The Budget Petition: This Time It's Not LOT

Downtown vs. Education

I am no Politian or writer, but I do have all my senses in working order to See the real issues, Feel the frustration, Smell the BS, cringe at all the unresolved problems that leave a sour Taste in my mouth, and at times Hear the stupidity that continues to flow through the civic offices of this city. I worked in downtown and had the pleasure to sit in on and take part in several political issues, construction projects and about a CAZILLION meetings that that did nothing but take 3 steps back from the issues at hand. My goals for a lot of these meeting were to just sit back and really see what people’s intentions were. And I quickly realized that about half had their own agenda. The cities interest was at time, the last thing people even spoke about. There was always tension, cause lets be honest……no one really likes each other in some political way or form. I use love walking out of meetings seeing people bad mouthing a person they just laughed and shook hands with. So I ask myself why don’t things change or improve at times…..yeaaaahhhhh, it’s because the ‘politcos’ are spending more time stabbing each other in the back then working together.

Anyways, I just kind of went off on some tangent their…I guess I just needed to get that off my chest. So here’s the real reason for this bi*#h fest. The real reason no one is moving to New London, Going to Downtown or investing in this city is because we continue to allow are education system to fall apart like a cheap suit. There is more emphasis but on downtown then there is on education and that is terrible. This city has made so many mistakes over the past 60 years when it comes to development, that the effects will be felt and be clearly visible for many years to come. So lets not kid ourselves by thinking if we turn New London into a Transportation hub that this city is going to Rock!!!!! How about we invest more on education and the quality of life, so we can have healthy and active communities to be proud of. Those are the qualities that should attract future homebuyers & business owners. Lets take Pfizer for example, ( are they STILL tax exempt) what good was that if all we did was bring 1000 young working adults to East Lyme & Waterford. These towns are making bank off our investments. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! And why is this happening I ask…..ummm….lets see cause every real estate agent in CT has been trained to tell their clients that we have a shaky quality of life and our school system stinks. We need to continue supporting our school system, after school programs, PARENT EDUCATION PROGRAMs, athletics and teachers because cutting the track team just put a dozen more kids on the street with nothing better to do. So, to conclude this tiff of minds, I want to applaud those teachers who stay after school to spend more time with their students, cheers to the police/ fire dept. who continue to bake fresh bread with no yeast, and to all the downtown developers and owners (try bringing in our 3 colleges into downtown, this tip is on me), cheers to Frank & Penny at Main St. (you guys really rock!!!) and finally to the city of New London….be more pro-active and stop settling for sub-par or average decisions made by our political leaders. This town should be known for greatness and history……but we can not repeat the last 60 years.

-felix reyes