It is official, the Whitestone Jewels property just received a 70.6% "Reassessment" decrease while all of our residential Homeowners just got in the mail their "Reassessment" increase of on average 25%.
As many of you are aware our organization in a pre-emptive move informed our Councilman that the Whitestone Jewels tax break seemed excessive and unfair. The Councilman informed our group that they did not get a "Tax Break" but a "Reassessment". Well, a "Reassessment" has direct impact on our annual Real Estate Taxes, and now that we all received our "Reassessments" in the mail, why did the small individual residential homeowner get an increased "Reassessment"?
This does not seem fair to us at Malba Gardens Civic, Why do the Homeowners have to foot the bill once again? The small local working class family who actually live in the community, why did they get an increase?
CALL YOUR LOCAL COUNCILMAN, ASSEMBLYMAN, SENATOR, AND ANYONE ELSE YOU CAN THINK OF AND DEMAND THIS BE REMEDIED IMMEDIATELY. ENOUGH OF UNFAIR TAXES. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO CARRY THE LOAD WHILE THE DEVELOPERS GET THE RIDICULOUS DISCOUNTS? THIS IS OUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
Malba Gardens Civic Dedicated to the Safety and Preservation of our Community.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Our Letter to the Whitestone Times regarding CB 7s request for apologies.
Malba Gardens civic cries foul over survey review
Friday, January 28, 2011 11:07 AM EST
With regards to Chuck Apelian’s comments that Feinstein Iron Works take out a full-page ad in two local newspapers apologizing to him and Community Board 7 for his honest comments (“CB 7, Feinstein make amends after Willets clashes,” Jan. 20), it is amazing he would have the audacity to make such demands. After all, he is a public official in his roles as vice chairman of CB 7 and the CB 7 land use chairman.
Our organization has had the misfortune of dealing with CB 7 with regards to a public safety matter, which it quickly turned into an inconvenient matter. Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of CB 7, was responsible for writing a survey that was to be sent out to our community regarding the dangerous situation. The manner in which she wrote the survey was biased and stressed the “inconvenience” of driving an extra two blocks.
We immediately sent out a letter requesting to have more time to review the survey in order to come to a more non-biased wording and, objecting to the wording as shown to Alfredo Centola, we received no response and the survey went out anyway. We then requested to see the surveys under the Freedom of Information law; they illegally refused us. We obtained a decision from Robert Freeman from the state Committee on Open Government; they still refused.
A couple of months later, we received an e-mail from an MTABT official quoting Bitterman and her ill feelings to the president of our civic association. This e-mail quotes Bitterman as saying “she would step over his prone body and refuse to call for help.” Our organization immediately sent Apelian a letter calling on him to act, as the CB 7 vice chairman, to address Bitterman’s unprofessional and biased comments. He replied, “It will be reviewed,” but then never responded.
Several months ago, some members of our organization received a call from a man claiming to be on the board in regards to conducting an investigation. CB 7 investigating itself? To date we have heard nothing about the results, if any, to the investigation. City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) has refused to get involved, saying he is not responsible for oversight of CB 7, but we only asked he inquire about the outcome of the investigation as our elected official.
We do not know what Apelian is looking for. If he has such a thin skin, maybe he should exclude himself from the vice chairmanship. For the most part, he has a much calmer and more respectful tone than his counterpart Eugene Kelty. But to ask for an apology and take out a full-page ad in two local papers? Maybe CB 7 should take out ads in two or three papers to apologize for violating the FOIL law, refusing to acknowledge the Committee on Open Government’s decision and especially for Bitterman’s comments to an MTABT official showing her disregard for Centola’s life.
After all, what is right for CB 7 should be right for the community it represents.
Malba Gardens Civic Association
Friday, January 28, 2011 11:07 AM EST
With regards to Chuck Apelian’s comments that Feinstein Iron Works take out a full-page ad in two local newspapers apologizing to him and Community Board 7 for his honest comments (“CB 7, Feinstein make amends after Willets clashes,” Jan. 20), it is amazing he would have the audacity to make such demands. After all, he is a public official in his roles as vice chairman of CB 7 and the CB 7 land use chairman.
Our organization has had the misfortune of dealing with CB 7 with regards to a public safety matter, which it quickly turned into an inconvenient matter. Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of CB 7, was responsible for writing a survey that was to be sent out to our community regarding the dangerous situation. The manner in which she wrote the survey was biased and stressed the “inconvenience” of driving an extra two blocks.
We immediately sent out a letter requesting to have more time to review the survey in order to come to a more non-biased wording and, objecting to the wording as shown to Alfredo Centola, we received no response and the survey went out anyway. We then requested to see the surveys under the Freedom of Information law; they illegally refused us. We obtained a decision from Robert Freeman from the state Committee on Open Government; they still refused.
A couple of months later, we received an e-mail from an MTABT official quoting Bitterman and her ill feelings to the president of our civic association. This e-mail quotes Bitterman as saying “she would step over his prone body and refuse to call for help.” Our organization immediately sent Apelian a letter calling on him to act, as the CB 7 vice chairman, to address Bitterman’s unprofessional and biased comments. He replied, “It will be reviewed,” but then never responded.
Several months ago, some members of our organization received a call from a man claiming to be on the board in regards to conducting an investigation. CB 7 investigating itself? To date we have heard nothing about the results, if any, to the investigation. City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) has refused to get involved, saying he is not responsible for oversight of CB 7, but we only asked he inquire about the outcome of the investigation as our elected official.
We do not know what Apelian is looking for. If he has such a thin skin, maybe he should exclude himself from the vice chairmanship. For the most part, he has a much calmer and more respectful tone than his counterpart Eugene Kelty. But to ask for an apology and take out a full-page ad in two local papers? Maybe CB 7 should take out ads in two or three papers to apologize for violating the FOIL law, refusing to acknowledge the Committee on Open Government’s decision and especially for Bitterman’s comments to an MTABT official showing her disregard for Centola’s life.
After all, what is right for CB 7 should be right for the community it represents.
Malba Gardens Civic Association
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Councilman Hallorans Response
We have received a response from the councilman regarding the 50% tax break given to the old CYO property as well as some other issues we brought to his attention. We will be reviewing his response and posting the results shortly. Unfortunately we did no receive an electronic copy of his response so we can not post it at this time. We are acquiring a scanner and will be scanning and posting all future correspondence shortly.
We thank the councilman for looking into the issues and responding.
Alfredo
We thank the councilman for looking into the issues and responding.
Alfredo
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