Solutions

You know it’s easy to find things that are wrong, and point them out, complain about them, bitch about them; get depressed about them.

It’s quite another to find things that are right, talk about them and think about them, but that doesn’t sell newspapers (remember when the Staten Island Advance used to run a column called good news? Didn’t last very long.

Today I am going to do something that is really unusual- I am going to suggest solutions, answers, ideas that might fix things that are wrong, or make things better.

First: Staten Island has this huge traffic and transportation problem. It is probably too late, and too costly, to build a subway system; there isn’t a whole lot of room for new highways, the cost of widening Victory Blvd. as proposed during the depression, is cost prohibitive.

I have a solution that is attainable, doable, and realistic. I propose that we build and create a few transportation hubs on Staten Island. The first one already exists, in St. George at the ferry, where trains, buses, taxi’s, cars, parking lots, and ferry boats all meet. Fine.

How about: Let’s create a few more strategically located transportation hubs, where we can also have all of these various modes of transportation to meet. Perhaps one at each bridge, as well as a couple of more where appropriate. Let some of the hubs be located along the perimeter of the Island, (you know we are an island, surrounded by water, yet water transportation is limited to the ferry and private boats) so that smaller boats/ferries can be included, and a train can be run to the location also. If it is on the north shore or west shore, where there are no trains, perhaps a mono rail system to fill in where there are no trains to connect the hubs, and no-where else (except perhaps parking lots)- similar to Newark airport and Disney world. Disney World has a transportation center where they all meet called the transportation center- duh.

Now after we have these hubs, then the city planners, or transportation experts, can figure out bus routes that make sense, to service the areas between the hubs, efficiently, both convenience wise & ecologically. Smaller bus’s (van’s) can service even smaller areas around the hubs. At night, they wouldn’t even need to have routes, they could act like taxis or we could have taxis for the last mile or so. I admit that its been a very long time since I road on a bus, but I remember when I was a kid, waiting for the 106 down Watchogue road, and it was this huge bus, and I would be the only passenger, or me and a few others. No reason why we need to burn gasoline or diesel fuel to power a huge bus at night- when smaller more efficient buses could work. (Change the size of bus’s right now). In addition to busses we can add boats, water taxi’s, monorails and other passenger trains that could be used to connect the hubs.

The concept is that we would have these transportation hubs, or centers, where when you want to get someplace, you figure out where you need to land (Ferry, one of the bridges) - to transfer to the next type of transportation which might be a boat, or a train to take you off the island, or to take you to the final leg of the trip, where you transfer to either a bus a van or a taxi or a car or walk.

There is a train that runs from Grand Central Terminal to Bayonne. There is no reason why that train cannot be extended to go over the Bayonne Bridge to the hub there.

There is also a train that ends in Elizabeth that could be extended somehow to the Goethals Bridge, or to a place near the water where a boat could run to the Goethals Bridge hub. Get the picture?

To go from point A to point B might require more than one means of transportation, so it won’t be the most convenient as such, but the most efficient, resulting in the least amount of pollution, traffic, etc. Ultimately the result would be mass transportation for Staten Island.

Think about it.

And speaking about Islands, How about let’s take a cruise around our island? Good idea for a charity that needs something different to do- we can look for hubs, or we can hire a band, and make it a dance, or hire a caterer and make it a dinner cruise or just go site seeing. Anyone with a boat who wants to take me - I’m game; pick a nice beautiful day and I’ll bring my camera (I inherited the camera bug gene from my father).

Second Idea for Today:

Amongst our problems these days include the fact that we are now having trouble hiring cops etc. or the better candidates are going elsewhere- entry level cops, and firemen (people), start off at first 5 years at ridiculously low salaries. Teachers are underpaid, as are all city and state workers. Incentives to do good work are nice talk, but rarely put into action. Plus we are talking about furloughs so that employees lose more pay. Our potentially best candidates’ are taking jobs elsewhere for much more money. And of course another one of our big problems was the collapse of the real estate market, and its effect on the rest of the economy.

How about: The SONYMA (State of New York Mortgage Agency) offers below market mortgages for people in certain areas, first time home buyers, and probably others. Fanny and Freddie make loans too.

I propose a bunch of different below market mortgages.

1. Cops, firemen, city workers etc., who are in their first 5 years of employment and making lower incomes. For these people, the mortgage qualification would be based upon their income to be paid in their 6th year of employment, but the payments (which should be taken from their pay) will be based upon their current income percentage of their take home). It could even be interest only, or negative amortization, and if they stay with the city/state job, then they don’t pay back the negative amortization. This should be for all employees, for their primary residences.
2. Cops, firemen, other uniformed services, teachers, etc., who wish to supplement their incomes by buying real estate- as either investment properties or fixer uppers, can qualify for a workers mortgage which will be a commercial loan but with a deal that they can afford- this means that they don’t have to lie and say they are going to live there, and they don’t have to put down 35-45% (which is what commercial loans are calling for these days). The lender will make a determination as to loan to value based upon what is going to be done to the premises (if a fixer upper), and based upon potential income if an income producer (two family). Now if they rent the property to one of the available programs that exist through the city/state/federal governments, then the rent will be paid directly from section 8 or whomever to SONYMA or whomever directly, and the balance put into the employees pay check. The interest payments will also be based upon ability to pay, and in the case of re-sales, SONYMA is a partner, and receives a percentage of the profits, after it receives back its principal.
3. Employee ownership and government programs for renting apartments will be coordinated.
4. Since mortgage payments are to be taken from the employees’ pay check, then even employees with bad credit can still apply for and qualify for the same good deals as everyone else.
5. Incentives for meritorious service, especially for teachers, could be loans for improvements/additions’ to homes, via low cost second mortgages, which could even include clauses where repayment may be waived partially or fully, or no interest etc., as rewards/incentives for extraordinary services.
6. Foreclosures are inevitable – (remember bad things can happen to good people too), can also be sold directly to the employees with favorable terms.

I think that this is enough for one sitting. If anyone has any ideas that they want to bounce around, or put out there, let me know.

Notes:
Thank you to all the people who told me what a whipper snapper is. One of them is: whip⋅per⋅snap⋅per  –noun an unimportant but offensively presumptuous person, esp. a young one.

The weight group isn’t working. No one is coming anymore. So I am going to make arrangements for a dinner meeting, at a restaurant, that will be healthy, and taste good. If interested, let me know- I will require RSVP’s for the chef.

I received a number of emails regarding whether or not there really was a fire at the building department in 1938. Perry White a/k/a Jon Salmon (my editor) and I discussed the various theories prior to dissemination, and agreed that the fire is the commonly believed story, although often questioned. One of these days I will go to the advance and search their files. Perhaps the “fire” was just a “barbecue” by a few people involved and only involved a few folders. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many people still alive who were around then.

Reminds me of a joke: two old guys are talking: how’s business the first guy asks? Terrible says the second guy, we had a flood, but the insurance company paid me for all the inventory that I had in the basement that I couldn’t sell – Oh that’s terrible says the first guy…so tell me, how do you start a flood?

I hope someone takes me up on the boat ride.

…………………….to be continued