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Here's the whole story on the battle between the veterans and Mayor Noam Bramson.

From the link to the official site of the New Rochelle Armory:

October 3, 2012
The New Rochelle City Council has held an “unofficial” vote to deny the New Rochelle Veterans an opportunity to put together a development package for the New Rochelle Armory after we, along with the Save Our Armory Committee, spent 10 years working to save the building from destruction. The development rights were awarded instead to friends and donors of New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson.
We have had enough of the Mayor and his cronies mortgaging our heritage and our future for the benefit of his political career.
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Ever since becoming Mayor in 2006, Noam Bramson has claimed that development at Echo Bay was not economically viable so long as the New Rochelle Armory stood.
Bramson orchestrated a cynical policy to intentionally neglect even the most basic maintenance of the building. Under his stewardship, such as it was, a multi-million public asset has been looted and pillaged — murals destroyed, military artifacts stolen, a gaping hole in the roof opened — and left open — to allow water to pour into the people’s building with each passing storm.
Not content with simply neglecting the building, Bramson has been the loudest voice in the City demanding the absolute destruction of the Armory. In 2010, he conspired with New York State Assemblyman George Latimer in a cowardly attempt to sneak a bill through the state legislature late one Friday night that would have allowed Bramson to level the Armory the following week.
At every step of the way, New Rochelle Veterans and the Save Our Armory group, volunteers all, have worked tirelessly for more than a decade to fight Mayor Bramson’s repeated attempts to dismantle and sweep away the Armory. The more the Mayor acted to destroy the building, the harder these New Rochelle heroes fought. The harder they fought the more bitter became the Mayor’s attacks — not just on the idea of saving the Armory but in personal attacks on the individuals involved. Where hundreds of New Rochelle residents came together to fight for a principal — saving a valuable public asset with a special meaning to the community — the Mayor made the fight about his own ego and his own personal political benefit — advancing a pet project at the behest of deep-pocketed political donors who lined his pockets for many thousands of dollars.
With this history, it is not difficult to imagine the reaction of our Veterans and those that stood with them, the Save Our Armory Group and their supporters as they were forced to listen as Mayor Noam Bramson, pounding his fist on a table for emphasis, declare two weeks ago his unbridle enthusiasm for the result of “our” efforts to to save the New Rochelle Armory, crediting himself while cynically expressing his supposed appreciation for the work of the Veterans and Save Our Armory.
The Mayor’s accomplishment?
An unscheduled, unexpected 5-2 party line vote, awarding development rights the Armory to his political donors and family friends so they can acquire the building at little or no cost and convert the building into a facility for the benefit of a for-profit entity — a gaggle of North End cronies who could not have found the Armory with a GPS system, a compass and a map until the Mayor offered it to them on silver platter.
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More at the link regarding the New Rochelle Veterans plans to use the facility as a performing arts center, and the mayor's efforts to scuttle their plans and misuse scheduling authority to undermine their efforts.

The flying of the Gadsden Flag by the veterans was to protest the strong-arm tactics of the mayor to take the property away from them and hand it over to his family members and cronies for his own profit.

It's sort of like how Nancy Pelosi maneuvered to have the Navy's Treasure Island taken and given to her family's construction companies for development.

-PJ