Tonight's City Council Meeting (ATTN: Daniel) (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre: hair salon, loft, high crime)

[SteelCityRising]

Daniel, I realize that the acoustics in city council chambers are quite poor, but I was watching tonight's meeting on television, where we hear every comment loud and clear. Just before your three-minute comment period in the latter half of the meeting, Judy Gatelli called your name and then muttered something to the effect of "Thought we got rid of him, but he showed back up." I'm not quite sure if this was the exact quote or not, but it was something along these lines of being disrespectful. I'm sure someone in your neighborhood likely already made you aware of her comment that she probably thought was inaudible, but if they didn't it would be nice for you to call her out on that childish comment next week just to see if she'd deny it (like she also denied the "disgraceful" comment in reference to you).

I'd also like to voice my disgust at this point in time for Mrs. Schumacher's DISGUSTING conduct this evening while Douglas Miller, president of the city's junior council, was at the podium. As Mrs. Gatelli RIGHTFULLY pointed out when she publicly-humiliated Mrs. Schumacher, she had permitted several other speakers that evening to far exceed their 3-minute time limit, including those who were speaking out against council. Not ten seconds after Douglas exceeded his three-minute limit, Mrs. Schumacher began making faces and doing all sorts of gesticulations and body movements like a whiny brat against the back wall, including a "T" signal to try to force Mrs. Gatelli to silence Douglas Miller. Now, who wants to bet $100 that if Douglas weren't up there advocating a statewide ban on smoking and if one of her Legion of Doom allies was up there bashing Gatelli or Fanucci she'd have no problem with him/her exceeding their time limit? Talk about a hypocrite, in my eyes. If anything, we should be encouraging youths like Douglas and I to become active in our government and in our city at a time when Scranton's educated younger people are fleeing to the Shangri-La of NJ in droves.

Another thorn in my side are Nancy Craig's and Andy Spiraglia's CONSTANT kvetching and whining about the "Draconian" measures imposed by city council. Here's how an online resource defines "Draconian":

Draconian: rigorous; unusually severe or cruel

Really? Would Ms. Craig or Mr. Spiraglia like to explain to me just how punishing people for dodging their taxes is cruel or severe? These two malcontents would be the first to gripe if their taxes were increased to bring new revenues into the city to help offset those very same deadbeat people whom they nail themselves to the cross to every week to defend. I have NO sympathy for people who dodge their taxes, especially when Scranton's taxes are NOT "out-of-line" with the rest of the region. If you're a widow with a large home and can no longer afford to maintain and/or upkeep it, then do what people in other communities in NEPA do---downsize to something more fiscally-manageable instead of not paying your taxes and making the rest of the city's hard-working citizens pick up the slack.

Also, why does Samuel Patilla come to the podium every week bemoaning how much of a "mistake" it was for him to move to Scranton from New Jersey? If he's so unhappy in the Electric City, then I'm sure Clifton, Ho-Ho-Kus, Hoboken, Netcong, Newark, or wherever he originated from would be happy to welcome him back with TRULY high taxes, high housing prices, traffic congestion, TRULY high crime, etc. He prefaces just about every comment with "before I moved to Scranton" or "since I moved to Scranton." Well, if your move turned out to be a mistake, then suck it up and move somewhere else.

I have a gut feeling that I'm going to be moving to this city full of malcontents in a few years with a "can-do" attitude to make it a better place only to wind up down in Wilkes-Barre instead, where people seem to be more receptive to fresh ideas, as opposed to Scranton, where outlets like DohertyDeceit will delete anything you have to say that doesn't make fun of a council member's struggle with morbid obesity (Fatelli) or alludes to Doherty as being a closet homosexual (which I also take offense to as a fellow gay male). I'm still outraged by that site's immediately dismissal of messages that took me quite a while to carefully and articulately construct, especially when I did NOT "praise the mayor," as was alleged by Daniel. I praised the city for moving forward, which, to me, means the PEOPLE, not the government! The PEOPLE are progressing Scranton into the 21st Century despite all of the petty political bullsh*t it is currently mired in. Any other city would be happy to have someone in its midst that promoted its positives in hopes of luring in new residents to rebuild its tax base (and in the long-term leading to tax REDUCTIONS!) That is my strategy with my optimistic outlook on the future of the Electric City. The more all of these malcontents make themselves seen and heard, the less likely it will be that ANYONE will want to set foot in the city and the MORE likely it will be that more city residents will start putting their homes on the market (there's now a 19% increase in available-for-sale housing inventory in the county since last August). Contrary to one short-sighted speaker's comments about this article (I believe it was Mr. Jackowitz), city council is NOT directly to blame for a 19% increase in homes on the market in Lackawanna County. Did it ever occur to anyone that a county with a stagnant population could only absorb so many massive McMansion and townhome communities in the 'burbs before the new stock of homes outpaced demand, which would likewise dramatically-impact the demand for existing homes? Now we have the issue of a population that is still stagnating while new homes CONTINUE to be built left and right at every juncture (I just learned 200 more townhomes are coming to my own community very soon), even though they are NOT selling!

Why is everything bad that happens in the world automatically the fault of city council? "My life sucks. Gatelli is to blame!"

P.S. Daniel, I was VERY impressed with your research into that "missing" $500,000 that it appears Lackawanna College may have pocketed when they acquired Scranton Lace. For what it's worth though I don't think you should be opposing the proposal to turn that old factory into loft housing, studios, and artist/artisan space. The latter is MUCH more desirable than an abandoned building, and your property values will rise quite a bit once the project is completed in a few years, which will be quite a nice nest egg if you ever decide to sell your home.

[weluvpa]

Paul thanks but afterreviewing the tape Judy was in fact talking about her cough. "I got rid of it and it came back" were her words to Bill Courtright. If she was going to make a comment like that she would have made it to Fannucci not Bill. Listen we are for the proposed project at the lace works but it is also one of many things that have been thrown around in regards to that facility. I just hope that it is going to happen at least now the college is out because that was going to be fought and fought hard down here. I'm off to work and I will address the other parts of your post in the early am.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by weluvpa

Paul thanks but afterreviewing the tape Judy was in fact talking about her cough. "I got rid of it and it came back" were her words to Bill Courtright. If she was going to make a comment like that she would have made it to Fannucci not Bill. Listen we are for the proposed project at the lace works but it is also one of many things that have been thrown around in regards to that facility. I just hope that it is going to happen at least now the college is out because that was going to be fought and fought hard down here. I'm off to work and I will address the other parts of your post in the early am.

Yeah, I was a bit empassioned last night when I vented all of this diatribe, so you can probably take much of it with a grain of salt. I'll stand by my comments though of every other resident whining about the city's sagging revenues while also complaining that we shouldn't be pursuing delinquent property owners---the exact reason why those who pay their fair share are currently being overburdened. You can't have it both ways. We can't both avoid tax hikes AND permit people to not pay their taxes.

[weluvpa]

I agree with you on the tax issue but I think that what people are saying is that now that they have mangaed to bury us in debt they are raising our taxes. The non-paying people are not the ones responsible for our increases, they did not build a mountain of debt for us, that one is on the mayor. I agree get back taxes we need them but do not go after them with a vengence because you have created a huge pile of debt. Go after them but lets be reasonable here, we are where we are because of the mayor, plain and simple. He cannot afford to pay the bills so now he is going to pass a heavy heavy burden on to the less fortunate or elderly in the city. Out of state, absentee landlords get them all but personally I think that this should be on a case by case basis so we can clean up our books and our city but yet help those life long residents that have fallen on tough times.

[NYRangers 2008]

I still can't believe the priorities of the city of Scranton. The infrastructures are crumbling before our eyes and this city keeps giving money out to hair salons and speciality stores that don't make it. Senior citizens can't keep their houses because they have to decide whether they're going to eat for the week or take their prescriptions. These busineses are a speciality business that really don't help the city on the whole. They're just there as eye candy to outsiders. I don't care about a hair salon and to give them that amount of money when it could be used elsewhere is why I'm getting fed up more and more with this city everyday.