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

DUBLIN, IRELAND (October 29, 2025) — Part VI of this series scrutinizes a presentation slide used by New Rochelle City Manager Will Melendez to justify expensive 50- to 100-year flood protection for Flowers Park. The slide features four flooding videos, of which only one actually depicts the park—near Gate 226, a drain that captures water flowing down from Barnard School. The other locations are two from Pinebrook Boulevard near Forest Avenue and one from Ashland Street near East Place. By conflating off-site flooding with park conditions, Melendez misrepresents the severity of issues at Skidelsky and Fosina Fields, the park’s main areas. Melendez’ videos highlight three “hot zones” (Pinebrook/Forest, Ashland, and Gate 226). The article includes four Vimeo links to the footage.

In this article I am going to switch things up, providing the information that contradicts Melendez first and then going through what he said at the meeting last week.