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Vote out incumbents
Letter to the Editor, Trenton Times, Sunday, April 30, 2006
In the upcoming municipal elections, I hope voters remember the proposed Leewood Village debacle and what it says about our candidates. Leewood would have razed six square blocks of historic South Trenton and displaced hundreds of families to make way for a large-scale project by a New York developer.
City council members John Ungrady, Cordelia Staton and Manny Segura hosted a community meeting to present the plan at which more than 300 people were outraged to learn that their homes were to be demolished. Our council members refused to attend civic association meetings to hear concerns, even when they were drawing hundreds of angry residents. The Palmer administration let the ugly debate rage for a year before finally pulling the plug. Trenton voters should also know that Leewood has been a generous supporter of our incumbent candidates.
Paul Pintella and Ungrady defended the plan in the press, with Pintella claiming that "new bricks are better than old bricks" and Ungrady suggesting that "they (angry residents) should take that Mill Hill attitude back to Mill Hill."
Leading the fight against the plan were activists, now candidates Jim Carlucci, Jim Coston and Frank Weeden.
On May 9, don't let the struggles of our South Trenton neighbors be in vain.
DAN DODSON
Trenton
The writer is a Leadership Trenton fellow.
Copyright 2006, Dan Dodson
