By Gerard Longarzo
Mayor Spano:
I availed myself of the opportunity to view your State of the City Address on Verizon, Chanel 39. I emailed the following to you to Mike.SPANO@Yonkersny.gov. on March 14th. As I received no response whatsoever I followed up today, March 21st. A representative from your office told me that your direct email is Mayor@Yonkersny.gov. I am now resending the following to that email address in the hope that the questions posed will be answered in a thoughtful and timely manner. Clearly, under your insightful leadership our city has taken and continues to take giant steps in the right direction in terms of public safety, education, housing, cultural enrichment, commercial development and public image. – credit to whom credit is due. As a Yonkers resident for the passed four decades and a person heavily involved in the Hyatt Association (our local community’s civic association) I have questions for which I respectfully request a timely and thorough response:
You made prominent mention of the numerous public safety benefits made possible by the YPD Awareness Room. Is the increased awareness of actual street conditions equally covering all quadrants of our city or is coverage of one quadrant (the southwest) far superior to that of other communities in our city?
In a related matter, you mentioned that the YPD will be initiating its first surveillance drone. Is the goal to make this aerial surveillance 24/7 or only for specific, time limited purposes? Once again, will the surveillance area be our entire city or will it be scheduled to cover one particular quadrant (the southwest) for the vast majority of its air time?
You included numerous accomplishments of our Yonkers Library System. In your last year’s State of the City Address you made reference to establishing a branch of the library in southeast Yonkers (the home base of our community’s Hyatt Association). As our area is clearly underserved with the closest branch being the Will Library on Central Avenue (a considerable distance away from our community thereby constituting a major obstacle to it being accessed), I was hopeful that there would be some actual progress toward realizing the opening of a library branch in our community. The fact that you made no mention whatsoever of the opening of a local branch of the library is extremely disheartening and disappointing! Silence speaks volumes! In regard to this matter, my perception is that our community is FORGOTTEN!
You made mentioned to a municipal program that would facilitate the placement of solar panels in residential communities in south Yonkers. Once again, I must ask if south Yonkers actually means southwest Yonkers to the non-inclusion of southeast Yonkers?
You proudly stated that our city will, in the foreseeable future, have two new schools-The Sotomayor Community School which I believe is slated to be an elementary school and the Yonkers Film Television Academy for grades 6-12. As the Sotomayor School is officially a Community School, I must ask if youngsters who live in the surrounding community will be given top priority in being given the opportunity to attend that school in their home community? If future constructed elementary schools will indeed be community schools then, at present, where logistically possible, shouldn’t youngsters who reside in close proximity to schools in their home community be given this same opportunity of first choice placement into these schools vs being coerced into being bussed to schools distant from their homes when parental request for community adjacent schools are routinely ignored?
In closing, I thank you for the time and effort that you personally and your team dedicate in service to our city. I take due note of the many advances and improvements from which our city benefits due to your insight, foresight and leadership. I look forward to your timely and thoughtful response to the above enumerated concerns and wish you and your family future happiness and success!
Jerry Longarzo, Yonkers
