[NYguy]

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/p...707290382/1018

Quote from an article in the Journal News:

The Godfrey-Tarantino contest is a rematch. Four years ago, Tarantino won the line, but Godfrey remained in the race on an independent line. Democrat Jack Quinlan won the seat but later resigned. He was replaced by former Councilwoman Chris Selin, who is not running now. Tarantino holds the Conservative, Independence and Working Families lines.

Godfrey and Tarantino sparred over development, although both said skyscrapers rising downtown are too much for the city, including towers by developers Joseph Simone and Louis Cappelli that could reach 500 feet or more.

"They're making all these changes and they don't know what the future is going to hold for this city: sewage, traffic, air pollution and congestion," Godfrey, a retired New York City education supervisor, said of the current council. She sought to peg Tarantino as supportive of the massive development because he is a business owner downtown.

"Of course Al is going to support development," she said.

Tarantino said that he does, indeed, oppose the size of the development as it has been rising in the city. He wants to see reasonable building in the city, but not "development for the sake of development, which is what I've been seeing going on in the city of New Rochelle."

"I think that 40- and 50-story buildings are not really what the community wants to see going forward," he said.

Tarantino said his work and his roles as a board member of the New Rochelle Downtown Business Improvement District and the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce show that "I live it every day."

Johnson said he would let the two Republicans battle each other while he conducted "ongoing, solution-based conversations" with residents.

At first, he said of Simone's plan and LeCount Square: "I don't think that those two projects have gone too far," although he had concerns about them.

He later said: "My concern is that their height and density are not in scale with the surrounding community and that this may have a negative impact on key quality-of-life issues."