I knew that title would get your attention. No, I am not proposing that a nuclear power plant be sited on the north end of town. Only wanted to start a long overdue public discussion on how to make the best use of New Rochelle's wonderful bounty of natural resources, open spaces and unmatched shore access (and some 62 beautiful, fairly wild acres pleasingly situated in the city's northeastern corner while we are at it).

I don't care who the opponent is, it is time that the ten dollar word using, über elitist, wanna be dictator, but PART TIME MAYOR be taken down from his perch.

Enough is enough. I can laundry list his accomplishments, or lack there of, but his smug egomaniacal, inefficient brand of local political leadership has to end!

This is why term limits need to be a reality. Not only would they free up the specter of political machine partisan politics, they would foster the development of truely independent, not party controlled candidates on both sides of the aisle.

St Paul might have visible warts, that could call into question elements of his character. But I implore you not to take the allegations at face value. Does a star athlete need to be an upstanding father or husband to produce in his arena? And what about Gnome and his private life? Is it as germane as it appears? Or is his utopian existence merely a facade? I could care less!! What I do care about is advancing this city forward. And hope to do so with a changing of the guard.

The past two Board of education meetings have been dominated by public speakers on the sole issue of out of district busing for student enrolled in private schools, primarily to the SAR Academy in Riverdale, NY and The French American School in Larchmont, NY. Both schools are wonderful and are highly respected institutions and many New Rochelle residents would love to send their children there, but…and this is where it gets interesting, tuition at both this institutions cost over $21,000 per student per academic year. The SAR Academy’s tuition for K-8 is an astonishing $21,300, plus a $4,000 building fund per family per year. The French American School’s tuition for k-8 is a whopping $21,400 - $23,420 (depending on grade), plus an additional $2,000 per student per year for ESL.

Now, if you can afford to send your children to any of these schools, you make more than enough to pay for busing your child to and from your home to the school. For that tuition, the school should include busing for those that need it.

In the February 5 issue of the Westchester Guardian

Is New Rochelle a tale of two cities (north and south)? This week was there any favoritism to any part of New Rochelle when the snow was removed? Is it true some streets in the southern half of the City were never plowed? There were once two New Rochelle's - a village and a town. Some nearby communities continue with city and town designations, but in l899 New Rochelle chose to unite its village and town because of continual population growth. City Historian Barbara Davis said it was an amicable change between the two entities.
New Rochelle (as reported in Herbert B. Nichols' book, "Historic New Rochelle") said New Rochelle began with a few families. By 1698 the Census reported 233 residents and by 1771 the number had increased to 714. People left during the Revolutionary War, but by l800 the population was growing again. There were 3,000 in the Town of New Rochelle when part of the land area was incorporated into the Village of New Rochelle

Incompetent DPW workers stem from one place, incompetent management. The other day, I witnesses with my own eyes and ears a DPW pick-up truck filled with four (4) men whose sole jobs were to go around and fill sand/salt barrels. The driver of the truck asked me where the barrel was. I pointed it out and said, “It was in front of that car.” Two other workers were ready, with shovels in hand, to fill the barrel. The driver, on the other hand, immediately said, “We’ll call it in and come back another time.” Laziness at its maximum capacity. New Rochelle needs to clean house, starting from the top to the bottom. Hard working tax payers are paying ridiculously high property and school taxes on incompetence. Businesses and residents are suffering during these tough economic times, while Bramson, Strome and the P.O.S. Councilpersons are being paid high salaries for “F”ing things up beyond repair. City Hall better wake up. Their lazy, do nothing actions are stemming down to workers. Their mentality is, “I don’t have to work for my salary and they can’t do anything about it.”

WRONG!!!

New Rochelle's Mayor Noam Bramson on November 22 answered residents' questions about crime, traffic, parking, taxes and overbuilding, especially in the southern part of the City. Citing City policies and City Council decisions, Bramson suggested residents call his office or use his email addresses for any further input. This "informal neighborhood meeting" was held in the offices of Cross Cultural Solutions on Clinton Place, New Rochelle.

Mayor Bramson's presentation to the crowd began with a review of the present local economic challenges, such as people who have lost their jobs, the loss of sales and mortgage tax revenue, and the increased pension costs. He cited ways to confront these economic challenges in the City Budget, including cutting expenses, scaling back the capital budget, a hotel tax, and the aggressive seeking of grants. At this time he said, the "range of options" are shrinking. The soft housing market in his view allows "time to plan", mentioning the Albanese development proposal for the Church-Division and Prospect lots. Transportation and regional planning as well as sustainability, education and other factors also impact the City's plans.

The New Rochelle Citizens Reform Club met on Thursday, November 4 at 7:30 PM, at the American Legion Post 8 Hall, 112 North Ave., New Rochelle. This group meets monthly to discuss a host of local issues.

The first item on tonight's agenda was the proposed Iona Dormitory issue that Greg Varian, an attorney and resident of the area, made a brief report. The dorm is being financed by the NY State Dormitory Authority and is located on the north side of New Rochelle. He highlighted the issues surrounding this new construction citing parking, vehicular traffic, and the surrounding building zoning issues. Iona used to be a commuter school that redefined its self as a residential/dormitory college some years ago.

In the past two weeks, two vehicles which were parked on Ronalds Lane in the Sycamore Park area of New Rochelle, have been vandalized for the mere reason of parking on Ronalds Lane. Residence / home owners of Ronalds Lane think that they own the portion of the road in front of there homes and that no one else is allowed to park there. Ronalds Lane is a public street where any one can park their non-commercial vehicle.

There are a number of resident home owners that park “spot holder” vehicles in front of their homes and these vehicles become permanent road fixtures. These home owners park these “spot holders” for week and months without moving them so that other people cannot park their vehicles in front of their homes. This “spot holder tactic is illegal. These same home owners have driveways which they keep empty.

This writer knows that these crimes are being committed by resident home owners of Ronalds Lane, and that these home owners are gutless, selfish, socially challenged, inept, jealous, loathing individuals.

These crimes have been reported to the New Rochelle Police for investigation. If there are any others who have had their vehicles vandalized while parked on Ronalds Lane, report the act to New Rochelle Police Department. These resident home owners must be punished!!!

The Board of Education, which has spent months assiduously pushing off a discussion of the pathetically low minority graduations rates reported by the New York State Education Department last March, will meet tonight at a date and time best suited to insuring minimal turnout. And based on the reaction (or lack thereof) among the minority community in New Rochelle perhaps they are right. Perhaps if you live in the South End and are the parent of a black or latino child and are too disinterested to show up and express some concern of there being a 50-50 chance your kids will not graduate on time then maybe your kids really do deserve to be treated like cattle, penned into low-functioning abattoirs they call classrooms, and then "processed" like so much meat, in time to make room for the next batch.

Almost two years ago we reported on the number of students invited to the Full Day Kaleidoscope (gifted and talented program) by building in “South End Schools Shortchanged Again-Kaleidoscope Program.” We decided to re-visit the topic to see if the opportunities to participate in this program had improved for children attending South End schools. This year, a total of 65 students from all elementary schools were invited to the Full Day Kaleidoscope program hosted at Webster Elementary School.

The number of third grade students from each school invited to participate in the 2010-2011 Full Day Kaleidoscope is as follow:

North End Schools
Ward=26
Davis=12
Webster=12
Total=50

South End Schools
Trinity=5
Columbus=10
Jefferson=0
Total=15