Neighborhood Patrol Report #2 Weds, Feb 8, 2 pm

First Patrol:

Excessive road salt dumping observed on local streets: Buckingham Dr and tributaries.

Wooded part of Buckingham Pond Park bordered by Davis Ave and Berkshire contains
considerable litter and a hideaway area littered with broken glass and a Miller High
Life case, throw away plates, and plastic bags.

Graffiti removed from Pond Park plexiglass signs, N side of Pond; but not from wooden signs warning of thin ice danger. More graffiti has appeared on utility shed,
play equipment and table tops; N Side of Pond at the foot of Colonial, as well as the guard rail at Euclid/Berkshire, S side of Pond.

When we catch graffiti artists they should not be fined, but rather sentenced to labor in the park they are defacing. Same goes for those that litter and dump yard
wastes in the park.

When the City hires summer help to work in the pond park, they should be from the neighborhood, as well as include youths and elderly as supervisors. This will instill pride and will reduce graffiti, litter and vandalism because those that work
in the park will be on the lookout for those who would disrepect the efforts of the
workers aimed at making the park better for the benefit of all.

Call the Mayor at
434 5100 or call in and say so on his WROW 590 AM radio show Fridays 9 -10 am. Jerry would love to hear from you. Call 476 5959 to get on the air with the Mayor.

Second Patrol:

New Scotland Ave from S Manning to Whitehall Rd: excessive road salt dumping (somebody must be making money on peddling salt).

The old derelict garage still stands as an eyesore: Whitehall at New Scotland. Lots of litter, particularly S Side News Scotland woodlot beside Thruway

No effort on part of City to deliver on our call to construct the Dan O'Connell Senior Housing/Neighborhood Community Center on the 8-10 wooded acres at Whitehall
and New Scotland, or to raze the derelict gas station building and replace it with
a 3/4 acre Dan O'Connel Mmorial Pocket Park, complete with a rolling berm planted
with a mix of conifers, deciduous trees and flowering bushes, a granite marker in
memory of Dan, a flagpole (for an American flag) and some benches so the resident
seniors can enjoy sitting there eating their Stewart's Ice Cream on a hot summers day.

This neighborhood is composed of an aging population of property taxpayers, who have
largely voted Democrat reliably every election. Dan O'Connell, the greatest Democratic
Party Leader of our time, lived down the road on Whitehall.

Wouldn't you think a City government that has been Democratic for more than 80 years
and the current all Democrat City government would want to honor Dan and show their
appreciation for the loyal taxpaying, partyline Democratic voters of this neighborhood who put them in office, again, last year, for four more years?

Keep watching. My observation is that they take the partyline votes and loyalties of
neighborhood residents for granted. The November 2005 election results bear that out.

The aging homeowner population of this neighborhood needs more senior housing here,
so when the time comes to sell their single family dwellings, they can remain in the
neighborhood.

Think the above ideas have merit. Let the Mayor and Common Council know. After all
you elected them to serve you. Didn't you?

Along Whitehall Rd to S. Manning: The Crestwood Plaza owners have paved the parking lot and refurbished their building facades. They are a credit to the neighborhood.
Rumor has it that Trustco Bank, which recently abandoned it's leased space at Eckerts
next to the New Scotland Ave Post Office, will attempt to get variances from the City
to construct a drive through bank at Crestwood Plaza. Our neighborhood association
defeated a similar proposal about six years ago.

On lower S. Manning Blvd, near Whitehall, a huge assortment
of regular garbage, plus trash,a computer monitor, appliance and some furniture is at
the curbside, in plain view, in the daytime, well before the appointed time, by City
Code, to put out one's garbage on regularly scheduled garbage pick up nights.

Anyway, they, and we, are fortunate to have a City trash pick
up service, and a dump to put it in. Unlike, Schenectady we don't have to pay for pick up...at least not yet. (Of course, this is why we pay property taxes).

The public sidewalks in front of the Center For Disabled were white with some form of
granular de-icer. Had to walk with my dog, Mick, on the lawn trying to avoid him getting, whatever, the substance was, in between the toes of his paws.

Noticed the same scenario in St Peter's Hospital Parking Lot and Maria College. Wow!
The President said we have a chemical dependency on oil. The chemical dependency extends to all aspects of our lives, and it is likely connected to rising cancer rates. Not to worry, Hospice at St Peter's is just down the road!

The City must embark on a major tree planting/maintenance effort along the major
neighborhood streets, such as New Scotland Ave, Whitehall Rd., S. Manning Blvd, Krum Kill Rd-Bender St. and Buckingham Dr. Also, Western Ave and S. Manning Blvd- to combat the noise, air pollution and urban heat island effects of a growing volume of
speeding vehicle traffic. Existing street trees, are for the most part, dying or dead
from effects of vehicle exhausts, road salt, etc. The trees planted along Whitehall
Rd were not cared for during dry periods for several years. Most are barely surviving
and are of a variety not tolerant of air pollution and road salt.

What the City needs to do is plant, more mature, hardy trees such as Red Oaks and
Austrian Pines that can tolerate excessice vehicle air pollution along these heavily
trafficked neighborhood streets.

The time has come for the City and the expanding health care providers, in this neighborhood to devise a park and ride system and staggered work shifts to reduce the
volume of polluting, speeding vehicle traffic on neighborhood streets. The proposed
multi-storyparking garage is not the solution.

Taxpaying homeowners of this neighborhood, who, for the most part, are attemting to
embrace preventative health care and keep their growing expenses for presciption drugs/medicines and, after the fact, medical care, in check; deserve no less from the expanding health care providers, who share this neighborhood with them; and the City government which purports to represent our best interests.

As Bugs Bunny would say: "That's All for Now, Folks" JPS