LUCKY WINNER AT EMPIRE CITY CASINO
Lady luck hit for one Bronx resident last week when Jose was the
lucky winner of a 2019 Range Rover Riches Giveaway at Empire
City Casino, an MGM Resort. Jose ended up opting for the cash
payout of $60,000 instead, more than enough to buy a new car
with a little leftover. Photo courtesy of Empire City Casino
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M BTR AY 10-16, 2019 85
BY GEORGE HAVRANEK
As Mother’s Day approached
thoughts of the
hardworking mothers that
are invaluable assets to our
communities seized my mind.
Pardon this interlude from
the typical commentary about
traffi c congestion and overdevelopments
as we attempt to
pay proper tribute to these altruistic
women.
From all of us at the Spencer
Estate Civic Association:
Happy Mothers Day.
There are things in this
wonderful world that transcend
unequivocal defi nition.
Beautiful things, avoidant of
proper articulations; however,
deeply felt within our hearts
and minds. A Mother’s love
truly fi ts that description. The
following short poem by Rudyard
Kipling describes the
eternal and unconditional
love of a Mother for her child.
Mother o’ Mine
Rudyard Kipling, 1865 -
1936
If I were hanged on the
highest hill, Mother o’ mine,
O mother o’ mine!
I know whose love would
follow me still, Mother o’ mine,
O mother o’ mine!
If I were drowned in the
deepest sea, Mother o’ mine, O
mother o’ mine!
I know whose tears would
come down to me, Mother o’
mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were damned of body
and soul, I know whose prayers
would make me whole, Mother
o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
Mothers are the bedrocks
that carry the weight of a family.
Mothers are the centrifugal
forces that hold families
together. Mothers are the dedicated
motivators that inspire
our communities. Thank you
to all the hard working mothers
that serve as role models
for the future leaders of our
communities. Like a mother’s
love, our deep affections and
appreciations for all of you
transcend words. Thank you
for caring, and Happy Mother’s
Day to all of you!
Political leaders to gauge a
community’s interest and fortitude
use the attendances at
local civic association meetings.
The large turnouts by
our community show our
elected offi cials that we have
the fortitude and resolve
needed to confront adversity.
It is critical for our community
to continually build on
this momentum. The next
meeting of the Spencer Estate
Civic Association is Wednesday,
May 15, 7:30 p.m. at the
Knights of Columbus. Assemblyman
Michael Benedetto is
scheduled to address our community.
Our assemblyman is
chairman to the State Assembly
Education Committee and
a driving force behind the I-95
project slated to begin next
year. Our long time friend,
Assemblyman Benedetto is
highly knowledgeable and
prepared to address questions
in those areas.
Any area homeowner or
renter interested in membership
to the all inclusive Spencer
Estate Civic Association
in box George Havranek on
Facebook or send-email with
subject matter Spencer Estate
to gghh55@aol.com. If
we want to ‘keep and reap the
blessings’ of our fi ne quality
of life ‘we must undergo the fatigue
of supporting it’.
Remember: ‘Inclusion
brings solutions’
BY GENE DEFRANCIS
Some will tell you you have
no compassion. They will try to
say you are being selfi sh. They
will likely call you names. Our
elected offi cials have told us we
have no choice... we will have
three homeless shelters in our
community and there is nothing
we can legally do to stop
it. The best we can do is pick
the locations we can tolerate a
shelter.
We say no. We say that is
not how you approach a community
with a proposal and
here is our reason why.
The shelter system is broken.
Instead of real solutions
and permanent housing, the
city is profi teering off of the
homeless crisis and they are
making it worse.
Not only on the homeless,
but they are profi teering off of
the opioid crisis and the mental
health crisis. Creating jobs
and spending tax dollars to an
unsustainable level, especially
with cost of living here in New
York City.
We have people sleeping
on our streets and when you
ask them why don’t you go to a
shelter, what is there number
one answer...”I don’t feel safe at
the shelter.”
Yet you are going to insist
that we put a shelter in our residential
neighborhood. The answer
is not more shelters. The
shelters do not work. We should
be closing shelters turning
them into permanent housing.
When you have transitional
housing you have a community
in fl ux with residents that
don’t get to know each other or
build the community together.
With the Bronx losing 7,000
people last year the facts are
clear, the Bronx does not have
a housing crisis. What the
Bronx does have is the distinction
of being the ‘poorest
county’, the ‘unhealthiest
county’, the county with the
worse public education’. So the
city thinks we need to pile on
more people in need into the
Bronx. We have to take care of
the people that are here.
Now the city has done something
that I found interesting.
It’s relocated several people in
need to towns where the cost of
living is much lower. Instead of
paying $1,800 for rent the rent
was closer to $500.
But where they failed is that
they didn’t coordinate with the
township.
Buffalo and Rochester are
both about the same physical
size as the Bronx. Buffalo is
the second most populated city
in New York state. The Bronx
population is 1.4 million people.
Buffalos’ population... 260,000.
The difference is staggering.
Yet some want to say the Bronx
is not over populated.
They want to take your
home, tear it down, and build
more buildings to fi t more people.
Without adequate classroom
sizes, crowded emergency
rooms, congested roads,
and with social workers and
other government agencies
overwhelmed with work load.
So what should be proposed?
Upstate New York needs a economic
boost. The Bronx needs
a valve released so we can stabilize
the county and get more
people on track economically
and in terms of health.
Eighty thousand people in
NYC are homeless, 85,000 have
Section 8 vouchers and 180,000
are unemployed.
So if your getting city assistance
and not working. The
city should pay cities like Rochester
and Buffalo to take these
people.
The money the city saved
because the cost of living is
lower can be used to pay for the
Rochester and Buffalo infrastructure.
NYC homeless problem
solved.
Money available for social
workers and rehabilitation.
(Easier to manage... 200,000
against 2 million) less cases.
Employ case workers in Rochester
and Buffalo. More jobs.
Rebuild infrastructure in
city. Uncrowd schools and hospitals
a little.
The average Bronx rent is
$1,600 with government programs
raising our rents by
paying average city rent. We
all know the average city rent
is much more than average
Bronx rent. The average rent
in the 19th Ward in Rochester
is $400. Rochester population
has around 210,000 people
(again the same size as the
Bronx).
So can Rochester and Buffalo
support doubling their
population? They can if the
city spends $500 a month per
person. Plus $500 for the persons
rent. That’s a total of
$1,000 and would be under the
$1,600 average.
When you see the actual
numbers it would create a
surge to the economy of Buffalo
and Rochester and save
money in the city.
But which elected would
pick up the ball on this project?
It won’t be the one who’s child
doesn’t go to our overcrowded
school. It defi nitely won’t be the
one who registered their home
in the Bronx but actually lives
in Westchester. It won’t be the
elected that doesn’t drive. And
it won’t be the elected offi cial
who gets loads of money from
developers for you to be pressured
to sell your home so their
friends can build and get tax
subsidies and grants to build.
Its time to step up and show the
community that you’re with
us and that allegations against
you are false. That you care
about the Bronx and the people
that you represent.
Fighting for us on this issue
is how you prove that. We have
no animosity towards any of
our elected offi cials and we ask
that you join us in this fi ght.
So which elected will step
up and fi ght with us?
And the electeds are wrong.
There is something we as
Bronxites can legally do. We
can leave the city of New York
if they are going to just continue
to use us, not represent
us or not take care of us and
our people in need.
Now we love being one of
fi ve boroughs but three new
shelters will launch this movement.
I know because my members
and I talk with the people
everyday and they are tired of
taxation without representation.
Bring common sense to
Albany and let’s all work together
to solve the homeless
crisis and not profi t off of it.
Let’s solve the opioid epidemic
and not profi t off of it. And let’s
solve the mental health crisis
and not profi t off of it.
Stay informed in this and
all subject matter involving Allerton.
Join our Facebook page
Allerton International Merchants
Association Inc. Email
us at AllertonMerchants@
gmail.com.
Our Aaniversary party is
coming up fast Saturday, May
18 at the Sanz. Check in with us
if there are any tickets available
or last minute cancellations.
Show you care. Protect the
sanctity of Allerton. Stay engaged
and loyal to your home.
Because your community is
your business.
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