This too is Yonkers: By Eric W. Schoen
Aug. 4? Summer is half over. Can you believe it? There is lots going on around the state and right here at home.
Support Local Newspapers
The folks at Rising Media Group work hard every week to tell you about what’s going on in your community. When I say folks, I mean Editor Dan Murphy and his assistant, Bayan Baker. That’s it. No big editorial staff or production staff exists. Dan and Bayan quite literally do it all.
I was thinking about this when I heard about the mass layoffs at the New York Daily News last week. The working man’s paper is now just a shell of itself. In the entertainment capital of the world – New York City – there is little to no entertainment coverage on a daily basis in the Daily News. If they aren’t covering Broadway openings, they sure are not covering community board meetings in the five boroughs of New York.
And who suffers because of the cuts at the Daily News? The people of the metropolitan area. For national news and global news, there are plenty of sources to find out what’s going on. But people want to know about local events to help them plan their weekend, and what’s going on in their town. They have to rely on the Rising Newspapers of the world to give them that information.
And the only way newspapers like this one are going to survive is if you support those businesses who advertise in the paper. When you see an information packed insert from St. John’s Hospital, call the head of the hospital and tell him how impressed you are with what’s going on at the hospital based on the articles you read in the insert. Encourage businesses that you support to advertise here. Support businesses who advertise in the newspaper, and make sure that you tell them that you saw their ad here.
New Jersey recently announced a creative way to get local news and happenings out to the community. The state has committed $5 million from a court settlement for a pilot project to bring more local news to state residents. Five-million dollars is peanuts, but it sure is a start. New York should invest some of the money from tobacco settlements and other lawsuits in a similar fashion.
For those of you who think this is wrong, think government has no business being in the local news business, are against National Public Radio and public television, don’t complain when a 40-story apartment building is going up next to your house and you know nothing about it!
After you have finished reading this newspaper, pass it on to someone else so they can know what’s going on – just like you do!
Lemonade Stands
So a kid opens up a lemonade stand on his parents’ front lawn upstate, charges 75 cents per cup, and the state shuts it down because someone complains that the kid doesn’t have the proper permit. To make matters worse, the kid was trying to raise money for pediatric cancer research.
Wouldn’t you know that the kid’s lemonade stand is down the street from Saratoga State Fair and the complaints came from vendors who are charging $7 for a cup of fresh-squeezed lemonade, while the kid charges 75 cents for the pre-made kind. I’m not sure if the kid was using lemonade mix out of a box or concentrate from a frozen can.
Frankly, what difference does it make? If you are going to the Saratoga State Fair, skip the on-site lemonade stand. And let’s hope the State Health Department goes after the big guys and leaves the little kid trying to make a difference alone!
Another Week, Another Bridge Hit
As this column goes to press, for the 14th time this year, a truck has illegally entered the Hutchinson River Parkway at High Street and hit the King Street overpass.
I’m starting to think that the costs of dealing with these bridge hits and the inconvenience they pose to motorists are equal to the cost of stationing someone at the entrance to the parkway to stop trucks from entering the roadway. And the only other solution is a firm height barrier that the truck would hit if it attempts to enter the road.
If you should see a truck attempting to enter a parkway you are traveling on, help your fellow motorists and society and call 911 to report it to the authorities. And honk your horn as loud as you can, hoping its driver will hear you and not be the number-15 truck hit this year.
Little Roadwork in the Region this Week
The headline in the Journal News was “Not Much Roadwork to Avoid this Week.”
Is it me, or is every road I travel on under construction, have lanes closed, or have an accident on it? At 9 in the morning or 12 midnight I can’t seem to avoid road drama. Let me know if you are in the same boat I am in. Or maybe we need to take our boats to the waterways to get where we want to go.
R.I.P. Judge Thomas Dickerson
The State Judiciary lost one of its bright legal lights with the passing of Yonkers resident Judge Thomas Dickerson this week.
My memories of Tom go back to 1988, before he got elected to the City Council or Judiciary. He was a voice of reason from East Yonkers in the middle of the Yonkers housing desegregation crisis, representing the civic association from his neighborhood.
Always kind, always with a smile on his face, he was the type of person who made Yonkers the great city it is. Judge Thomas Dickerson – he, too, is Yonkers!
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show on Thursdays from 10 to 11 a.m. on WVOX 1460 AM or download the Simple Radio app for free from the App Store.
