City's latest snubs fuel secession

NATA-NY supports any and all moves towards decentralization and local autonomy! Including, Andrew Lanza's move to have Staten Island (Richmond County) secede from the City of New York. Call your representatives Michael Cusick , Assemblymember Matthew Titone , Nicole Malliotakis for N.Y. State Assembly , Lou Tobacco, Diane J. Savino and tell them to co-sponsor Lanza's bill, and intro one in the Assembly.

Monday, January 03, 2011

By Tom Wrobleski

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --   If Staten Island secessionists needed fresh fuel, it certainly got it when Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Sanitation Department were slammed for bungling last week's blizzard.

And the separatist movement could have legs this time, with state GOP state Sen. Andrew Lanza planning to re-introduce his existing secession bill to what will now be a GOP majority in the Senate.

"If nothing else, it captures the rest of the city's attention," said Lanza (R-Staten Island). "It gets them to give us our fair share."

Lanza's bill was stymied when Democrats held the majority the last two years.

Bloomberg's snow meltdown aside, the borough's ire had already been inflamed by other recent episodes, including an FDNY proposal to charge fees for helping motorists involved in accidents; a plan to increase parking-meter rates that could hurt small businesses, and the city's decision to kick the Baby Jesus out of the St. George Ferry Terminal.
"Almost weekly, events occur that build the case for secession," said Lanza. "Put it all together, and the case gets stronger."

That's not to mention how the borough has to always "go begging" to the city and still doesn't get its share of transit or health care resources, the initial impetus for Lanza's new secession movement.

"For Staten Island to take control of its own destiny, secession is the only way," Lanza said.

CONSIDER THE COST

But State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) said that if Islanders really want to secede, they need to first look at how much it would cost a City of Staten Island to provide police, fire, sanitation and school services.

Pointing to Long Island and other areas around the state that fund essential services through property and other levies, Ms. Savino estimated that Islanders' property taxes would "skyrocket" $10 to $14,000 per year.

"Just look at what happens in the suburbs," she said. "Public schools cost a ton of money. If Staten Islanders think that that won't happen to them, they're out of their minds."

Lanza dismissed that analysis, saying that the city always has money left over after collecting revenues and providing services here.

"The city makes money off of Staten Island," he said. "As our own city, we have more services and less of a tax burden."

Ms. Savino said that if Islanders are angry at Bloomberg, they should let him know, starting later this month, when the mayor will come to the St. George Theatre to deliver his State of the City address.

"Stop treating the mayor like he's a rock star every time he comes out here," said Ms. Savino. "Let's see how many angry people come out and tell him they're unhappy."

At the very least, the snowtastrosphe highlights the borough's need for more local control over how resources, like snowplows and salt spreaders, are deployed.

"It is counter-intuitive to centralize snow removal strategy, and for that matter garbage disposal and recycling guidelines," said attorney Robert Scamardella, one of the top proponents of local control. "Without empowering administrators at the borough level we will continue to see Park Avenue plowed long before Hylan Boulevard."

And the Island isn't alone in its separatist sentiments. From the way the other four suddenly "forgotten" boroughs have been talking about Manhattan-centric City Hall's response to the blizzard, could we see a movement to kick Bloomberg's home borough out of the federation and move forward as a four-borough city?

A tongue-in-cheek proposal for sure, but one that one observer enjoyed playing with.

"Count us in in Queens," said Dr. Jeffrey Kroessler, a former College of Staten Island historian and archivist who now works at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Only we should take it a step further and rename Manhattan the 'Borough of Bloomberg,' seeing as the mayor is so into renaming things these days."