Last year, a proposal was put before the town board for a very large (7300 sq ft) day care center on a residential lot near a corner of a busy intersection on my street. Nearly the entire neighborhood was against it. Others were "Just too old to care" - really, someone said that to me. I went to the town meetings, I asked people to write letters, I gathered signatures on a petition. And then the town board approved it anyways and all the 'negatives' (increased traffic, increased accidents, etc) became a reality. Just Lovely.
Recently, a new Dunkin' Donuts opened up a few blocks away from my house. I had mixed feelings on that. They remodeled a former bank that had been closed for several years. So, they were using existing space in an already established commercial zone. Good for them. The problem I have with it is this, Dunkin Donuts is a known high traffic business and they built this one near an already overly congested intersection. The Town Board has even said that the infrastructure can't handle the traffic that passes through there now - they blame it on the county (?!?!). Also, there's a 'Best Bagels in Town' and 'Nezuntoz' (pronounced 'Knees and Toes') all within three quarters of a mile, all on the same road. So, Dunkin Donuts isn't going to so much as bring more customers into the area, but compete with the two existing businesses - businesses that are locally owned (as opposed to part of a national chain).
FYI, Best Bagels makes the best bagels (go figure) and Nezuntoz makes the best coffee.
So, the grand opening for Dunkin Donuts was yesterday and I decided to check it out. Well, what do you know - there's 3 of the 5 town board members, including the town supervisor - all of whom voted in favor of the daycare. After the first couple of times I showed up to the town meetings, they never looked thrilled to see me. And yesterday was no different. They did all the niceties (how are you? how's your family? blah, blah) the town supervisor asked how things were going with the daycare. I then listed all the problems that we anticipated had come true and some compliance issues.
During this, two of them wander off - leaving me an audience of one - the town supervisor. Which, I give him kudos for listening to me for all of five minutes, especially when there's four large boxes of donuts on a table behind him. But he listened and asked what I thought should be done and said he had my name and number and would call me to discuss it further. I'm sure he forgot he talked to me the minute I left the parking lot - but at least he WASN'T RUDE TO ME BY WALKING AWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION.
So, Rose Sotak and Mike Arcangeli - I hope you enjoyed your free donuts. I look forward to voting someone else into your job very soon.