A Roadmap to Target and Lowe's

The current consensus among residents is that the new majority of Peekskill’s Common Council must reject the Target deal because Target wants the national home improvement retailer Lowe's to be their neighbor, and the new majority made support of Dain’s Lumber, the archetypal Mom-and-Pop business that is falling prey to unstoppable market forces, a cornerstone of their campaign.

And yet there is a way. Consider this. The first vote is Councilwoman Cathy Pisani, who has always supported the deal. The second vote is Councilman-elect Joe Schuder, who campaigned on the notion that we must increase revenue before we increase spending. Target-Lowe's is the most easily accomplished measure to boost City revenue imaginable.

The third vote is a little harder, but nonetheless doable. Don Bennett voted for Target the first time around, but then during the campaign, made it clear that he would oppose any threat to Dain’s Lumber. This might have been mere campaign braggadocio, and Bennett could credibly continue to support Target since Lowe's has a very different business model from Dain’s.

But if Bennett doesn’t back the Target-Lowe's combination, then Councilwoman-elect Patty Riley just might. She too spoke up in defense of Dain’s. But Riley has no political history. Early in the campaign, she reportedly had second thoughts about her party’s past opposition to redeveloping Peekskill because she genuinely wants to help our City. As a newcomer, Riley could claim it’s time to put sentiment aside, acknowledge reality, and move the City forward with Target and Lowe's.

We believe Riley is the third vote.

So how do we get to the fourth vote?

Mary Foster’s unfilled seat.

Many believe that Ruth Wells or a sitting School Board member will be appointed to Foster’s seat. While it is still anyone’s guess at this point, the smart political move would be to appoint someone – anyone – who is committed to delivering the fourth vote on Target and Lowe's. Don’t forget that Foster has embarked on a career change, and if she wants to stay alive politically, she has no choice but to bring Target and Lowe's to Peekskill before the next election. No amount of spin can rescue her in two years from rejecting this deal.

At the same time, Foster needs political cover, since she has gone on record saying that she would not allow Lowe's to locate in the area that had once been considered as the site for a new and re-invented Dain’s. This cover comes in one of two ways. The least likely is, Jeff Dain goes on record saying that he’s changing his line of business since the real estate he owns is worth more than his business model.

The more likely scenario is, Foster appoints a Target-Lowe's supporter to the Common Council. Once there are 4 votes in favor, Foster will claim she wants to “shape” the deal, and she’ll “negotiate” some irrelevant element of the plan, so she can claim in her next campaign that she was the one looking out for Peekskill.

This is how Foster can split the baby and survive.

The only roadblock on this roadmap to Target and Lowe's is hubris. If Foster and her party believe the opposition is dead, and will not be able to field a credible candidate to oppose her in two years, then she can afford to break every promise she made during the campaign. But she does this at the risk of having the opposition re-cycle her own campaign literature next election.

In two years, will we be asking, Where is all the development? and calling to elect someone who can get the job done?