Hopeless VI strikes again.
That's right, the $72 million, taxpayer-funded housing project designed to provide the chronically unemployed and down-and-out with luxury condos and high-speed Internet access is putting the bite on the taxpayers of Niagara Falls again.
This time it's for streetlights.
You see, in its overwhelming desire to make it easy for those who don't work for a living to be able to live like rich people, the city Housing Authority spent your money and ours to provide the very latest in appliances, amenities and information technology to those living in those 282 condos without paying for them. Each of the units has already cost the taxpayer around $200,000, not including the cost of cleaning up the former city dump some Housing Authority genius decided to develop on.
What they forgot were the streetlights, and so now we've got to pay for those.
National Grid told the city it would install regular streetlights in June, but that's not soon enough for Mayor Paul Dyster and City Councilmen Sam Fruscione and Charles Walker. So now the city's going to install a bunch of those generator-powered lights like you see at construction sites throughout the neighborhood as a temporary measure.
City taxpayers will be out a total of $37,000 a month to rent and power the lights.
Dyster, Walker and Fruscione have no qualms whatsoever about taking the money you pay in property taxes and handing it over to people who not only don't own property, but who don't even pay rent.
That's why those who foot the bills for the nonsense that goes on at the Housing Authority and the Water Authority and the Urban Renewal Authority and City Hall itself are fleeing the scene in increasing numbers, moving to the suburbs or out of New York state altogether.
No word yet on whether city taxpayers will be asked to pay for the soundproofing that may be required on each unit for HOPE VI residents to get a decent night's sleep amid all the racket caused by the generator engines, or whether we'll get off easy and just buy them all earplugs.
On the other hand, maybe it won't be a problem after all. With no jobs to go to, it pretty much doesn't matter what time the adult population of HOPE VI gets up in the morning.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 20 2012 |