By Eric W. Schoen
Crazy Prices!
Can you believe the price of gas? When it approaches $5 a gallon ($6 for diesel) somebody in Washington had better wake up. I don’t care if they are Democrats or Republicans or a combination of the two. Whether it’s a federal gas tax holiday, open up petroleum reserves, our electeds in Washington had better do something!
If we can’t afford gas, it affects everything we do. Car trips are shorter. Those car vacations people are planning this summer will be cut short. Folks will do less shopping in store and more online. That is until the postal prices go up. And the surcharges for all the delivery services. Flying on a plane? Prepare for sticker shock. And rental cars at your place of destination are sure to be higher than when you visited last time.
As the price of gas goes up, so goes the price of everything we buy. That is if the items you want can reach your local store shelves. Meat prices are insane. Frozen food prices for people like me who don’t cook much are up 15-20% on most items. Vegetables are sky high. You need to turn to the sales flyers and see what is on sale before you hit the grocery store. Most stores post their sales flyers online. Many stores have ‘unannounced’ sales you find when you visit them.
And don’t be afraid to look at the items in the scratch and dent wrack most stores have. I see more and more people doing this. If the box or package is open, skip it. Check for ‘best by’ dates. I recently found items at over 75% off including fresh, name brand healthy cereals I normally eat with a little dent in the package and good quality measuring spoon sets reduced from $3.50 to 77 cents.
Perfect example of what is going on is the cat food my sister buys for her cat. You can’t find it in Stop and Shop where she has bought it for years. She has no room to store 10 pound bags you can get on Amazon and can’t lift them. She prefers a smaller bag a little over 3 pounds. So we hunt. One thing you don’t do with a cat is change his or her food or litter.
Several people criticized my story 2 weeks ago about shopping on Elm Street. One reader said ‘Are you trying to get people killed. You make it sound like Greenwich, Connecticut. But the Councilperson for the area Corazon Pineda Isaac praised the column as did many others.
So let’s talk about Elm Street and the many bodegas and small supermarkets around Elm Street and around town. What did I find? The 9 Lives cat food for my sisters cat I could find nowhere else. Yes, it was over $6 versus $4 at Stop and Shop. But hey, at least they had it!
If all this craziness has got you down, sit down, relax and have a cup of coffee (iced or hot), tea (iced or hot) or caffeine charged lemonades or soft drinks at Panera Bread at Cross County, Central Avenue in Scarsdale, Greenburgh and other locations throughout Westchester County free every day through the 4th of July. I posted on Facebook the Unlimited Sip Club at Panera. $10.99 a month after July 4th. You deserve a break today!
St. Ann’s School
As this column goes to press, no decision has been made on the use of St. Ann’s School to educate migrant teens under the auspices of Rising Ground, formerly Leake and Watts, a Yonkers institution for many years. Interesting that the decision is going to be made by the Pastor and not the Archdiocese or Cardinal.
When I first heard of the opposition from the community, I thought of 1988. The Yonkers Housing Desegregation days. Some are comparing that sad time in Yonkers history with the St. Ann’s situation. There was talk of putting some of the court ordered housing on the grounds of St. Joseph’s Seminary, and the community was in an uproar. There ended up being no housing at the Seminary, and I am not going to rehash commitments that were supposedly made.
St. Ann’s School closed in 2019 due to budget cuts in the Archdiocese. A perfectly useful building sits idol that can bring St. Ann’s necessary cash. The plan calls for a staff of more than 100 workers for the 200 mostly male migrant children. That’s one worker for every two children. The children will be kept at the school only during weekdays and not overnight. The expectation is that the children will be kept with Rising Ground for 90 days and then reunited with families in the United States. Rising Ground will check to be sure no one in their program has any criminal past.
St. Ann’s has held information meetings with its parishioners, some of whom are not happy that the school will be used for this purpose. Some mentioned that the school is located in a residential area with little or no parking. Reminds me of the situation at my synagogue. Hundreds of people come for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. They park on the streets of tony Scarsdale. For 4 days a year it makes no sense to build extensive parking facilities.
I have passed the church many times and there doesn’t seem like a parking problem even during Christmas and Easter. Hey, the building was used as a school before! Staff had to find somewhere to park. My guess is in fact the workers, many who will probably take public transportation will meet the clients where they are dorming and accompany them to St. Ann’s. Pretty safe situation where the teenagers will at no time be unsupervised.
Whether you are Catholic or Jewish or any other religion, during Easter and Passover we prayed for people everywhere and pledged to help the needy. That’s what this is. Pastor Norton said it loud and clear in a letter to Councilman Anthony Merante: ‘We believe that we found a more than appropriate use for the school, allowing children to once again enjoy learning in this building while furthering the broader mission of our faith. Rising Ground’s program supports children who have undergone extreme trauma by providing a warm and nurturing educational setting. A parish must do more than simply meet the religious worship needs of parishioners; it has an obligation to utilize its resources to meet the charitable, educational needs of its people whenever possible, and the surrounding communities. Our service to those in need is an important tenant of what makes our faith so strong!”
I know the St. Ann’s community, where I have numerous friends, will do God’s work and welcome those in need!
What a Coincidence!
So my sister is at the beauty parlor getting her hair done and all the customers keep going up to the owner of the salon saying congratulations. Inquisitive, my sister asked why. The owner of the salons husband, Deputy Chief Chris Sapienza had just been named the new Yonkers Police Commissioner by Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano. What do they say, it’s a small world.
Congratulations to Yonkers new Police Commissioner Chris Sapienza. We wish him the best as he continues the tradition of keeping Yonkers as the safe city it is. And best wishes to outgoing Commissioner John Mueller on his retirement! And don’t forget to pray for the safety of our Police Officers, Firefighters, Public Works employees in fact all who work for Yonkers!
IN CLOSING, MR. ASTORINO and MR. ZELDIN, tear down the campaign signs you have illegally posted on public property in Yonkers reported to me by many readers!
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen on the Westchester Rising Radio Show alternating Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, WVOX.com click listen or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
