Residents of a small Westchester community fumed Friday after President Biden’s high-dollar fundraiser left some stuck in traffic for hours, closed businesses and denied at least one man entry into his own home.
Matt Figliola, 57, was on his way home from work when he was turned around by police because he lived too close to the fundraiser, which was held at the Irvington mansion of Hollywood stars Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
“I was uncomfortably in awe that a private citizen could host the president in his home, in my town and block me from going home,” Figliola told The Post.
Figola, a custom car builder, explained that he was unaware Biden, 81, was planning on coming to Irvington Thursday and was caught off guard by the massive inconvenience it would end up causing him and several others.
“There was quite a bit of traffic on my way home from work, which I figured was an accident,” he said. “I went through my normal back roads to get to my house, and I was blocked at every road.”
“I was nearly home and the police turned me away. I gave him my address and said, ‘I live right down here, I’m literally a minute away from home,’ and he said, ‘No, there’s a two-mile cordoned-off radius’. It was crazy.
“They wouldn’t let me pass even though I live here,” Figola lamented of the tight security that virtually shut down the town of 6,400 residents.
Westchester County officials closed about a two-mile stretch of Route 9, from Tarrytown to Irvington, ahead of Biden’s visit.
Other road closures were not announced because of security concerns.
“I got mad, I was upset, and I was probably a little bit of a jerk, and I sped off and squealed my tires and harrumphed my way to the Dobbs Ferry diner,” Figola continued.
“It normally takes me 20 minutes but it was two-plus hours before I actually got home, including the meal I had while I waited for the roads to open,” he said, noting that even at 8 p.m., about 20 minutes after the presidential motorcade left the Douglas-Zeta-Jones residence, he was “still blocked.”
Figola said that if he were in Douglas’ position, he would not have hosted the event.
“I don’t think it’s fair to everyone else.”
The traffic nightmare caused by the security bubble, as well as Biden’s rush-hour drive from the Westchester County Airport to the Hollywood couple’s $4.5 million riverfront mansion, left Boaz Miodovsky, 49, trapped on the highway for an hour with her two kids, aged 9 and 11, in tow.
“I was stuck on the 684 right by the Westchester airport for an hour with my two kids who both had to go to the bathroom,” Miodovsky told The Post.
“We were just stopped,” she said. “It’s ridiculous. There’s no thought for the people.”
Miodovsky, who is from Los Angeles but was visiting her sister and parents in Irvington, felt better planning would’ve allowed motorists to move about more freely.
“It’s just frustrating to not have, you know, better planning to allow people to travel,” she said.
“What should have been a 20-minute drive into Irvington took an hour-and-a-half.”
Miodovsky acknowledged that she’s “not the biggest Biden fan” but said that “even if it was Trump, I would be annoyed.
“To inconvenience a whole town for a fundraiser, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, is unfair to the community.”
Apart from the road closures, government offices in Irvington, including the town court and library, closed at 1 p.m.
Five school districts in the area also sent children home early in anticipation of the traffic congestion. All after-school programs in the districts — Irvington, Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown and Hastings-on-Hudson — were canceled as well.
“It caused a lot of problems. Schools closed, businesses closed,” Irvington resident Steve Caporal, 60, told The Post.
“Everything was shut down,” the retiree added.
“For a $100,000 plate, Biden’s making all this money, and everyone in town suffered. I don’t think that’s right,” Caporal continued, urging the president to consider “how it’s going to affect a town’s whole population” before he visits again.
Will Martinez, a nanny, echoed Caporal’s sentiment.
“We couldn’t do anything with the kids, we couldn’t go to the library or go to the park,” Martinez, 23, said.
“It’s kinda not fair to be honest. You’re disrupting thousands of lives. Why?”
Tickets to the fundraiser ranged from $3,300 for one person to $100,000 for hosts.
It’s unclear how much money the Biden campaign added to its war chest from the event.
The Biden campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
