This too is Westchester
by Eric W. Schoen
A fee for plastic bags at Supermarkets, small grocery stores and Bodegas. A deficit of $46 million at the Board of Education. Yes, the little people get screwed again in Yonkers
Plastic Bag Fee
As part of Mayor Mike Spano’s State of the City address, he included a 5 cent plastic bag ‘impact fee.’ The proposal was presented to the City Council on Tuesday in a document that says ‘Impact of Regulation on Business and Individuals-None.’ Please!
Governor Cuomo killed the fee in New York City last year, which makes me wonder why the idea is being brought up in Yonkers. He did appoint a task force to study the issue, but New York City has not to date passed legislation endorsing its’ ideas.
The rich have Fresh Direct and Peapod to deliver groceries to their homes. The poor shop at supermarkets and if they have no car small grocery stores and bodegas and schlep food in shopping carts or carry it home in plastic shopping bags. They are the ones who this proposal will hurt. As well as the bodega owners, some working 12 hour days to survive in a competitive environment.
I question why this proposal is on the table. Could it be a way to solicit campaign cash from the supermarket industry? Could it be that a politically connected lobbyist is waiting in the wings and will solicit cash to represent supermarkets, small grocery stores, Bodegas and other stores like Costco that sell groceries.
Years ago my dad operated a small grocery store on Warburton Avenue before Otis Elevator came in and one where Palmer Dairy (or whatever its’ current name is) is was head of an organization called Westchester Food Merchants. They represented small grocery stores throughout Yonkers before supermarkets came to town. They would lobby the City Council and stop proposals like this that had an impact on their stores and customers.
Advice to the Stop and Shops, Shoprites and small bodega owners. Don’t get shaken down by a lobbying firm that claims it has the power to stop this. You and your customers can do it on your own.
They haven’t come up with a reusable bag that doesn’t keep the odors of food placed in it after multiple uses. Come up with such a bag. Yonkers gives recycling bins to residents. Let the city give out reusable bags to those who can’t afford them. Have machines around town that give back the 5 cents when bags are returned. Let customers who reuse their plastic bags get a discount equivalent to what they would pay for a new one. Make stores offer bags that don’t require double bagging so the milk won’t spill all over the car.
Reusable? I reuse my grocery store bag to throw out the garbage. Do I have to pay the 5 cent fee. Who does the fee hurt most? The little people who cannot afford it!
A good idea from Mayor Spano’s speech. Get more money for Yonkers from the state from Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway. Have you ever seen the parking lot at Empire less than full? Even at 2 o’clock in the morning?
Yonkers Board of Education Budget Tango
Yes boys and girls, it’s time once again for the Yonkers Board of Education Budget Tango. The deficit gap this year? $46 million dollars. And the charades begin.
I’m almost embarrassed every year when no matter who the Mayor is or who the Superintendent of Schools is right around Easter and Passover we learn of the budget deficit for the next school year. Friends from out of town read this column and say, ‘Again, Yonkers schools have budget problems?’ And I tell them the Yonkers budget saga continues.
And we wonder, who will come through to save the day? My bet this year is that we will see Governor Cuomo, Assemblywoman Shelly Mayer, Senator Andrea Stewart Cousins and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow up at the microphone announcing this years fix. They are all up for reelection or election to a higher office.
And who suffers here. Students who don’t know if a class they have scheduled for next year will take place? Teachers, Administrators and support staff who don’t know if they will have a job next school year. Does anyone out there realize how humiliating this process is. And one never learns one will have a job until the last minute.
This game has gone on for far too long back to the days when I was in high school and our Senator was John E. Flynn and our Assemblyman was Tom Mc Inerny. And who suffers? The little people. The custodians who may lose their jobs, the $12 an hour lunch lady, the teacher or administrator at the bottom of the pay scale? The last people to be hired. It’s truly pathetic!
I hope in my lifetime this charade will end. There’s no money for students but there is money to pay the School Board President $15,000 and buy $300 in polo shirts for the Trustees.
In Memoriam: Sue and Fred Witt
Sue and Fred Witt were important parts of the Yonkers community before they retired to upstate New York. Fred passed away last week less than 3 months after Sue’s untimely death.
The Chema Community Center would probably not have been built if it wasn’t for Fred Witt. He deeply cared about his community and with Sue at his side worked to make Yonkers a better place to live.
Sue? Where can I begin. She worked for this newspaper and its predecessor, the Home News and Times and all affiliated papers. No one proofread better than Sue. She also would weigh in on content if this writer or others for the paper were a bit off. She did this during my earlier incarnation writing for the Home News and Times and until retiring here at Rising Media Group.
Sue knew Yonkers inside and out. After retiring and moving upstate she would send me long emails praising me if I was right and gently criticizing me if I was wrong. I will miss those letters. Sue and Fred Witt. They, Too Were 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 Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM or WVOX.com and click on listen live.
