Readers Write: Notice to G.N. North neighbors greatly lacking

The Island Now

At the December BOE meeting, your paper reported that board member Rebecca Sassousi said the following:  “And I do believe, I can say with a straight face, that we, to the best of my knowledge, did everything we could to get the information out to the community.”

I have lived in the neighborhood of Great Neck North High School  for three decades, and happily continue to pay my school taxes.  

My neighbors nor I received no information about the Great Neck North High School parking lot until one of my neighbors informed me that it was in the bond.  

No one from the high school building committee or parent teacher organization reached out to any of my neighbors or to me.

It seems as though the building committee reached out only to those they knew who would be in support of the parking lot, who do not deal with the dangers of traffic and student drivers on a daily basis in this area.  

If the building committee truly wanted to hear from the residents in this neighborhood, they could have reached out to the neighbors, not by hiding this in a line item of over 100 items in the bond.

This is all about entitlement.  Why do our children feel so entitled that they need to have even more on-campus parking beyond the 80 existing spots? why can’t they walk from the existing upper Parkwood parking lot, which the school district owns and is underutilized?  

Let’s prepare our kids for the real world.  Let’s show them that they have to get up a few minutes early to get a good spot, or to get a distant spot and get to class on time.  In one word:  responsibility.  

By babying them, we are not only delivering the wrong message, but we are also destroying our green space.  This parking lot proposition is frivolous and indulgent.  Let’s save our money or use it more wisely.  

These are important life lessons.

Furthermore, in terms of safety, has a traffic study been done to examine the effects of adding 97 more student drivers to our local roads?  This doesn’t just affect drivers, it affects pedestrians as well.

Too bad the local residents were not included in this discussion when the building committee was coming up with ideas for improvements.  When I had to do work on my house, I had to notify all of my neighbors.  The school should follow the same protocol.

Judith L. Lillien

Great Neck

Share this Article