NBC News – Blockbusting in Rockland

 

NBC News Reports On Blockbusting In Rockland.

https://www.facebook.com/Clarkstown-What-They-Dont-Want-You-To-Know-146207698912716/?fref=nf

In an earlier post – Hasidic Demand For Rockland County Housing Is “Causing A Housing Crisis Like Never Seen Before” – we asked how our Hasidic neighbors in Orange County, where 93% of the population in Kiryas Joel is receiving Medicaid and other government services, can afford to live in modern housing and annex acres of land for expansion.

We pointed out that while the ‘poverty’ situation is not yet that bad in Rockland County as in Kiryas Joel, it is climbing rapidly such that in Monsey and Spring Valley, the percentage of the population receiving Temporary Assistance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (aka food stamps) and Medicaid is now 62% and 53% respectively even though the adults and children are beautifully dressed and show no visible signs of malnutrition.

As of the writing our earlier post has reached 154,000 people, been shared over 1,100 times and has over 300 comments all of whom are wondering how this can be occurring?

https://www.facebook.com/146207698912716/videos/vb.146207698912716/498713760328773/?type=2&theater

We have asked why demand for houses in Rockland County by residents from New Square and Monsey has reached a fever pitch that it is driving realtors to knock on residents’ doors and ask if they want to sell and get out now while the cash is flowing and the ‘going’ is good?

In our earlier post Yossi Gestneter, a self-styled spokesperson for the Hasidic community, admitted that the Hasidic population could make cash offers to buy homes in targeted areas of Rockland saying somewhat incoherently:

“These same people complain about the Hasidim going out there and offer hefty prices for houses and want to move out”.

We wonder how any Rockland County community – in which there is a ‘poverty’ rate of over 50% requiring lifelong ‘temporary’ assistance, food stamps, and Medicaid – has money freely available to its members to offer non-Hasidic homeowners cash if they would just get up, get out, and go somewhere else.

Now NBC News 4 in New York has picked up our reports of this ultra-Orthodox blockbusting and specifically mentions the incident published on Facebook of two blockbusting Weichert Realtors. Further, on WRCR this morning Naomi Streicher of Realty Teams was heard to ridicule people putting no-knock signs on their property saying that it was ‘not nice’.

One question we have is where is all of this money to purchases properties is coming from? We suspect that the couples coming to view homes are actually representing LLCs and that when homes are bought by these LLCs they are then rented out until neighborhood property values decline.

What we have heard on WRCR is that home prices in Rockland County are rising somewhat but that multiple offers are being placed on homes in Ramapo and they are all snapped up instantly. That defies all the laws of economics where multiple offers on homes drives prices skyward in short order. Why is that not happening in Rockland County?

Clearly there is need for a major investigation of what is going on in the real estate market in Ramapo, Clarkstown and Pearl River. The basic questions that needs to be answered are:

1) Are LLCs buying an unusually large amount of homes and renting them until sufficient homes have been purchased to move in ultra-Orthodox families and force the remaining residents out?

2) What is the source of the money being used for “cash” purchases?

3) What criminal actions are going to be taken against realtors practicing blockbusting?

In our opinion it is time for the Rockland County government to do an immediate study of the practices of realtors in Rockland County and determine why stories of blockbusting in Rockland are now becoming national news.

If you agree please let our elected officials know by your comments below.

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BLOCKBUSTING – Alive and Well in…

CHESTNUT RIDGE:

 

Block busting is alive and well in Chestnut Ridge. Someone stopped me while I was cutting my grass on Monday and asked if I wanted to sell my house. A van was slowly driving up and down my street this afternoon and I received this letter in the mail. Feeling a little pressured to move these days.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/134531280019582/?fref=nf

 

We are covering this topic because while “blockbusting” an illegal practice, social media has created loopholes in its enforcement. We recommend that you be diligent, warn you neighbors and say unequivocally, “NO.” when someone approaches.

We welcome personal experiences of our readership.

 

 

No Knock Law Rockland – Blockbusting and Housing

 

BLOCKBUSTING CONTINUES – NO KNOCK LAW NEEDED

Clarkstown – What They Don’t Want You to Know [Facebook], June 1, 2016

Hasidic Demand For Rockland County Housing Is “Causing A Housing Crisis Like Never Seen Before.”

https://www.facebook.com/Clarkstown-What-They-Dont-Want-You-To-Know-146207698912716/?fref=photo

Some use the word ‘poor’ when referring to our Hasidic neighbors in Orange County because 93% of the population in Kiryas Joel is receiving Medicaid and other government services.

The ‘poverty’ situation is not yet that bad in Rockland County, but it is climbing as rapidly as the population grows. In Monsey and Spring Valley, the percentage of the population receiving Temporary Assistance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (aka food stamps) and Medicaid is now 62% and 53% respectively even though the adults and children are beautifully dressed and show no visible signs of malnutrition.

Why should we care about our Hasidic neighbors’ ‘poverty’?

We should care because Medicaid is charged back to the residents of the county in which the Medicaid payments are made – namely homeowners who are being driven from their homes by plunderous property taxes.

Even with these poverty statistics, News 12 reports that demand for houses in Rockland County by residents from New Square and Monsey has reached a fever pitch that is driving realtors to knock on residents’ doors and ask if they want to sell and get out now while the cash is flowing and the going is good.

What many residents believe is that these requests are blatant attempts by realtors to ‘block bust’ certain neighborhoods for the Hasidim ‘bloc’.

In this News 12 video, Yossi Gestneter, who is a self-styled spokesperson for the Hasidic community, attempts to rationalize how a community that is stricken with self-inflicted ‘poverty’ rates of over 50% has so much money that cash offers can be made to buy expensive homes in targeted areas saying: “These same people complain about the Hasidim going out there and offer hefty prices for houses and want to move out”.

While Gestneter may not be capable of expressing himself comprehensively in English, the point that he seems to be making is that the Hasidim have the money to buy expensive homes from anyone who wants to leave now.

Since Hasidim wish to live in insular communities, it seems clear that the reason for the present frenzy of realtors’ activity is that once part of the ‘block’ goes to the insular ‘bloc’ eventually all of the homes are sure to go to the same ‘bloc’.

That is textbook blockbusting. As Peter Bradley, a representative of the ‘Preserve’ movement in Rockland points out, offering to buy homes in this manner is “sheer intimidation”. He added: “There are other ways to sell and buy houses and this (way) is not appropriate”.

What is left unexplained in all of this by the Hasidic community’s ‘Ministry of Propaganda’ is how any Rockland County community – in which there is a ‘poverty’ rate of over 50% requiring lifelong ‘temporary’ assistance, food stamps, and Medicaid – has money freely available to its members to offer non-Hasidic homeowners top market value in cash if they would just get up, get out, and go somewhere else.

What is also not explained is how Kiryas Joel, where the poverty rate is an astonishingly 93%, can afford to annex huge acreages of land to construct brand new multifamily housing for its expanding population who apparently will also exhibit 93% ‘poverty’ levels.

If someone knows how the Hasidic community can make ‘poverty’ so successful with respect to real estate purchases, we would ask that they please make it known to others. There are numerous poverty-stricken areas populated by goyim in the inner boroughs of many cities of the United States that could use practical solutions to their similar poverty predicament.

Is the secret simply to organize into an extreme religious sect which compels its faithful to:

1. Have more children than they can ever possibly hope to support on their own even if they wished to.

2. Ensure those children receive the bare minimum in secular education in order to keep them dependent on the largesse of the community leaders.

3. Convince men that it is better to study a holy book from dawn to dusk than to perform any useful work.

4. Isolate the sect from the outside world and enforce crushing repercussions to those who stray.

5. Follow the political directives of the sect’s leaders without question, thereby creating a voting bloc that draws corrupt politicians like moths to a flame.

6. Wield ‘bloc’ voting power to control politicians up to the Presidential level and advance the agenda of the religion’s leadership convincing those who are controlled to look the other way when goyish laws must be circumvented or ignored.

7. Seek pardons for bad FBI actions in arresting people who were not stealing for personal gain but for the benefit of the group as a whole.

8. Watch goyim funds come rolling in to fund the religion’s community coffers.

9. Cry anti-Semitism or racial discrimination whenever confronted about any behavior that raises questions about how and why taxpayer money is funding unsustainable and self-imposed poverty.

10. Sit back and enjoy the ride – it will take generations before the goyim figure out the long-term plan.

There’s a common expression that states, “Last one to leave please turn off the lights”. In the case of much of Rockland County, that expression is likely to become a question that asks: “After the last goy leaves, whose money will be used to keep the lights on?”

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“We’re ready to buy the whole neighborhood. Why would you want to live with us?”

May 1, 2016

From the Philadelphia Inquirer 

Doorbells ring, charges fly at Shore towns

LAKEWOOD, N.J. – A crowded city like nothing New Jersey has ever seen is rising over this once sleepy Ocean County township, and its neighbors are on edge.

In adjacent Toms River, those tensions started in late 2014 when bearded men in wide hats began knocking on doors. They had friends in Brooklyn, they said, who would pay top dollar for the houses.

“The guy who came around our street called himself ‘Charles from Brooklyn,’ ” homeowner Laurie Venditto recalled.

He “must have been here 20 or 30 times” to tell her and others on Hunters Court that his fellow Haredi Jews were moving in.

“He said we wouldn’t want to live here when he was done,” Venditto recalled, speaking in the ground-floor office of her corner home.

WOODBURY-KIRYAS JOEL, Zoning Upheld

• Appeals court upholds Woodbury’s zoning laws

http://www.recordonline.com/news/20160421/appeals-court-upholds-woodburys-zoning-laws

 

April 21, 2016

WOODBURY — A state appeals court has upheld the Village of Woodbury’s Comprehensive Plan and zoning laws, reversing a 2014 ruling that branded the zoning “exclusionary” for failing to accommodate the high-density housing needs of the Hasidic residents of neighboring Kiryas Joel.

In a decision signed Wednesday, a four-judge Appellate Division panel rejected all three grounds Supreme Court Justice Francis Nicolai had given for invalidating the planning blueprint and two zoning amendments Woodbury approved in 2011. Under their ruling, Kiryas Joel and the affiliated plaintiffs that filed the lawsuit that same year must now return to Supreme Court and prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the plan and land-use laws constitute illegal “exclusionary zoning.”

“It strikes down the notion of affirmative action in accommodating religious sects in zoning,” Dennis Lynch, the South Nyack attorney representing Woodbury, said of the appeals court ruling on Thursday.

Kiryas Joel’s lawyers had argued that zoning for large residential lots prevents Hasidic Jews from “living and freely practicing their religion in Woodbury.” Joining the village as a plaintiff in the case was the land-holding arm of Kiryas Joel’s main congregation, which owns 175 acres in Woodbury.

In addition to the “exclusionary zoning” argument, Nicolai — who retired shortly after rendering his decision in the case — had invalidated Woodbury’s Comprehensive Plan for two technical reasons involving the environmental review and county approval for those documents. The Appellate Division found no merit in either claim and reversed Nicolai on those points as well.

LETTER: Follow the money in Lakewood

from app.com

LETTER: Follow the Money in Lakewood

March 29, 2016

The March 23 editorial, “A.G. needs to take close look at Lakewood” concerning the expansion of Orthodox Jews into surrounding towns stated, among other things, that the financing of home purchases should be investigated. That is something I’ve always wondered about.

How can a society where the husband is a perpetual student and the wife works part time afford to pay $300,000 to $600,000 for a home? I know of many professional couples who both work full time and have difficulty paying for their home. When new neighborhoods are approached by the Orthodox, home purchase offers are often above the current market value and the payment is in cash. What family living on a part-time income has an extra $500,000 in cash lying around?

These are the same families sending their large families to private schools. Are they paying tuition also? Where are the funds coming from to build the huge yeshivas that are cropping up all over Lakewood? If you drive through Lakewood, you would think that Honda was giving away Odyssey vans. Where did the cash come from to purchase these new vehicles? Were gift tax laws violated?

Letter: Blockbusting going outside Lakewood

It’s not any of our business to question another person’s finances, but questions should be asked if a person is receiving government benefits — welfare, subsidized housing, free health insurance, etc. — and still has abundant funds to pay cash for houses and cars. Follow the money: It could provide an interesting explanation for what is going on in Lakewood.

Elisabeth Michels

Jackson

Crackdown On NJ Chabad In Rabbi’s Home Is Anti-Haredi, Lawsuit Alleges | The Jewish Week

Crackdown On NJ Chabad In Rabbi’s Home Is Anti-Charedi, Lawsuit Alleges

The head of Chabad in a town adjacent to the Orthodox Jewish stronghold of Lakewood, New Jersey, has sued the town and its planning board alleging discrimination.

Rabbi Moshe Gourarie and the Chabad center of Toms River on Tuesday filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the township and its Board of Adjustment, claiming that Chabad has become the target of community opposition to the haredi Orthodox Jewish population.

Chabad, which has been operating out of the rabbi’s private home in the township for the last 12 years, was recently told it requires a variance to operate as a house of worship. A hearing on the variance is scheduled for next month, the Asbury Park Press reported.

The lawsuit notes in leveling the discrimination accusation that the board allows the American Legion, a church, Ocean County College and the county fire academy to operate in the residential zone.

The rabbi’s weekly Shabbat prayer services bring out up to 20 people, according to the report. The rabbi also holds classes during the week of fewer than 10 students, and Hebrew school for no more than five children for two hours on Sundays.

More than 1,200 residents attended a meeting in December for the first Board of Adjustment meeting on the Chabad center, where the zoning board ruled that the rabbi must seek a use variance to continue operating the Chabad house. The next meeting is scheduled for April 14.

Thomas Kelaher, the mayor of Toms River, was quoted in a recent Bloomberg News story as saying that Orthodox Jews are trying to buy homes in his town and warning local homeowners that if they don’t sell, they will be the only non-Orthodox left.

 

via Crackdown On NJ Chabad In Rabbi’s Home Is Anti-Haredi, Lawsuit Alleges | The Jewish Week