Woodbury Resident Concerned About Too Many Brown People Using the Pool
No. Illegal immigrants are not invading the Town of Woodbury's reservoir. Holy shit. Why do we even need to have this conversation?
Just a few quick things before we get underway:
-We have a new podcast. The upcoming episode is about the ACE Farm annexation and what you can do about it. The podcast is now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
-I’m getting reports from concerned Woodbury residents that failed Village Trustee candidate John U. Keleman, is going door to door to gather signatures. I have not been successful in reaching Mr. Keleman about what he’s up to; however, as The Monroe Gazette has reported, Mr. Keleman — and his fellow failed Village Trustee candidate, Tyler Etzel Jr. — can factually be called liars.
Woodbury residents we spoke to have said they’re worried Mr. Keleman, Unelected Village Trustee, Rhonda Fabbro, and the Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats, are trying to muddy the waters concerning the ACE Farm annexation. Whether or not State Senator Skoufis is aiding these efforts is unknown, but given Mr. Skoufis is verifiably contacting people in Woodbury on behalf of Brandon Calore, the odds are good that he is.
Like I said, we will cover this in the upcoming podcast episode.
For now, you should be aware that if you’re a Woodbury resident, there is only one official petition for you to sign concerning ACE Farms. If it’s not from We The People of Woodbury (and does not include their logo), you absolutely should not sign it. You can also sign the online version of the petition here.
-Memorial Day Weekend is coming up. So, please keep an eye out for when your Town and Village are holding their parades. We encourage you to attend and share your appreciation and thanks for the service our veterans have done for this country.
A great place to get local Woodbury news and information, such as the parade start time and route, is over in the Woodbury United Facebook group. (Make sure you answer all the questions. I won’t let in anyone who doesn’t.)
We have (almost) finished purging Woodbury United of trolls and other assorted weirdos. I have to say, the group has been infinitely better after we removed Woodbuy Public Library Board President, Cathay Schmidt. Schmidt, when she wasn’t harassing and attacking Woodbury residents on behalf of either herself or this current Town Board, would spend the rest of her time flat-out lying. For example, she spent months telling everyone she never lost her park pass after harassing a Town Parks employee. Thanks to a FOIL request, we can say Mrs. Schmidt did indeed, for a time, lose that pass for her behavior. So, I recommend you leave those other Woodbury Facebook groups and join Woodbury United. We don’t tolerate the Cathy Schmidts of this world, and you shouldn’t either.
And if you’re in the area, please do try to avoid Route 32 near Woodbury Common on Memorial Day Weekend. It’s always a shit show.
-Last but not least, tomorrow (Tuesday, May 20th, 2025) from 6 am to 9 pm at Central Valley Elementary School will be the budget vote for the Monroe-Woodbury School District. For some additional context and information — make sure to check both sides of your ballot, for example — you can watch this snazzy video below:
Honestly, I don’t take a position beyond the following when it comes to school district budgets: If you don’t vote yes for it, you’re an asshole. Support the kids, the staff, and the teachers.
If you have problems with the budget, like the nearly 3% we spend on busing for non-public school students in the Monroe-Woodbury district, I hear ya.
But that’s not a Monroe-Woodbury problem to solve. That’s a problem solved only by an amendment to the State Constitution. If you want to have THAT conversation, I’m down, but don’t look to take a swing at the school districts in Orange, Rockland, and Sullivan (for example) for a problem they can’t fix without your help.
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Woodbury: There Is No Invasion At The Pool, Remain Calm
Now, listen. We’ve well established that Woodbury Town Councilman — and Woodbury mayoral candidate, because State Senator James G. Skoufis wants him to be — Brandon Calore, is a bigot.
We’ve also established that Calore was arrested for battery, and was accused of assaulting a disabled teenager in an ice cream shop. Mr. Calore later “resigned” his job in the Town of Cornwall after multiple co-workers came forward accusing him of threatening them with violence.
Boy, it sure was nice that he made it through this meeting without assaulting any of the Odyssey of the Mind students, you know? Just imagine this guy as your mayor. You’ll spend every Village Board meeting wondering, “Is this the meeting where he takes a swing at the kid we named honorary mayor this week?”
By the way, I haven’t had a chance to mention this, but I find it funny that after we wrote the story about how Supervisor Luciani’s face was obstructed on camera, the camera was moved. Further proof that any local elected official who tells you they don’t read The Monroe Gazette is lying.
Speaking of the Supervisor, yet another Animal Control Officer resigned at this meeting. I’ve honestly lost count of the number of resignations and defections from the Town of Woodbury that have occurred since Supervisor Luciani, Deputy Supervisor Theresa Luongo, and Brandon Calore took over.
If I were running for Town Board, I’d go back to January 2024, when Luciani and Luongo started, and count them all up.
There’s no better campaign ad for you to run than a video of each person who resigned explaining why they did so.
To both Calore and Luciani’s credit, the problem at this May 15th Town Board meeting had nothing to do with either of them.
Southern Orange County — and Rockland County — have a problem. The problem, across the State, goes like this: A wealthy real estate developer, or wealthy individual, buys a home and turns it into a rental property. If you allow this to happen in large enough numbers, it will exacerbate the housing shortage in New York State and hollow out communities. That, in turn, hurts your local businesses. This creates a death spiral for your local community, where even more people move out, replaced by these rental units, causing more small businesses to close until nothing is left.
In our part of New York, these rental properties are sometimes turned into Boarding Houses. That is, instead of renting the house, each room is rented. Creating a new problem on top of New York State’s larger problem.
I’ve been tracking this Boarding House story in the Village of Monroe. There, the Village is taking steps to crack down on these boarding houses, many of which are owned by Satmar landlords. There is a housing crisis in the Satmar community. Driven largely by the fact that New York City is no longer affordable to anyone. Including our Haredi brothers and sisters. Perhaps if Hanhallah (leadership) spent as much on their community as they did on politicians, this would be less of a problem …
The Village of Monroe’s crackdown aggravated one Satmar gentleman, Mr. Avhraham Flor, who threatened to sue the Village of Monroe and/or call Letitia James on them. Yes. Seriously.
Also, Mr. Flor suggested the Village of Monroe get its own DOGE, but based on how bad the real DOGE has been in its repeated failure to cut anywhere near the amount of money it’s promised to, we shouldn’t take Mr. Flor’s suggestion too seriously.
I do; however, take his threat concerning Letitica James seriously, and that’s why I’m working on that story. We’ll have more for you on that front soon.
Anyway …
I’m telling you all this here to acknowledge a legitimate problem.
And it’s a problem that neither Monroe or Woodbury has enough personnel and funding to deal with it in a fair and equitable way to everyone involved.
We need more Building Inspectors, for example.
The local courts also need better funding so that they can move faster in dealing with these issues.
And we need our local elected officials (like James G. Skoufis and Letitia James) to enforce the laws and not do what they’re doing in South Blooming Grove, which is nothing.
Ok. Now. We’ve acknowledged the problem. Everyone on the same page? Boarding Houses are bad.
Agreed.
But now we gotta talk about, what I felt, was where this meeting got racist.
Because some of the people who may be beneficiaries of the boarding houses may not be here legally.
And at least twice during the Town Board meeting — you can watch it above and see for yourself — this specific issue came up with a call for proof of citizenship, and then another call for reporting these folks to ICE.
If you ever wanted to know the kind of people who would rat out Anne Frank. It’s the people who enthusiastically suggest that you call ICE.
The concern here was that people are renting rooms to people not here legally. And that these new residents were then taking advantage of the Town's resources (the parks, the reservoir or “res”, etc.).
I get part of that argument. I do.
If I moved somewhere, and I paid taxes for a park that was supposed to be only for taxpayers, I’d want to limit the number of free riders too.
Because there are always going to be free riders in any system. Like, say, all the Red States that are economically dependent on the tax revenue from New York and California, but outnumber us in the Senate and often, because they outnumber us in terms of Senators, try to dictate policy in those Blue states who pay their bills.
Also, there’s no such thing as Blue States and Red States. There are states where people can, mostly, vote without issue, and those states where they can’t. But you get the point. There are Free Riders in any system. And I totally 100% support trying to reduce the number of free riders when possible.
But …
And this is where I will momentarily step out of my reporter role and talk to you like a normal human.
I sure got the impression that someone at this Woodbury Town Board meeting saw too many brown people at the pool and got mad about it.
Which is really why we’re having this conversation in the first place. I don’t think, and I’ve lived in this area since 1988, that there has EVER been a problem when “Too many white people showed up” to anything around here.
Never.
Quick example: There was a music venue in Chester on Brookside Avenue in the early 2000s, Club Culture. I booked shows there. Emo and Hardcore punk bands? The community had no problem, aside from an odd noise complaint or two. Otherwise, nobody said boo.
But then the club held hip-hop and rap shows, and immediately, the Satmar gentleman who owned the property came into the office. He looked at the guy who ran the place, his name was Bernie, and said to Bernie, “This Hip Hop Must Stop.” And it wasn’t just the Satmar landlord. Everyone in Chester had a big fucking problem about seeing non-white kids hanging out.
Another quick example: When I was in Elementary School, over at North Main — finally getting air conditioning, by the way, if you vote yes on that budget tomorrow — we got our first black neighbor.
I went to school with their daughter. Her name was Janelle. You would think, based on the reaction of the residents in our neighborhood, that the world was going to end. Because a black family moved in. And that was the mid-1990s. A lot of those people are still around.
You know what I call them? Tony Cardone voters.
My point is, I’ve lived in this area for a long time. So, I have a good sense for racist shit when I hear it.
Now look. I know. I know. For one, I could be wrong. I could be, and I hope that I am. Vibes are not facts.
But personally? I don’t give a fuck what someone’s legal status is. The facts are, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than American citizens.
They also pay nearly $12B into our economy every year.
So leave these fucking people alone.
That said, you can relax, Woodbury. The res is not being invaded.
Much like Trump’s claims of an invasion of our country by Tren de Aragua, it’s bullshit. If you’re a white person increasingly afraid of non-white people? I promise that you’re watching too much Fox News.
If you watch the rest of the meeting, you can also see the Parks Director, Joseph Gianzero, get up and point out that his department verifies everyone who gets a park pass, also. (We’ve contacted Mr. Gianzero for comment and will update this post if we hear back.)
His explanation for the increase in foot traffic? Woodbury has a lot of families in the area who take advantage of the Guest Pass Program. This program allows people to access a guest pass for a small fee.
So, in other words, as far as the Parks Department is concerned, most of the people at the pool were allowed to be there regardless of the color of their skin or the language they spoke.
We should welcome them as our brothers and sisters to Southern Orange County.
Not make public comments asking for someone to call ICE.