BY AL D’ANGELO
They have awakened a
sleeping giant led by parents
defending their children. The
government only exacerbated
the situation by trying to intimidate
parents into submitting
to the will of school
boards. Liking parents to domestic
terrorists for daring to
question how and what their
children are being taught
did not have the effect it intended.
Like a mama bear —
who is protective and loving
but if threatened is a force to
be reckoned with, nothing
will deter her from protecting
her children — they rose up
across the country. Threatening
them only strengthened
their resolve.
When a plumber, whose
daughter was raped and sodomized
in a school bathroom
by a boy in a skirt, became agitated
when he was told by the
superintendent that no assault
occurred and was wrestled to
the ground — people were outraged.
Not only did the assault
occur, the boy who committed
the assault was transferred
to another school where he
assaulted another student.
This incident and other incidents
have caused a fi restorm
across this nation.
The Virginia governor who
had a huge lead in the polls
sided with school boards and
is in jeopardy of losing his
seat. Americans have had
enough of partisan politics
that do not have their best interests
at heart. Partisan media
is losing viewership, even
the powerful social media is
seeing a backlash for its partisan
views. People want facts
and when they fi nd out they
are getting a slanted version,
they are starting to fi ght back.
Most people do not want extremists
but say nothing until
it affects them directly.
BRONX TIMES R 54 EPORTER, NOV. 5-11, 2021 BTR
Well, it is now affecting us
directly: Inner-city parents
are furious that they are living
in poverty and the president
wants to give children of
illegal aliens separated at the
border $450,000 each for pain
and suffering. They should
sue their parents for putting
them in harm’s way by bringing
them here illegally.
The oil pipeline that made
us energy independent and
employed tens of thousands
was halted to save the environment.
Now, we must import
our oil from countries whose
oil production does not have
the environmental safeguards
we do in the U.S., therefore, not
only are gas prices higher but
the environment is suffering.
Illegal immigration is costing
American citizens $200 billion
a year, money which should be
spent helping our homeless.
The government instituted
strict Covid restrictions for
American citizens, yet illegals
cross our boarders with an
infection rate of 25% and are
shipped to U.S. cities across
this country.
Our fi rst responders who
worked during the height of
the pandemic, when vaccines
were not available and were
called heroes, are now being
fi red for not getting the vaccine.
How soon we forget.
People are also seeing
through government handouts,
which keep people dependent
on government. People
don’t need handouts, they
need opportunities so they
could eventually achieve the
American dream. Handouts
are the way politicians keep
you loyal and dependent.
People are beginning to see
through the politics of division;
when in doubt call a person
a racist or a homophobe.
Say it long enough and people
will believe it, even if there
are no facts to back it up or
the facts are manufactured.
How do you get the truth? You
get it through the exchange of
ideas; you get it from asking
hard questions of our elected
offi cials; you get it from listening
to people with opposing
views; and you get it from
personal research. More and
more people are demanding
facts to backup claims made
by elected offi cials. There is
nothing more dangerous to
an elected offi cial than an intelligent
electorate which sees
above party loyalty and votes
for the person whose position
best meets his/her needs.
CIVIC CENTER
Morris Park Civic
Association
BY JOHN DOYLE
The ongoing pandemic has
completely altered our daily
lives, both in big ways and
small. We’ve lost loved ones,
many have lost their jobs and
others have long-term health
effects that will stay with
them for years to come. Neighbors
have struggled with economic
uncertainty, food insecurity
and the long-term
psychological effects of depression
and isolation. While
it may not be as apparent or
visible for all to see, COVID-19
has also wrecked signifi cant
damage and delay upon our
community and its priorities.
In February 2020, a mere
month before COVID-19
changed our lives, a number
of City Islanders were present
at a Rodman’s Neck Monitoring
Committee Meeting. At
this meeting, we were thrilled
with a surprise announcement
that the NYPD and Department
of Design and Construction
had agreed to fully
enclose the shooting range, an
improvement from their previous
commitment of 66% enclosure.
It’s widely known that we
will only be able to really mitigate
the noise pollution emanating
from the facility by enclosing
the range. No sooner
was this said than the pandemic
struck. The economy
tanked and people were sheltering
in place. This project,
along with many others, was
put on hold.
That summer, cuts to
the NYPD budget — $1 billion
from the operating budget
and another $500 million
from its capital budget — led
to the temporary scrapping
of the long-awaited 116th Precinct
in Queens. For a period
of time, it seemed as if Rodman’s
Neck — the top-funded
item of the NYPD’s capital
budget — could also be canceled
and a victory so many
have worked towards was
about to be snatched out of
our very hands.
Thankfully this was not
meant to happen, but there
was a price: the range will
now only be approximately
85% enclosed. To be clear,
this is better than where we
started, but it is still a setback
from what we were promised
early last year. Furthermore,
getting monitoring committee
meetings arranged or even basic
responses or clarifi cations
from 1 Police Plaza has been
as diffi cult as ever.
This is not isolated to one
agency. In my 15 years of service
to our community, perhaps
no project has consumed
more of my time than the fi ght
for 24/7 Bx29 bus service. After
years of sending hundreds
of late complaints, collecting
countless petition signatures
and helping arrange three
MTA town halls (two on our
island) we were fi nally told in
May 2019 that they had fi nally
recognized something that
was so clear to us: our community
deserved 24/7 service and
this service would be coming
in summer 2020.
But as they say: “Man
Plans and God Laughs.” COVID
hit, telecommuting became
the norm, and ridership
tanked to a minuscule 10%
of its pre-pandemic levels. In
the interim, nearly two years
have come and gone and our
residents, visitors and offhour
workers have been left
without a safe and affordable
means to travel to and from
the Island. Thankfully, the
MTA recently announced it
will restart its Bronx Bus Design
plans, and re-affi rmed
its commitment to our community
in writing. But I can’t
help to wonder how many of
our neighbors have been literally
left out in the cold during
late nights when the bus
ceases operations. They and
we deserve better.
Finally, a project we, at Rising,
have launched and prioritized
since our founding two
years ago: cleaning up the
Hutchinson River Parkway
and sewage that spills into
it. Working alongside state
Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, the
Hutchinson River Restoration
Project and the City Island
Oyster Project, we have
had numerous meetings with
the leadership of the city of
Mount Vernon, where the sewage
originates, because they
dump it into the river. It is
clear that to solve this problem
the city needs funding
from either the federal or state
government to repair its sewers.
In April 2020, shortly after
the pandemic fell upon us, former
Gov. Andrew Cuomo —
remember him — announced
that the New York State Budget
would include $3 billion towards
a Mother Nature Bond
Act, a November ballot initiative
that would include hundreds
of millions of dollars
to address poisoned waterways
exactly like the Hutchinson
River Parkway. Unfortunately,
COVID continued to
take its toll on our economy
and the revenue our state collects
from it. By July 2020,
Cuomo was forced to postpone
the vote until the following
year. Through his own misdeeds,
it would eventually be
postponed again, this time to
November 2022. Even after it
passes next year, we will have
to fi ght for this funding. But
that’s at least several more
years of all of us swimming in
polluted waters, and some getting
sick because of it.
I know we’ve had some
false starts, but it seems
like we’re fi nally starting to
emerge from this pandemic
and the accompanying fear
and anxiety that has grappled
our community and nation.
While we’re all of course fortunate
to be alive, our community
has lost years on all
of these initiatives; time that
could have been spent dramatically
improving the commutes,
health and quality of
life for our neighbors; time
that could have been directed
towards tackling new problems
like climate change or
fi nding a new universal prekindergarten
site for our
youngest neighbors. Wasted
time and opportunities have
become the unseen scars of
this pandemic.
CIVIC CENTER
City Island Rising