A Gaslighting Sidebar: Shane Osinloye’s Sanctimonious Lecture on Flowers Park
DUBLIN, IRELAND (November 6, 2025) — In my Words in Edgewise “gaslighting” series last week I tucked a section entitled “Shane Osinloye Rant” into Yadira & Co. Gaslighting on New Rochelle’s Flowers Park - Part II. Of course, you should read that article in full - and the entire series! But the more I thought about Shane’s rant, the more I felt I ought to promote the section as its own article, and make it free to read. So, here you go.
As I have said before, I have done a tremendous amount of work on the gaslighting series to show the many lies and misrepresentations made on October 21 by City Manager Will Melendez — and I am not done — so please subscribe to my Words in Edgewise newsletter and read the entire series (it is $7.00 a month with a 30-day free trial)
Shane Osinloye Rant
Before we dive into Shane’s latest outburst, let’s set the record straight on the avalanche of inaccuracies and misinformation he’s about to unload. No, there were zero public discussions about handing Flowers Park to a private developer before the RFP dropped—and there still haven’t been any. No, there is no photo of a Monopoly board in a child’s room under six feet of water. Wildcliff Mansion (not “Manor”) was torched by an arsonist in the late afternoon under gray, pouring skies—not on a sunny morning. Five Islands Park isn’t “falling apart”; only the pavilion needs fixing, and that work is already underway. Main Street and Weyman aren’t crumbling either. The Salesian kids my wife taught for years are mostly Bronx kids. Pratt Landing doesn’t reek because of buried toxic waste; the rotten-egg stink is just sulfur from the mud flats at low tide.
There is so much wrong with what Shane had to say that you really need a scorecard to keep track.
Flowers Park Was Part of Flood Mitigation Plan
“Of so these are, these are locations that we talked about in our… our $300 million flood mitigation plan, correct? So we did talk about it,” Shane added smugly.
No.
Unless if by “we” he means Yadira & Co. , including himself, talked about turning over Flowers Park to a developer behind closed doors then probably, but there was no public engagement prior to releasing the RFP. I will get into it later but discussing flood mitigation in and around Flowers Park is not remotely the same as a plan to give the park to a developer. There were public presentations about the engineering reports for each water shed including the Pinebrook Water Shed in March 2025. I will get into that in another “gaslighting” article but suffice to say, Flowers Park was not a topic of that “town hall” presentation.
Monopoly Board Under Water
“I saw Councilwoman Kay shared some of the media from different people's houses in the neighborhood. I think probably the most distressing photograph for me was, I'm a fan of monopoly. I love board games, and I saw a Monopoly board, maybe under six feet… of six feet of water I think the water line was… which is about my height, so that's horrifying, and that was a child's room, right?” (Sara Kaye confirms it was a child’s room)
As the image he referenced is covered under the Open Meetings Law (because Shane talked about it as a reason not to rescind the RFP) I asked the Clerk to provide the image to me. A week later the Clerk emailed Sara Kaye and Shane Osinloye. Sara sent the photo to the Clerk who sent it to me. There was no information about who took the picture, the date, or the location or even if the photo was from New Rochelle.
I put out the “bat signal” to readers on my socials. Within minutes, the person who took the photo contacted me and told me the photo was taken on September 1, 2021 (Hurricane Ida). The location is a house on Ashland Street near East Place. There was video too, which turned out to be one of the four videos presented by Will Melendez on October 21. More on that later too.
What is “distressing” about the photograph is how it shows Shane’s inability to recall information. The photo does not depict a “a child's room” (it’s a bathroom), it is not “under six feet… of six feet of water” (there is no water at all but there is an indication of a water line), there is not “a Monopoly board” but there is a box on the floor that may be the top to a box for a Monopoly set.
Wildcliff Fire
“I woke up to Wildcliff Manor on fire. And I bring this up a lot. I'm going to bring it up again because Wildcliff Manor was on fire. I walk out to a pillar of smoke in the air, clear, beautiful, blue sky. Pillar of smoke in the air.”
Wildcliff Mansion (not Manor) was destroyed by an arson fire in November 2018. Local teenagers deliberately set the blaze, causing extensive damage. The fire had nothing to do with flooding or flood mitigation but criminal acts by local students.
I covered the fire — and later broke the story that the fire was started by students from Isaac E. Young Middle School, who started the fire after school let out at about 3:30 pm.
So, when exactly does Shane wake up?
It was not a “clear, beautiful, blue sky” and there was no “pillar of smoke in the air”.
Unlike Shane, I was there, getting soaked to the bone in the pouring rain. I took photos and shot video.
Falling Apart
“Five Islands is falling apart”.
Based on what? My son managed that park for several years. The only thing that needs repair is the pavilion and that work is underway now.
“Main Street and Weyman is falling apart.”
No idea what he means by this.
“Pratt Landing. …that entire side of town, our businesses that are there, our homeowners that are there, Salesian that's there. This is where our students go to school. Smells like absolute garbage and requires uh multi…how much is the cleanup, the Brownfield cleanup for that…for Pratt Landing. 37 million? I love that you're that exact. No, no, no, it's fine. Eight figures. Let's say I'm exhausted with the obstruction to managing New Rochelle properly. I'm exhausted with it.”
Most Salesian students live in the Bronx, few live in New Rochelle.
I’ve been writing about the odor of the mud flats since Forest City/Ratner but it’s not a brownfield site because of the mud, it’s a brownfield site because of what is buried below the surface. I am the person who convinced the DEC to re-open the public comments on the former city yard site — ten years ago.
In 2013, I pried loose a copy of a long-hidden U.S. Coast Guard report from 2006 which showed that in 2005, under a federal grant obtained by U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, the Army Corps of Engineers cooperated with the City of New Rochelle to evaluate the potential for aquatic environmental restoration of Echo Bay. Information was collected in October 2005 using PVC pipes to pull soil samples from sediment in the North channel (between the DPW Yard and the County Waste Water Treatment Plant) and the South channel (between the Sutton Manor neighborhood and the Nelstad plant back towards the old Con Ed plant) and several locations further out in Echo Bay.
The 2006 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report on Echo Bay revealed significant environmental concerns, identifying high levels of toxic metals and other pollutants in sediment samples from the North and South Channels. Lead (up to 904 ppm, exceeding the NYSDEC threshold of 218 ppm), Mercury (up to 7.12 ppm, exceeding the 0.71 ppm threshold), and Barium (estimated at 1,010 ppm, above the 300 ppm threshold) were found in multiple samples, alongside elevated Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds (SVOAs) like pesticides and plasticizers. Arsenic, Cadmium, and Chromium were present but below thresholds. There is severe pollution stress, likely from oil, metals, or past industrial activities.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was emphatic — leave the entire area alone or be prepared for a massive clean up project
Shane is apparently unaware that the City may well be one of the primary polluters of Echo Bay, and likely the only one still in business after 100 years. The City buried this report because it suggests costly restoration challenges, and under potential “polluter pays” liabilities, the City may be required to pay for all of that.
In any case, it’s not the Lead, Mercury, Barium, Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, pesticides and plasticizers that Shane is smelling. These contaminants are primarily embedded in the sediment at the bottom of the tidal channels and are not typically volatile enough to release strong odors into the air. Even if they did it would be a noticeably different smell. At low tide, the most likely sources of odors from exposed Echo Bay sediment are sulfurous compounds (e.g., hydrogen sulfide from organic decay, producing a rotten egg smell). As my wife grew up on Echo Bay and we spent time there together over many decades, including at the Sutton Manor boathouse, I am well familiar with the odor at low tide.
Then Shane got to my favorite part.
“I'm exhausted with the politicizing of it. I think, I think I think the entire format of our government was to avoid the politicaza… politita… puh… I always mess up that word (he is trying to say “politicization”). I love it. But politicizing these moments when it comes to good management. So I have absolutely no interest in pulling this RFP. I'm very interested in us doubling down on community engagement (there has been zero “community engagement” and since two multiplied by zero is still zero, he is actually saying he wants no community engagement). I'm very interested in sharing more of those flooding videos for the people that live in that neighborhood (the people in the neighborhood where the videos were taken are well aware of the flooding due to Hurricane Ida because they live in the neighborhood) because I'm not interested in more flooding of New Rochelle. I'm not more interested in more fires, especially living on the borders of district two. Not interested in it.
He’s “exhausted”?
I’m exhausted from listening to this fact-challenged fool pontificating while he drones on with his sanctimonious rant based on misinformation and made up stories.
The arson attack on Wildcliff has what to do with flooding? Nothing although it was raining except for Shane who apparently stood under a hole in the clouds.
Public engagement on a plan to turn over Flowers Park to Bob Young means looking at unrelated and misleading flooding videos? To what purpose?
He is against fires? He is against flooding? I was unaware New Rochelle has a pro-arson, pro-flooding contingent of residents and voters.
In a dig against Al Tarantino, he adds, apropos to nothing, “especially living on the borders of district two.”
Few know where Shane lives but I have reports of him living in District 3, District 5, District 6, and Bronxville, any of which, if true, would mean his District 4 seat is immediately vacated. Maybe he could produce a deed or lease and update his personal file at City Hall because he has not lived at Apartment 3A at 29 Davenport since early 2024.
Wildcliff was arson not flooding and not a natural disaster.
And by the way, Noam Bramson wanted to tear it down after the fire. It was Tarantino, the council member Shane was disapprovingly wagging his finger at during his rant, who pressed the City Manger to use the insurance money to rebuild Wildcliff and move and rebuild the Greenhouse.. While Shane was sleeping the day away on his aunt’s couch. Al was working to preserve Wildcliff and build a new greenhouse.
Shane portrays concerns over an illegal RFP concocted in a secret backroom deal with a private developer taking over a large public park without community engagement as “politicization”, by which he is accusing Tarantino of injecting partisan drama or election-year tactics into what Shane frames as a straightforward administrative effort to address flooding and upgrade the park, rather than engaging on the merits.
In reality, the concerns stem from serious procedural red flags: the RFP was issued without prior notice to key council members or the public, lacks standard transparency measures (e.g., no site walk-through, no posted Q&A for bidders), and is tied to a pre-selected private developer (Bob Young) in what I have called a rigged bid that could hand over public land for private gain without meaningful community input or competitive bidding. This isn’t politics—it’s a potential violation of open bidding laws and public trust, only amplified by public outcry forcing promises of “extensive outreach” after the fact. Osinloye’s imperious deflection dodges accountability for a process that smells like favoritism disguised as a solution looking for a problem.
“I think the entire format of our government was to avoid the politica—, politica—, politica— I always mess up that word. I love it, but politicizing these moments when it comes to good management.”
This from a Democrat whose party has absolute control of City Council, hand-picked a sock-puppet City Manager who serves as Yadira’s valet, and who politicaza… politita… puh… politicizes every aspect of the city, at every opportunity, mostly along the lines of race.
Let’s review.
Shane’s claim that flood mitigation discussions included giving Flowers Park to a private developer is wrong as no public engagement occurred before the RFP release (and still has not), his claim that a Monopoly board in a child’s room was below six feet of water is wrong, Wildcliff Mansion (not Manor) was burned down by an arson fire started in the late afternoon not in the morning, It was gray and raining heavily not a clear blue sky. Five Islands Park is not falling apart as only the pavilion needs repair, which is underway, Main Street and Weyman are not “falling apart”, Salesian students, where my wife worked for years, are mostly from the Bronx, Pratt Landing does not smell like garbage due to brownfield contaminants, the rotten egg odor comes from sulfurous compounds in the mud flats at low tide.
Shane’s rant about being exhausted with people politicizing city management (directed at Al Tarantino) is hypocritical given his party’s control of City Council and his tendency to politicize issues, often along racial lines.
Otherwise, he makes an excellent point.
