Letter to the Editor: Always Westwood Back Hodges & Greco for WW Council

By Always Westwood Team on Oct. 29, 2021

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To the Editor 

We are writing on behalf of the Always Westwood team in support of re-electing Councilwoman Cheryl Hodges and electing Anthony Greco to Council.

CoVid-19 forced us to prioritize public health, without which our ability to help residents and local businesses survive lockdown mandates would be greatly limited.

Together we fought a two-front war with CoVid. Cheryl’s Council duties placed her in the thick of it on both fronts. Her handling of those assignments was instrumental to Westwood’s success.

Cheryl partnered with Hospital administrators to shield 700+ Westwood residents in the armor provided by the Moderna vaccine. 

As the Parking Authority liaison, she advanced the touchless Park Mobile App along with mapping out pick-up/drop-off parking stalls in our business district enabling retailers and restaurants to continue operating.  All of this happened at a critical moment in time… when we were sanitizing our groceries and mail.

Safeguarding our residents and businesses during the pandemic required establishing goals and delivering meaningful accomplishments: action over aspiration, results over rhetoric. Cheryl exceeded all of our expectations in her Council role.

Anthony Greco is a well-known figure in Westwood’s youth sports and scouting, mentoring our youth and leading his peers. Anthony’s business acumen and real estate market knowledge will be extremely useful on the dais as we grapple with overdevelopment pressures besieging us from unfunded State mandates, tunnel-visioned developers and an economic landscape that requires astute and involved navigators.

Westwood is a fully developed community with little to no open buildable space. The Superior Court of NJ acknowledged this by stating our “realistic development potential” (RDP) was 1 dwelling of affordable housing. Still, it set our unmet affordable housing need at 391. The Veteran home being built by Habitat for Humanity on Sand Road addresses the RDP of 1 yet leaves 390 units necessary to meet our Court supervised settlements.  With Virtually no buildable open space, the pressure will be on to build high density and tall “multi-story” buildings.

Overdevelopment adversely affects residents of all ages. Increased traffic adversely impacts pedestrian safety – especially for our youth and seniors. Our focus must be on vulnerable residents, properties and how best to protect against these pressures. Our Always Westwood Team has worked to preserve our modestly spacious single-family zones from these threats. Anthony’s real world understanding of the economic realities of the housing market will provide valuable insight as we travel the path forward.

Westwood voters should be very happy with the way this campaign cycle has been conducted. All four candidates have offered the rationale for their candidacies and have asked for your vote, absent of divisive acrimony.

Our support of Cheryl & Anthony is not based on party. We just agree with the sentiment written by one of their supporters that “they are the right people at the right time “ for Westwood.

Please join us in voting for Hodges & Greco at the polls on Nov. 2.

Ray Arroyo  
Beth Dell 
Chris Montana 
Rob Biccochi