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April 30, 2014- By Steven E. Greer
State Senator Dan Squadron hosted a Town Hall meeting Sunday. One issue he champions that should concern every person in Battery Park is his “Neighborhood Parks Alliance” that would steal cash from privately funded conservancies, such as Central Park and Battery Park City, and redistribute them to downtrodden parks.
That sounds great, if it were tax dollars at play. However, the senator wants to take privately raised money and redistribute it.
Mayor de Blasio is also pushing for a similar measure to redistribute wealth. It is part of the “fighting for the boroughs” policy that politicians now see as a political winner.
Also during Mr. Squadron’s Town Hall, he decried “big money” influences in politics. However, he seems to have succumbed to “big money” in the helicopter noise issue. The corporate helicopters and NYEDC are resisting any curtailing of the noisy helicopters, so Mr. Squadron as “postponed” indefinitely his planned talk on that topic, according to a Squadron staffer at the April 29th CB1 meeting.
Bill “Robin Hood” De Blasio wants to pilfer BPC to help poorer parks
NYEDC President, a holdover from Bloomberg era, enables helicopter noisemakers
This is one of the most appalling, “redistributions of wealth” I have ever heard of.
Tax dollars, I could “kind of” understand as we elected the perpetrators and that is part of their job description. But taking PRIVATE donations and forcing some kind of allocation is sickening. Imagine going to Trinity Church and asking them to distribute part of their collection each week to the Catholic Chapel in Battery Park City. Or forcing the Red Cross to send its donations for Hurricane Sandy to the NRA.
Although the intentions might be good, it goes against the basic premise of why people (and communities like BPC) create funds to support specific causes. I don’t expect residents of the Upper West Side, Staten Island or the Bronx to support my park, unless they specifically choose to do so. Why should a politician make that decision for me or them.
Forcing legal charities to divert money away from their intended causes sets a very dangerous precedent that may be quasi-illegal (as non-profits have specific stated purposes that they file for tax purposes), will hurt donations and could ultimately end up in expensive lawsuits from donors.
Private monies are just that — private. Last time I checked, Comrade DiBlasio and crew hadn’t yet declared NYC a Communist State . . . but if we are not careful, we may wake up one day and find that the “death by 1,000 cuts” process has done just that!