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Senator Savino was hogging all the airtime. I'm sure she's knowledgeable on the subject, but the next time she's booked, Brian needs to do a better job in curtailing her comments. He let her go on and on way too long for this short segment. Turn down the volume from her call if need be to let someone else get a word in edgewise.

mary 22
i do know one ting; it's not a place i would ever think to live.

Through these many years St. George has been welcoming to a fault and now we're paying a dear price for our our charitable ways. Because we are saturated with social agencies, SRO's and halfway houses, our streets are far from safe during the day and very unsafe after sundown. We certainly do not need to have St. Vincent's bring into our midst more ex-cons and drug abusers when we're trying so very hard to live with the burden we already have. Give us a chance to recover while we still have hope.

No 1 hjs doesn't know what they're talking about. We're saying not in my backyard because it's already in our front yards, our backyards, our side yards, up the block, down the street. This neighborhood is saturated with social services while the rest of the Island won't permit even a home for the aged near their homes. And the vast majority of these social service clients are imported. NYC has decided to outsource social services to the forgotten part of the forgotten borough.

Mary

The area has had its fair share of Social Programs. St. Vincent should donate the house for a school or artist housing.

All those who are concerned about the mentally ill should realize that anyone in this facility will probably have a criminal background. So, do you want your relative there? We, in the neighborhood, don't want them either. The rent a cop who will keep order will not keep the residents from spilling into the neighborhood, which is full of school children passing right by the facility.

re: comment #5 - is this a race issue? Yes, to a certain extent it is. It is also a class issue and an age issue. St Vincents expects that since large numbers of minorities and low-income families and young people live in this neighborhood they can just dump whatever ill-conceived facility they desire here and residents will not raise a public outcry. Enough! It is time that something be done about the corporate interests assuming that they will ALWAYS get their way when dealing with regular people who don't wield power in the corporate world. If they couldn't stop Bruce Ratner in Brooklyn I don't know how we'll stop St Vincents here but we're certainly going to try.

Diane Savino was very informed on this issue. Linda Wilson did not seem informed about the plans for this facility. She says things like : "I don't think so" or "I don't believe that is the case". We need to hear from someone who does know the specific use of this facility. There are too many open ends and the neighborhood fears are not being addressed.

Brian, Thank you for reading from my letter regarding Democrats versus Republicans.

The important points here are:

1. This neighborhood is already flooded with social services like this one. Spread them out. We have enough. St. George is primarily democrats and the rest of Staten Island is republican so the powers that be always take advantage of the fact that we are open to these things but enough is enough already! (Post one: Don't comment unless you know what you are talking about.)

2. There are three schools literally around the corner from this site. The neighborhood has recently been attracting a lot of young couples who are starting to have babies and many of my neighbors have said that they will move if this site opens. One neighbor said that he'd rather have a prison there because at least there would be supervision.

3. We are sick to death of idiotic comments like those posted here (see post 9 and 12). St. George, Staten Island is a beautiful place to live and if you keep placing all of the social services or projects in one area we will never be able to get out from under this idiotic ridicule. Give Staten Island a break for once! Put this facility in Brooklyn, or better yet, Manhattan.

We have had enough and we will fight this to the end.

This facility would be located at the top of a steep hill, not particularly convenient to public transportation and in a residential neighborhood with many schools close by. The only excuse for this place being here is that the north shore is the dumping ground for all SI's social services. I've lived in St. George happily for 5 years, but I'm constantly stunned at how segregated and corrupt the borough is as a whole. I see the resistance to this facility as a positive step toward the north shore standing up and trying to get some sort of fairness from the south shore and mid-island.

If this project comes about, my wife and children will be walking past this "guardless prison!" Not to mention that there are also 3 public schools within yards. They want to house former inmates from Sing Sing prison who were convicted of sex crimes and other terrible terrible acts. Let's not wait for something awful to happen before we can take action. This neighborhood is already overpopluated with these types of houses. Spread it out. Let our neighborhood flourish.

Slighly off the topic:

We have four empty prisons being fully staffed!Released prisoners need preparation they didn't get in prison. Can,t we do something better than just pay for something that has little purpose i.e. a prison without prisoners. Our prisons seem to teach how to be more criminal. Our state legislature has introduced a new level of welfare for upstate communities.

Linda says this is a place for people to live but clearly she and her young children do not live within walking distance of this facility as I do. Furthermore, where is the representative for St Vincents? I find it very telling that the "pro" side was argued by someone who is nt privy to the details of this plan.

anthony 9

agreed! i think we should make it a state park or something

Good for protesting St. Vincents. Of course they have mislead people. It's endemic there. After working ten years with the institution I finally left a good job because of concerns of managements ethical conduct. They have a young top brass who are so money oriented, they have shown no scruples. The word Charity was pulled from their 150 motto in recent years. This may be a a good project... but they need to be held accountable for their presentations

Oh... sorry Chris..You have said it better than I did.
Carry on. :-)

doesn't one have to be mentally ill to live on Staten Island in the first place?

The senator interrupts the other guest (and Brian!) but consistently asks that she not be interrupted. "Let me finish the point." GET TO THE POINT THEN.

This senator is doing absolutely nothing for her constituantes. If she wants to run the show then she should get her own. I do not believe that you plow through the HOSTS job.

All the State Senator does is talk and talk and then demand she be allowed to finish her point which is just an extended series of points, almost a filibuster.

Senator Savino is acting like a bully!
is this a race issue?

Hopes for gentrification of St. George are perennial. The new initiative should help dash them again.

We don't need another facility for the mentally ill.

We have the streets of NYC to put these people on.

Oh wait what about the subways yeah let's dump all these people in the subways.

No one has said that this is another bush tax cut!

Can the US afford more tax cuts while soending so much on war?

"not in my back yard said the Staten islanders" i've heard this old story.