For anyone still harboring thoughts that the St. Andrews project will someday rise in the southern sky, I have two words for you...Amish Market. Like so many other retail endeavors, it failed to attract enough business to sustain it. The list of failed business's in Hyde Park is breathtaking. A drive up Rt. 9 looks like a retail ghost town. There is no common denominator beyond failure.
Which brings me to St. Andrews. These people would have us believe there is a real demand for upscale housing and expensive retail space. They further insist there is need of a 150-200 person hotel. I want what they're smoking. Hyde Park can't sustain a second grocery store or a department store like Ames. What makes you think the town will get behind an ambitious venture like St. Andrews. Just another brick in the wall.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Hyde Park's Police Vote
Once again the voters of Hyde Park have decided a run down dump is good enough for their police. The measure to build a modest facility lost by 100 votes Tuesday. While I'm not totally surprised by the outcome, I am disappointed. It makes me wonder about the people of Hyde Park. They're either so cheap or poor that a $27 tax hit is too much or they're dumb enough to believe losers like Billy Conn who conducted a blantant campaign of misinformation and absurd rumors. The fact that a moron like Conn can convince anyone of anything is mind numbing. This is one of those times when I wonder if everyone out there should be allowed to vote.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Obama's Overplaying His Hand
Is it just me or has the Obama world tour fallen flat on it's face? I think it was a good idea for him to move around the Middle East and learn. Where he's gone wrong is turning it into an obnoxious photo-op smacking of presumption. The fact his poll numbers haven't budged tell me the American people know a snow job when they see it. A little more modesty would go a long way in the Obama camp. His arrogance is keeping McCain in the game.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Dolly Dousing Obama
An unintended consequence of the media's fascination with all things hurricane has been taking Obama's mid-east road show off the air. Maybe the networks were shamed into covering something else after days of fawning over President Obama. You can also feel the hunger for Katrina II on the part of the cable news gang. Oh how they want another hurricane in New orleans. Hilarious but pathetic.
Friday, July 18, 2008
The Police Vote...Again
The police vote…again
It’s Groundhog Day again in Hyde Park as residents will once more vote on the proposed new facility for the police department. The measure lost by about 300 votes last year with voters mostly objecting to the process rather than the proposal itself. The election was marred by sign stealing and other childish behavior on the part of the anti-police crowd. Mercifully the clowns involved in last year’s shenanigans have been relatively invisible this time around. This year’s vote should serve as a more accurate reflection of the community’s desire to support the police by building them a suitable facility.
If you’ve taken the time, as I have, to tour the police station on 9G, you know the current facility is a total embarrassment and an insult to the people working there. The place is falling down and police officers have no room to work.
The one jail cell has no bathroom and is the size of a triangular phone booth making it impossible to detain two people simultaneously. (Think bar fight). In short, the place is a dump. Otis, the town drunk from the Andy Griffith Show, would give up drinking if he had to sleep it off in Hyde Park.
So why haven’t the citizens of Hyde Park voted to fund a new facility? One objection is the cost. People are stretched pretty thin these days and don’t want to pay another dollar in taxes. Others simply don’t think we need a police department. Let the Sheriff and State Police handle things.
Let’s address the second one first. Police are a lot like lawyers. Nobody likes them until they need them. The Hyde Park Police are very good at what they do. The fact that most of us have very little contact with them is because they do such a fine job. They serve as a very visible deterrent to those contemplating breaking the law as well as a rapid response to those who do. Does anyone really want to hear the 911 operator say the State Police are busy with an accident an on the Taconic while some cretin is walking out the door with your flat screen or worse?
Then there’s the money angle. I’ve heard so many people kvetching about an extra $30-$50 bucks a year to pay for a decent police facility. They say their taxes are too high as it is. Well, they are. But for that kind of short money, I get a real live police force. I’m not getting that kind of value elsewhere in my tax bill.
I pay a small fortune in school taxes but have never had a child in school. I pay thousands in water taxes but get no town water. I have no sewer or garbage collection. In short, the only tangible benefit I and many other residents get from the Town is police and fire. Why on earth would any clear thinking person not want to support the police facility?
Then there’s the John Golden factor. Think of the current facility as your house. It’s falling down and you need to move. You’re not sure you can afford to move but then along comes a generous man offering to give you the land to build your house on. That’s just what legendary builder John Golden is doing for Hyde Park. He’s willing to donate up to five acres of prime real estate on Cardinal Road for the new facility. Amortize the cost of that land while you’re complaining.
So let’s do the right thing on Tuesday and give Hyde Park the police facility it deserves.
It’s Groundhog Day again in Hyde Park as residents will once more vote on the proposed new facility for the police department. The measure lost by about 300 votes last year with voters mostly objecting to the process rather than the proposal itself. The election was marred by sign stealing and other childish behavior on the part of the anti-police crowd. Mercifully the clowns involved in last year’s shenanigans have been relatively invisible this time around. This year’s vote should serve as a more accurate reflection of the community’s desire to support the police by building them a suitable facility.
If you’ve taken the time, as I have, to tour the police station on 9G, you know the current facility is a total embarrassment and an insult to the people working there. The place is falling down and police officers have no room to work.
The one jail cell has no bathroom and is the size of a triangular phone booth making it impossible to detain two people simultaneously. (Think bar fight). In short, the place is a dump. Otis, the town drunk from the Andy Griffith Show, would give up drinking if he had to sleep it off in Hyde Park.
So why haven’t the citizens of Hyde Park voted to fund a new facility? One objection is the cost. People are stretched pretty thin these days and don’t want to pay another dollar in taxes. Others simply don’t think we need a police department. Let the Sheriff and State Police handle things.
Let’s address the second one first. Police are a lot like lawyers. Nobody likes them until they need them. The Hyde Park Police are very good at what they do. The fact that most of us have very little contact with them is because they do such a fine job. They serve as a very visible deterrent to those contemplating breaking the law as well as a rapid response to those who do. Does anyone really want to hear the 911 operator say the State Police are busy with an accident an on the Taconic while some cretin is walking out the door with your flat screen or worse?
Then there’s the money angle. I’ve heard so many people kvetching about an extra $30-$50 bucks a year to pay for a decent police facility. They say their taxes are too high as it is. Well, they are. But for that kind of short money, I get a real live police force. I’m not getting that kind of value elsewhere in my tax bill.
I pay a small fortune in school taxes but have never had a child in school. I pay thousands in water taxes but get no town water. I have no sewer or garbage collection. In short, the only tangible benefit I and many other residents get from the Town is police and fire. Why on earth would any clear thinking person not want to support the police facility?
Then there’s the John Golden factor. Think of the current facility as your house. It’s falling down and you need to move. You’re not sure you can afford to move but then along comes a generous man offering to give you the land to build your house on. That’s just what legendary builder John Golden is doing for Hyde Park. He’s willing to donate up to five acres of prime real estate on Cardinal Road for the new facility. Amortize the cost of that land while you’re complaining.
So let’s do the right thing on Tuesday and give Hyde Park the police facility it deserves.
Monday, July 14, 2008
The pathetic Jesse Jackson
I didn't think Jesse Jackson could get any worse or more irrelevant. But in criticizing Barack Obama for daring to address the black community's penchant for illegitimate kids and absentee fathers, old Jesse blew a gasket. Obama is telling it like it is. Until blacks put their own house in order, no amount of federal money and liberal hand wringing will change the insidious dynamic that continues to eviserate black aspiration. Coming from a hypocrite like Jackson, the Obama slam is even more offensive. Remember this phony only recently owned up to his own illegitimate child, so Obama clearly hit a nerve.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Move Over Herbert Hoover
The last couple of years have seen unparalleled economic carnage here in the United States. The housing bubble fueled by irresponsible lending and borrowing has burst taking the American dream with it for too many people. The underlying mortgage industry exemplified by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has deteriorated to the point the federal government may be forced to pony up trillions to keep the mortgage market remotely solvent. The stock market is in free fall as Wall Street’s pain becomes Main Street’s reality. On top of that oil continues its relentless climb to the sky driving up the cost of almost everything.
Locally, businesses are taking the hit too. One project after another has been shelved or abandoned for lack of funding and prospects. Just last week came word the much ballyhooed St. Andrews residential/retail project in Hyde Park is for all intents and purposes DOA as the developer can’t come up with the cash needed to fund the Route 9 sewer. That project alone would have translated into hundreds of jobs and workers spending their money locally.
While there are lots of explanations and rationalizations for our economic problems, there is one constant in all this. That constant has been President George W. Bush, who has stood like a deer in the head lights as the economy unraveled on his watch. Herbert Hoover can rest easy as George Bush has become the gold standard for failed presidents. Between Iraq and his domestic fiscal mismanagement, George Bush has wreaked more economic havoc and destroyed more wealth than a division of Islamic radicals could if they marched unimpeded from New York to LA.
While it’s true some of these economic chickens were coming home to roost eventually, it’s being made worse by the total lack of leadership on the part of the president and his administration. Leadership is very much about communication in a democracy. Anybody can stand in front of a TV camera and pat themselves on the back during good times. A real leader is the person who sucks it up and tells the American people the truth. They may not want to hear it but they need to understand the problem if they’re expected to be part of the solution. George Bush has been AWOL on the economy.
Teddy Roosevelt referred to the presidency as a “bully pulpit” to be used to exhort and inspire the citizenry. His cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Those words are as true today as they were in 1933. His leadership got this country through the depression and we desperately need that kind of thinking today.
It’s abundantly clear we won’t be getting that kind of leadership from the incredibly shrinking George Bush. At this point it appears Bush is mailing it in and will use his remaining time in office to jet around the world on Air Force One while the rest of us struggle to put gas in the tank. You had to love Bush and the other leaders at the G-8 summit last week snarfing down an eight course meal the night before convening a conference on world hunger. Talk about a disconnect.
It will fall to the next president to pick up the pieces and restore confidence in America. We need a leader we can believe in and someone who believes in America. We need to get it right this time.
Locally, businesses are taking the hit too. One project after another has been shelved or abandoned for lack of funding and prospects. Just last week came word the much ballyhooed St. Andrews residential/retail project in Hyde Park is for all intents and purposes DOA as the developer can’t come up with the cash needed to fund the Route 9 sewer. That project alone would have translated into hundreds of jobs and workers spending their money locally.
While there are lots of explanations and rationalizations for our economic problems, there is one constant in all this. That constant has been President George W. Bush, who has stood like a deer in the head lights as the economy unraveled on his watch. Herbert Hoover can rest easy as George Bush has become the gold standard for failed presidents. Between Iraq and his domestic fiscal mismanagement, George Bush has wreaked more economic havoc and destroyed more wealth than a division of Islamic radicals could if they marched unimpeded from New York to LA.
While it’s true some of these economic chickens were coming home to roost eventually, it’s being made worse by the total lack of leadership on the part of the president and his administration. Leadership is very much about communication in a democracy. Anybody can stand in front of a TV camera and pat themselves on the back during good times. A real leader is the person who sucks it up and tells the American people the truth. They may not want to hear it but they need to understand the problem if they’re expected to be part of the solution. George Bush has been AWOL on the economy.
Teddy Roosevelt referred to the presidency as a “bully pulpit” to be used to exhort and inspire the citizenry. His cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Those words are as true today as they were in 1933. His leadership got this country through the depression and we desperately need that kind of thinking today.
It’s abundantly clear we won’t be getting that kind of leadership from the incredibly shrinking George Bush. At this point it appears Bush is mailing it in and will use his remaining time in office to jet around the world on Air Force One while the rest of us struggle to put gas in the tank. You had to love Bush and the other leaders at the G-8 summit last week snarfing down an eight course meal the night before convening a conference on world hunger. Talk about a disconnect.
It will fall to the next president to pick up the pieces and restore confidence in America. We need a leader we can believe in and someone who believes in America. We need to get it right this time.
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