The Yankees Should Parade in Da Bronx — Not the Canyon of the Ganiffs(Ganovim)

 


 


WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. November 6,2009: Congratulations to the Bronx Bombers on their 27th World Championship, won Wednesday in The House The Taxpayers Built.  Today, the Bombers will be hailed with a parade in a very bad neighborhood.


 



A 6-ounce beer and a dog:$14 in the upper deck in the fabulous new Stadium. September 16


 


 


Those of you going to the parade really should bring personal security you will be in the worst neighborhood in New York City filled with some its most dangerous criminals at large who have not yet been indicted.


 





 The neighborhood is the financial district, perhaps the worst neighborhood in New York City by crime volume, a place where the Yankees never play, but houses many of the greatest thieves of all time: the investment bankers, the insurance giants, the brokers, the fund managers, the hedge fund fliers, did I leave any ganiff out?


 


 People who by their greed and misrepresentation and stupidity and egos have made millions of New Yorkers and Americans miserable. They’re recovering now. You bailed them out.


 


But America is not recovering. Every week their apologists in Washington tell us things are recovering. Tell that to the 149  homeowners in White Plains who are in default as of October 2.…46 in Battle Hill, 34 in the Southend (10605), 10 in the downtown (10601), and 59 across the Bronx River Parkway (10603)—all in one year.


 


The thugs who created this do not have tattoos, wear earrings, or piercings or bandanas or carry guns. They wear a different kind of bandana, $75 ties. Their piercings are cufflinks. Their weapons are computers. Their gang members:  henchmen, press spokespersons, p.r. men, Senators and Congressmen and Presidents,  business associations, lawyers. They’re generally pretty overweight, but that’s a generalization. They buy their coffee in Starbucks, their lunches in steakhouses, and exploit youth. They buy the$10 beers, the$9 drinks, lots of them  and put it all on the expense account you eventually pay.


 


Yeah, that’s where they’re going to have their parade—the street of  a nation’s shame. The carpeted crags in concrete canyons in the Canyon of Ganiffs. It is a place of disgrace a monument to false achievement of phonies based on exploiting peoples’ dreams. We have saved them. Are they saving us? No.


 


But, I digress.


 


I say since the new Yankee Stadium has, according to two separate reports in The New York Times (disgracefully not placed in the Sports Section — so sportsfans miss it) Thursday and National Public Radio, not helped the area and merchants around 161st street and Jerome Avenues in Da Bronx, but hurt them big time, the parade should not be in the Canyon of  Ganiffs.


 


The Yankees should parade through the  Tenements of  Titans – where they speak Spanish, Haitian, Creole, English, and all live together, two jobs, both spouses. Where the kids try to learn, avoid gang violence, and try to work a job too to earn money.  The people who do the menial, lousy jobs the ganiffs in the canyons wouldn’t be caught doing –hard-working Bronx that they rip off every day.  The vendors that  deal the beers and the $7 footlongs.


 


Why do I say the Yankees are ripping off the Bronx? It’s true.


 


Because they have put 100 restaurants in their ballpark, mini department stores and  have taken tons of business away from the local businesses which  used to do great souvenir and food sales around the old stadium. The Yankees are getting it all.


 


Their success this year was purchased, and baseball appeared to let them get the best free agents, because the Yankees need to contend for baseball to be successful in the media. But that’s another column.


 


Remember how Mayor Bloomberg, and Governor Spitzer (remember him?) sold those taxfree financing  bonds they gave to the Yankees, who have not paid for the entire stadium. New York taxpayers, people in the Bronx, you, me, lent the Yankees the money at the best interest rates you can get – tax free bonds which the Yankees can resell. Too bad there was not a referendum on that.


 


They even make money on the financing.  Remember the “lines”: The new ballpark will bring new business to the Bronx Mayor Bloomberg said. Well that is not the way it has worked out for the merchants around the ballpark in year one of the Stadium.


 


In fact National Public Radio did a long report last week showing no new ballparks built around the country (21) in the last decade have increased local business in their neighborhoods.


 


So, in order for the Yankees to “give something back” to The Bronx that has been ripped off  by the Stadium that is so overpriced the neighbors cannot afford a ticket ($20) for a seat in the top rows of the third deck, have to spend $14 for a beer and a very short hot dog — how about this:


 


I submit they should put the parade in the Bronx so the real people can hail the heroes who have won the World Championship: C.C., Derek, the Great Matsui, the miraculous comeback kid, Andy Pettite, and the Great Riviera, and A-Rod, who has been rehabilitated by the media,(though it is a disgrace they relied on him to win so many games), the Melkman, Robbie Don’t Cha Know Cano, Jorge and Nick.


 



The old Stadium.Seats Gone. September 16


I suggest starting the parade on East 138th Street, the heart of the South Bronx and wending up East 153rd Street, up 161st past the old crumbling Yankee Stadium, under the rumble of the subway, and then up to the Grand Concourse, marching down that old boulevard past the Grand Concourse Hotel (where Babe Ruth once lived, and all the ballplayers stayed). Vendors could line the streets, make tons of money, maybe.


 


Let the ballplayers see the real New York that keeps the city going through their sweat and toil.


 


I won’t be at that parade.


 


I don’t think the Yankees are paying for all the police overtime for that parade security either.The cost of the parade is a disgrace.


 


Do the Yankees ever pay? Do professional sports teams ever pay for something the community needs?


 


Fans don’t get it.


 


The idea is that you pay.


 


You always pay.


 


So long everybody.


 



 


Still the greatest place to be a ballpark on a summer night.

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Kevin J. Plunkett, White Plains Attorney to Head Astorino Transition Team

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the County Executive-Elect Robert Astorino Office. November 5, 2009:








Westchester County Executive-elect Rob Astorino today announced that he has tapped White Plains attorney and long-time Westchester civic leader Kevin J. Plunkett to lead his transition team.

 
Mr. Astorino will be sworn in as County Executive on January 1, 2010, succeeding Andrew J. Spano in that position. Mr. Spano has served as Westchester County Executive since 1997.

 
Mr. Plunkett is a partner at the law firm of DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr, LLP, which is based in White Plains, NY.
                

He has a distinguished public service resume: Mr. Plunkett is a Member of Governor Spitzer’s/Governor Paterson’s Judicial Screening Committee, Second Department.  He is a Board Member of the New York State Thruway Authority; a Member of the Taconic State Park Recreation and Historic Preservation Commission; a Member of the Board of Visitors at Pace University Law School, and Chairman of the Greenway Conservancy for the Hudson River Valley, Inc.  Mr. Plunkett has served as counsel to many Westchester County communities.

 

“I am pleased that Mr. Plunkett has agreed to serve as my transition chairman,” Mr. Astorino said. “There is a great deal of work to do in this county, and Mr. Plunkett has the know-how and breadth of experience to help assemble a top-notch leadership team, consisting of the best and the brightest that this county has to offer. ”

 

“I am honored to have been selected by the County Executive-elect to serve in this important role,” Mr. Plunkett said. “County Executive-elect Astorino and I share a vision of a smart and lean Westchester government that serves the people of this county capably and efficiently.  Change is coming to Westchester and I am excited to be part of it.”

 

Mr. Plunkett will receive no compensation for his work.

                                                               

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Bradley Has 75% of Votes Cast in White Plains 43 Districts, Closing Out Hockley

 


 


WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2009. By John F. Bailey. November  4, 2009: Elizabeth Schollenberger, Chairperson of the Democratic City Committee reports to WPCNR late this afternoon,  that the Democratic City Committee tally of registered voters who voted across all 43 White Plains Election Districts on  Election Day was 10,468, making Adam Bradley the winner of the election simply based on the numbers of votes write-in candidate Glen Hockley could expect to receive.


 


Write-in votes for Mr. Hockley will be tallied beginning Monday when the Board of Elections recanvass begins.  Bradley with 7,759 votes at this hour has taken 75% of the unofficial vote total from all White Plains districts.


 


 


Schollenberger said that Democratic Mayoral Candidate Adam Bradley has unofficially been reported by the Board of Elections to have received 7,759 of those votes,meaning that write-in candidate Glen Hockley cannot make up the difference. The maximum Hockley could receive if all 2,709 voters remaining after deducting Mr. Bradley’s unofficial vote count pending  the Monday recanvass of voting machines and absentee ballots would be 2,709 plus a few hundred votes, some 4,000 votes short of the Bradley total.


 


Unofficially, Mr. Bradley wins the 2009 Mayor’s race on the numbers of registered voters who voted.


 


The total of 10,468 voters  was culled by Democratic observers at the polling places and telephoned in and tallied, and compared against the list of registered voters, according to Councilman Dennis Power. This is what both parties in White Plains have done since 1987.  


 


Power said the comparison of  those who voted to Bradley vote totals were the basis of his report at Asian Temptation, where the Bradley Election Night Festivities were taking place,  when he said write-in challenger Glen Hockley was probably receiving 10 to 25% of the vote.


 


Power told WPCNR, the analysis was done at  Democratic Headquarters at One North Broadway.  Bradley analysts compared Mr. Bradley’s unofficial totals coming from the Board of Elections, and compared it to the overall reports by  election district how many persons had voted.  Power noted they estimated that Mr. Hockley was receiving 20 to 25% of the vote based on comparisons of total voters who voted in each  district compared to Bradley votes cast in each district.

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299 Absentee Ballots Plus Unknown Number of Emergency Ballots Hold Ryan Fate

 


 


WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2009. By John F. Bailey. November 4, 2009: County Legislator Bill Ryan’s political future hangs on about an estimated 500 ballots or less, more than half absentee ballots, and an undertimined number of “Emergency Ballots” to be counted in Ryan’s race with Bob Hyland,  for the County Legislature 5th District seat. Brian Maloney, the White Plains City Committee Chair, has just received the Absentee Votes to Be Counted figure from Board of Elections Co-Chair, Carolee Sunderland.


 




Along Came Hyland


 


Bob Hyland goes into the Absentee Ballots with a tenuous lead over veteran Westchester politician, Bill Ryan below.  Ryan, claimed a “close victory” before midnight Tuesday night, and by 1 A.M. Wednesday morning, Republican Bob Hyland had a 2-vote lead, which grew to a 44-vote lead by noon Wednesday.  Ryan now finds his future in the all-important, dramatic opening of absentee ballots beginning Monday.


 



Bill Ryan Tuesday evening at Asian Temptation, calling Victory Prematurely. Race is still too close to call.


 


Maloney told WPCNR 199 Absentee Ballots will begin to be counted Monday, when the Board of Elections recanvass begins.


 


Of those 199 Absentees,  110 belong to Registered Democratic voters, 79 are Republicans, 2 Conservative voters and 1 Working Families Party. In addition, Maloney said there were 100 possible absentee ballots that were requested, which may not have all been returned. The Board of Elections waits 7 business days after Election Day before counting them.


 


A third category of votes to be counted are the Emergency Ballots filled out in at least 6 districts in White Plains where voting machines were temporarily out of commission: 4,18, 14, 9 & 13 and 39, as reported yesterday to WPCNR by the Board of Elections.


 (The Board of Elections reported to WPCNR on Election Day yesterday there were a total of 6 districts that experienced temporary voting machine irregularities.) Maloney just guestimated there might be some 200 of those  Emergency Ballots or possibly more, depending on the voter flows at the time of outages, before 3 P.M. Tuesday. He cautioned that was speculation on his part at this point. The Emergency Ballots, Maloney said, were placed in sealed bags at the polling places after voters filled them out.


 


The way Maloney sees it, the absentees may favor Mr. Hyland. He noted that if there is a direct split and all the 110 Democrats vote for Ryan with the 88 other  supposedly anti-Ryan affiliated party voters all voting for Hyland,  Hyland leads Ryan still by 22 votes, providing Hyland’s count in the recanvass of the election machines Monday holds. Maloney optimistically told WPCNR that you cannot automatically assume all 88 Democrat absentee voters will vote for Ryan either, but he could not see Republicans or Independents voting for Ryan.


 


On the breakdown of the 100 absentee votes sent out, Maloney said those votes usually follow the trend of the election, though the absentees would not have been affected by any adverse reaction to the anti-Hyland flier which the County Democratic Committee mailed over the weekend that has generated sympathetic support for Hyland, and possibly votes, across the city.


 


The number of Emergency Ballots also would tend to support the general election trend and would have the factor of the Democratic anti-Hyland mailer associated with their vote, or at least knowledge of it, Maloney said.


 


The mail-in absentee ballots will be counted beginning a week from Thursday, not Tuesday as previously reported.


 


Of course, the Board of Elections may find in the machine recanvass beginning Monday that votes were erroneously reported for Mr. Hyland or Mr. Ryan.


 


Stay tuned.

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