I moved to the Village in the middle of 2005. The Village has its charms, and it's proud of some of them ("Tree City USA," "Bird Sanctuary").
Way back, Janey Anderson talks about a time when all the houses were white, except the slightly off-white ones owned by the adventurous homeowners. At another time, Harvey and Vicki Bilt installed areca palms -- at their own initiative! -- in the median in front of their 121st St house, because they wanted more separation between their property in the Village and the southern border of CNM. At some other time, Chester and Sandi Morris either installed a new irrigation system, or they extended the one they had on the south side of 119th St, so the system would cross under the street, and irrigate the median, too. This was at their own initiative, and expense, like the Bilts' project, because they wanted the median in front of their house to look nice.
Before 2010, the Parks and Parkways Board, whose Chair was then Dan Keys, catalogued the medians. Frankly, and in retrospect, it was never clear why they did that. Dan says the P&P Board made a design plan for the medians, but Dan doesn't have a copy of the plan he says resulted, and no one else can find one.
We've had some other land development over the past 10-15 years, and they've included welcome signs, Roxy Ross' yearly MLK Jr Day of Service projects, which have been clean-ups of one small area or another, and a couple of Dan Keys' landscaping projects, which appear to be personal ambitions of Dan's, single-handedly designed, and executed with the labor of several or many of us. The Village has acquired three outdoor sculptures, but only because a few or several Village residents personally bought them, and offered to give them to the Village for free. We renovated the log cabin, and we constructed an Administration Building (with sizable grants), which was never landscaped as Dan Keys said he envisioned, or expected others to envision. We cleaned up a mess that was the Public Works yard, which had fixtures like garbage trucks that didn't work, and the ground of which contains so much toxic waste that we couldn't sell it to a prospective home builder, and we put a Public Works building there instead.
And that's it. Some of these improvements have been conceptualized and funded by Village residents, at their own initiatives (and expense), and some have been projects of the various Commissions. We have not infrequently talked about stepping up Code enforcement, but we don't do it.
For the 18 years I've lived here, and seen our frankly ratty-looking medians, and watched people drive over them, because they can't be bothered to go to the end of the block and take a U-turn, I have suggested, and pleaded for, a median development scheme. Our medians are completely unique, and we have sacrificed large enough driving lanes to have them. But we refuse to make them the asset, and treasure, that they could be. At one point years back, Dan Keys said he, and possibly P&P, if he allowed them to have any say about anything, would redesign two demonstration blocks of medians on 10th Ave. That never happened. And Dan has complained consistently about various trees planted by Village homeowners, like the arecas the Bilts planted, because they wanted something better than ratty grass, weeds, and raw dirt. Dan doesn't want to improve the medians, and he doesn't want anyone else to improve them, either.
So, this is how we live. And from all indications, it's how we're going to continue to live. When I was on the Commission, I asked my colleagues to agree to task P&P simply with making a plan. They didn't have to spend a dime. The medians could all have been the same, or they could have been different, one from another. Once we had a plan offered by our volunteer P&P Board, and everyone knew what that plan was, anyone on any block could donate personally to installing plantings that would fulfill the plan. Maybe a friendly competition for the nicest median would have followed. Nope.
We have about 1200 houses in the Village. Mac Kennedy doesn't like some of them, because he likes an old Spanish, or MiMo, style. Personally, I don't care, as long as any house looks nice, and is landscaped in a pleasing way. Somehow, for whatever unimaginable reason, the Planning and Zoning Board allowed to be built a monstrosity on the south side of 117th St, and it has destroyed at least that block, because no one has privacy any more.
But still, no one wants improvement of our most unique asset. Go figure.
Fred: The tree master plan is and has always been in the posesión of the Village. It’s old now and should be updated. Much of it has been implementer. Your continued lies, yes lies, because I have corrected you before make me worry bout your mental stability or at least character.
ReplyDeleteThe parks and Parkways board is now and has always been a majority rule entity. If the board accomplished something and it singlehandedly accomplished more
for the Village than you have ever even conceived of, then it was an accomplishment of the board. The people that were members of the board at the time of these accomplishments have lots to be proud of.
"Dan," I want to come back to the last paragraph of my first reply to you. I was elected to the Commission in 2013, and because of a change we made, I had a three year term. Early in the first year, I had to vote on board memberships. I asked to talk to you, and you came to my house. I told you I had a problem, because the P&P Board was essentially a one-man show, and this was never the intention. And the board had vacancies, which kept re-appearing, because people would get on the board, find you impossible to work with, and quit. I asked you to find a way to be more inclusive, so I could vote for you. You explained that you couldn't be bothered to teach Village residents about botany and landscaping, and they didn't have what it took, so they would quit. I told you that if you wanted my support, you were going to have to change your approach. You promised me you would, and that you would tolerate a full, five-person board. Once you made clear that you either couldn't or wouldn't do that, I never again voted to keep you on the board. For whatever reasons, my colleagues were more tolerant of you and your dictatorship over this board than I was, and you benefitted from their votes in support of you. Until Tracy Truppman, who was more tyrannical than you were, got her posse/stooges to throw you off the board. Although I never thought Tracy and her dimwits never did one thing right, I admit I wasn't disappointed to have a P&P Board that no longer included you, even if it was for the wrong reason.
DeleteWhat I told you repeatedly was that there was a tree master plan. There is, you know it, thus you lied above.
ReplyDeleteYou asked me and the board to do a complete plan for landscaping other than trees and I refused for many reasons that I explained to you, one being that I and the other board members at the time are not and were not your slaves. It’s a massive job and should be done on a project basis by a professional licensed to sign plans as there are liability concerns related to traffic associated with plantings on medians.
One of the other reasons was that the Village (that you at the time were an elected official for) had not been responsible in its management of our existing landscapes, something that continues to this day. At each opportunity, we begged you and the other commissioners and managers to hire a qualified individual who could properly manage our landscape crews and who had some substantial education and experience with horticultural matters. You apparently did not recognize the need to champion this cause as a commissioner or since as a private citizen.
Once the Village becomes responsible with regard to maintenance of our landscapes, it can move forward in an intelligent manner with considering new landscaping (or not). The process of doing so can only be responsibly done by, among other things, considering the infrastructure and maintenance needs of any new plantings. To do otherwise would
be irresponsible. We should know if any investment for landscaping or any capital improvement can be maintained properly before we plant or build more.
Fred you always think that you are right and we are wrong. Ignorance.
ReplyDeleteI described for you, in specified detail, reality. If what you think doesn't match reality, then yes, you're wrong. The only thing I said in the comment section that is not confirmed and acknowledged reality is that the "Anonymous" who isn't you is Dan Keys. I said it seemed to me that that person was Dan Keys. If I was wrong, I strongly suspect that that "Anonymous" would have told me so. But that person carried on the conversation as if it was Dan Keys, and that person reviewed things that only Dan Keys would know: "What I told you repeatedly...," etc.
DeleteBy the way, there is a pandanus at the corner of 10th Ave and 115th St, at the north end of the 114th St to 115th St median. Some Village resident planted it there many years ago. I cleaned it out, because it was full of dead parts and plastic bags with dog excrement in them. Dan Keys objects to that tree, too. But he has refused to install anything in its place, and more importantly, to create an understory for all of the medians. Several of them have "Don't Drive on the Median" or "Keep Off the Median" signs on them, but people ignore the signs, because there's nothing blocking them from driving on the medians. I have suggested smaller trees, bushes, and even various kinds of artwork (sculptures, or even those large concrete spheres you see around. Maybe bird baths. We don't even surround our medians with kerbs, which I also suggested.) None of my suggestions were adopted. Go look at the medians, and see what we have instead. Does that make you proud?
DeletePS: Take a look, and see if you have a pair. If you do, identify yourself. If you don't, hold on to mommy's skirt or leg, and don't go near computers.
DeleteThey are main more important issues in today world. You decide to make a point on medían grass unappealing at B. P. Really Doctor. It show how disconnected you are to the real world. Go to McDonald for a break.
ReplyDelete