Let’s talk about New York State.
Because if you live in Mount Vernon long enough, you start to notice a pattern.
Every time residents hit a wall — every time a situation gets bad enough that someone says surely the state will step in — we hear the same answer.
There’s nothing we can do.
City drifting toward financial disaster?
“There’s nothing we can do.”
A building department so dysfunctional dangerous structures sit for years and buildings collapse from neglect?
“There’s nothing we can do.”
Sewage and contamination flowing into stormwater drains?
“There’s nothing we can do.” But we will prop up the person responsible as some kind of water infrastructure expert…
Library board dysfunction and unanswered ethics complaints?
“Oh — you filed it a year ago? Sorry. There’s nothing we can do.”
A Comptroller constantly “losing” money and relying on payday loans just to stay afloat?
“There’s nothing we can do.”
City-approved development decisions that result in an apartment building on top of your house?
“Yeah, there’s nothing we can do.”
Open Meetings Law violations. FOIL violations. Transparency ignored.
“We provide guidance. We don’t enforce.”
Translation:
“There’s nothing we can do.”
Electric bills climbing higher than mortgages because the state allowed a virtual monopoly and regulators keep rubber-stamping increases?
They’ll issue a press release. They’ll condemn the situation. They’ll even hold a press conference. But when it comes to real relief?
“There’s nothing we can do.”
The State will claim, “but we do things for Mount Vernon” — just as Hochul emissary Pavan Naidu did, rattling off irrelevant bullet points that had nothing to do with what residents were actually asking for.
But nothing ever changes.
Look at the Building Department. The State supposedly went in. There were meetings. There was a report. And yet nothing changed. The department remains as dysfunctional as ever — the same lack of oversight, the same failures residents have been raising for years. It is all smokescreens and lip service.
The State’s own report — paraphrasing — acknowledged that the department failed to produce meaningful records and documentation. In any serious oversight process, that should have triggered real consequences. Instead, the State walked away.
And only months later, we got the Camelot Funeral Home situation — a horrifying example of what happens when oversight exists on paper but not in practice. Authorities found 13 decomposing bodies and 17 boxes of cremated remains inside an unlicensed facility operating in Mount Vernon. Families were still being misled, funeral services were still being held, and basic regulatory safeguards had clearly failed. The operator’s license had already been revoked, yet the business continued to function for months.
That didn’t happen overnight. It happened because inspections and enforcement were not happening when they should have — another failure of the same system everyone claims is being “addressed.”
This is the pattern: reports, talking points, and press conferences — but no sustained enforcement, no follow-through, and no meaningful change for residents.
So, let’s address that pink elephant over there in the corner:
What is the point of state government if it cannot — or will not — act when local government fails?
If oversight means no enforcement . . .
If authority means no action . . .
If every agency exists only to point to someone else . . .
Then what is the point? Why do we pay state taxes? Why do agencies exist that claim oversight but take no responsibility?
Why are residents left holding the bag while every level of government passes the buck?
Governor Kathy Hochul travels the state talking about helping “real New Yorkers.”
Mount Vernon residents are real New Yorkers.
We’ve written letters. Filed complaints. Requested oversight. Asked for intervention.
What we got back was campaign messaging. And the same answer:
“There’s nothing we can do.”
Governor Hochul may very well win reelection.
But it won’t be because people feel helped, protected, or supported.
It will be because too many real New Yorkers feel like they never had another option in the first place.
And that’s why local reform matters.
Because if the state won’t step in… if agencies won’t enforce… then residents have exactly one option left:
Fix the system ourselves — from the ground up.
There’s always something we can do — and we will.
Power to the People.