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Complaints: Bad Sidewalks, Pot-Smoking Neighbors

Our new column asks what's pestering you, seeks remedies

The other week, —we asked you to tell us what's bogging you down or getting your temper up. Here's a look at what Nyackers and Piermonters are annoyed with, and some possible solutions.

(And if you have something to share, e-mail kevin@patch.com or call 845-313-7933.)

What's with the new, impassible Main Street sidewalks? And too-big planters?

Perturbed reader: you're not alone. Patch's comment threads and Facebook page—and beyond—are abuzz with folks venting about narrow sidewalks, planters gathering cigarette butts and strollers falling off curbs.

Nyack officials are looking into it—the village has , at no cost, to see what fixes can be made.

Those cyclists are infuriating!

On particularly nice spring and summer days, this editor fields more calls about drivers venting about cyclists, and cyclists complaining about drivers, than any other sort. (One cyclists even .)

Note: it is , and can result in hefty fines. And police, especially in Piermont and South Nyack, have no problem pulling over a peddler.

But it goes both ways; cyclists have their rights, and careless drivers can be ticketed, too. Read about the ongoing bike/car turf war .

What's with the blond lady that smokes marijuana outside my house?

Did you tell her pot is a gateway drug? Other than the didactic approach, you can always reach at (845) 358-0206.

I can't take early morning leaf-blowing.

It is controlled within the village code, and can be enforced. Read one reader's treatise on it .

I'm pestered by all the people who complain about things on social media sites.

Would agreeing with you immediately make me complicit? Some of the comments both on and off Facebook are astounding, but by addressing that, you sort of end up complaining yourself. It's a philosophical nut we'll crack one day, and in the meantime there are Facebook groups like this.

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Cheri Coleman October 14, 2011 at 04:28 am
It appears that no matter what you try to do, there are always going to be those who complain. I lived there a few years ago and miss the town for the friendliness and general acceptance of people in spite of all its flaws..because it was a place we loved and cherished..much like our own imperfections that didn't seem to matter because what you bring to the table far exceeds what you don't....so once you make it all perfect..for the perfectionists...what about us everyday people who find really important stuff to complain about, lack of understanding about the need for healthcare and wanting to pay more taxes to support the services we take for granted and oh by the way...the trillions some corporations are sitting on..they chose too and convince you to fight for them by calling it un-american to expect them to do more..or like corrupt individuals who could care less about your safety..just want to capitalize on your predictable discontent with just about everything...so they can pretend to fix it..knowing you'll be back.....please Nyack...you're bigger than this...at least I thought so when I lived there..
Note Article
Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
Lisa Buchman (Editor) June 13, 2013 at 11:09 am
Congratulations to Nyack Boat Club and member Justin Coplan! Would love to see photos of the team inRead More action!
Aerial of United Water's proposed water treatment plant location
Caleb June 13, 2013 at 10:23 pm
Untrue. Perhaps if United Water wasn't sending over 2 million gallons a day from Deforest Lake toRead More they're customers in Bergen County we would not have this shortage. Hydrologists have shown that there is enough water regularly collected in Rockland's reservoirs and aquifers for our current and growing needs. Many of the "facts" that United Water is putting forward are outdated, and are based on they're own mismanagement of our water basin. Lets remember that United Water has repeatedly been removed as a water provider of major cities throughout this country (6+ last time I checked, notably even from Camden NJ) for mismanagement of water resources. I think its a prudent choice to look into a plant that we will be stuck paying for for the next 4 years from a company that has repeatedly lied and provided water with toxin levels high above legal limits to they're customers. Better safe than sorry.
John Taggart June 13, 2013 at 11:59 pm
Rockland has grown to the point that it needs more water. Terminating the flow of a river and takingRead More the water resources away from other communities (stealing what we need) isn't going to happen.
drostan June 19, 2013 at 03:13 pm
A Response to the Response Mr. Michael Pointing, writing on behalf of United Water, opined in theRead More Journal News (June 7) and the Nyack Patch (June 11) that an Issues Conference on the pending desalination project is unnecessary. When it is so greatly to his personal and professional benefit to support this project, how can he expect to be taken seriously? Comments on the "desal" plant have only rarely mentioned that the radioactive tritium, which each day leaks into the Hudson from Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant - just 3 miles upstream from the plant - will end up, in diluted form, in our drinking water. Problem is, although highly diluted, there's no way to filter out tritium since it is chemically identical to water. Worse, there's no known safe exposure level. Like "normal" water, tritium goes into your body as fast as you drink it. Good news: about half of the tritium you do drink is filtered out by the kidneys within about ten days. Bad news: When your kitchen faucet keeps providing you with small amounts of tritium day after day, it tends to keep whatever levels you have in your body elevated. Welcome to your future, Rockland. Say, how about cracking open a nice plastic bottle of Deer Park for mixing up that baby formula? Why does United Water want this project to go forward so quickly as to necessarily preclude a thorough public education process in which all the variables and all the options can be openly discussed? What if one day you decided you don't like UW anymore and you wished the water utility was still owned by the government and not the private sector, because at least that way through your vote, you could democratically elect new people who would shut the plant down (whereas you can never "vote out" a private corporation from owning the pipes that carry your drinking water)? Let's just say arbitrarily that for the first ten years following completion of this more or less irreversible project there was an average of 500 additional picocuries of tritium per liter showing up in drinking water in Rockland County that was not there before. Even the NRC says Indian Point emits tritium into the ground water and presumably into the Hudson as well, since Hudson water is what flows - 24 hours a day - into and out of the power plant, cooling the atomic reaction that creates electrical power). In 1976 the EPA decided (more or less arbitrarily) that 20,000 picocuries of radioactivity would be roughly the "safe" upper limit for human consumption (due to drinking tritium or any other radionuclide). I say "arbitrarily" because I am aware of no one who has actually tried this since then, to see if it really turned out to be safe. Whose insurance policy would make Rockland homeowners whole again if at some future point tritium (or other radionuclide) levels skyrocketed while property values plummeted? Maybe something so terrible could never, ever happen. I certainly hope it couldn't. But why are we residents the guinea pigs, and how come we pay more - not less - for our water just so UW can do more business and, of course, collect more in utility bills? By the way, Fukushima was also never ever supposed to happen. Human health is not something you go back and study all over again once you realize you've lost it. Doesn't Rockland County have enough cancer already? Dan Rostan Nyack