tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723709701684173708.post710817327308665591..comments2024-03-28T17:55:31.180-04:00Comments on The Gossips of Rivertown: The Wishes of the First WardCarole Osterinkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16010623982526286408noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723709701684173708.post-65278487206341983552012-03-17T18:57:27.063-04:002012-03-17T18:57:27.063-04:00Today's meeting was disappointingly short on 1...Today's meeting was disappointingly short on 1st Ward issues. I would have thought that violent crime in the 1st Ward was more pressing than the entire city's concern about the Ferry Street bridge or far flung parks. <br /><br />Instead, I was fobbed off with the usual buck passing: "go to the police committee meeting."<br /><br />Um .... hello: THE POLICE COMMITTEE MEETING IS THE PROBLEM!!<br /><br />Now Geeta Cheddie's "solid working relationship" with the other Council members is what worries us. There's no surprise that other wards would want her back!<br /><br />In the Common Council Minutes I can't find when Ms. Cheddie ever disagreed with a concern that profited the 2nd Ward even where 1st Ward interests were at stake.<br /><br />Yet a single 2nd Ward alderman already enjoys nearly twice the votes of each 1st Ward alderman, so why did they always need Ms. Cheddie's vote as well? <br /><br />It's true that Ms. Cheddie's pet issues properly belong in the 2nd Ward, but for some reason she still wants to represent us. I say "for some reason" because when she initially ran for alderman she stopped in to meet us, then inadvertently let the cat slip the bag. When asked why she wanted to be an alderman she shrugged, giggled and admitted that she didn't know.<br /><br />Last August while the city's expensive and very crooked SEQR review carried on, Ms. Cheddie circulated a broadside blaming "public comments" for cost-overruns that were hurting "taxpayers." <br /><br />(These are the same taxpayers whom she treats as an open tap for social services, her thinking being consistent I suppose with Rep. Pelosi's idea that food stamps are synonymous with "stimulus.")<br /><br />But considering that many and probably most of the comments she viewed as obstructive came from the 1st Ward, wasn't that an attack on her own constituents? It begged the question whether her attack was justified.<br /><br />According to the SEQR guidelines (which are available to all in the SEQR Handbook online), it is not only a public right but practically a public duty to provide comment on its own behalf. <br /><br />Ms. Cheddie's August broadside was cynical and demagogic, aiming to turn constituents against one another and against the state guidelines. This one example speaks volumes, but there are more.<br /><br />Whoever is appointed as our next representative, 1st Warders above all must keep the drumbeat going to amend Hudson's weighted voting system.unheimlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00204285837938988668noreply@blogger.com