In a letter this morning to The Register-Star brimming with resentment, Marcel Boisvert blames the lack of motocross racing in the Town of Ghent on “an influx of folks from 212 area code” who came to the area “15, maybe 20 years ago.”
There’s an obvious factual problem with Boisvert’s argument, beyond its inflammatory and divisive tone: The local zoning code which prevents motocross tracks and events in Ghent was enacted some 40 years ago, in the early 1970s.
So by the author’s own claim, the newer Ghent taxpayers—derisively described by Boisvert as “guests”—arrived 20, maybe 25 years too late to play any role in passing the laws to which he objects.
In short, that zoning code was enacted four decades ago by longtime residents, not newcomers (if one must discuss issues in these simplistic demographic terms). Still, Boisvert claims that “motocross has long been something the hardworking people of this town have enjoyed for decades,” ignoring that it has been illegal in Ghent for his whole lifetime.
Moreover, a majority of the current Town board (none of whom, to my knowledge, are newcomers possessed of the “ugly” sense of “entitlement” alleged in the letter) recently reaffirmed that they aren’t going to change the code.
Not that anyone’s length of residency should matter. The law is the law, to be fairly and evenly applied to all. Every Ghent resident has the same rights and obligations under it. The amount of taxes you owe (or the number of votes you cast) is the same whether your family has lived in a place for 2 or 200 years. (This same point was raised by commenters on newly-minted Town Board member Richard Sardo’s Facebook page, though he appears to have deleted much of that dialogue. Sardo was in the minority not agreeing to drop efforts to change the 40-year-old code to suit a single property owner.)
UPDATE #1: Mr. Boisvert does not appear in the voter rolls anywhere in Columbia County, at least as of last month—despite his strongly-worded opinions on citizenship and community. (His letter to the local papers ends with a call for people to “get involved with town meetings and business... before it’s too late.” Registering to vote would be a start.)
UPDATE #2: The Town of Ghent completed its extensive Comprehensive Plan revisions in 2009. Motocross and other motorized racing were not part of it. The committee in charge consisted of Jim Galvin, Jim Beal (chair), Janice Fingar, John Fishman, J. Aaron Groom. Frank Mendelson. Peter Nelson, Sr., Gilbert Raab, Nicolas Tipple, Phil Trowbridge, Lawrence VanBrunt, Jonathan Walters, Kyle Wilber and property rights activist Albert Wassenhove. This was not a group that can be accused collectively of being dominated by “citiots” or “newcomers.”
