Prevent Pollution

We'd like much more than an ounce of prevention. And you know the rest of the proverb.

There is still anxiety about air pollution in the Knickerbocker/Dover Center area..

The Observer ran our column of months ago. A more recent one got lost in the shuffle, but there is wide community interest.  The bad air that time (11/12/09) came when most people were asleep; a new angle. And warm weather is ripe for trouble.

Maybe we know the identity of the offender. We seek confirmation, though, from the powers that be – so we, too, can monitor the issue. Scores or hundreds of us know the history. And the landlords of one building look innocent and have opposed pollution.

We have been stonewalled long enough. At the very least, we want assurance from the proper authorities that they: have warned the alleged offender; have given him/her some guidance; are monitoring; assure us that it is very highly unlikely that the trouble will occur again. Maybe say so in The Observer.

We realize that the offender may be a hefty taxpayer; so, few want to antagonize him. And there has been no evil lately unless we slept through it. There was one we didn't sleep through, though, alas.

We'll write to Nan Baker and Dennis Kucinich. The White House has answered with a letter that isn't even germane – but that will straighten out. Bureaucracy can fail innocently sometimes in such a large outfit.