POLITICIANS TURN NDG INTO A SLUM

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Anyone who knows the record of Michael Applebaum's and Marvin Rotrand's borough council will not be surprised by this Letter to the Editor published in The Montreal Gazette on May 15, 2010.

 

Having attended borough council meetings for years, we NDG residents have seen how this political slate favours Cote des Neiges and has contempt for the people of NDG. This is not only my opinion but the evidence can be verified by the record.

 

While Cote des Neiges is showered with goodies, NDG is being destroyed. From the smothering of the Fraser Hickson Library to the brutalizing of Benny Park to the conditions of our streets, NDG is ignored and abused by these politicians.

 

The only thing Michael Applebaum and his supporters want in NDG is the grand palace of a sports centre being created to bring glory to Applebaum - at the taxpayers' expense.

 

The Gazette

May 15, 2010

Re: "War memorial; Desecrated with graffiti" (Gazette, May 11).

Sad as the recent graffiti desecration of the Notre Dame de Grâce War Memorial was, the real explanation as to why it was is even sadder: The vandals just ran out of walls in the rest of N.D.G.

The last several years has seen N.D.G.'s physical appearance deteriorate rapidly. The crumbling streets, the defaced properties and, as summer approaches, a sea of weeds as far as the eye can see. A beautiful community is giving way to a slum.

Our politicians can devise every strategy and trick to ensure that police ticket every car that stops beyond the painted line, doesn't signal their turn sufficiently in advance or other high car crime but sit on their hands while N.D.G. turns ugly under the weight of this neglect.

Borough Mayor Michael Applebaum continues his war on the car by now reducing the speed limit on the main thoroughfares to 40 km/h to stop the "carnage" on our streets that we read about on a daily basis in The Gazette or is it to make it easier for the tax collectors to ticket cars (revenues must be dropping).

I wish they would put the same ingenuity into stopping this urban scourge. Instead of standing around for photo-ops with speed signs maybe our councillors could do something useful, like donning coveralls and getting to working removing graffiti. They could start with the War Memorial.

Mark Lipson 

Notre Dame de Grâce

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