Posted on 04/26/2002 5:39:40 AM PDT by Phantom Lord
Edited on 05/07/2004 7:55:11 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The Southern Tier desperately needs an infusion of people in their 20s to help the region regain some demographic balance -- but they must be a special kind of young adults, willing to play by our rules.
Rule No. 1: Sshh!
(Excerpt) Read more at pressconnects.com ...
Letter: Looking forward to quieter nights along the river
I hope the Holiday Inn's "Party on the Patio" will remain only a memory. One very loud, like "fingernails on a chalkboard," memory.
Binghamton City Council's April 15 decision will give me and others on the city's West Side some much-deserved peace and quiet. I pray that council will not change the rules again.
Can I now assume my Friday evenings from May through September will allow me to read a book or listen to classical music within my residence across the river? Or relax on my terrace and vegetate? The possibilities are endless.
Moving the party inside at 10 p.m. will not create an economic catastrophe within the city. Give me a break.
So go inside at 10 p.m. and continue to enjoy the music. Party on! However, if council members were truly listening to constituents living close to the Holiday Inn, the "Party" would be added to that "really bad idea" folder. Having my Friday evenings connected to the Party on the Patio's deafening noise levels each summer is unacceptable.
BARRY TRANSUE
BINGHAMTON
Letter: Why young people leave
The headline reads: "Young adults discouraged by 'Party' vote / City event must end by 10 p.m." And you wonder why young people flee the area in droves. The area deserves to die.
RONALD SENISKA
LIVERPOOL
Letter: Party still fun after 40
I was happy to read Sarah D'Esti Miller's April 20 article regarding Party on the Patio. I agree with everything she said except for the fact that it only caters to young people.
Although at 40 I don't consider myself old, I'm considerably older than the twentysomething crowd. I go to Party on the Patio a few times a season, but always see someone I work with or know, all of whom are at least over 30.
I go because it is a chance to be outside by the river on a summer night socializing, and, yes, listening to the bass drum. I will no longer go there if I have to be inside.
I live in Johnson City, just over the border from Binghamton. I too can hear Party on the Patio. I'm not as close as some people, but to me it's the sound of summer and life -- like the children in my neighborhood who play outside after 10 o'clock on a Friday night.
I have lived in this area all my life, raised my son here and would like to retire here. It's a beautiful area and a great place to raise a family.
But you can't attract young people here by telling them they have to be quiet after 10 p.m. on weekends.
I hope council members get enough peace and quiet when Binghamton is a ghost town.
RITA SILVERNAIL
JOHNSON CITY
The town(s) are turning into ghost towns inhabited by elderly people soon to be ghosts.
There are very few people I graduated high school with in 1991 that still live there. And the ones that do still live there can not answer a simple question... "why do you still live there?" They just shurg their shoulders.
Recently my cousin was in town down here. He just bought a house in Endicott. I asked him its value, and if I remember right, he bought it for $65,000. I then asked him his property taxes. $3,200. I asked why would he live under such taxation and poor quality of life. Again, a shrug. I then informed him that my house is Almost 3 times as much and my taxes are a 1/3rd of his. Another shrug.
I stop now, but the locals are always complaining about the death of the area and politicans are blaming everything under the sun but themselves. Their policies, taxation, and ruination of the quality of life in the Area has driven me and thousands of other 'young adults' out of town. And there is nothing on the horizon pointing toward and improvement in the area.
I'll be staying in NC.
heh heh heh...
heh heh heh...
I hear it did wonders for Ogdenville, North Haverbrook and Brockway.
I havent been back to Endicott since October 1999. And the only reason i went up then was for a wedding.
I lived in West Corners from birth till i graduated high school in 1991. Went to college in Buffalo and promptly moved to NC upon graduation. LOVE IT here.
-Eric
Some will grow up and get "old".
BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA
Please excuse my out burst.
Anyway, back a few years ago, there was some guy who wanted to take over one of the facilities there and open up some sort of light manufacturing joint. It wasn't huge, but it would have been about a hundred jobs or so...
But no - all those jobs were just not destined to be. You see, someone else had their eye on that same building. The local biddies had figured that place waould be the perfect place for (drum roll) ANOTHER carousel. Yes, that's right - why have jobs and an expanding tax base when you can have yet another f***ing Herschell carousel? What a deal.
Guess which one got done? People like that deserve exactly what they're going to get, if you ask me.
Now that I think about it, the carousel is really the perfect metaphor for that town - you pay your money (this is one of those non-shoe company-based carousels), get on, go round and round and round, and when you get off, you're right back where you started, except you've wasted some time, and you're poorer than when you started. Round and round, and right back where you started. That town is depressing. Even the radio stations are stuck in the past. I can't imagine growing up there, and I'm not surprised in the least that you got the f*** out at the first opportunity.
You should write a letter to the editor about you carousel analogy. It is the best description of the area I have ever heard.
'Sideshows' force Jack London Square cabaret to close
Oak Tree Grill attracted younger, unruly crowd
April 10, 2002
By Chauncey Bailey
STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND -- Walls were adorned with African art, tables were draped with white tablecloths, Cajun-spiced seafood was on the menu, and patrons were always dressed to impress.
However, the Oak Tree Grill, which opened in 1999, closed two weeks ago.
Owners Julian and Clyde Sotomey wanted a "first class" supper club and cabaret in what officials have called an entertainment district in Jack London Square. And for a while, the Oak Tree had seemingly found its niche. However, its restaurant business during weekday afternoons and evenings dropped off, forcing the owners to rely on weekend nightclub customers or special events.
In the beginning, there was a more mature and professional crowd. Gradually, more young people started to filter in and the music of choice changed from jazz and R&B to hip-hop.
"The Oak Tree started to attract beautiful women but then the young men who wanted to talk to them would hang outside in their cars and it became a sideshow for the 'Sideshow,'" said Steve Lowe, who lives a block away.
The sideshow has attracted young people who cruise or do stunts with their cars, or blast hip-hop music -- even annoying Mayor Jerry Brown, who lives a few blocks away from the Oak Tree.
Larry Carrol, an administrator with the City Manager's Office, who issues operating licenses for cabarets, said Tuesday that he has been informed by the Police Department that the Oak Tree is closed. "We are not sure what's going to happen there next," Carroll said. "If someone wants to reopen as a cabaret, they would have to come to this office and no one has done that."
Oak Tree owners have declined to return phone calls for several weeks. There has been speculation that a San Francisco-based developer wants to build housing there but city zoning officials have not been contacted.
Customers are disappointed. "It's hard to compete with all those restaurants, like Scott's or Kincaid's and even Everett and Jones in Jack London Square," said Morris White of Oakland, who was a frequent patron at the Oak Tree. "After Geoffrey's Inner Circle closed, it was nice to have a classy place that was also African-American-owned where you could go for drinks and music.
"But you also have Yoshi's, Mingles, and Bluesville nearby competing for the entertainment dollar," he said.
The Oak Tree became a popular meeting place for civic groups such as the Oakland Black Board of Trade and Commerce, and a desirable venue for fashion and art shows. It was a venue for special events including birthday parties for local celebrities such as Charles Woodson of the Oakland Raiders.
Clyde Sotomey was upbeat when the eatery opened in 1999. "We want to have a first-class establishment and we are going to have it."
On Fridays and Saturdays, the bar and adjacent main dining area were busy. There was also music and entertainment from another room and during special fund-raisers another room was used for art shows or extra seating.
There were also plans for a cyber lounge.
The complex measures nearly 20,000 square feet.
It does not occur to you --- because it is a taboo in this clture and especially media --- that the "older people" complain not about your tastes. The tasted changed before, and it is true that the older generation always disliked new tastes.
In the present-day America we have a schism. The disregard for community and public in general is rampant (and, yes, it manifests itself even one blasting music from his car --- something illegal in many places but never enforced). Contrary to your perceptions, it is not staying up after 10pm that they object to: they did that, too. If you reign in your fellow party goers just a bit, they would not be so strict.
The extreme behaviors that are legitimized today presents those who remember otherwise with a dilemma. They would rather prefer the middle ground: party, but do not swear at the top of your lungs in public, do not blas music as if you are the only person in town, etc.
By taking an exreme position (of course YOU do not view it as extreme: YOU are at the center, and everyone else is a nut), the young generation deprives them of the middle ground.
Without fail, ALL of them say the area needs more young people and complain about the lack of them. The paper is full of stories, editorials, and letters speaking of the need to keep the young people in the area there and to attract more young people to the area.
The town is as attractive to young people as a senior center.
Where the problem lies is that when proposals are made to develop things that will attract younger people they are shot down and a senior center, or a small park (basically a lawn with benches), or a statue of someone is built. And as pointed out above, Carousels are the most important thing to the area. It has more of them than any other city in the world! Big F'en deal. And you can not even begin to imagine the amount of money that local governments spend on these things. It would blow your mind.
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