In response to Janelle Clausen’s article in the April 27th Great Neck News—entitled “Parking spot delivery possible for G.N. Plaza”—I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
For more than two years, I have been hearing that the village has been working on a deal to lease the lower level of the post office’s garage for the purpose of providing desperately needed parking for VGNP residents, particularly those in the Welwyn/Shoreward area.
I realize that there is a lot of red tape in dealing with the federal government, so progress is often slow; however, the project, with Ted Rosen as its point person, has not been at the forefront of village concern, with consistent responses by Rosen to residents of “I can’t talk about it.”
After multitudes of conversations and written communications about the dire parking situation for residents of the Welwyn/Shoreward area — along with clearly documented bypassing by code enforcement of the daily dozens of illegally parked Shop Delight employees in violation of their conditional use permit — village officials have continued to ignore the parking problem by doing nothing about it.
When Ted Rosen was running for re-election this year, he stated the following in his March 2 interview that appeared in this paper: “I think there’s at times a perception that parking is a challenge, but I think in reality there is parking and I think that’s something over the years we’ve tried to address.”
However, in the most recent April 27 issue of this paper, when asked about providing sorely needed parking for residents, Rosen responded that Welwyn/Shoreward is an “area of the village that desperately, desperately requires additional parking.” (Notice the urgency of the word “desperately” used twice!)
And suddenly, after more than two years, an article—including the coveted photo op of the mayor — appeared in this paper, titillating residents about possible parking in the lower level of the post office’s garage; “possible” is the operative word here.
Is this “announcement” a coincidence?
Or does Jean Celender suddenly need to show how much she now cares for the quality of life concerns in the village?
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that County Executive Laura Curran appointed Celender to serve on the Commissioner’s Community Council as well as to serve as district 10’s subdivision chair.
According to the article in the paper, Celender even “plans to dedicate time at the May 16 board meeting to hear public safety and quality of life concerns so they can be fielded to the Commissioner’s Community Council.”
Experience shows us how well Celender listens to her constituents’ concerns.
I can’t help but think back to 2011 when my husband served on the village Pedestrian Safety Committee, which tried to deal with the large number of pedestrians being hit and killed by aggressive drivers in Great Neck.
Members of the committee took the mayor on a walking tour of the village, identifying the most dangerous street crossings to her.
When the committee asked Celender what she was going to do about it, suddenly the committee meetings stopped!
Do you think the officials of the Plaza will finally serve the needs of their constituents? If you think so, there is also a nice bridge over the East River looking for a buyer!
Muriel Pfeifer
Village of Neck Plaza
(We want our “Great” back!)
