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2009 Mt.
Vernon
Monthly Column
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07-24-09
Editorial
The City of Mount
Vernon facing unprecedented hardship due
to endless woes
Longtime Mount Vernon residents, mostly senior
citizens, are comparing today's Mount Vernon
with a Mount Vernon they remember going back 20,
30, 40 years, and they are not happy with
today's Mount Vernon.
"Mount Vernon was a beautiful and safe city when I
first moved here back in the '60's. There was
racism back then, but we all felt safe when we
walked the streets, and our kids received a good
education, regardless of race," said Ray Brown,
a longtime Mount Vernon resident and former
dancer at the Apollo in the late 1950's and
1960's.
The current administration is facing unprecedented
negative issues, hindering their efforts to
bring positive change to a city in desperate
need of change. Many of the current problems
have been inherited by the current mayor, but
new ones have sprouted here and there.
At the top of the 'to do' list for the current
administration is combating violent crime, since
Mount Vernon has
been plagued with unprecedented violence lately,
resulting in
12 homicides in
the city last year and five so far this year.
Due to this violence, many citizens are leaving
Mount Vernon, and the families that can't afford
to uplift are taking aggressive measures to
protect their kids at all cost.
The current administration has experienced a lost of
key officials lately, starting with Floyd Myers,
Recreation Commissioner, who resigned his post
for a federal position. Just recently, the
Building Commissioner, Ralph Tedesco, announced
he was retiring and leaving his position
effective August 14. Another key person lost was
John Boykin, the mayor's assistant, a talented
young man who got caught up in controversy and
was forced to leave his newly assigned position
with the Youth Bureau.
These major losses in key personnel simply contribute
to the destabilization of the administration
with unwanted distractions, since their goal is
to keep the many campaign promises made during
Mayor Young's run for mayor.
When one picks up the daily paper in Westchester
County, there isn't a day that Mount Vernon is
not written about in a negative way. Prior to
writing this piece, I read the local paper and I
was shocked to read in excess of five negative
stories written about the City of Mount Vernon.
I have continually written about this negative
media trend that has plagued Mount Vernon for
years. Mount Vernon continues to be unfairly
targeted by the media, thus giving the city a
continuous unjustified 'black eye.'
Aside from the many homicides taking place in Mount
Vernon, the populace of Mount Vernon has to
contend with the presence of gangs. Every
municipality across America has a problem with
gangs, but the issued is accented in a bigger
way by the media because it's Mount Vernon.
Now the citizens of Mount Vernon and the school
district have to deal with a lost of
$5 million
in state aid, which will only add more misery to
a city crippled with endless woes.
What is Albany thinking when they eliminate $5 million
in state aid targeted for the Mount Vernon
school district? Just recently the entire world
witnessed Mount Vernon school kids practically
begging for money on street corners in order to
raise money to save their sports program. The
effort was unprecedented and successful. To put
these kids in a similar situation once again is
simply unconscionable. Is Mount Vernon located
in a third world country or in America?
Mount Vernon is the poorest municipality in all of
Westchester County, but yet the state is forcing
its school district to unjustly initiate
incredible steps to survive.
After working in Mount Vernon in excess of 5 years as a
journalist, I have gotten to know its people,
and they have persevered in the past, and they
will overcome their current woes in a united
way, hopefully.
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