I grew up in Great Neck and graduated from South High School as a member of its first graduating class in 1959. After raising my family on the South Shore, my wife and I returned to this community over 20 years ago.
I was fortunate to live in Great Neck during its heyday, when it was a place like no other. A sought-after community with a robust downtown, and a spirit that celebrated our achievements, and a place where everyone was proud to call home. However, for the past 20 years I’ve watched the Great Neck of my youth emerge as a dying community that only seems to get worse and worse each and every year.
Like many others in this village, I am a retiree frustrated by higher taxes and lower property values, and as I age, less opportunity every day to shop and eat locally. Over these many years, our once proud village has become a shining embarrassment.
By my own admission, I haven’t paid much attention to those local politicians that no one seems to know. However, is it possible that anyone else is to be blamed other than Mayor Celender and Deputy Mayor Rosen, who, with their hand-chosen trustees have inflicted enormous (and maybe irreversible) damage to this community?
I am a former businessman and I know that if my actions failed year over year for 25 plus years, I would have been put out of business. That analogy seems appropriate here because after 25 years in office, in this community, Ted Rosen has essentially put Great Neck Plaza out of business. He failed us when times were good and his actions will only make things worse in this current downturn.
How can Ted Rosen defend the damage he has caused over so many years? He can’t. In fact, since he announced he was running, he has been silent. The pandemic made his normal absence from our community even more pronounced.
A vote for Ted Rosen and those on his ticket is a vote for empty stores, dirty streets, higher taxes, less opportunity, more dysfunction, and lower property values.
Great Neck Plaza deserves better.
I cannot remember a more important local election than this one. It’s time to evict Ted Rosen from village hall.
Vote for Leonard Katz for mayor, and Marnie Ives and Robert Fatajollah for Trustee.
Remember to write in their names on Sept. 15th. Our community depends on it.
Fred Giffords
Great Neck Plaza
