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Editorial Velella Steps Down Velella got his just desserts this week when he stepped down after pleading guilty to bribery charges. Anyone who violates the public trust for personal gain doesn't deserve a public paycheck. Nevertheless, the cantankerous, plain-speaking pol will be missed. He brought back the pork to his district, which for many years included parts of Norwood and Bedford Park, and as a Republican he was a key go-between for mostly Democratic city residents and their Republican governor. He also was instrumental in the passage of some landmark laws, like the one that requires hospitals to let mothers stay for two days after giving birth. And, most recently, he was a critical Republican mover and shaker behind a still unrealized effort to raise the state's ridiculously low minimum wage. But there were transgressions that marred his record. His law firm clearly benefited financially from his position as chair of the Senate's Insurance Committee and he recently used campaign funds to install an alarm system in his house. Velella was a talented, likable politician who got things done. But the sad part of his career was that legitimate accomplishments apparently just weren't enough for him. That's a shame. A Better Plant Site Though it's the 11th hour and the city has vowed since last summer that it will build a water filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park, there is some hope for area residents who hope to stop the project. Against the clock -- the city will officially announce the plant site by June 20 -- more and more people from Woodlawn to Kingsbridge are getting involved, meeting with elected officials, organizing community meetings. It could be too little, too late, but one never knows, especially in an election year. Some Norwood residents are also working with the Columbia Environmental Law Clinic and raising important questions about how the city can choose to build in a heavily populated area with an overwhelming majority of minority residents, when it owns an industrial site known as Eastview in the Westchester town of Mt. Pleasant that is far from any residential community. The site is bordered by a public bus depot, a Fire Department practice range and not much else. The city says it will cost less to build in the city, but its own environmental study depicts a scenario where Eastview would cost less if a project known as the Kensico City Tunnel is also built. Interestingly, the city has thus far refused to release to the public its feasibility study for that project. The environmental review is terribly biased in favor of Van Cortlandt Park. It studies a mile around the site in Eastview and only a half-mile around the park in Norwood. And the study inexplicably states that the neighborhood character at the Eastview site (there is no neighborhood) will be negatively affected by the plant, but that Norwood's character will be miraculously unharmed by such a project. If the city ignores the public good and chooses the park for the plant, there will almost definitely be lawsuits. TIt has lost in court before when it tried to build in the park.
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