WILL MOUNT VERNON VOTERS FINALLY STAND UP?

VOTERS HAVE THE POWER TO EFFECT CHANGE

Mount Vernon is showings signs of citizen awakening. Pockets of people are empowering themselves through discussion and information sharing. More importantly, out of the despair has emerged a powerful force of voices intent on being heard. The process of empowerment has taken root just as the General Election date approaches.

Information is power for those. Who supplies the information is not important, as long as the information is accurate and is intended to help improve citizens’ quality of life. All citizens have the right to express their views and participate in decision-making in a variety of ways and there’s room for a symphony of voices to provide information, information, information. The development of new online blogs ares such examples as are the formation of various community groups spearheaded by residents to address escalating gang violence and lack of municipal services. People are beginning to speak out and stand up to change what is wrong with Mount Vernon. As the empowerment train steamrolls down the track, passengers desirous of a better Mount Vernon are climbing aboard.

The General Election on November 3rd gives Mount Vernon voters an opportunity to make a commanding statement that they are not pleased with the course of the city and voters will use their power to make needed changes to reclaim the city. Voters have already determined that Maureen Walker will continue as Comptroller. City Council candidates who want to hold important Executive Branch positions must be carefully scrutinized before votes are cast. Those individuals not ready to commit solely to working in the best interests of citizens should not be elected. The position of City Court Judge should not be overlooked. A judge should be able uphold the law without influence from elected officials or political parties. Politics should have no seat in the City Court other than a chair next to a defense attorney.

If candidates can offer no common sense platforms before the election, they certainly won’t have much to offer when the election is over and should not be voted into office. After the election citizens must be prepared to hold every elected official accountable for the campaign promises they made – not when the next election comes, but from the moment their public service term commences.

Citizens are reminded of the importance in voting for candidates that represent the kind of government official they want as an executive employee in the citizens’ public house. Mount Vernon has come to realize that electing competent officials who not only care about the community and its people but bring something useful to the public table is essential to realizing a productive future for the city. Each person living here is not only a resident but a co-producer of the city and has a voice before, during and after the elections. While voting is a constitutional right, it comes with it the responsibility of accepting the choices voters collectively make, so it is imperative to make choices carefully and wisely. Voters must use this opportunity to make selections of individuals after learning as much about the candidates as possible. Choices should be based on ability, not connection. Now is not the time to rely on party loyalty. Citizens are suffering too much after having been abandoned outside of the people’s locked municipal door.

Residents must also demand greater accounting for public actions and outcomes that affect their lives. Just electing competent officials is not enough to move the city forward. Active participation of residents is essential to making sure public officials remain loyal to the people they’re elected to serve. Residents should not stop forming and attending meetings of neighborhood organizations and associations. They must continue to bring their concerns to the attention of elected officials; now more than ever. And, citizens must not fail to keep a report card beginning on day one of elected officials performance and sensitivity to their concerns. The community can no longer accept isolated public officials who are out of touch with its people.

When the people decide to hold their elected officials accountable, control and power shifts to them. That process starts with the vote. No one has to save it; another comes with the next election.

THE BUDGET – ITS YOUR MONEY!

Our country is in the throes of a recession. Communities across the country have had to take serious measures in order to provide services with a dwindling dollar. Mount Vernon is not immune to job loss and housing foreclosure. Citizens are struggling to survive. The Mayor and his Budget Director must make some serious adjustments to the city’s operating budget for 2010.

It has come to Roadrunners’ attention that the Department of Public Works has so overspent that funds must be pulled from other sources to keep it running. What citizens must question is, on what? City streets are horrendous and garbage is everywhere. The few crosswalks installed stick out against the potholes, craters and ditches in streets. Streets can’t be paved in the cold so more cars will be damaged and more claims will be filed that the taxpayer will have to pay.

With little more than 2 months before the start of a new budget year, budget authors should be mindful that the public will not accept another round of fattening the expenditure pot with overpaid new employees. There should be no surprises, no City Council sellout for personal gain at the expense of property owners. Those things and people that are not necessary have to be cut. Just as citizens have tightened belts in their own homes, so too must city hall. Citizens are watching and will be scrutinizing EVERY appropriation in the upcoming Proposed 2010 Budget.

BLOCK SWEEP II

The next round of Operation Protect, the city’s 6 week program to shift crime from targeted areas, is planned to set up ship in the area between Union and South Fifth avenues and East Second and East Fourth streets. This temporary fix in troubled areas floods the area with police presence. Unfortunately for residents living outside of the target area those determined to continue business as usual simply pack up their worries and wares and move someplace else.

For those of you familiar with Mount Vernon in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, similar attempts were made to curb drug sales and antisocial behavior along the Third and Fourth Street corridor. The result was basically the same. Drug dealers, misguided youth and wannabe thugs simply became nomads. Citizens watched the dealers and troublemakers rove from one end of Third and Fourth Streets to the other. The problem wasn’t eradicated, it found new homes, new business connections and slowly returned to home base bigger and more vicious.

RoadRunner does not intend to minimize the Police Department effort or to reduce citizen perception of the police, but to question what else is being done to address the real issues that contribute to this decades old problem?

STREET SPEAK

Roadrunner remains committed to empowering the people of Mount Vernon through the dissemination of information that can be used by them to make intelligent decisions about their lives and their future. Proactive involvement is always good for the entire community. Things can and will change only if people become actively involved. It’s your city, you have to fight to keep it yours!