NYC is running out of power
It seams that everywhere you look there are new homes being built. With most of the power plants throughout New York and the five burros being out dated and already working to their maximum potential, where are these homes going to get their power from?
The need for more power plants in NY is not a new topic, but it is a forgotten one. Plans have been made for reconstruction of old power plants and the building of new ones. All this is fine, but those plans expired about 3 years ago. Now with all the new houses being built it is estimated that within the next 10 to 20 years, NY will be having major blackouts due to the demand being created.
The only solution in sight is either to stop with the building or build new plants. Neither of these options seams to be in the making. This leaves New Yorkers with no other choice, but to look forward to a dark future.
By A. Wallace

Parking and Traffic Violations

The NYPD has be has been very hot on pulling over people that are talking on cell phones while driving. It seams no matter where I turn I see another driver getting a ticket. I recall seeing someone cut me off while talking on the cell phone and thinking “if that was me, I would get a ticket”. I would have to say that in my opinion, this spurt on ticketing those who are holding the phone to their head while driving is something that should have happened a long time ago.

Now as you may have noticed in past articles, I like to look at both sides of things. The other side of the coin in this situation is tickets that were given as an abuse of power. I can give to personal examples; first would be a ticket for parking head in when the sign stats “no head in parking”, after sending in photos that there not only are no such signs but never were, I am left still fighting the ticket. The second is for parking in front of a building numbered 7700 during alternate side of the street parking, on that block the numbers are 7600 then 7800, there is no such address. Naturally I am still fighting that one too. I have not had to deal with this, but another problem is tickets for parking in front of a driveway, when the driveway is illegal or there is no driveway (just someone painting on the street a yellow line or no parking and putting a gate on their fence).

Tickets of this nature are becoming more frequent and there is nothing being done about it. I spoke with the commanding officer from a local pct. About this, and found the response to be poor at best. I was told “It is not my problem and there is nothing I can do, if someone gets a ticket that they should not have gotten, they just have to go into court and fight it”. With this being the commanding officers viewpoint, how can we expect any different from the patrol officers.

With all the good the NYPD is doing, I find this to be an abuse of power in order to meet quotas and increase their stats on monthly reports. Should you be a victim of this kind of abuse by the system, don’t sit quietly, make your voice heard. That is the only way to correct the problem.

By A. Wallace

“Flyers on Cars”
When most people find a flyer on the windshield of their car, they simply throw it away. What a lot of people don’t know is it is against the law to place a flyer on someone’s car and carries a fine of $75.00 for each handbill placed on a car. Back on November 28, 2005 the law signed by Governor Pataki (the law was signed in August of 2005). The law prohibits putting ads anywhere on a vehicle. Back in 2003 a statute made it illegal to place flyers and advertisement postcards on windshields, under wiper blades or rear windows. The revised version of the law holds "any person or group whose name, telephone numbers or other identifying information" on the handbill liable. Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said, “The stiffer rules would go a long way toward cutting littering by irate motorists who toss the ads onto the street”. Motorists who find handbills can call the city's 311 hotline to alert the Sanitation Department.
The law makes no mention of damage to cars, such as when a windshield wiper is broken while placing the flyer on the car, scratches in the pain, etc. Should you find that there was damage done to your car while the flyer was placed on it, call your local police dept and file a complaint with them for the damage. Also be sure to call 311 and make a complaint about the flyer, but be sure to give them the information from the police report with your complaint.
By A. Wallace

Transit vs. The City of NY.

The city has been crippled by the transit strike. As soon as the strike began, all the news channels started speaking of the millions that the strike will cost the city. But didn’t the city and our government create this situation? And are they in violation of federal laws? There was no coverage of the double standard applied by our government.

It wasn’t that many years ago that the news was flooded with a Microsoft take over. The government’s argument was that it would create a monopoly for Microsoft within the computer industry. We went through the same thing with cable companies, phone companies, etc. However it seams that the same rules do not apply to our local government in regards to the transit system.

Now with NYC taking over a lot of our privet bus lines, having full control over our subways, doesn’t this create a monopoly?

A monopoly of this sort does not allow unions or transit companies to compete with wages, retirement plans, salaries or working conditions. At what point did it become all right for NYC to monopolize our transit system and not be governed by the same monopoly rules that apply to privet industry? Did our local government create the transit employees disagreements, more importantly didn’t they bring it on us?

The transit workers stood up to the city and went on strike. Now after returning to work in good faith that things would be worked out, they have been let down. As the people of New York we need to speak up and not allow the city to take away our privet industry. Force our city to abide by the same rules that are imposed on privet industry where needed. Allowing the city total control over our transit is what created the situation for this strike. With total control comes total chaos, as we seen with this strike. Of course the city officials will argue with this view by saying that the MTA is a separate entity from the local government. If that were the case, then MTA workers would not be considered “city workers” and would not fall under the (city workers striking rules) rules under which they are being fined.

By definition Monopoly (using Encarta) means:
1. Control of market supply: a situation in which one company controls an industry or is the only provider of a product or service.
2. ECONOMICS commodity controlled by one company: a product or service whose supply is controlled by only one company.

I challenge our local government to show how the MTA does not fall under this definition. I also extend that challenge to them to show how if the MTA is considered a privet entity, why “city workers” and not privet industry workers operate it.

By, A Wallace

The 100th Pct. Community Council Meeting
Last Wednesday was the meeting for the 100th. Pct. Community council meeting. After about 30 minutes of listening to a sales pitch for Pre Paid Legal, I had to leave. It was the first community council meeting I ever felt a need to walk out on. For what is known to be one of the slowest meetings of the year, the attendance was good.
Prior to the sales pitch the meeting was very informative. Lt. Leonard and 3 other officers spoke of some important issues.
· Wednesday February 21 the Medicaid van will be in the area. I will post the time and location a week or two prior.
· There has been an increase in crime for the year ending. Pct. Total was 247 in 2004 and 369 in 2005.
· There will be 15 new officers and 6 new field trained officers added very soon.
· There has been 3 new beats set up in the area.
· The Community affairs officers are being combined with the crime prevention officers to expand the crime prevention efforts.
· The program that formerly was operated with the assistance of cadets to help clean the graffiti will now be reaching out to the people of the community to do their part. If you would like to help, please call the officer taking care of it at 718-318-4233

By Arthur Wallace