The Economic Diaspora of Saratoga Springs

One of the more persistent criticism I hear from the critics is basically “shut the fuck up you don’t even live in the city” since I find this a legitimate question and something I have never endeavored to hide I will take a moment to address it.
I was born here as were by parents and two of my grandparents who along with my great grand parents are buried here. {Memo to Kim: maybe in your next run for office your great message will be to tax family graves} I watched my widowed mother struggle to afford to live here, the only home she had ever know and recently I myself was forced to move out of my own home in the city and I am not alone. I call the long term residents and native sons forced to move out of the town the “Economic Diaspora of Saratoga Springs”. I hope to be a voice for them the great majority of who have not moved any real distance, some even now being forced to commute back to Saratoga for their jobs.
Now the DFC takes great delight in calling itself a great champion of the working man, these being their little pet projects, the police and fireman who they describe as “middle class”. I would argue that the police and fireman who have moved out of the city have done so out of economic choice, hoping to save a few bucks on their Tax Bill and not out of necessity or do to a lack of housing. The real middle class or the working class of this city, are the line workers at Quad or Ball manufacturing. The nurses and aides of Saratoga Hospital whose jobs are just as difficult and dangerous as the Police and Fireman but have no union protection and make only a faction of what the city workforce does. Even the average plow driver for the city makes more than a floor nurse at the Hospital. Unfortunately the only contact the high brows of the DFC have with this world are with the lobbyist of the SSPD who have convinced then they need to be paid more. They assume the waitress at Lillian’s is working her way through a PhD program at Union and not a single mother of two who is forced to bus in from Ballston Spa. Until taxes are cut in the city the economic war against the low to middle class will continue . One answer is a permanent reduction in the City work force or wage and benefit concessions and not selling recreational facilities for the real working families of Saratoga. You know the ones who don’t have a pool in their back yard or can't afford to belong to the Y. The Democratic Party in Saratoga has lost its soul. Until the DFC is removed from its ranks it will continue to be little more than a lobbing branch of the PBA.

Now on a more cheery note Christmas wishes and gift ideas’

For Andrew Bernstein a Book


And for our brave fireman some new replacement equipment.


And finally a footnote to my run in with Ron Kim.
I am actively pursuing all my options and have not ruled anything out. I have found that although the wheels of justice move slowly I am usually satisfied with the results.