Yadira & Co. Gaslighting on New Rochelle’s Flowers Park - Part VI

DUBLIN, IRELAND (October 28, 2025) — Part V of this series dismantles New Rochelle City Manager Will Melendez’ slide on storm-related costs at Flowers Park. Melendez highlights three storms—2007 Nor’easter, 2021 Hurricane Ida remnants, and 2023 Tropical Storm Ophelia—to argue for 50- to 100-year flood protection for Flowers Park. The article provides a 50-year historical analysis of 13 major storms. In inflation-adjusted 2025 dollars, 2012 Super Storm Sandy ($74M) was the costliest with 2021 Hurricane Ida ($25M) next on the list.

The 2007 Nor’easter ($2.6M) and Ophelia ($25,000) cited by Melendez were relatively trivial by comparison. Melendez ignored major storms like Sandy and 1999 Hurricane Floyd, which caused no park downtime, as he inflated small incidents to push expensive standards. As former DPW Commissioner, Melendez advocated for cost-effective micro-projects like culvert upgrades and bioswales to address frequent minor flooding—reducing 60–70% of expected damage at low cost—without tax increases. He now calls for overbuilding protection for a non-critical recreational site. Bar charts reinforce that Melendez’s examples misrepresent a low-damage trend, undermining the case for urgent, high-cost intervention which, according to him, can somehow be addressed by giving operational control of Flowers Park to a private developer.