OPINION
Aristotle thought nature
abhorred a vacuum, but
then again he thought
there were four basic elements.
Apparently the city
and community planners
don’t object to maintaining an
empty space when it comes to
completed studies.
The city Department of
Transportation’s Smart Truck
Management Plan has been
completed, but where is it? The
study was supposed to be released
a while ago and the longer
it’s withheld, the harder it
is to plan and advocate as we
inch toward the light at the
end of the pandemic’s tunnel.
Light may travel through a
vacuum, but planning can’t
take place in an empty space.
Let me give you a very abbreviated
version of what’s (not)
happening in Red Hook.
Red Hook’s streets weren’t
designed for abuse by tractortrailers.
They were initially
laid out with horse-drawn
We need an ‘Alliance for America’
COURIER L 20 IFE, DEC. 18–24, 2020 PS
vehicles in mind. They have
been historically used by Industrial
tenants, and as time
passed, trucks supplanted
horses, but the roads were little
changed. Over the last few
years, many companies, such
as Amazon and UPS, due to
the appropriate zoning, have
purchased land to be used as
last mile distribution centers.
These centers generate a great
volume of truck traffi c; far
greater than the legacy manufacturers
generated on our
Red Hook roads.
Individual locations analyze
traffi c and street use of
their sites, but it’s not their responsibility,
nor in their immediate
interests, to look at
the macro-scale implications.
That’s where the government
can — and should — step in.
Only the government is positioned
to balance and analyze
all the competing interests
and fi gure out the best path
forward. Without it, as the
Red Hook Star Revue rightly
noted, the neighborhood is
“screwed.”
To the community’s credit,
specifi cally groups such as Resilient
Red Hook and leaders
such as Jim Tampakis, they
have organized and advocated
for such analysis. In my day
job at Community Board 6,
our members asked for a comprehensive
traffi c study for
Red Hook which they believed
would lead to the removal of
Van Brunt Street as a truck
route. It’s crucial that the
planning process operate on
the basis of facts and not anecdotal
and personal examples
— and the release of the Smart
Truck Management Plan will
hopefully fi ll that void.
While I’ve highlighted Red
Hook’s needs for this study,
it’s benefi ts would manifest
citywide. In a city of 8 million,
Van Brunt Street isn’t the only
truck route that needs to be reimagined.
And it isn’t just limited
to transportation planning,
as noted Transportation
advocate and CB6 Transportation
Chair Eric McClure
recently said, “Land use cannot
be divorced from street
use, and if there is currently
no mechanism to weigh the
aggregate effect of these projects,
one must be created.”
So City Hall’s study must be
released because, in its absence,
the void will be abhorrent.
Mike Racioppo is the District
Manager of Community
Board 6. Follow him on
Twitter @RacioppoMike.
Vacuums abhorred
MIKE DROP
Mike Racioppo
OP-ED
BY MAURICE KOLODIN
We may still be the United
States of America but clearly,
and sadly, we are no longer the
united Americans of America.
Throughout our history,
Americans had different political
opinions. And that is
fi ne. The cornerstone of our Democracy
is having differences
— differences in religion, differences
in race, and, yes, as
previously stated, differences
in opinions about what is best
for our country.
Overall, and for most years
of our country’s existence, we
all peacefully co-existed while
maintaining our differences
and different opinions. The different
political opinions were
discussed and debated; heated
at times, but always in a civilized
manner. Civilized. Meaning
in a civil manner.
Political differences were
settled by elections. Heated.
Hard-fought. But when an election
ended, Americans remembered
one thing, fi rst and foremost.
We were all Americans.
This was our country. We were
opponents — not enemies. Elections
were “fought” to win —
not for annihilation.
Between elections, Americans
understood that in order
to govern, for our collective
survival, people with different
opinions had to compromise so
as to accomplish things for our
collective well-being. What was
obvious was that, in order to
move forward, we had to do this
together for our country.
Working together, by people
with possibly differing views,
is considered an alliance; people
working together for shared
goals while still maintaining
different views on other matters.
It is done in a civil manner
and without anger or hatred toward
each other.
That is what we need now —
an “ALLIANCE FOR AMERICA!”
We must remember that this
is our country — one country
with one people! We must concentrate
on our shared goals,
not our few disagreements. We
must not let politics and partisanship
come between our common
needs, desires, and goals.
Political parties are merely
vehicles for a broad perspective
of its membership. Virtually
no one agrees with everything
any political party has as its
positions in its Party Platform.
In fact, the truth is, virtually
no one knows most of the positions
that their Party has in its
Platform! And therein is likely
the problem! So many of us are
“partisan soldiers” in an army
whose members do not really
know what they are fi ghting
for!
Wake up, people! I am not
suggesting that we abandon
political parties. Let’s just put
them in their proper perspective.
Let’s look at it another
way: at the typical Thanksgiving
family get together, do we
go to enjoy being with the whole
family or, primarily, for the purpose
of arguing with the stereotypical
“crazy uncle” that every
family has?!
“Alliance for America”
should be viewed as our joint
family get together. Let’s not
confuse where our true interests
lie for our collective wellbeing.
The efforts we need to
make to work together is more
than a full time job and that
leaves no time to concentrate
on being roadblocks for each
other.
We must remember that the
primary purpose of a political
party is to elect its candidates to
public offi ce. As an addendum,
to fi nd jobs for the party faithful.
And you know what? That’s
all good for us! That elected offi
cials are public servants who
are to be respected and supported
if they are doing a good
job. But the political party and
the elected offi cial should NOT
be worshipped. Tolerance for
our differing opinions must be
shown and accepted. Disagreement
should lead to discussion,
not destruction.
Several weeks from now, our
country will have a new administration
in the White House. I
believe that the ideas expressed
herein, and the concept of an
“Alliance for America,” is in
sync with the ideas and direction
that the Biden-Harris team
would like to see the American
people follow.
Toward that end, I would
hope that, to promote same,
Biden-Harris would consider
creating AMBASSADORS 2
AMERICA 4 AMERICA. This
non-partisan, non-salaried, appointed
group should be comprised
of celebrities from different
walks of life; from sports,
entertainment, academia, politics,
government service, military
service, religious leaders,
union leaders, business leaders,
etc. These Ambassadors
would carry the “Alliance for
America” message to our entire
country and all of our people.
Perhaps our country can begin
to return, at least in part,
to what we once were. Perhaps
even to what we always should
have been. Perhaps.
Hon. Maurice H. Kolodin is
president of the Shorefront Partnership
Alliance.