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N.E. QUEENS JEWISH COMMUNITY COUNCIL URGES Statement to the City Charter Revision Thank you for this opportunity for the Northeast Queens Jewish Community Council [NEQJCC], its new President Joseph Varon and Executive Chair Corey Bearak to comment on the need to change the City Charter. The Council represents 20 synagogues and other community, educational, fraternal, and religious institutions and organizations in some of the communities which form the City's backbone: Bayside, Bay Terrace, Bellerose, Douglaston, Floral Park, Glen Oaks, Hollis Hills, Holliswood, Jamaica Estates, Little Neck, New Hyde Park, Oakland Gardens and Queens Village. The Council has worked since its inception to maintain Northeast Queens as an attractive place to live and raise a family. We have found that when people look at northeast Queens as a place to raise their families, they compare our neighborhoods to communities in the City's eastern and northern suburbs and across the Hudson River. People shop for quality schools, secure communities, predominantly low density housing, proximity to transportation, reasonable shopping options, health care and local recreation. We keep hearing the mantra: New York needs to keep its middle class. Absent intelligent policies which could and should be embodied in the City Charter, that middle class family the city covets often leaves and may be harder and harder to replace. Yes, we have low property taxes on our homes; yet, New York City's tax policies wrongly subsidize extra illegal occupancies which crowd some schools in our southern neighborhoods (and other parts of the borough). The City similarly fails to collect the correct taxes from the illegal commercial uses of our homes. Citywide, this failure costs taxpayers over one billion dollars. This could be applied to the City's structural deficit. Alternatively, this amount could be dedicated to build affordable housing to help relieve the demands that help fuel illegal development.This represents but an example of the need to improve the Charter to ensure the delivery of appropriate municipal services where the need exists. Let's use this time to re-think how New York City composes it budget, allocates its resources and makes decisions on service delivery. Rather than a focus on the utility of the Public Advocate and the Independent Budget Office - both entities which make sense - work to revise the Charter in way that it works not so much for the political needs of some elites, but to make the City an attractive place to live. Seize this otherwise opportunity at Charter Revision to meaningfully involve communities in the delivery of services. Community Boards continually note their priorities which often vary. The budget never reflects the need to allocate resources to reflect different neighborhood priorities. Provide a mechanism that directs City resources to address community needs such as precinct staffing, code enforcement, tree pruning/ removal, traffic studies and signal installation, and programs for youth and seniors. Explore regional models for funding agencies. More decisions and resources should be devolved to the borough and local level. This requires a comprehensive review on the role of Community Boards, the Borough Presidents and Council Members to fashion an appropriate structure for borough and local decision-making. Some communities require more (or less) of a service than others. A city-wide approach rarely works. As long of the basic package gets reasonably and fairly divided, we should get beyond a discussion. Instead of a pie, think of a package of several smaller slices, cut up differently but when placed on each person's plate, the amount of dessert is about the same. |
