By Eric W. Schoen
Another 4th of July in Yonkers, the City of Hills where nothing is on the level! Despite promises from our elected officials that they would stop the blasting off of illegal fireworks, the noise emanating from these dangerous devices gets louder and louder every year.
I am usually out of town for the 4th of July and am not blessed with hearing and seeing the Yonkers sky come to life until 2 o’clock in the morning. When I was young the family would go out to celebrate my parent’s anniversary, July 4, and we wouldn’t be home until after 10 p.m. when most of the fireworks were over. Back then, the fireworks were concentrated on our nations birthday and didn’t start a week before and end several days after.
I was surprised when I heard that Yonkers Police only confiscated 12 cases of fireworks. Not being Johnny Rocket and understanding the packaging of fireworks, hearing what went off by my house seemed like much more than 12 boxes of fireworks. I live near 3 parks: Sullivan’s Oval, Fleming Field and Tibbetts Brook Park. I think that fireworks were going off in those parks as well as at individual people’s homes.
An idea. The Yonkers Fire Department has 10 fire engines, 6 ladders, a rescue pumper and a rescue company. Divide the city into 18. Send all the rigs out on the 4th of July, sirens blaring. The Engines Have water capacity and the other vehicles could be outfitted relatively inexpensively with devices that could snuff out illegal fireworks displays.
The blaring sounds of the fire vehicles would hopefully scare away those illegally exploding devices. If not, fire companies observing illegal fireworks could spray water on the devices making them useless.
We lost two homes In Yonkers this year due To illegal fireworks. Let’s not forget that there is a lot of old housing stock in Yonkers made of wood. If we don’t do something soon we can expect to lose more homes. What a tragedy that would be!
All the brilliant ideas to suppress fireworks are not working. How many more homes will we have to lose Before we come up with creative, inexpensive ways to stop the illegal use of fireworks in our fair city? I’d love if you would share your ideas with us at risingmediagroup@gmail.com.
Since this is a yearly problem, the Mayor should set up a task force before ‘rockets red glare’ reaches the sky headed up by the Yonkers Fire Commissioner to deal with this already out of hand issue!
Wear Your Mask!
How difficult is it to wear a mask when there is less than 6 feet between you and the next person? I get it, masks are not the most comfortable thing to wear, particularly when you are like me and you wear glasses. No matter which mask I try my glasses get fogged up when I put my mask on making it extremely difficult to see.
But let’s face it (no pun intended) one thing that has stayed constant in a medical world where things change by the minute is that the use of masks save people’s lives during this pandemic. No one is asking you to put the heavy masks firefighters use on as you shop or get your nails done. There are plenty of different types of masks out there. I am sure you can find one that works and is comfortable for you.
Do you really need a mask when you are alone in your car driving? When you are alone at the park like Tibbetts where the closest person is probably at least 24 feet away. Or when you are out walking the dog at 6 in the morning when no one else is around? I’ll leave that up to you.
But taking off your mask to smoke cigarettes? You shouldn’t be smoking particularly in the middle of this pandemic. Oh how I wish there was a mask to cover over your cigarette and face so I wouldn’t have to breathe in cigarette smoke and you could see how it feels when you blow smoke from cigarettes on your loved ones, friends and neighbors
Soap and Water vs. Hand Sanitizers
Hand sanitizers made in Mexico have been recalled due to dangerous chemicals put in them. Make sure you are using an approved hand sanitizer off the respective government agency list.
And what did the press release put out by the government on hand sanitizers say? Your best bet is to use soap and water to keep those hands clean and sanitary. It’s that simple!
Who Won the Primary Elections?
It’s now almost 3 weeks and have we heard a peep about who won the Congressional primary for the 16th Congressional District. Up to date counts? Litigation taking place?
When we had a real local newspaper in Westchester, by now we would have known what is taking place in this district and received notification along the way as to which way the vote was going. News 12 with the numerous staffing changes that have occurred would keep us up to date on the election counts. Now, nothing!
Are we going to have to wait this long in November for the results? Democracy? Voting by Mail? Scary stuff! Sadly, maybe we all have to go to the polls, risk our lives, risk the lives of the poll workers, stand on long lines and vote on unreliable machines to get election counts in a shorter time frame!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE YONKERS PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR A SUCCESSFUL REOPENING. As Albert Einstein once said, ‘The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.’
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 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.
