FINE DAY IN AMERICA'S NYACK

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

columnrule.blogspot.com

NYACK, N.Y. -- On a recent day in “town,” in this later 1800s village not long ago of antique charm and just now of mini-cosmopolitan ambiance with restaurants and some small shops but back in memory of a working-class, traditional American commercial/industrial community, I found solace in a $1 container of coffee to go, any size. And call it just that, coffee, not grande or pocachino or whatever moniker is offered at $2.50. 

Though the palate is not extensive, I’ve at least managed to sit at enough fine dinners to appreciate what has been offered even if I was not eating it all. And there were some well-connected people, too, given the reasons for the political, etc., dining in the first place. But the urge to keep it simple, and in that to seek a certain honesty, is more this life’s theme, and so it is that a $1 container of coffee to go from a basic but as American-as-apple-pie eatery on Main called Johnnycakes did more for the soul on this one recent day in Nyack.

Now, you don’t have to live in this village or even to know what it looks like to enjoy it. From Alaska to Hawaii, to Texas, Colorado, Maine, Florida, there are Nyacks and Johnnycakes in them, ordinary places that are anything but since it is within those doors and outside them -- on the sidewalks, on Main, on the back streets, down by the river, in the park, on a bench, outside the community (not international) bank, by the church, the synagogue, across from the hair salon, next to the lottery store, in the aisles of the hardware place, in the small bakery and all about -- that so much of this nation shows its heartbeat.

I took my walk, with my container of coffee at $1, and went past my old newspaper building, now an architectural office with additional uses, at 53 Hudson. I recalled the steps I made as a little boy with my parents, buying things for Christmas in what were then many stores, soon to be replaced by suburban strip shopping. And I remembered that just yesterday, literally, my son, his wife and the grandchildren were with us on Broadway. Way back a long time ago now, my own grandfather walked in Nyack, too.

That container of coffee was a fine companion on my travels, for just $1 helping me obtain what is priceless on a fine day in America’s Nyacks.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

Undue influence, no matter what

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

columnrule.blogspot.com

It seems undue influence can be both legal and illegal in these our “democratic” United States. It depends on whether you offer cash, gifts and sweet deals to one who writes and passes laws or are a registered lobbyist who is well paid to get some legislator’s ear in efforts that go beyond free speech.

In New York State, where last week politicoes, including a state senator, assemblyman and $125,000-a-year mayor of a village 70 percent in poverty were arrested on bribery charges, Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney, declared, “How many other pending bills were born of bribery? How many passed bills were born of bribery?” In those cases, which include allegations of trying to buy influence in the New York City mayoral election, a wired informant with ties to serious wrongdoing spilled the beans and may have saved himself some jail time.

Meanwhile in just about every state capital, there are registered lobbyists, many of which employ former legislator staffers close to key chair people. Sometimes these lobbyists practically write the language for various laws. The people, the ordinary people in this our “democratic” society, cannot hope to wield such influence. 

In Washington, on the famous (infamous?) K Street, lavish buildings, one after another, are the homes of firms that run a continuous lobby pipeline to Capitol Hill. 

Yesterday, the New York Times reported in its second front-page lead story that 28 former aides to Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, are registered as lobbyists. This as Congress readies a rewrite of the tax code.

Clearly it is illegal to offer cash or other payment to influence legislation or government decision in favor of one person, persons or companies. Why is it not illegal to hire and employ former government staffers in the know, who are close to their ex-employers, to twist arms on legislation and decisions?

If Prett Bahara can ask, “How many passed bills were born of bribery,” cannot the average citizen wonder how many laws are written by special-interest directive? Isn’t legalized influence in Washington and in every state capital every bit as devastating to democracy and to the economy as is illegal bribe-seeking?

This is not a matter of free speech, as the latest Supreme Court decision on hidden-money campaign financing declared. There is no level playing field when big lobby funds are pitted against the plaintive cry of the citizen. The free speech quotient could be addressed by full, open, impartial public hearing.

 We the People of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled not in one place but existing as free humanity in every state of the great union, should solemnly publish and declare, that we are, and of right ought to be free and independent of all special interests, that such lobbies have no right to demand that we be chained to thirst for bottom-line greed, that we give up our pursuit of happiness, that we forego any reasonable and secure future for our young, that we abandon the glue of the nation, that is, its middle class. 

We should therefore declare that We the People must soon require that all elections, from state office to Washington, be publicly funded, with no special-interest money allowed as influence of any sort. Nor should any ex-government official or staffer take a lobbyist position or a job with a government contractor for a period of at least 10 years.

Money talks. Power corrupts. Special interests rule, increasingly. And the ordinary, often unaware citizen is the victim, ill-served by his/her own government in this our “democracy.” Inestimable damage to society, to the economy, to a viable future has already been done.

Legalized influence in state houses and in Washington is every bit as devastating to democracy as is criminal corruption, most recently alleged in New York. 

The writer is a retired newspaperman living in Blauvelt, N.Y., who is reachable at ahgunther@hotmail.com.

'I LOVE MY (neglected) PARK'

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

columnrule.blogspot.com

     Any park in New York State -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a hands-on, folksy, decent fellow who hops on a hog and motorcycles throughout the Empire State, rolled up his sleeves and joined the second-annual “I Love My Park” volunteer cleanup this past Saturday. Good thing the state chief wasn’t at Tallman Mountain State Park in Sparkill. His Harley tires would have blown on potholes growing for at least 30 years.

Great photo op for yet another official on whose watch the great, terrible neglect of once-well kept parks in New York continues. Yes, Cuomo is in deep budget quicksand, but even in flush times, state parks were not sufficiently funded.  Past governors and legislatures have cut budgets to meet overspending elsewhere and patronage projects. One bad example of this: In the late 1970s, park money was diverted to New York City to save nearly bankrupt Gotham. 

At Tallman Park, where I was yesterday, vehicles could end up with broken axles and damaged tires because the asphalt pavement of the 1930s is in such disrepair. A once-grand stone shelter, built dry-set with no mortar by Great Depression craftsmen, has lost its windows. Its fireplaces are a mess, and there is still debris left from Super-storm Sandy.

But don’t blame the weather, though it ravaged this park and even more so Hook Mountain just up the Hudson River, where a long-neglected, trail along the shore was heavily damaged. Truth is, that trail was also hit in the great 1938 “Yankee Clipper” hurricane that took away a swimming beach and a dock for tourist boats. World War II came and repairs were delayed. After the war, very little was done, and now the main feature of the park is the neglected trail, left over from a former quarrying operation in the early part of the 20th century.

Hike up to Bear Mountain State Park, and the famous Inn’s dinning room remains closed, still not renovated after almost a decade. A fine hotel has been established below, and a beautiful gift shop, too, but the people’s place, the area in front of a massive fireplace outside the upstair’s dining room, is still not open to the public.

Applause, surely, for the thousands of volunteers who turned out for “I Love My Park,” but they cannot undue the damage wrought by uncaring administrations and legislatures over at least the past 50 years. Most of these parks sit on land placed in the public trust by wealthy families like the Harrimans, Rockefellers and Perkins. The trust has been broken.

Maybe other volunteers can form a conservancy and save our state parks, as was done with Central Park in New York City. Government failed there, too, bringing the Calvert Vaux-Frederick Olmsted place of genius to ghetto status in the 1970s. Guess the only green some politicians see is the color of money. Perhaps Gov. Cuomo can break the neglect and bring a “New New York” to the sad state parks.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

RAIN, IN SPRING

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

columnrule.blogspot.com

We can forgive one another for being jaded about the once simplicity of rain, especially that gentle sprinkling that encourages spring flowers to emerge, reaffirming once again that all is not wrong with this crazy world. Super-storm Sandy really whacked us, and like a suitor once tricked by a lover, the trust never fully returns.

But, as in storybook romance, the hope is not far around the next corner, and reliability can again become a reasonable constant. And so it is with the light spring rain, which began this morning (Monday, April 29, 2013) at latitude 41.06 and longitude -73.961 in Blauvelt, N.Y. 

The drizzling was dazzling, though once this sort of wet would be so routine in these parts as to bring not even a ho-hum, except from a gardener itching to grow. Drizzle that dazzles simply because there was (1) no thunder or lighting; (2) no flash flooding; (3) no water in basements; (4) no electrical outages; (5) no closed streets; (6) and no expensive reconstruction bills with super-inflated prices. No, just a very light rain that could have been used for the morning wash of the face after a short walk around the neighborhood, so easy in its fall was this near-May event. Showers are supposed to come in spring, to sustain only our May flowers but to remind us again that there are seasons, and reasons for such.

Not all was perfect, though, for this is not such a universe. Today’s road surfacing is so finely set, and the asphalt is polished by oil accumulating from many vehicles. When light rain hits the surface, motorists spin their wheels in start-up and skid at corners. Perhaps that is nature’s reminder that even its gift of a spring sprinkling, though not refused and so very welcome, has strings attached by humankind.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

'HALF SHEETS' FOR LIFETIME MEMORIES

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

columnrule.blogspot.com

Every profession has its special character, quirks, shortcuts, efficiencies. In my old newspaper gig, 42 years long, one of these special markings was half sheets, scrap paper taken from left-over newsprint, cut down to about 4x5 inches, give or take.

We would use longer sheets, about 8x10, for typing stories, carbon paper stuck twice between other sheets so that there was first the original, which was sent to typesetting after desk editing; the second, which was used by the page layout person for story placement, length and headline; and the third for the reporter’s files. 

Computers eventually made that wonderful, well-acquired practice of setting three newsprint sheets and two carbons in a non-electric Underwood or Royal. The clack-clack of the machine, usually in a symphony of others, made for a newsroom’s purring as another edition was being readied. When a writer finished his.he piece, he ripped it out of the typewriter with a flourish, the machine’s platen spinning at a sound level that, if it could be set to Morse code would read -- 30 -- the usual newspaper end to a story.

The half sheets made for a different animal. The province of page layout and copy editors, they would be used to write headlines, with type style, size and how many lines indicated. These “hed orders” would be determined mostly by page layout and sometimes modified by copy editors, including the “slotman” or copy chief, who sat in the slot of a horseshoe-shaped desk and threw out head orders to lowly copy editors.

Headline size helps determine story importance, as does the placement of the piece. The right side of a standard or normal-sized broadsheet newspaper carries the most significant story, with the biggest headline. Tabloid front pages are often all headline, and they really “shout,” as they are supposed to do in the “working-class newspaper.

A half sheet might contain seemingly cryptic letters and numbers, like this: 1/42-3 R. That would be Roman-style type in the paper’s usual style, such as Caslon, set on one column at 42 point (72 points to an inch), three lines or “decks”. A 3/60-2 ital head order would be a three-column, 60 point italic, 2-deck head. If special type style were needed, such as for a feature page story, it would be so indicated, such as 5/48-1 bodoni, which is a five-column, 48 point Bodoni type headline on one deck, Roman style, not italic, unless indicated.

Usually, copy chiefs would write the head order on the top right side of an edited story, with a right-angle mark tucking it into the corner. The copy editor would then take the half sheet, also write the hed order with right-angle on top right of his sheet, come up with a head, place the half sheet on the copy and hand it all back to the copy chief. If the chief approved it, he marked page placement on the left bottom side of the half sheet, rolled it up with the copy and put it in a pneumatic tube to be shot to composing.

Today, newspapers do all their story editing, placement and hed writing via computer, which can be observed by other editor at the same time.

But in my more romantic days, there was an intimacy between you and the half sheet. Coming up with a good headline was not easy. Sometimes inspiration set in quickly; most times you needed to ponder. You could get up and walk about the office, but the copy chief didn’t like that. You could drag on a cigarette like the rest of the newsroom. Or you could stare at the half sheet and the story, somehow finding your answer, your headline, in that.

It was a special intimacy in the old newspaper days.

                                            --30--

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

TUNNEL TO REPLACE TAPPAN ZEE APPROACH IN NYC METRO AREA

     Tunnel to replace Tappan Zee Bridge approach in Rockland County, N.Y. (with disclaimer at end of story)

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

     THE NYACKS, N.Y. -- A tunnel will come to the Tappan Zee crossing after all, Albany has announced. Though not the South Nyack-Tarrytown trans-Hudson route long sought by anti-bridge proponents, an underground highway will replace the paved Thruway from the Palisades Center mall in West Nyack to the foot of the soon-to-be-built bridge at South Nyack.

     Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the media Sunday that the tunnel makes sense economically and environmentally since sale of the nearly four miles of land now occupied by the Thruway approach in Rockland -- for mixed development as well as parks and a returned downtown at South Nyack -- would more than pay for the estimated $1 billion tunnel cost. “In the ‘New N.Y.’ magical things can happen,” said the governor.

     As envisioned, the present, deteriorating Thruway roadway, which covers the original 1955 concrete, would be removed, an open trench dug and pre-cast tunnel sections lowered and quickly connected. The new east-west route would be twice as wide as the present, mostly six-lane configuration, thereby allowing for a smoother approach to the also wider replacement bridge. Just as important, room would be allowed for an eventual rail link.

     Air pollution would be controlled by filtration, and there would be no road noise, especially from dieseling trucks, as are now the growing complaints.

     Developers are greeting the news with enthusiasm as much land is to be freed for commercial and residential development, including limited high-rises with Hudson views. The Village of South Nyack is particularly ecstatic since it will obtain free space to redevelop the downtown bulldozed in the original Thruway/bridge construction. The community plans parks and a staging area for the many cyclists expected to cross the new Tappan Zee Bridge. 

     Advocates of a tunnel crossing rather than a new Tappan Zee Bridge from South Nyack to Tarrytown say that while they remain disappointed their idea was consistently met with silence from Albany, they will get half the bargain anyway. Their tunnel concept also had the project beginning at the West Nyack mall.  

     Cuomo said tunnel construction would begin in 2014 on the west-bound route first. As with the new Hudson crossing, this  would be a “design-build” project to facilitate speedier construction and contain costs. About 600 temporary jobs are expected to add to the area economy.

     “Like everything in the ‘New N.Y.,’ the governor said, “The West Nyack to South Nyack tunnel will be a win-win situation, benefiting many.”

     It is hoped that you are one of those readers who follow a piece to its conclusion, Though this story is foolish on April 1, truth is, the tunnel idea is both workable and sensible.

WHERE IS STUDENT INVESTMENT?

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

columnrule.blogspot.com

Once, educating the nation’s children might have involved simple ABCs, though any teacher worth his/her learned ways would argue that no individual child and the path to knowledge was ever anything but complex, and the tried and true plus the innovative and much sweat was often necessary. Yet today instructing the young, that very foundation of the next society -- social and economic -- is beyond the classroom. Progress as the goal, and even more important, the educator’s security to proceed, is held hostage by political dysfunction and an inability/unwillingness to understand what is required in the most vital investment we can make. If ever detention and remedial learning were necessary for too many of the powers to be, it is now. 

School budgets nationwide, particularly those funded by the property tax, are increasingly capped by statehouse elected/appointed officials who look like heroes  to some voters. But to school districts that must meet those caps while the very same office-holders do not put budget limits on mandated expenses such as transportation and special education, their only choice is to fire staff and reduce programs. In recent years, athletics, reading, music and art offerings have been watered down or eliminated. Class sizes are increasing. 

And while state-required budget caps look good to some of the electorate, parents of those in the schools see a withering of the education tree. This at a time when, ironically, states are requiring higher standards for students and teachers. How do you meet those with fewer resources, indeed when government is failing to feed the roots?

Why don’t states help more with pension and health-care funding while also encouraging reform in those huge expense lines? (Do not forget that these state-controlled pensions relied on iffy, greed-inspired faulty mortgage and other bank schemes without government oversight.) Why do states require necessary special education but do not adequately fund that? Why are transportation costs not capped? Or utility expense? Or maintenance charges from sub-contractors? Why do the states try to make themselves look like fiscal rescuers while causing our children, the nation’s future, to suffer?

And where is the fuller support for our teachers? Once, the profession was held in high regard. Now, you often hear complaints that the instructors are off in the summer but are paid for "doing nothing" when actually most earn salary for a 10-month contract year. Teachers take home work to do at night, such as papers to grade and lessons to plan. They must handle children and parents with individual attention. Most have masters degrees. While all professions include slouchers and the ordinary, too, as does teaching, why is it that they are not under attack? 

There is respect but surely disrespect, too, for teachers in my area of the nation, in the suburbs north of New York City.

When World War II ended and our nation, finally out of the Great Depression because of defense spending, realized that the future would be bright economically, socially, even morally only if the millions of servicemen needing work could be trained for professions that would accelerate growth and offer stability, it wrote the  G.I. Bill. Boy, did it pay off handsomely, propelling the U.S. as the foremost world leader and economic engine. I bet it returned 1,000 percent on the dollar.

Now, when our education systems are under-financed, when politicians arbitrarily cut spending instead of seeking wise investment, we surely require a rescue plan. Washington must act first, and then the states, to better fund education. The income tax must become the chief way of providing state aid, not the property levy, which is often based on paper wealth.

And -- so very important -- we must begin to cheer those teachers who give the blood of their emotional souls to help grow children. Theirs is the second most important one, with parenthood first.

Where is the investment?

The writer is a retired newspaperman.