National news outlets like Bloomberg News and Newsweek are watching the tiny Sullivan County village of Bloomingburg, which is being rocked by controversy over the arrival of a large community of ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews.
On Sept. 30, the village held a referendum on whether or not to dissolve itself and to transfer its governance to the town of Mamakating.
The outcome of the vote won't be known for weeks, according to Time Warner Cable News, because the votes are being challenged and counter-challenged.
Those who want the dissolution hope that it will allow the larger population of Mamakating to repeal the village's zoning laws and stop the construction of a housing development that many expect will fill with Hasidic Jews moving north from Brooklyn.
Violence and lawsuits are swirling around the 396-home Chestnut Ridge housing development, which is being built by developer Shalom Lamm.
Lamm's opponents accuse him of corrupt development practices and fear that Hasidic Jews moving to Chestnut Ridge will quickly become a majority of the village's voters.
Lamm and the village's Hasidic residents say that they are the target of anti-Semitic discrimination, and describe numerous instances of anti-Jewish harassment and vandalism by their neighbors.
A Newsweek reporter visited Bloomingburg the day of the dissolution vote, and described a hate-filled atmosphere:
A faded blue-gray sedan roars into the gravel parking lot and pulls up beside me.
“You here for all the political shit?” the driver, a bony man wearing faux Oakley sunglasses, asks through his half-lowered window, a cigarette hanging from his lower lip. “You know what all this is about? All these Hasids have their own private places around here. They’ve got their own camps and shit. They run off their rabbis, and they pull off their drug deals. And the state police can’t go on the properties because they’re ‘religious.’ That’s where all the ... deals take place. You know what I’m saying? ...
Yankel, a Hasid who as a matter of course wears a black suit and coat, as well as the long, curled side-locks, called peyot, dangling below his dark yarmulke, says he was walking down Main Street a few months ago when a car pulled up next to him. “Jew!” the driver screamed.
“I told him, ‘You must be a genius! How did you know I’m a Jew?’” Yankel told Newsweek.
“I’m glad they used that name,” Yankel says as he and his wife of 42 years relax on the expansive porch of their Bloomingburg home, which is not in Chestnut Ridge. “It’s a lot kinder than I’ve heard before.”
Bloomberg News pointed out a few weeks ago that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is now involved in the Bloomingburg controversy, thanks to a push by his administration to consolidate village and town governments.
Cuomo was drawn into the Bloomingburg dispute through his support of municipal consolidation. Merging local governments to cut costs is central to his plans to lower property taxes in New York, which are among the nation’s highest. His administration issued Bloomingburg a $42,750 state grant to study the cost benefits of dissolution and merging with Mamakating, which has a population of about 12,000.
Previous 2014 coverage:
Developer files $25 million lawsuit against Bloomingburg for "conspiracy" against Hasidic Jews
Suspected vandal arrested amidst anger over Hasidic development in Bloomingburg
