Why I’m Running: The Opportunity Before Us

I'm excited to be running again for Trustee, my third time, and under a new ticket. It's a little odd to be running against a slate of candidates that's using a logo based on my design. But since former Mayor Wray's and others' exit, I've felt the Unite Sleepy Hollow (USH) party moving away from me, my ideals and priorities. It was time for me to move on and work on making the Board of Trustees more effective at getting good things done. Like other former USH members, I chose to join the Sleepy Hollow Democratic Party and the Transparent Accountable Government (TAG) party for this election. Time to turn a new leaf in Sleepy Hollow. 

I live Downtown on Kendall Avenue near Beekman Avenue with my wife Lindsay and our children. We've been in Sleepy Hollow for over 8 years, spending much of that time gutting and restoring our house, a two-family Victorian from around 1900. We did a lot of the work ourselves, deciding to invest in Sleepy Hollow—a village that includes all we were looking for in a community. It's a great neighborhood. Sleepy Hollow has a highly walkable downtown, people from different origins and backgrounds, great rail connections, an exciting history, gorgeous nature and architecture, solid institutions, and really strong bonds. Sleepy Hollow has so much, and it could have even more.

I'm focused on delivering our residents' positive vision of what our Village could become over time. We need to manage the Village's accelerating growth and increasing congestion. We have four major commercial streets plagued by vacant storefronts, empty lots, and deteriorating facades, right next to our historic sites. We can create good-paying jobs for residents, affordable housing for our Village workers and volunteers, shops, art and music, maker spaces, sidewalk cafes, and more great restaurants. We will work on restoring our historic buildings. We'll ensure that neighbors and kids can safely walk from home to downtown and back. We'll work with NYS to rebuild Route 9 and to launch electric shuttles to bring you wherever you'd like on a moment's notice, so you don’t need to worry about driving or parking for a night out Downtown or to get to the train. We will create a secure place to park your car when you get home late from work. We'll build out planned parks, infrastructure and public amenities. We can do all this and keep taxes low. 

My training and experience in civil engineering, architecture, planning, and real estate development has prepared me to help the Village improve daily life for residents. Through my company, I'm an independent consultant and advisor to governments, businesses, and other organizations on energy, the environment, the economy, urban planning, and development. I serve on nonprofit boards, and as a Commissioner of the Taconic Regional State Parks Commission, I am a liaison to the Old Croton Aqueduct State Park and Rockefeller State Park. So far, I've personally helped bring well over $50M in grant funds and investment in housing, revitalization, transportation and infrastructure to the lower Hudson Valley. 

During my four years on the Board of Trustees, I've helped institute best practices in capital planning (we never had one), downtown revitalization, economic development, street safety (check out our complete streets work and work on Route 9), and environmental sustainability. But we've only scratched the surface. Other states and municipalities across the U.S. hire me for my expertise and follow my recommendations, but I can't seem to get members of USH to follow advice on achieving success. It's not a matter of them having alternative ideas; it's more about them not even knowing what they don't know and not empowering those that do. Instead of running a campaign on truth, vision and ideas, they are running one based on fabrications about public budget math and my voting record.     

USH is no longer representing bipartisanship or even a belief in the basic function of local government. In votes or comments, USH trustees exhibit a desire to diminish our ability to solve problems. That doesn't work. I've heard a lot over the past year about what we can't do in Sleepy Hollow. Instead, we should be asking, "What can we do to make residents' lives easier and better?" We need to support our staff to achieve success, not undermine them by cutting their budgets to the bone while costs are increasing. Our municipal employees, DPW workers, Village Hall staff, and volunteers work hard and are experiencing inflation, like we all are. Local government can work, and it can work well if we allow it to. 

I'm a self-employed, small business owner, so I understand you can't spend money you don't have. For years, I've regularly warned about the Village facing a tax crunch (i.e. double-digit Village tax increases) after a decade lowering taxes amid rising costs, draining our reserves, and growing debt. It's not fancy math. Small, predictable increases, maintaining reserves, and avoiding taking on too much debt prevents spikes in taxes. We all know this intuitively. There are no magic bullets and there's no magic money to be had.

I have a realistic understanding of construction, real estate markets, and Edge-on-Hudson development timelines, which is necessary to plan accurate budgets and borrowing, and to contain costs for expensive Village projects. USH promises over the past four years and during this election that the Village is "swimming in new revenue from Edge" have failed to materialize to date. Timing is everything. Edge is now half finished after 20 years of development activities. There's at least another 6 years to go if all goes well. This is a massive project, vulnerable to delays and ups and downs in the market. We can't afford any more missteps due to ignorance of the construction and development industry, or through a lack of understanding of real estate markets. We can be optimistic and realistic at the same time. We have a great opportunity before us in Sleepy Hollow to get this right. 

We have a playbook derived from other successful downtowns on "how to revitalize" and improve our quality of life while protecting our most vulnerable.  Yet, Village trustees have routinely chosen to shun and ignore these best practices. It's easier to do nothing and support what their friends want. We can and must do better than that for all of our residents. We can assume our rightful place among the best Hudson Valley Rivertowns and downtowns. If you re-elect me as Trustee along with my running mates Marjorie Hsu, Cory Krall, and Jairo Triguero, we will work tirelessly toward your vision of a better Sleepy Hollow. Help us get there with your vote on Tuesday, November 4, 2025.