Recently, there have been a series of violent robberies in downtown New Rochelle – see today’s Journal News
Yet, I could not find any comment from the Mayor indicating any effort at improving our policing activities. Not even his now famous broken record. “we are the safest city in America” bit. You would think that some words of comfort from our Mayor would be good at this time. Is he on vacation?
Martin Sanchez
Violent Crime in New Rochelle Warrants Response from Mayor?
It would seem that the appropriate party to issue any type of statement in regards to these incidents would be the Police Commissioner and not the Mayor.
Statement
I agree, it would seem appropriate. A word from the Mayor would also be useful, but I am losing hope.
That would be appropriate
FYI, The Police Commissioner does what he is told. Our part time mayor is behind the commissioner and city manager, as well as many other city hall officials, pulling their strings.
Martin Sanchez: The Man Whose Head Casts Not A Shadow
Upon reading several posts by the dimly lit Martin Sanchez, it becomes abundantly clear that the fresh winds of our fair city blow freely between his ears.
In his “Violent Crimes” post above, he is nonplussed because our illustrious Mayor has failed to make a formal statement to the press about a series of robberies in New Rochelle….
Can it be that Mr. Sanchez’s skin is so fragile that it actually withers like flowers in the hair of a young lady who has been stood up for her prom, merely because the Mayor failed to call upon him in attempt to hold his hand after several robberies were committed in New Rochelle? (What WAS the Mayor THINKING?…)
Although Mr. Sanchez implies that he has prejudged all imaginable expressions of comfort from the Mayor as disingenuous, he resents the Mayor for not having made the attempt. The poor baby.
It is my fervent hope that Mr. Sanchez is able to pick up the pieces and move on with his life some day, when his wounds inflicted by the Mayor’s failure to suit all of his personal needs have healed.
A new Spokesperson for the Mayor, Hurrah!
Welcome to to the discussion. Some meaningful suggestions are always welcome. Sarcasm without any chuptza or throwing eggs while holding Noam’s hand or leash are also welcome.
Serious and Needs Immediate Action
This is a problem from every conceivable dimension or direction facing New Rochelle. Requires the best in all citizens starting with you and I.
First order of any family or community is safety. Issue goes beyond wringing our hands and citing past claims by City. It is here and now and I cannot remember the Journal News painting it in some epidemic terms.
Things and times have changed and it is not simply the economy. It needs to be all of our first priorties. Look at the facts on these crimes; one could be seen as a man trying to feed a child, the rest, not so. They are predatory in nature and the they seem to be isolated in our business district, poorer sections, and transportation center by and large.
I understand the police force has been eroded by 40 or so staff. This is the first order of priority and is ranked at the save level as firefighters in terms of priority.
Some critics will howl at the moon on every act of crime committed. But, especially given a significant drop in staff, some things must be done and done quickly. Public safety cannot be a question to be politicized or finessed. It is absent from here and most disturbing to me are the times the crimes are committed. This speaks of a beleagered city in a sense that issues a curfew. Sounds dramatic; probably is, but you have to set the alaarm volume up if you want to hear the sound.
Forget blame! Forget “I told you so’s”. If it is here it requires corrective action and now. Here is an abbreviated list of why action delayed, is a City decayed.
1. Safey — our wives, children, friends and neighbors. returning from work, leaving a restaurant and more.
2. Tax Base — with headlines like this coupled with the wealth of documented evidence especially over the past year or two, is there any doubt of a dramatic change especially below New Rochelle Road. This said, why would new commercial businesses or residents choose New Rochelle especially with the business issues already noted on.
. Lack of rational reason to occupy a police facility on Main Street. There are no excuses period. It can be done at minimal costs. Carroll can move uniformed office staff and set up a control center and schedule patrol drive bys this precinct. It adds a sense of color.
. while you cannot zero defect crime, you can adjust patrol patterns, manning schedules, to account for those zone areas that experience the highest incidence of street and other crime. Our police are excellent professionals; they have a technology that has a automated record and trend data that should assist in this process. Volunteers from the community can assist in filling office slots at police headquarters and on or in other non-essential tasks freeing up more police for street patrol
. strenghten and refocus the community service partnership. drive relentlessly to ferret out the kids, for one, who have beaten the one kid to a pulp. bring them in and don’t coddle them.
. re-energize and activate the community leaders. get the church leaders off of their duffs and out on the streets. bring other community leaders to the fore. tell them straight out, address it now or it will be a very, very long hot summer.
.City Council this is your responbility; all 7 of you. We don’t have a strong mayor; he is by Code several things; in this context he is the presiding leader of the Council, elected essentially as mayor, but serves as an at large council member. Stop the bull &3%1@# all seven of you, put aside your little spats, bring Strome forward and tell him to deal with Carroll to develop a plan, featuring the above items and more….. including.
. unless the North End experiently reflects something approaching the problems faced down these parts, rebalance staffing. North End can participate in City wide planning and it can begin by signing up to support New Rochelle. Residents there can begin by citizen patrols.
. Trn that unfocused and deficit planning scheme into something more open to the more afflicted citizens of New Rochelle, that would be us.
In summary, support Noam Bramson if he openly commits to corrective action in the right way. remind your council person that of his responsibilities and inform him that he is to represent you, not the political party, ideological leanings or any other foolishness that hinders the recognition that he or she must act according to the issue at hand… if he or she cannot or will not RESIGN.
We have to also begin to make more sense. I cannot or would not legislate what anyone says, but we know what many feel, distrust, even hate. Put it aside damnit. There is a City to help save.
I am vey, very good at what I used to do. I am ready to offer my services in any and all areas especially in planning, urbanization, even pacification and that is not a term I am ashamed of when 15 to 20 punks kick some kid close to death and our woman, children and seniors cannot even walk our streets. Use me, use knitter, fifth avenue guy, johm d, so many others. Just do it.
The ball is in the 7 member council’s court.
Good Ideas
Warren you have some very good ideas and it is time to attend a council meeting and speak out. The next one is Feb.14. You will find out what is going on at these meetings. People voice their concerns and they do not receive any answers. Heaven forbid they go over the 3 minutes allowed and the mayor will not give them the opportunity to complete their thoughts.
Please take off the blinders when it comes to Noam. He might be a great person, good husband and wonderful father, but as a mayor he has much to learn about relating to the citizens of New Rochelle. People who live south of Eastchester Rd. want a good quality of life and piece of mind. This can only be achieved when our streets are safe.
I have faith that our city can overcome our problems if we work together, but I have no faith in our mayor, the council persons that are beholding to him and our police commissioner.
I have hope
Knitter, appreciate your comments and understand your pont on “blinders”. Yet, I have to say I have to have hope; what else is left.
I attended several council meeting with the rather useless 3 minute ventilation period set aside for people and you are correct. they are a waste of time and a non-working strategy. plus i lose all internal control when I see Fertel talking to whoever he is closest to and smirking while someone is pouring his or her heart out. I have to try other means.
Why hope, well it would be somewhat unorthodox to say that i leave it to prayer or to the small voice within each man or woman that reaches inward and says, “change.” I am pobably a little older than you and can remember literally astounding changes made by Lyndon Johnson and even more prounced, by the ex Klu Klux Klan member Justice Hugo Black. So it is possible.
But is it within Noam, I really don’t know but I hope. Balancing hope with action, I turn to Mark Twain who once said, “Trust everyone, but cut the cards.”
Knitter that leaves me with two arenas of action; citizens who want to work to make a difference and will risk identity, loss of time, etc… and go forth despite all.
The second is the City Council. I have stood virtually alone in my interpreting the City Code –Articles X and XII as mandating the roles, relationships, and responsibilities of the mayor, city council, and city manager. I have been stymied and not supported by anyone in this end. My sense is that the minority party lets it lie because if they win the election they want to behave like the majority party.
My friend, I have written to the GOP County legislature leadership and to the League of Woman Voters trying to secure a copy of the Referendum of a decade or so prior that would have stipulated the language of what represented a “strong mayor.” No one has stepped up to help.
So I am now operating in accordance to the language of the City Code. I can only see a few additional ceremonial or emergency responsibilities the Mayor would have under new circumstances, otherwise he is truly a “ceremonial mayor.” I see his actions as being those of a strong mayor. Tim Idoni acted in the same way so it is useless to try to get a copy of the prior Referendum from him.
Now briefly, I am setting him up in the context of a Councilman at large with the elected title of Mayor with mayoral duties only as designated by Code. I am trying to tell all council members that their duties are spelled out to clearly indicate that they are analogous to a corporations board of directions. Noam serves as the head of this board solely I think due to a lack of anyone coming up and challenging this by voting within the board structure as to whom the head of the council should be. But, maybe I have this wrong but what I think I see is the tacit approval of the city council to provide office space and by doing so, setting up the conditions that allow him to serve full time and actually direct the City. Strome actually is the Chief Operating Officer of the City and is paid accordingly.
Thus I am configuring the City Council in this way, part timers as they are, to work on solving the major issues we face. One is of course, the crime issue and if Strome doesn’t develop a plan for Council approval and action and make it public… shame on the Council and we need to take it to the streets. Carroll is a non-entity, an employee at will and if he does not comply, good bye.
So, Knitter it is anything but naivety. I have hope backed by what I believe is the proper way of looking at this.
I am literally an old man, 75 but spry and tough as old leather. But damn man, I cannot organize a large scale effort to challenge what is happening. I can provide significant experience and brainpower, probably some muscle if needed, but beyond that, I am yesterday. There ought to be some people who are today and I am hoping that there are.
But, there was Lyndon and Hugo, maybe one or more Councilmembers will look at things, wave the community independent thinking wand over their heads, and act for the common good.
Also, i do not see Noam as the Anti-Christ. So I will pray for him in terms of enlightenment and if he asks, provide service and support. After all, he has essentially compromised any political future he may have by allowing these matters to fester and by alienating a large part of the community.
Hope I have been clearer.
Hope
Warren I hope that the citizens of New Rochelle do not give up. A few of my friends have contacted Noam about the crime in our downtown area and have been told it does not exist and it is only their perception. The use of the term perception is his excuse for not solving the problem. I have tried to reach out to him with solutions and I get a smile and a blank stare. Will I let that stop me, no way. This is a great city with wonderful citizens on both sides of Eastchester Rd. If only we will come together and discuss the issues and find solutions. I would like the mayor, council and city manager agree to listen to the people. Once their frustrations are heard and they receive answers, we can move on and fixture the problems. I am not sure Noam can handle that. I can only hope.
not necessarily
“one could be seen as a man trying to feed a child, the rest, not so.”
A destitute person trying to feed a child can get infant formula anyone of a number of sources for free. I seriously doubt this person was stealing four cans of formula to feed their child.
You may be interested to know that there is at least one store in New Rochelle that has, for years, allegedly been paying drug addicts to steal from CVS stores (and others). The scam is simple. The store provides a list of what they want to stock on their shelves. The drug addict is instructed on what to steal and where to find it. The items are then stolen and delivered. The drug addict is paid maybe 20% of the retail price and the products are then stocked on the shelves of the store.
If you find CVS (or other) pricing labels on an item in your neighborhood convenience store or deli then you have found the place I am talking about. Take a photo on your cell phone and send it along!
Happy hunting!
Crime
It seems the citizens of New Rochelle realize what it happening and want to solve the issue. Unfortunately, we have a mayor and police commissioner who refuse to admit that we have problems. When the mayor states these are isolated incidents or perceptions of being unsafe, it is time to speak out and demand a police presence in the crime areas.
When a murder was committed near the train station, we did not receive an email from the mayor or police commissioner. I did receive an email that day about leaf pick up.
It think something is terribly wrong.
This is not funny
We need to start looking carefully at everything that is happening in the City. Tall buildings attract crime. It is well known the city is struggling to pay its bills and the uniformed services are stretched to the limit.
A poorly run city never runs smoothly
I hear ya, so why doesn’t city hall cut more back office, commissioner and/or development positions? That security guard in the basement, for example, doesn’t look like he’d stop much of anything.
Has anyone been down to the court house lately? Tons of police all over the place basically doing nothing but waiting for their cases to be called. Lots of ways to save money, someone just needs to have the courage to get it done & that’s not happening with the current mayor.
There really should be a better way, I just hope its not in the form of another 10+% tax increase. I could do without that. A poorly run city never runs smoothly.
Ha Ha
This is only the beginning you have a police department down almost 40 people and they expect less crime.Maybe a POLICE TAX(FEE) is coming next.