Tompkins County – Rural Tompkins County

Tompkins County: Living the Lie

I could say: “The other shoe has dropped” — but their actions are always carried out in a dismissive silence: the “needed repaving” of Lansingville Road, that it’s residents were never informed of, is half done — and Tompkins County has widened the road by four feet.

What was once a neighborly community of long-established families, has become an “Ag ghetto” of health-debilitating factory farms, cheap foreign labor, drugs, and poverty. Many families have been taxed out of their homes, which are then remodeled and repurposed into low income apartments for the county’s unwanted. And the only mandate for law enforcement is to keep it all contained.

Lansingville’s rural community is already prostrate; with Cornell’s boot on our necks, and Cornell’s spittle on our faces. Now, the dwindling pocket of rural families is being targeted for even more repressive Urban Colonialist policies. Policies that strip us of almost every permitted land use, and establish an unregulated raceway through the middle of our hamlet: creating a “do whatever you want” highway for big trucks and speeding commuters — an attractive shortcut, without any of the speed reductions placed on the state highways that surround it.

How many of our Town and County politicians, administrators, and authorities were aware of probable outcome of these policies?

From their documented statements, questionable behavior, and refusal to help; I would say: “All of them.”

With the conscious superiority of the elite: Cornellians moved into our 200-year old community, and cut, shaped, and discarded what existed to create a suburban pastiche, for their comfort and short term gain.

The Secret Cornell is more than a tale of greed, misconduct, and corruption: it’s a window into an unchecked progressive government: One Thought, One Taught, One Voice, One Choice — Theirs.

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How many people are “too busy,” or claim that I “depress” them with my documentation of our millennium dark side – and thus seek avoid the need for any thought or action. The denial of reality has never worked to bar its arrival. It’s a storm so wide that trying to escape its path is futile — and it’s impossible to get a grip on the slippery slope.

The Secret Cornell – Paperback and eBooks available at:Amazon.com – BarnesandNoble.com and many other online booksellers

The Secret Cornell – Published but not ended

The destruction and disappearance of our rural community continues unabated. Cornell is sloganizing, “Lansing is Leading the Way,” but there is no other municipality that is following, and our leaders will decamp in the night as we approach our destination.

The new Town of Lansing has all the traditional values of a fast food breakfast menu, and all the future of food wrappers on the highway out of town.

In rural New York, no one can hear you scream.

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All follow-up emails to our Town Board presentation requesting rural traffic control and enforcement have received no response or acknowledgement.

A seven-page letter detailing the fraudulent aspects of the Agricultural District Disclosure Form and Notice was sent to numerous politicians and the NYS Agriculture and Markets Commissioner. One State Senator passed it on to another Senator, who passed it on to the Agriculture and Markets Commissioner. There has been no additional action.

The Tompkins County Department of Assessment refuses to admit that there are negative impacts from any industrial farming activity.

The book is published – but the story continues. •• The Secret Cornell is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and many other electronic storefronts. For a complete list, and links; go to http://books2read.com/secretcornell

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The policies and actions in this book demonstrate, beyond any argument of coincidence, that the “importance,” of equitable treatment of those who are underserved and marginalize can be flipped 180 degrees; oppressing the underserved and marginalized for the benefit of rich and influential corporations and interests: proof that “importance” is not the policy maker’s recognition of individual human worth – but merely a disingenuous label; pasted over the self-serving decisions of the elite.

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Just as a cell phone may be seen as the substitution of quantity at a distance; for the quality of a more direct engagement – so may the “busyness” of our citizens with the shallow mnemonic of conforming; replace the duty of a thoughtful and direct engagement with government policy making.

“The World According to Doctrine” — The Greater Good follows Cornell around

The very word “greater” is emblematic of the reversal of the 1960’s vision of equality for all. Everyone and everything is now categorized and treated differently: according to the dictatorial vision of a government that refuses to answer the questions of citizens; or acknowledge their individual worth.

Important. There, I said it. “Important” is the slide-to-the-side avoidance of openly announcing the corruption and cronyism at the heart of our government’s decision making process. “They are important because . . .” And while Tompkins County’s corporations, institutions, and selected groups are Important – Cornell is IMPORTANT.

But how can they get away with this “methodology of muchness”?

There is no room here for even a discussion of “Urban Colonialism” and its practices – but I’ll give you one example: Environmental Justice. Environmental Justice is mapped to Census Tracts; but Census Tracts are mapped to population: so, in rural areas, these tracts are very large. Large enough to contain the rezoned lakefront homes of Cornell’s affluent elite – and the rural poor living in a trailer park miles away. [By “trailer park” I mean a row of single-wides in a field with a dirt road.] It’s an urban methodology that blends away rural poverty and marginalization into non-existence — and it’s an important tool in Urban Colonialism’s expansion.

“The World According to Doctrine” — County bus transit for rural residents?

In Tompkins County; when sacrifices have to be made: they don’t ask what? – They ask who? And the county’s rural residents are at the top of the list. We are the stumbling block to Cornell’s completely homogenized and conforming community vision – and their Legislature is always removing our services and increasing our taxes. How can they do this? Why don’t you ask the 30,000 students that give them that power – they’re our future.

“The World According to Doctrine” — New Bell-shaped Curves: “The Flatline”

Tompkins County’s Progressive government has progressed beyond democracy and representation — to a flat-out dictatorship. Citizens get to attend “Public Hearings” – where they get to hear what will happen; and submit comments – that are filed and stored and then discarded to make room for more comments. Take it or leave it; there’s nothing you can do about it. “Questions? . . . We’ve had trouble with you before. . .

“The World According to Doctrine” — More Urbites 11: “Traffic Jamming”

It’s all stonewalling and pushback when rural residents try to implement traffic control measures. The same County that enforces a maximum speed limit of 30 mph on all roads traveling through the City of Ithaca; refuses to post any limits in their County-controlled rural roads. And in spite of the accidents and entreaties of residents: they have refused to patrol these roads – encouraging an ever-increasing flood of reckless workers, students, and commercial vehicles who know they’ll never get a ticket. Even with documented evidence of the most blatant disregard of law and human life – the have never once acknowledged that there is a problem. They sit there like stone-faced judges in a wall of indifference. They covet our land — without us. Urban Colonialism.

“The World According to Doctrine” — More Urbites 10: “Urban Planning”

Tompkins County planners don’t counsel – they conspire.

We no longer create our communities by living in them – we just inhabit the communities our government creates.

They do all the planning. They have all the planners. They have all the power. They have all the cards.

“The World According to Doctrine” — What does being the poorest, most . . .

Exposing misconduct, corruption, and cronyism in Tompkins County is not just digging into the past – it’s yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

“Tompkins County and Tammany Hall” documented only small piece of the overarching policies and actions that dominate and control the lives of the county’s rural residents – and includes nothing that has occurred since its publication.

An unfinished and unpublished companion piece to the “Truck Route” chapter [Road Weary] has even more jaw-dropping disclosures of the actions of local and County authorities; and their ongoing displacement and oppression of the rural community – actions that only those who feel beyond the reach of social justice and legal oversight would commit.

I have sent copies of the book to many people who, I thought, would be open to change – without even getting an acknowledgement – and bringing readers up to date would do nothing to change the situation – it would only increase the “body count.”

It’s hopeless – but I have a plan – as my cousin used to say: “Don’t force it; get a bigger hammer.”

“The World According to Doctrine” — More Urbites 7

Who do they think they’re fooling? You, of course. Just as there is public participation and meaningful public participation – there is regulation and meaningful regulation. How can we affect a slowdown in Climate Change – when those most responsible are held the least accountable? When the reduction of our country’s greenhouse gas emissions is due to the production of our goods in other countries – and the shipping of electric vehicles creates more pollution than those electric vehicles actually save.