In response to Michael DeLuccia’s letter of Aug. 21 about experience vs. rhetoric, DeLuccia should understand that we already have experienced more than two decades of empty rhetoric from the current Plaza administration, of which Ted Rosen and Pam Marksheid are a major part—an administration which has left our village in its present sad and sorry state.
Take mayoral candidate Ted Rosen, for instance. As deputy mayor he was tasked with overseeing projects that village constituents wanted and needed, such as the promised residential garage under the post office which would have mitigated the horrendous parking problem in the area. What did Rosen do? NOTHING, NADA, ZERO, ZILCH, BUBKIS!! And his consistent answer to residents’ inquiries about the project was always: “I can’t talk about it.”
Where was Rosen during the height of the COVID crisis? No place to be seen or heard from when we needed him. Do you want a mayor you can’t find when you need him?
Pam Marksheid is an incumbent trustee who is standing for re-election. But when it comes to her constituents’ needs, she is not there for us. Take, for example, the illegal nightclub that Tulip Restaurant ran for many years in major violation of their conditional use permit. Every Saturday night, until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., residents of the area were subjected to highly inebriated non-resident illegal nightclub patrons fighting in the streets, urinating and vomiting all over the place, and even having “horizontal refreshment” on the lawns after they had their fill of liquid refreshment. Needless to say, the police were frequent flyers.
After years of pleas from residents of the area, Ted Rosen and another trustee finally made a surprise visit to Tulip’s after-hours nightclub, and they agreed there was a horrible problem. When we spoke to trustee Pam Marksheid, she told us she was “on our side” and that she “had our backs.” She certainly did—right up against the wall! No one in the administration lifted a finger to help.
The nightclub prevailed because everyone in the current administration continued to close their eyes to the years of Tulip’s conditional use permit violations that diminished our quality of life and prevented us from sleeping every Saturday night. By doing nothing, our village officials tacitly supported Tulip’s illegal nightclub—akin to voting against their constituents! It was a blessing when the nightclub clientele finally grew tired of Tulip and found a new favorite drinking spot.
The events above are not fictionalized or exaggerated. They happened just as described; and they are testimony to the behavior and actions of those who would like to continue running our village.
The present administration, including Rosen and Marksheid, also gave us wondrous projects like the traffic-calming road configurations that have caused extensive gridlock all over the village. Motorists are irate, but traffic is very, very calm! And what about the money wasted creating a ridiculously expensive granite park—one that nobody wanted or needed—in front of the post office and dangerous bicycle lanes that only someone with a death wish would use?
The pretenders to the Celender throne have chosen Michael DeLuccia to run with them for a trustee position. In his most recent letter in the Aug. 28 Great Neck News, DeLuccia opens with these words: “As a candidate for the position of trustee, I’m reading the weekly articles sent in by Lawrence Katz. Most recently, Mr. Katz, a trustee, has been promoting his own version of a town hall meeting.”
Look at DeLuccia’s words (above) carefully. They were neither typos nor a misprint, nor a journalistic error—just muddled misinformation. Michael DeLuccia doesn’t know the difference between Lawrence Katz, a sitting Plaza trustee, and Leonard Katz, a current mayoral candidate!!
Experience means nothing if action is flawed. Can you imagine how DeLuccia would attend to the intricacies of running a village if he can’t even properly differentiate a sitting village official from a candidate running for election? If Shakespeare were alive today, I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if he were to describe DeLuccia’s polemics with his own immortal words written for Macbeth: “…full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
The Katz team will rid us of laxity, egotism and empty rhetoric. We need to elect an administration that will do the right thing. You owe it to yourself to write in your votes on Sept. 15 for Leonard Katz for mayor and Marnie Ives and Robert Farajollah for trustees. They will serve their constituents well.
Leo Pfeifer
Village of Great Neck Plaza
