorded, comment that they would hold the public meeting open for at least one additional meeting.
Instead, both Cardone and Houle treated the 8 Keith Lane Short-term rental application discussion with its attorney as if it was a campaign rally. Mr. Cardone even received an award just before the hearing from a local Boy Scout troop for vague and undefined reasons.
He did not disclose, nor did the Scout Master, that Scout Master Thau had previously contributed to Mrs. Houle's campaign, is an appointee to the Zoning Board of Appeals by Mr. Cardone, and previously ran on a ticket with other Cardone-backed candidates.
The Scout Master, it should be noted, ran in part on a platform to end Public Comment at Town Board meetings. So much for a Scout being “trustworthy, helpful, and brave.”
The good news for all Monroe residents is that the 8 Keith Lane application was rejected.
The bad news is that, upon reviewing the footage of all previous Town Board meetings since the start of 2024, there is no question that this application was treated substantially differently from all the others, potentially opening up the Town to yet another lawsuit.
Mr. Cardone has become an expert at getting the Town into legal trouble, which every taxpayer here has had to pay for.
This is also a fact.
However, some Round Lake Home Owner Association members took issue with these facts.
Using language previously used by Mr. Cardone about The Monroe Gazette, they claimed The Monroe Gazette has a "vendetta" against Mr. Cardone — We don't — that it was their hard work and complaints that got the 8 Keith Lane application rejected — Not true because Mr. Cardone was recorded saying that he hadn't shared their complaints with his fellow board members— and that it was ridiculous to imply the application was rejected because of its proximity to Cardone's house.
Again, here is the distance between the Supervisor’s home and 8 Keith Lane:
To those people who brought these complaints to my attention, I asked them to view footage from Supervisor Cardone's treatment of the 649 Lakes Road Short-term Rental application.
You can watch the video for yourself here:
Did these Round Lake Home Owner Association members watch the above video?
When asked politely to do so, they refused.
Had they watched the video, they would have seen that, like with 8 Keith Lane, there were deficiencies cited in the application by residents surrounding 649 Lakes Road.
The lawyer, who is the same lawyer for 8 Keith Lane's applicant, also lied to the Board as he did during the hearing for 8 Keith Lane. I know that these lies were brought to the attention of the Monroe Town Board because I emailed the Board members to identify each lie that was made.
Despite this, and unlike 8 Keith Lane, the 649 Lakes Road application was open for months of discussion and debate.
The 8 Keith Lane application was ultimately rejected because of similar deficiencies cited by the residents near 649 Lakes Road.
These are all facts.
Virtually identical situations with two VERY different outcomes
So, I have to ask: Does anyone seriously believe the proximity of the short-term rental to the Supervisor's house had no impact on this decision?
Really?
Do you know what all this says to me? A small group of people in our community took the attitude of: "I got mine, so fuck the facts, and fuck everyone else."
That's what the kids call "Selfish Boomer Shit."
It's the lack of compassion for the people around you.
It's their lack of willingness to consider facts that contradict their worldview, despite the clear and present danger—using just one example—of our climate emergency.
We need to take collective action and mobilize this country like we haven't seen since World War 2.
Right now, as you're reading this.
Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not in 2025.
Now.
That's what we need to do, and we're just not doing it—exactly because of this attitude.
“I got mine, so fuck everyone else.”
If you’re worried about climate change, and you should be, this is the attitude that will get us all killed.
It’s because we have selfish people who don't want to acknowledge the facts.
They don't want to acknowledge the reality of the situation.
Maybe they don’t care because most of them will be dead before the worst comes.
In that case, they got what they wanted out of life, so “fuck you,” right?
It’s a disgrace.
I'll remind you all that over a million people died here in the United States due to COVID-19 because of this same attitude.
At least 230,000 of those deaths were preventable had people thought about those around them, got vaccinated, and put on a goddamn mask.
But they didn't, did they?
And now, this attitude is legitimately impacting the rest of this planet by hindering our collective action to address the climate emergency.
"I got mine, so fuck you" is the exact antithesis of what we need to end the climate emergency.
It's also the exact antithesis of the attitude we need to restore our democracy.
I encourage you to reject that thinking wherever and whenever you encounter it.
I encourage you to speak out about that thinking whenever and wherever you encounter it.
Just like I'm doing now.
Otherwise?
This way of thinking is going to get us all killed.