Almost 8 months into Mayor Szymanski's term

[ChangeNeededNow]

With almost 8 months into his term as mayor, I see no change, nor difference from Norman Polanski. His whole campaign was how he "wasn't" going to do as the prior administration has done, but all i see is Norn jr. I kind of regret now voting for Szymanski. On the other hand i believe the council is doing a great job, espically not allowing those 4 dpw workers to be in the budget, so Geoff can give them to the people who supported him. I recently herd Jon Haux was fired by Geoff, with no reason?? I believe Jon was doing a great job fixing up the 2nd ward playground as soon as it was brought to his attention. He just took the office less then 4 months ago. He has been around in the Recreation department for a long time, and it is a shame to see an honest person in this city who actually cared get fired. Personally i cant wait for 3 years to get Geoff out of office, he is doing more harm then good. Can anyone name anything positive Geoff has done besides take a few saturday mornings and put in some elbow grease to clean up the 1st and 2nd wards? bc i can't.

[stonecold]

The question is why did the playground HAVE to be brought to his attention? As Director shouldn't he be aware of the playground? After all they would fall under "recreation" wouldn't they?

[LAsurvivor]

How about as the former 2nd ward councilman, why did Geoff let the playground fall into disrepair under his watch?

[bluethunder]

How about as the former 2nd ward councilman, why did Geoff let the playground fall into disrepair under his watch?

Because Normie/Love told him to. Why would he change now? He needs that measly 40k for his patronage jobs. Even if you fixed up the playgrounds without any city money Tom Love wouldn't do jack to keep it up and running and that really is a CRIME!

[jenrose66]

I knew during his campaign that him getting voted in would be more of the same...people get so used to the status quo that fear of change keeps them stuck doing what they always do...we had our chance to exact change last year, what a shame...

[bluethunder]

People in Lackawanna are just voting based on relatives who need/have jobs and the guy who is the most popular. They never ever connect the dots and see who is related to who or who owes who. Until people start voting outside of the Democratic Party in Lackawanna there truly will never be any real change. We did get lucky with the election of Pirowski and Lewis they seem to be a big exception. You just have to wonder how the establishment will treat these 2 guys on the next go around though. My guess is not good at all.

[andreahaxton]

The question is why did the playground HAVE to be brought to his attention? As Director shouldn't he be aware of the playground? After all they would fall under "recreation" wouldn't they?

Exactly!
One of my first fights with the rest of the Council in 2006 was to get money for the playgrounds, finally after my relentless stand for help they reluctantly agreed to vote for........$10,000 was appropriated in the 2007/08' City Budget for each Ward to total $40,000.
The next year, 2008/09', they held their flop of a Centennial and they took away $2500.00 from each Ward playground line to pay for it!
2009/10' they again reduced the playground monies down to $5000.00/Ward for playgrounds........and I do not know where the monies for them stand now. Probably none.

I had to sit and argue at length to get the rest of my peers to agree to spend money for playground improvement! Can you believe it?!
They did NOT want to, nor cared enough, about City playgrounds to buy new, safe equipment, fix the beat down-unsafe basketball courts, etc. to work with me about a plan for improving them! What a scam on their part when they were campaigning for the peoples' vote !

Exactly.......ALL the employees who have been paid well in the Lackawanna Parks and Recreation Department over the past 10 years, should know quite well about the deplorable and unsafe situations in each of them!
What did they do, step over them as they gathered up the left-over free lunches .....that they.......

Thank you again jenrose and everyone else for greasing the squeaky wheel!