By Barbara Morris
Sometimes when we face personal emergency situations it is difficult to find time to focus on the problems of the wider community — problems that will not only impact on us but on a great many others.
After too many months of such emergency situations, I was glad for the opportunity to attend the May 19 town hall meeting on the city budget for fiscal year 2003/2004, sponsored by Councilman James Sanders Jr. (D-Laurelton) and co-sponsored by a number of southeast Queens organizations.
Like it or not, the city’s budget must be balanced. And like it or not, due in large part to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on our city and the huge recovery expenses as well as a still-struggling economy, without financial and other sacrifices by everyone, that balanced budget cannot become a reality. Sanders and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have asked us to give them our priorities and to make suggestions or corrections, or both.
And the mayor has put in place the new 311 service. For the most part, feedback has been positive. We have been asked, however, to report to 311 any failings of the system that we may find so that corrections can be made. In such case, you will be given a complaint number and an approximate time anticipated for the correction to be made.
For emergencies only, 911 is still to be used. Quality-of-life problems, even those related to Police Department situations, and all other city-related complaints or praise should be referred to 311, where your call will be directed to the proper department or individual to handle the matter.
Another issue brought up early at the meeting was that of the real estate tax hike. When the need arises, our property taxes are increased, and like it or not, we must pay.
There are, however, more and more properties in our communities, some that formerly produced taxes, that are now on a no-tax basis. The owners of all such property should be encouraged to make that property maximally useful to the community, or city, or lose the tax-free status.
Another issue of concern in Queens is fire safety, especially since Queens fire call boxes were removed some time ago and not replaced. If they are ever replaced, I hope our residents will try to prevent false alarms. For many years Queens had an unfortunately high proportion of such incidents, which I suspect were a factor in the removal of those boxes.
It is certainly unfortunate that firehouse closings seem inevitable, but we are glad there are to be no losses in personnel. I wonder if the Fire Department might be able to have training programs for youth, similar to those run by the Police Department.
The latter department works with youngsters from 10 to 20 years old in the Law Explorer Program. I was involved in that program as an adult advisor and found it very interesting. Since after-school program loss was a concern at that meeting, I would encourage parents to consider having their children enroll in this program or some of the others run by the Police Department.
There is more to life than basketball and hip-hop. Learning the law and civic values and participating in carefully supervised activities, sometimes including fun trips or even, yes, basketball and hip-hop, make for a better-rounded person.
If young people learn the laws and the reasons for them, they will be better prepared to not only stay out of trouble, but they might be able to employ positive peer pressure to do the same for other young people. Who knows, they might become so impressed with having laws upheld that they might want to go into that as a profession.
I would also encourage participation in the Board of Education’s vocational training programs. There are many ways to use our time for maximum benefit. There are people and programs waiting with open arms to help us and the city. I hope you are one of them.
