The Nyack Villager

Letters to the Nyack Villager Editor: Read some of this Month’s Batch

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Repairing the economy

To The Nyack Villager—

In listening to Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State speech while in Albany last week, I was particularly encouraged by his proposals to create jobs across the state. On the state level he echoed my own proposal for a nation-wide program to create employment and stimulate our economic growth by repairing the country’s bridges and highways and for a similar program to upgrade our school buildings. There are bridges throughout the country and here in the 17th Congressional District that need replacement or repair. I was especially gratified that he cited the Tappan Zee Bridge, a structure we both have noted as needing repair. The governor struck the right note in calling for programs that can get our economy humming again and putting our citizens back to work.

—Congressman Eliot Engel

 

Newspaper advertising circulars

To The Nyack Villager—

I know this has been written about in these pages before—and I did take the suggestion to call the Journal-News and ask them to stop depositing their ad circulars at the end of my driveway. It worked—for awhile. This Summer, when I returned home after being away for weeks, my driveway was full of dirty little yellow bags. Not only was it unsightly, but it announced for all to see that no one was home. Why is this not considered littering?

I find it no different from the fast food bags and coffee cups that I have to pick up and dispose of. The only difference is, in the case of the J-N, we know whose litter it is.

Unless there is some special rule that allows them to do this, I think each village should send someone around to count up the nasty little bags and charge the J-N the $25/$50 fine for each littering offense until they stop this practice.

—M. Lee, South Nyack

[Editor’s note: in addition to adding unsightly street litter that clogs the sewers, those little bags of printed advertising must be a public relations disaster for the Journal-News. Is there anyone who doesn’t resent having to pick them up and dispose of them? We would love to hear the Journal-News’ explanation of why it’s OK to litter a neighbor’s driveway.]

 

Concerned for Nyack’s future

To The Nyack Villager—

As a long time resident (46 years) of Nyack, I am passionately concerned about its future.

I am appalled by the lack of understanding by both the last two and now current mayor about what is wrong with Nyack.

It’s about the PARKING—stupid!

Let’s start back with Mayor Shields delightful idea that muni-meters would make more sense for Nyack. In a J-N article prior to the muni-meter inception, he stated it would create more parking spaces, since people would not have to park between the lines designated by the meters. To this, I would say, don’t you know human nature? I cannot tell you how many times I have seen 3-4 cars parked where before 7-8 would have fit, when there were meters.

In a Journal-News article dated 10/26/2011, Jen Laird-White, then candidate, now mayor, indicated her opposition to a parking structure, espousing a need to find “creative” ways to deal with the issue, including structures which allow cars to be stacked. What? A robot will lift your car atop another vehicle? I would really like to know what she was referring to.

Muni-meters are unfriendly; many times they are broken, signage is poor, people from out of town don’t know what to do, people from in town get soaked when it is raining—I don’t know what they cost or what the upkeep is, but I seriously doubt we won.

Now we come to the “Main St. Superblock” concept. I will heartily disagree with the representation in the December issue that we lost only six spaces on Main Street. Hey, just go check it out—I count 6 just between Broadway and the “Veteran’s Park” Memorial. Then add the ones lost by closing off the Riverspace parking lot. So my next question is, “We added six more spaces to the current parking lots.”—where, where, where? If we could have added six more spaces previously, why didn’t we do so before now, since parking has always been a problem. I don’t think that the new planter jut-outs add much to the ambience of the Nyack downtown. They are very unattractive with that awful red mulch.

The bottom line is, we cannot attract sustainable businesses to Nyack without 1) solving the parking problem, 2) maintaining a clean/friendly and attractive downtown area, and 3) assisting businesses in promoting their establishments.

It is sad to see many good businesses come and go in Nyack’s downtown. I realize the economy is bad; perhaps some of the businesses were ill-conceived, but as a resident who would like to patronize Nyack shops,

I believe if you cannot fix the parking problem, you will not be able to fix the village.

—Name withheld at writer’s request

 

Where are the apartments?

To The Nyack Villager—

The building at 20 South Broadway was supposed to contain 11 apartments for volunteer firefighters and their families. But although the building is completed, it has yet to be occupied. What happened?

—Scott Lewis, Nyack

[Editor’s note: Appearing below is part of the article that appeared in The Nyack Villager in November, 2010. We apologize for the teeny-tiny type.]

“After years of construction, the building now includes a modern full feature food market on the ground floor and 10 apartments on the upper floors. But it turned out most Nyack volunteers earn too much to qualify to live in the building. In an effort to fill the low rent apartments, Rockland’s Office of Community Development secured a $950,000 affordable-housing grant with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The apartments were to remain affordable for 15 years. Of the 10 apartments, seven are currently occupied and the county is subsidizing the rents of five people who are in a program of transitional housing.

Due to the building’s financial problems, the county is now asking their clients to move to other housing. According to published reports, some tenants have not paid their rent or utilities. Rockland County is now paying the building’s gas and electric bills, having secured about $2 million of the $4.2 million cost of the building.

Serious financial problems became public when Orange & Rockland Utilities cut off gas to the building for two days in September, as a bill for $37,000 had not been paid. Then the NY State Public Service Commission started looking into the way Mr. Sapounas set up his electric meter, which may have led to some tenants being regularly over-billed.

The situation is a muddle, with Mr Sapounas trying to restructure the entire deal, the Public Service Commission reviewing complaints, Rockland County Office of Community Development trying to protect both its clients and the taxpayers of Rockland, and Legal Aid Society of Rockland helping some tenants.

Twenty-one people lost their jobs and Nyack lost a good food market.”