The menu of March 29, the absence of comments on the findings of the school budget situation with its sensible recommendations along with my recommendations on what is needed to turn the City around suggests only…
It is time to go!
Maria and I love this City and Lord knows we have fought for it. But, few people care enough for it to make a difference.
WE read about citizens protesting an arrest, high school cafeterias under assault, and, among other things in the school budget report, that something as elemental, as baic as comparing projected budget to prior yaar actual is not routine. I placed the report findings aside after this and thank the committee, Ms Petrone and especially Bob Cox for bringing this up.
I seem to be a minority of one citing the importance of understanding and adhering to the City Charter/Code.
Hopefully, there are readers who respect my efforts enough to examine my last blog on the issue arond enablers and will place the onus for change on the council and will literally cry out to them to return to some degree of normalcy concerning efforts like echo bay, armory, dpw yards. The list ins endless.
Doesn’t matter if there are 10,000 words or 100 words, there is not enough emphasis for change.
I am contacting a realtor this morning. Ideally we can hold out until the Fall, but who knows.
I will do what I can while I am here… My thanks to all of you who understand and want to make a difference, to see change take place.
My thanks especially to bob cox, who is beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel in terms of his impact. He deserves that and more.
God Bless
warren
Maria and my Decision
while the decision is not knee jerk, it is emotional and in some respects even cowardly. Always thought of myself as a fighter. Still do but maybe less so.
what I haven’t shared is that my wife has been accosted on one even two occasions. Nothing that serious perhaps but it speaks to what has happened in this City. But the real act I am ashamed of is the lack of community action, an unwillingness of even critics to confront, and more…
But not enough! the comments I have received on this site and persoanlly led to my wife and I talking about this in more depth. I felt, a little irrationally perhaps that were I able to meet her at the train station, maybe it would be enough.
That too, is cowardice, there are plenty of other woman, children, seniors, etc. that need help and moving to another city or town doesn’t too a damn thing.
As I said, voices like NinRo, JohnD, Knitter, Bob McCaffrey, others led to this conversation. Along with the fact that we are doing better on TOTS and can even do much better, we discussed selling or subletting our place on Pelham Road and renting in Avalon or Trump.
We both hope we can make this happen. I really do and something, someone else, the person I respect more than any other here, someone who does not get the respect and love he deserves, said 4 simple words…. STAY, we need you.
Matt forgive me if I get a little spiritual but it sounded like a voice from where I hope to go in the time ahead. I am going to try as hard as possible to make this happen.
I wish I could challenge one of the usual suspects to a winner take all pay per view, but that is never going to happen. What I can do is to improve my messag and perhaps deliver perspectives that are a little unique. For example, I have an observation or two on the volunteer budget team that you should get in a board room (oversight) that could add value to the excellent work that group has done. Also I read Peggy Godfrey’s piece in the Westchester Guardian on the meeting with the Citizen’s Reform group and plan to comment both on the so called longer range plan Ron Talks about and the overall notion of let the community decide the development.
Both are valuable, but lack the ability to implement. What I would like to hear is the unusual number of planning teams, applictions, etc. in New Rohelle which obfuscate, confuse, and put people in positions that “enable”. We need a coheseive and coherent planning process, one that is controlled, monitored, tightened up and most importantly, ensurs meaningful community input, not legislation, and in time to be considered.
Enlightened organzations often actively involve community members in phases of the planning process and develop planning processes that are controlled, monitored and reported to the community.
Our similaries to White Plains passed years earler. They had distinctive advantages and competencie we lack here. We have these but stopped identifying and working these years earlier.
I guess I can sum up by saying that (1) we want to stay and fight for New Rochelle (thank you Ninfo) and (2) my fight will never be to create a city that relies on the community to design and develop what and who it is and should be. The community lacks the training, skill, and knowledge of key matters to do this. Rather we need to elect the right people to the Council, ensure we know who the enablers are and watch them like hawks, manage by the will of the people which needs to be the City Charter/Code, put priorities FIRST and restore before we build anew.
By the way, how does a ceremonial mayor acquire a war chest of over $150,000 and how does he use it?
Thank you for your concern, interest and I apologize for my weaknesses
No matter your choice, I WISH YOU WELL!
Warren, I hope you don’t allow this knee-jerk reaction to cloud your judgment. We (New Rochelle) have become apathetic after years uncontrolled political mayhem. Can you blame people when Fefang gets off Scott-free or Martinez, who admittedly raped a middle school student MULTIPLE TIMES, gets time served, probation and keeps his teaching license? I don’t let number of reads or comments affect the validity of an article or comment. I love the reads and responses to chickens and the fact that it was defeated in a bipartisan 4-3 vote identifies the influence TOTS has. This this is the baby-step that will lead to the wholesale change you and others seek. It is one baby-step for council, expanding their charter mandated responsibility and one baby-step to the realization that our ceremonial mayor represents nothing more than one vote.
Like me, you are filled with and driven by emotion. I know I am guilty of making emotional, knee-jerk decisions which I question when the smoke clears. The decision is yours and I wish you well, my only request would be for you to consider a practice I use. Take a deep breath, step away from the issue (TOTS) for a couple of days then reexamine with a clear head. I believe we are cut from a similar cloth and in the end you will realize it is better to stay and fight as opposed to leave and question.
No matter your choice, I WISH YOU WELL!
Sad on So Many Levels
While i certainly lack the ability to tell you what to do, I certainly reserve the right to support your efforts wherever they may be. This is sad to see someone with so much to offer, with so much insight and compassion, driven to the point of futility. Sad to think that you’ve come so far in your life experience only to be put in the position where you need to fight against the wrongs of a city you love rather than being a part of a positive experience. Sad that, though we haven’t met, a friend moves on to hopefully an environment where he can be not just a contributor, but appreciated in a positive roll. And sad that the city will be no better off if you leave.
Thank you Warren for your position, insight and willingness to share what the world has given you all in an effort to improve the human condition of New Rochelle. “…and so goes a good deed in a weary world” .
Time moves slow when it comes to changing a cities collective paradigm, but you have started the ball rolling for many. Change will come and in the end, it will be the seeds planted by the early adopters that will have the greatest effect.
Thank you friend, and best of luck to you and Maria in whatever you choose.
John D’Alois
thank you John
We will stay in New Rochelle until the Fall when we can afford to leaaev. Until then I will dod whatever I can to raise awareness on issues, especially the real issues.
I wish I wasn’t so damn pednatic and ponderous in tone. But that’s me.
I will blog, post and whatever else including some direct action.
Bob McCaffrey reminds me that there are winds of change afoot and there are. It comes back to the citizens who want change.
John this is not spin. You are the most gifted poster I have been associated with on the blog. I hope you see this and take a lead role in change and people will follow you. I would follow you in a heartbeat and I know what both leading and being led mean and demand.
John, it comes down to making the Council move, to take responsibility, to expose the charade behind the City/Charter, to identify the Enablers so people know who they are, to insist that business district development cannot include Monroe growth, Echo Bay or Albanese at this time, to get the Armory up and going as the community project, to remind people whether they are apathetic, pathetic, whatever, that the City must gain oversight minimially over the School District if they hope to attract new business or residents. A 50 year abatement on any new development would not suffice given the directions this district has gone for the last 10 or so years.
Yes, I am also disappointed in many of the readers; some read and move on, others reach for the low hanging fruit. I think I have encapsulated the major issues above and add to this the DPW yard. How in the name of the one God we both believe in can we overlook the mandated waste treatment plant, the cost and bonding involved in moving the yard to a less than adequate location and not question the basic numbers plus process followed much earlier that lead to the purchase of Beechwood.
I am going to pretty much lock into the above. You can add enormous value, so can people like Martin Sanchez, Bob McCaffrey, Ninfo, Political Force, Knitter and Bob Cox. Perhaps Bob can think of a way of presenting routinely major areas for continuous analysis and comment many of which are shown above.
Annabi and Jereis should doom Forest City. They are simply pawns in a greater game mastered and manipulated by Ratner. If the Council votes for this project they should be run out of town.
Help me make sure that they fail, the Armory will have smoother sailing, and perhaps even the DPW site if someone, more than one actually, joins Louis Trangucci and says simply, “what is your damn hurry; we have new facts and questions on the old facts.”
God Bless you John and bring it on.
Warren
Hope we can meet before you go
Warren-I wish you and yours the very best. It is a sad day in New Rochelle when people like you leave this city. You always made us see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am sure no matter where you live New Rochelle will be in your heart. I only hope Noam appreciates such a loyal person as his advocate. I know you have left a lasting impression in my thoughts and writings. Please check back every so often and see how we are doing.
I would be honored to me you and expression my gratitude in person. Until that time you have made a difference.
Knitter and Todd
Very kind of you to comment as favorably as you have about my contributions. We will likely be here until the Fall and I will continue to do whatever I can to bring light and not heat.
The situation here is untenable. My wife was accosted twice near the station and just yesterday, another student brawl near the library.
People here have gotten so used to it that they simply accept it, respond angrily, and move on to the next degradation.
There are so many fine people in New Rochelle, so much potential, so much history that it cries out for support.
Sadly my support involves lengthy often labored facts and explanations about what the core problems are and how they can be solved.
I will say this. The new Council is a big improvement and if pressed, they will outperform their predecessors. But, it will require more than we have given up to this point.
I am not sure this posting even shows up on screen, but if it does, I can be found most mornings at the Patisserie on Huguenot Street between roughly 7:45 and 8:15. My E Mail is Yowlse@optonline.net. I live at 620 Pelham Road. I offer this because I see no reason not to… you are my community whether up north or down south.
Thanks to both of you and if I can help in the period ahead, I am more than willing to do just that.
Warren I’m With You
Warren the time has come to move on,this city government does not listen.
i have been here far to long for this city government to say give us another chance?
The writing is on the wall,Mr. Cox has tried hard and all of the people on this site have tried hard to.
This city government will never listen New Rochelle is doomed. I wish all well Mr.Cox thanks for all you do and i hope you can make change.
Thanks New Rochelle for listening and reading i know i get a little crazy but it was only because i cared.
I will miss this site and miss all of the people on it.
RE: Good luck to you Warren. You shall be missed.
Warren,
I, myself, also became fed up with the hell of New Rochelle and moved away a few months ago. I am back in Manhattan where I belong. Whatever promise New Rochelle offered people faded decades ago and it is my belief that no amount of money, time, or effort will reverse the damage that has been done. At a certain point, even the most optimistic of us must admit to the fact that the cancer has spread throughout the city into its blood stream,lymph nodes, and it’s brain and that it truly is doomed. All that one can do at that point is become resigned to certain realities, bury the body, and move on.
Warren, Your comments and contributions to this site will be sorely missed by one and all. I am sure most of the readers here would agree with me when I tell you that one of the highlights of “Talk of the sound” was reading what Warren would write or comment about. So, on behalf of all the readers, thank you.
I wish you and Maria the best of luck as you leave New Rochelle and begin the next chapter of your lives.
Take care,
Todd Alexander Brent
Standing My Ground! Good Luck!
Hey Warren,
As I said in my note to you, I am sorry to hear you are looking to get out of Dodge before The New Sheriff arrives. I want you to know that I have every intention of not giving up the fight on this end. You see, I don’t do it to be a radical or as my brother calls me “The Rabble Rouser”. I do it because I love this city and have always been a believer. New Rochelle has been a part of my family’s lives since the 1900’s.
It is funny that Todd used the analogy of cancer. That was going to be my analogy of the conditions of the city and its management at the next CTBH. You see, I am a two time cancer survivor and plan on being around for a long time. If I can beat cancer, then I can put up the same kind of a fight for the city I love. So the City Council better get used to it. I don’t intend to attend every CTBH. I have to choose my times to fight due to some of my own physical issues. If I could do more you know I would. We are making headway. We just can’t lose any steam going against these tides of bad management.
I know your feelings toward this city and I don’t think you will let a little geography get in the way of championing change here in New Rochelle. Bob Cox has created a use full tool here at Talk of the Sound. Several posters are no longer here but still write comments. If not, you still have a few 100K words to write before you go. Our loss is someone else’s gain. You will be missed when you go.
Thanks for your word and insight,
Bob McCaffrey
What can be done?
We can expose corruption through outlets such as TOTS — but the average resident does not have hard proof of such corruption.
We can vote… But the reality is most people will just vote along party lines rather than researching the candidates and voting for who they think are the best candidates. Furthermore, there are officials that are not in elected positions (e.g. organisciak) that we can’t even vote for/against.
The question I have is: as I do vote and I don’t have any proof of any corruption, how can I help enact change here?
In regard to turning the city around, I would love to see as a start:
A) Quality of Life Laws enforced (just like NYC did when they first started to turn the city around)
B) The schools cleaned up (e.g. Students evicted who are not residents, the Students who are the most intent on preventing others from learning sent to ROTC, Those who are stealing from the system/abusing it fired, 74 Year old Principals forced to retire, etc)
But aside from voting, what power do I have to make the changes I feel would help the city?