Clean My Neighborhood

By Justin Arundell

I hate my neighborhood because it is so loud,
I just want a neighborhood where I could be proud
I hate the litter,
I have become so bitter,
Do you people need a babysitter?
In my neighborhood the dogs poop,
Has anyone ever thought to use a scoop?
I want to make sure to keep them in the loop,
I won’t let my neighborhood turn into poop!
I don’t like my neighborhood!
I don’t like my neighborhood!
There’s garbage everywhere!
I don’t like my neighborhood!
I don’t like my neighborhood!
There’s dog poop everywhere!
I don’t like my neighborhood!
I don’t like my neighborhood!

Ed. note: This poem is part of a book of poems that PS 8 student Justin Arundell wrote for a school project. He is 8 years old.

Pit Bull Killed our Dog

It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that our beloved Shih Tzu dog, Stasha, was brutally murdered on May 17, at the corner of 205th Street and Webster Avenue at 11:35 a.m. A vicious Pit Bull, being held across the street, in front of the grocery store, "slipped out" of its collar, crossed the street, and without provocation, brutally and slowly killed our Stasha. Even after being hit by  pipe, it did not loosen its vise-like grip on her head, crushing her skull until the Pit Bull felt there was no life in her body. Unfortunately, there was very little we or the veterinarian could do to save her and had to endure the additional pain of putting her out of her misery.  It is most unfortunate that most feel "It was just a dog."  No living thing should be submitted to such a brutal demise. And it is even more painful to know that the responsible parties are being protected and justice may not be available for her. We ask that you remember her as the wonderful and loving dog that she was.

Angel and Jose

Ed. note: The writers, Norwood residents, asked that their last names not be included.

‘Irish,’ not ‘Gaelic’

Dear Editor:

Thank you very much for your article about years past and Irish things in Norwood, Bedford Park, and including me, and Keltic Connections, in it (article, March 22 – April 4, 2007). I have to set the record straight on one point. Your reporter took a leap in reference to the language of the cards I spoke about. It is a very common mistake, even made by many Irish-Americans. The cards I sold for St Patrick’s Day were in "Irish," not "Gaelic." For Christmas I did have cards in Gaelic, spoken in Alba (Scotland), Irish spoken in Eive (Ireland), and Manx or Manx Gaelic spoken in Mannin (The isle of Mann). All these are in the Gaelic branch of the Celtic language family.  

Mickey Burke

Taking Issue with Tracey Management

In your recent article ("As Repair Complaints Mount, So Do Tensions at Tracey," May 17 – 30, 2007), one might get the impression that our management company’s district manager, Mr. Daniel Durante, is really disappointed and frustrated (his words) about tenants who avail themselves of city agencies and the courts to get repairs and replacements done. The truth, of course, is that it is we tenants who have suffered real disappointment and frustration for many, many years due to lack of repairs and replacements.

When our tenant executive board took office in May of 2006, we met with Mr. Durante in two monthly management meetings. All we heard from him was that there was no money to do the repairs and replacements our landlord was legally obligated to do. So, we took our landlord to court. And we’re getting repairs and replacements done that would probably have never been done without going to court.

But still we cannot get everything done. Mr. Durante, for example, refuses to replace missing or rotten 34-year-old screens and blinds as the "costs associated with [them] make it prohibitive at this time." So, tenants fear opening windows without screens because an open window is an invitation to flies, bugs, pigeons and squirrels. Public housing residents have it better than we do.

Through our court action, we’re getting kitchen cabinets replaced, but not completely. Mr. Durante mostly refuses to replace the entire set of kitchen cabinets, preferring instead to give us tenants on the lawsuit mismatched cabinets of cheap plywood and white Formica counter tops that one tenant had to refuse because it was buckled even before being installed. Tenants not on our lawsuit get wood cabinets that look like the ones already there with a beautiful black, marble-speckled counter top. This is just one way Mr. Durante uses divide-and-conquer games to punish us for joining a group lawsuit against our landlord and his management company, R. Y. Management Company, Inc.

Divide and conquer is the game that Mr. Durante uses often as he promotes division here at Tracey by financially supporting the activities of our former executive board members, our Networking Committee and Sallie Caldwell. For example, it was Mr. Durante who forced our executive board out of hosting our recent Community Board 7 meeting here, even though Board 7 only came at our invitation. Mr. Durante told me in no uncertain terms that this was his building and that Ms. Caldwell would host the meeting. We stepped aside.

And then some tenants and even our local elected officials (who have mostly avoided contact with our tenant executive board this entire past year) wonder why we can’t all just get along here at Tracey and work together to improve our quality of life. Well, Mr. Durante does not want us to all just get along, which is why Ms. Caldwell has refused to work with me or our executive board. By insidiously manipulating certain tenants in divide-and-conquer games to make our executive board look bad at every turn, Mr. Durante hopes we tenants will re-elect in April of 2008 the former Tenant Council members who were defeated by us in a landslide election last year. That they were defeated is the real disappointment and frustration that Mr. Durante suffers from, for while they were in office, he did not have to worry about tenants agitating to get repairs and replacements done.

Sam Gillian
The writer is president of the Tracey Towers Tenant Organization.

In your last issue, you wrote that Sallie Caldwell said that she "would do more for Tracey Towers, but can’t work with Gillian [our tenant organization president] or the other association officers." I consider it shameful that Ms. Caldwell, as a community public figure, would even express such an emotional reaction.

Ms. Caldwell is the vice chairperson of Community Board 7; she is secretary of the 52nd Precinct Community Council; and she is the paid representative of Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera. As a person who puts herself out as one who works to help others achieve community goals, Ms. Caldwell can do better than state publicly that because of her emotional reaction to Tracey Towers’ tenant leaders she will not help the vast majority of Tracey Towers’ tenants improve our quality of life. I think that Ms. Caldwell forgets that she lives here too and that any improvement in our living conditions is an improvement in hers.

Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera can do better than be represented by Ms. Caldwell, for doesn’t her refusal to help Tracey Towers’ tenants mean that Rivera’s office is refusing to help us?

Felix Gibson
The writer is vice president of the Tracey Towers Tenant Organization.