Ah, women....

A manufactured tempest in a tea pot is raging today over whether or not Mrs. Romney worked when she stayed at home.  Anyone with a brain knows that raising children is hard work; in one aspect perhaps harder than working outside of the home.  When the most stimulating (if indeed endearing) conversation is with and about children, it can get brain numbing at times.  But any discussion should not be about Mrs. Romney.  She chose to marry Mitt.  She chose to marry in a ceremony where her parents could not be present because only Mormons can enter the “Tabernacle”.  She chose to be a stay at home because she had the choice.  She chose to have five children because she could afford to feed, clothe and educate them well in a way to her liking.   In this, Mrs. Romney is a lucky woman but not a typical woman.  

In her charming way she says she believes that women should have a choice of whether or not to work.  But where was she when her party and her husband decided to revisit the very contraception issue that enables many women to make choices?  She was silent.  Here are the realities.  Not everyone has the choice of whether or not to work.  They work to eat, clothe and educate their families.  Not everyone can have five or more children.  They simply can’t afford them.   

So when Republicans and Democrats alike both jump to defend Mrs. Romney’s right to choose a life style, please remember, she didn’t jump to defend the many women who don’t have the wherewithal to make choices.  She doesn’t defend the rights of other women to have contraception available so they can control their own lives.  Lucky Mrs. Romney.  What about most of the rest of us?  

Ah, Mayor…. 

Mayor Scott Johnson is a lawyer.  Why is it that he so assiduously avoids following the law or in our City’s case, the Charter?  He has spent a great many of our tax dollars on law suits trying to prevent a change of that very Charter.  2,300 citizen signatures seemed to mean nothing to him.  Why then, will he not abide by the current Charter?  For example, the Charter calls a human relations person; not a part time consultant; not a contracted out HR person.  It calls for hiring a human relations person.  Mayor Johnson doesn’t want one.  The Charter calls for a person in charge of Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces.  We had someone in the position who brought in over half a million dollars in grant monies for the above mentioned purposes.  Mayor Johnson fired him it. He hasn't refilled the position.  He doesn't want one.

The Mayor has hired an outside law firm to "Tweak" our zoning ordinance.  The Mayor and the Planning Department tell us they are just taking out a few inconsistencies and contradictions; they are making it more user-friendly.  In the end, we will probably have a week or two to review the proposed new zoning code; we will have a public hearing or two.  It will then be up to the City Council to pass.  Wrong.  It takes years and study to understand the intricacies of zoning.  It can’t be done quickly.  Why then, has the Mayor not done the revision in public or at the very least given citizens updates from the attorneys about each section so that we have time to digest the changes?

Here is how the Mayor has operated.  A property owner in a Tourist Related Business District (TRBD) went before the Zoning Board of Appeals to get a variance.  It involved the area called Maple Dell – the area around rte. 9 and rte. 50.  It included a Stewarts among other businesses.  The neighbors around the original application were notified of a possible change.  The Mayor ably assisted by the Planning Department decided that rather than a variance that would be difficult to give, the City would do a text amendment instead. This required no neighbor notification. 

When a text amendment is passed it changes what can be built on every property in the amended district.  There are three disparate areas in the TRBD: Maple Dell, South Broadway bordering the State Park and a little area at the corner of Nelson Avenue and Gridley Street down to Jackson St.  Now Stewarts and the people around it may want to build 5,200 sq. ft. offices.  But do neighbors really want to see that kind of development around the residential areas of Nelson, Gridley, Bowman and Jackson?  Do we really want that kind of development in the gateway to our City that currently looks over the State Park? And what recourse do citizens have?  Do we go before the City Council and get our two minutes talking at the bored looking Mayor?  What impact does that make?  None.   

So when I express concern about the “tweaking” of the zoning code, I may sound cynical.  That doesn’t mean that I am wrong.

Ah, regulations…. 

The banking and the investment business used to be separate.  Banks got licensed by the government.  This gave them regulations; it also provided certain market protections.  Investment businesses were largely unregulated.  Then both businesses found that they could make more money by joining the two functions.  So they did.  That was when banks started both giving subprime mortgages and then bundling them and reselling them as investments.  The banking/investment and investment/banking companies took these bundles and resold them until no one know who held the original mortgages. Fast forward to the recession exacerbated by real estate problems.  As soon as the recession was in the offing, Goldman Sacks, an investment institution, and some of their compatriots immediately registered as banks.  While this gave them some restrictions, it also gave them some great benefits.  It was called the bail out.  Banks deposits are insured by the government so the government did not let either the banks or the investment/banking institutions default as it did Lehman Brothers, an investment institution.

To simplify it, banks take your money to hold and invest in solid companies and ideas.  They are in business to save your money for you.    Investment companies make markets.  They buy, bundle and deal in financial instruments and then they sell those instruments to special customers at special prices, thereby “making a market” for these instruments.  The difference is risk.  Investment companies are in the business of selling various degrees of risk.  The banks should not indulge is any unreasonable risk because they are the conservators of their depositors funds.  

Now banks are complaining once again about regulations.  They want to be able to do whatever they want.  They want to take your money and invest it.  Then they want to be able to make markets for their investments.  Stop whining men.  Be a bank and live with the restrictions and the government supports.  Or be an investment company and make millions when you’re right; go belly up when you’re wrong.  You shouldn’t be able to have it both ways.  The rest of us can’t.

It is rather like the contraception/abortion problem with religious health institutions of all denominations.  If you don’t want to provide abortion and contraception service or coverage, don’t take federal money, don’t take Medicare or Medicaid or any other government price supports.   If you take government money, live with the regulations. 

Why is it that large institutions feel that individuals have to live by the rules and regulations and they don’t?  What would the insurance companies do if we all lobbied to stop having to carry automobile insurance?  Oh, they use their lobbyists and PAC money to buy back the necessity for all of us to carry automobile insurance.   And that is the difference.  They have the money to buy legislation and we don’t.  Thank you to the Supreme Court for unleashing all of that money against the rights of the individual.  So when you vote, remember that whether or not you like the person running for office, consider whom they will appoint to the Supreme Court.

With friends like this who needs enemies… 

It seems that our Governor Cuomo wants to out Pataki, Pataki.  He talks open government while he is doing everything behind closed doors.  He got elected by Democrats including union members and now is looking a lot more like Governor Scott of Wisconsin. He talks about efficiencies while making nonsense decisions that destroy the successful.

Are you aware that the legislature passed a law merging the lottery with the racing racing industry under one Commission?  The Governor supported the bill. 

What is that about?  The lottery the most successful money making unit in the State and the most successful lottery in the country.  It brings into our State treasure One Million Dollars a Day – that’s right One Million Dollars a Day.   Conversely, the racing industry under NYRA  is a problematic industry.  With the exception of Saratoga and Churchill Downs, no track in the country makes money.   And those two tracks are only succeeding because the lottery money enables them to give high purses to winners.  By merging the lottery and racing, the Governor is putting a well head in a sick bed.  And check out what the Governor is paying each one of those Commissioners under the guise of saving mony.