New Yorkers: Remember To Flip Your Ballot Over This November

On today’s Show: Only 8% of Republicans trust the mass media, and Justin Levine of the Adirondack Council joins us to talk about the Adirondack State Park being one of the world's largest carbon sinks

You can listen to The Finley on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and where all good podcasts can be found.

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Hello Everyone,

I am currently working on this week’s article concerning the Town of Monroe’s October 6th Board meeting and last night’s Village of Woodbury Board meeting.

Here’s a small preview, from Mr. Wayne Cort’s attorney, Joseph Haspel:

“Mr. Corts had not consumed any alcohol, or drugs prior to the Village Board meeting. He was not impaired.”

You should have that story this weekend, since the Giants played last night.

But I don’t want to leave you empty handed.

Starting this week, we are debuting a new, weekly podcast called The Finley.

The Finley, unlike the audio version of Monroe Gazette articles, is free and you can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.

What we want to do with The Finley is cover stories happening across New York State that often don’t get a lot of coverage.

Take this week’s episode for example.

If you’ve got your early mail ballot — it’s not too late to request one here — you may have noticed a Proposition on the back concerning the Adirondack State Park.

We wanted to learn more about New York’s Proposition 1, so we reached out to Justin Levine of The Adirondack Council to explain what it is, why it’s needed, and why you should flip over your ballot and vote yes.

If you’d like to support the advertising free new show, all you have to do is become a subscriber to The Monroe Gazette. Doing so gets you access to our archive, the private Facebook Group, and audio versions of these super long articles, as read by your second favorite local news reporter.

So let’s get to it, and I’ll catch you this weekend with another long one.

-BJ

Episode Transcript

BJ Mendelson, Host Of The Finley: Hello everyone. Welcome to the first episode of The Finley. I’m your host, BJ Mendelson.

According to a new Gallup poll, trust in the American mass media is at an all-time low. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but here we are.

So what gives?

Well … On one side are corporate outlets such as CBS, which have appointed aides selected by the Trump Regime to ensure only their side of the story is told. And of course that goes along with Fox, who only tells the side of the story that benefits the Trump Regime.

On the other are a distant, wealthy, and out-of-touch group — think, your friends at CNN or The New York Times — who do not feel threatened at all by current events, and are still clinging to the dated notion that there are two equal and opposing sides here.

But you and I know that’s not true when you’re fighting fascists. This isn’t a political debate. It’s all of us as Americans, Republican, Democrat and Independent, versus the fascists.

So we here at The Monroe Gazette, decided to try something different.

Although our newsletter covers the towns of Monroe and Woodbury in southern Orange County, we felt there were broader stories across New York that readers should know about.

That brings us to The Finley, the podcast you are listening to now.

The Finley is a free, listener-supported podcast produced by The Monroe Gazette.

On this show, we feature interviews with guests from across New York, discussing news and issues that may not get much coverage

We will publish at least one new episode of The Finley each week as we get started, with the hope of increasing frequency in the near future.

You can find show notes and transcripts for each episode at MonroeGazette.com.

And if you like what you hear, please subscribe to the newsletter — it’s the best way to support this show. Subscribers also gain access to our private Facebook group, The Monroe Gazette archives and the audio version of Monroe Gazette posts.

To our Monroe Gazette readers: we’re not going anywhere. You will see at least one new Finley post each week, plus at least one long form article about local news in southern Orange County. If you’re not from southern Orange County, I hope you’ll read those articles anyway — At the very least, I think you’ll be entertained by them.

Today’s episode of The Finley features Justine Levine of The Adirondack Council. We received many questions from Monroe Gazette readers about Proposition 1.

If you’re not familiar: early mail ballots are available in New York, and early voting starts Oct. 25. So ballots are already out, and people have questions about this proposition on the back of the ballot.

So just to be clear: Make sure you flip over your ballot.

Proposition 1 appears on the back of your ballot.

Now let’s get to Justin Levine of The Adirondack Council to explain why you should vote yes on Prop 1.

Interview With Justin Levine, The Adirondack Council

BJ Mendelson: Let’s start out with having you introduce yourself and The Adirondack Council.

Justin Levine, Senior Communications Specialist, The Adirondack Council: My name is Justin Levine. I am the Senior Communications Specialist for the Adirondack Council. The Adirondack Council is the largest environmental advocacy organization that focuses solely on the Adirondack Park, and we are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year.

BJ: I used to live in St. Lawrence County, so know quite a bit about the park. But for people listening in southern Orange County, they might not be too familiar.

I was hoping you might be able to briefly tell us about the Adirondack State Park and what makes it unique.

Justin Levine: So yeah, that park was created almost 130 years ago to help protect New York’s freshwater resources. It’s about the size of Vermont. And what makes it so unique, particularly within the United States, is that there are 130,000 people who live full time within the park’s boundaries. That’s not … You don’t get that at national parks or anything like that. That’s very unique to the Adirondacks.

And it’s made, the Adirondacks, a global example of conservation efforts because it has thriving communities, directly next to preserved wildlands. And we’ve been showing how those two can benefit each other.

BJ: And I also understand that there’s a constitutional protection in New York State’s Constitution. Is that right?

Justin: In the New York State Constitution is called the Forever Wild Clause. And it essentially says that the lands of the state located in the Forest Preserve cannot be altered or logged or developed without the express written permission of the people of New York State.

BJ: That’s amazing. And it sounds like that notice you hear at the end of the baseball game. They’ll say this can’t be reproduced without the express written consent of Major League Baseball.”

Justin: Laughs

BJ: Let me ask you, so we talk a lot about climate change at The Monroe Gazette. And one of the things that we talk about is land preservation is one of the best ways to fight climate change because preserved land acts as a carbon sink. I was hoping you might be able to expand a little bit on just some of the environmental benefits that come from having the Adirondack State Park.

Justin: So in terms of environmental benefits, the Adirondack Park, as I said before, was created to protect the freshwater resources. And when we talk about carbon sinks, people tend to focus on forests and trees, but freshwater … freshwater water bodies are actually really large carbon sinks as well. There’s a ton of plant life in these water bodies that we don’t necessarily see. And so the Adirondack Park acts as a massive carbon sink. Probably on a global level. And so, you know, what’s great about that is New York State has numerous laws and goals to help increase preservation and conservation efforts. In particular, there’s the 30 by 30 preservation effort, which aims to have 30% of New York’s land mass preserved by 2030.

And then there’s also the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, also known as the CLCPA and that is actually what we try to lead by example within the Adirondacks is showing that communities can thrive in the presence of conservation efforts.

And then on top of that, there’s just economic benefits from having clean water and clean air in the state of New York. There’s five major river systems that originate in the Adirondack Park and what we do with the water quality here has impacts all across the Northeast.

Everywhere from New York City to Canada and everywhere in between, the actions that impact the Adirondack Park can also impact millions of people.

BJ: Yeah, I used to live over by Warrensburg and I always kind of marveled at how small The Hudson River is up there.

Justin: Yeah. Yeah.

BJ: When you come down our way.

Justin: That’s a real argument when we’re in Albany advocating for environmental issues. And we talk to lawmakers from New York City who may have never visited the Adirondacks. And we can say, think about the Hudson River in New York City. Imagine if it was that dirty 300 miles upstream. And that generally gets the point across pretty clearly.

BJ: Early mail ballots are out. I just voted. And I flipped over the ballot and I saw Proposition 1. And it was the first I was hearing about it because I hadn’t heard or seen anything in the local news. And what we’ve heard from readers is that they also are not familiar with what Proposition 1 is. So I was hoping you can kind of give us the context on what’s going on with Prop 1 on the back of the ballot.

Justin: So in 1932, Lake Placid, New York, which is a population of about 2000 people now, hosted the Winter Olympics. It was the first of two Winter Olympic games that Lake Placid hosted, 1932 and 1980. And the Olympic Sliding Complex at Mount Van Hovenberg was originally built on a combination of town and private lands. And this is outside of the village of Lake Placid.

And this complex was built to host cross-country skiing events.

And eventually it would add biathlon and mountain biking, but it’s most well known for its sliding course, which is a large ice track where they host bobsled, luge, and skeleton races. In the nearly century since Mount Van Hovenberg was originally constructed, it has continued to be an international draw from, you know, for people from all over the world,

They host a biathlon, a world cup sliding events, cross country ski races, mountain bike races. And, in addition to being an international draw for Olympic level athletes, it’s actually a huge draw for locals and people closer to New York as well. There’s a lot of really fun things to do there.

So. Because Mount Van Hovenberg was originally built on a combination of town and private lands, when the state took it over the operation, those lands were largely added to the forest preserve. Obviously since 1932, things in sports have changed and there’s had to be additions and modifications to various trails and spectator areas, things like that.

The Mount Van Hovenberg Complex has actually started using a little over 300 acres of forest preserve land that they really weren’t supposed to use.

So what proposition one is, a vote of the people to allow Mount Van Hovenberg to use the 300 or so acres. And in exchange, the people of New York will get a minimum of 2,500 acres added to the Forest Preserve. So this was really a win-win for the people. Mount Van Hovenberg gets to continue its century-long record of being an international draw, and the people of New York get compensated for Mount Van Hovenberg’s use of the Forest Preserve.

BJ: Yeah, 2,500 acres is incredible. That’s nothing to sneeze at..

Justin: And there’s a minimum of 2,500 acres. So it could be significantly more than that.

BJ: And I think we talked about this before, but so far they haven’t … New York State hasn’t figured out where that’s going to be, but they know that there’s some parcels they’re looking at. Is that right?

Justin: Correct. I won’t get into a really long explanation here, but … The State of New York, when it purchases land, particularly for the forest preserve, does not allow itself to buy title insurance. And so that means people who work for the State of New York have to go back and research, you know, possibly 200 years worth of property deeds to make sure that the parcel they’re buying is not encumbered by a corporation or somebody else who could make a claim on it. And so the effect of the state buying land can be a time consuming process.

The upside of that is that they generally have numerous parcels that they’re wanting to add to the forest preserve. And the sale of those parcels can be in various stages of completion. And so it’s highly unlikely that, if the amendment passes, it would be even a year or more when we learned what acreage the people of New York are getting. So I would suspect it’d be a fairly quick turnaround to know that.

BJ: So what happens to Mount Van Hovenberg if someday they’re just like, hey, we’re not going to use this property anymore?

Justin: Yes, that’s one thing that’s really interesting about Proposition One this year is that this is a land use amendment and not a land swap amendment. So, in the past, when there has been an issue of, you know, lands of the forest preserve being used or an unclear title or something like that, typically what happens is the state and whatever property owner kind of go their separate ways after a land swap amendment occurs.

So that means that a property owner has a couple hundred acres. And, in order to clear that from the forest preserve, the state will buy a couple hundred acres in a different location. And then they’re swapping the new land for the previous land.

What’s different about Mount Van Hovenberg is that this is a land use amendment, meaning that if Mount Van Hovenberg ever stops using these 300 acres, the land automatically reverts back to forest preserve with no further action required by the state. And this was very similar to what we see with the downhill ski areas Whiteface Mountain and Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks, as well as Bel Air Mountain down in the Catskills. The state Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) operates all of those and technically all of those mountains are on state forest preserve but the people have granted ORDA the right to use those forest preserve lands.

BJ: Is there anything about Prop 1 that I didn’t ask you that you think is worth sharing?

Justin: Yes, I think, you know, there’s two main things about this. One is that people need to flip their ballots over and vote yes. It’s a minor thing, but it actually is a physical barrier to voting for this amendment. So I would strongly encourage everyone to flip their ballots over.

Second thing is that the amendment actually includes language that prohibits ORDA from developing this acreage into anything other than essentially ski trails and maybe some space for bleachers.

So they’re not going to be allowed to build condos. They can’t build a restaurant that sells concessions or anything like that.

And so, you know, it’s like I said, it’s really the best of both worlds. We’re allowing, you know, a community to maintain its international draw while at the same time compensating the people of New York for for the loss of those few hundred acres.

BJ: What more could you tell us about The Adirondack Council? How can we support your organization?

Justin: the Adirondack Council is wrapping up its 50th year of working for Adirondack Conservation. We work for the betterment of all New Yorkers, regardless of where you live or, you know, even if you visit the park or not. The Adirondacks is the crown jewel of New York and we would love everyone’s support. People can become a member or make a donation just by visiting AdirondackCouncil.org

And there’s lots of ways to support us. You know everything from monetary donations to shopping in our store to showing up for our Adirondack Park Lobby Day that we have annually in Albany.