I have known the Spano family for over 50 years. Recent reports that try to label Mike Spano a racist are like calling Swiss Cheese American Cheese. In a month Mike Spano has done more for black, brown and the people in Yonkers as Mayor and New York State as an Assemblyman than Congressman Jamaal Bowman has done in his lifetime. Comparing Mayor Mike to Donald Trump? How silly. We will get back to Spano shortly.
Have you looked at the new Congressional District lines for New York State District 16 which Bowman currently represents. With Control of the New York State Assembly and Senate as well as the Governor’s office, Democrats increased their party enrollment in all of the districts to protect incumbents with the exception of one district. That is the 16th District represented by Jamaal Bowman. The new district includes all of Yonkers and cuts his Bronx base in half. The seat now goes all way up to Putnam Valley and Carmel. That’s a long way from Yonkers. It makes it more difficult for Jamaal as the new areas are much more moderate.
What does this move by the State Legislature and Governor prove? They are unhappy with the way Jamaal has voted, represented his district and in particular his no vote on the Infrastructure Bill. Jamaal’s vote against the bill hurt this Country including the residents of his district. He took away jobs from the American people, hurt our country’s crumbling infrastructure, and took food off the table of families crippled by a pandemic and a troubled economy and clothes off their backs. Shameful.
Jamaal got elected because unfortunately his opponent who (sorry this is not kosher) ‘brought home the bacon’ for his district did not take his challenge as seriously as he should have. The Bronx and Yonkers Democratic parties failed miserably in turning out the vote for Eliot Engel.
I think I was one of the few people who actually knew of Bowman because even though he is my neighbor in Yonkers’ Park Hill section, as Mayor Spano has pointed out repeatedly nobody had ever heard of him in Yonkers. His sole community involvement prior to his election was as a Principal of a Bronx School. The financial issues at the school he headed are public. No community involvement in the city where he lived. I have never seen a public official in Yonkers get elected with a blank slate of service to his city.
I met Bowman at a fundraiser I went to in White Plains. He was standing by himself and I always like to meet new people. He was gracious, I told him about my writing for this paper and radio show and asked him what brought him to the event. He said he was running for Congress against my friend Eliot Engel. I was shocked at this and if I remember correctly, I said, ‘Are you kidding? Do you know how popular Engel is in his District?’ That was my first and only encounter with him, and as they say the rest is history.
Somehow I got on Jamaal’s political campaign list. Everyday he or one of his minions asks me for $3. Don’t know how but it’s not unheard of candidates intermingling their official government lists with political lists. So I read almost daily about what is going on in his campaign. His association with ‘The Squad’ a group of elected officials including Ilhan Omar that have been known to be anti-Israel. A January 31 email from his Campaign Manager Luke Hayes asking for $3 donations from 3 people in the 10701 zip code to meet financial goals. Constant referrals to anyone who disagrees with him as racist.
Jamaal in an official taxpayer paid mailing took credit for items in the Infrastructure Bill that he voted against. One of those was, as a caller to my radio show pointed out attempts to deal with flooding problems in Mamaroneck. He claims to have ‘provided tax relief for the homeowner by lifting the SALT deduction cap. Reduced prescription drug prices. Expanded job opportunities. He’s rarely seen in Yonkers, and while advocating for cuts in the in the police work force had the audacity to request Yonkers Police ‘patrol his home in Yonkers.’ These ‘patrols’ take police officers off the streets and prevent them from keeping you and I safe.
When he was arrested on the Voting Rights issue by Capitol Police he stood as the only person without a Mask in picture after picture endangering the lives of the Police and his fellow protestors. The Daily Mail caught him maskless in a visit to New Rochelle High School in pictures with students who were masked per Governor Hochul’s order on January 31. Is he above the law? Does he do this so his face is not covered when the cameras are around?
Recently, Jamaal sent out a government sponsored mailer with a Community Survey. The question he asked? What issues should your Congressman focus on in 2022. Continued Covid 19 response, support for Schools, Workforce Development, Healthcare Issues and Climate Issues. No where does he mention the economy. No where does he mention inflation. No where does he mention prices for food that are sky high. No where does he mention providing help at our ports to bring in the goods and services we need. No where does he mention cleaning up the bail reform that has made the justice system a revolving door. No where does he mention gun control. Serious issues facing our country and his district.
And no where does he mention crime, the most serious issue facing all of us right now. You are supposed to add these issues on if you feel he should focus on them in 2022. I don’t know friends, maybe he lives in a different world then we live in and doesn’t understand what’s going on in Yonkers, the Bronx, Putnam Valley and yes Carmel.
Let’s get back to Yonkers and Mayor Spano. Readers of this column know that I have taken on the Mayor and his administration many times in the past including last week on the Rollout of the Sustainable Westchester electricity issue. He’s been a friend for many years but when in the middle of the night he went against the two time wishes of the voters in Yonkers and gave himself a third term despite telling me at a public event that he wasn’t interested in a third term, I was furious. I called it like it was. My friend had lied to me.
But for people, some new to Yonkers and without any Yonkers credibility to call him racist? The political discourse has reached a new low. Spano has appointed the most black and brown judges to the Yonkers Court Bench than any Mayor. He has appointed black and brown individuals to Boards and Commissions, far more than his predecessors. He has worked to build and renovate public schools for the large black and brown population in Yonkers. He has cleaned up areas of Yonkers long neglected. And his door is always open ready for suggestions from the public.
Try to get a meeting or a response to an email from Mr. Bowman. Maybe he doesn’t respond because he knows he has no power to do anything. No knowledge of the needs of Yonkers. Officials at all levels of government are disgusted with him. Simply take a look at the redistricting plan.
Spano’s comments may have offended some people and his goal was certainly not to do so. But this whole situation has been blown out or proportion by a politician who is desperate for attention and votes. Jamaal has been silent. In situations like this politicians go around and get others to do their work.
Given Jamaal’s history, he probably will send out an email decrying this column and this columnist racist.
As Former First Lady Michelle Obama said, ‘When they go low, we go high!’
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
