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Health & Fitness

Right on Target

Give us back our streets! The people speak and are heard.

It's been a few days since I last wrote about the Patchogue Village Board meeting that since come and gone. But it turns out that the one issue I did single out was right on. That was the issue of a by various businesses in the village. It was a long time coming and that it did get adopted shows why a village level government can be more responsive than a Town, County or State level of government. It takes time but the frustrated cries of village residents particularly those who live in and around So. Ocean avenue was heard by the trustees. They did place a limit on the use of public streets so that those streets could not be used for customer parking that then changed the character of the nearby neighborhoods by making those streets essentially tax payer paid parking for private businesses. Streets being taken over with no resulting benefits for the local residents now forced to find parking for themselves or to deal with aggressive valet parking practices that disturbed the peace of their neighborhoods one way or the other.

Revitalization of the village has brought much good to the village and more is yet to come. People were complaining that the village was "dead". It isn't now, as more and more people flock to the village to take advantage of its eateries, bars, and other entertainment venues a process that is still growing in fact. But as they say watch out what for what you wish for, you may get it. So with the revitalization has come an issue of managing that success. Yes we want more people to visit, spend their money, create jobs. But we also want the neighborhoods where those businesses exist to prosper too. The challenge ahead is to find the right balance. The Trustees have appointed a committee headed by Deputy Mayor McGiff to do just that. This solution might create new problems so it makes sense to keep an eye on how this new law actually affects business owners and village residents. But it is certainly a step, long over due, in the right direction.

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