Pelham Bay Taxpayers and Civic Association want to wish everyone good health, peace and lots of joy in the New Year.
Let us all make a New Year’s resolution to be more involved in our communities, by joining your local civic associations and becoming part of committees to fight for the necessities of our neighborhoods. Knowledge is power. We cannot wait until the bulldozers are digging to protest further over development. Old laws on the books must be amended to effectively match today’s realities.
Too many of our residents do not leave their homes to go out for dinner with friends, attend meetings, or visit relatives who live a distance away. They know they will not find a parking spot when they get home. Are we living in the 21st Century or the Dark Ages? Why must we become prisoners in our own homes? We are taxpaying, middle class, hard working residents and demand a halt to any further building development until we get sufficient parking areas in our commercial and residential areas.
We read about another community in Manhattan fighting to preserve their neighborhood. They discussed, that in their neighborhood, it was illegal to build additional floors on top of other buildings and won their fight. We are facing this same problem on Continental and Westchester Avenue. The Department of Buildings approved adding five additional stories on top of the existing stores without any parking facilities.
Everyone in our neighborhood is being constantly ticketed with $115 tickets trying to find parking spots. Sadly, the non-ending ticketing of our autos is just another form of taxation for the city to generate more and more money and always crying that we are in a serious budget deficit crisis. Yet millions are found to paint signs to re-name a bridge. The taxpayers are fed up and disgusted. The only solution to every budget crisis is to raise property taxes and taxes on nonsense that bring loud laughter.
The New York State Lottery was supposed to be for education. When homeowners asked for a cap on property taxes, the answer was no. Their answer, property taxes are for education. Why the lies about the lotto for education? Our schools are still not doing as well as many other schools across the country. Raising taxes has caused companies to move to states with lower taxes and taking with them too many jobs.
We have many serious problems ahead of us and being an optimist, we will surmount this crisis also. The corruption and greed in our government must end. The system is badly broken and far too many in office too long, have been performing as dictators. No one was watching the store. Taxpayers must demand honesty, the elimination of earmarks and unnecessary taxes on the backbone of the working middle class. Raising taxes robs our spending money. Lowering taxes generates money for spending. Together with Congressman Joseph Crowley, Senator Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto and Councilman Jimmy Vacca we will demand that our taxes are spent– first and foremost–on the necessities of our communities.
We pray that our newly-elected president will be successful. We thank our outgoing president for keeping us safe since the 9-11 terrorist attack.
Mail your $10 dues to the Pelham Bay Taxpayers & Civic Association, P.O. Box 31, Pilgrim Station, Bronx, NY 10461 which includes the Bronx Times Reporter mailed to your home.
