Do Our Trustees represent all of West Chester Township?

 

I was surfing the internet yesterday and came across an article on cincinnati.com by Sheila McLaughlin regarding Trustee Wong (West Chester trustee caught parking in handicapped spot). It caught my attention because there was an article submitted here ( A Zebra Cannot Change Its Stripes!) about the same issue. I’m not sure who actually took the picture but apparently they shared it with several people since the cincinnati.com article states that Trustee Lang was their source and the person that submitted the article to us requested to remain anonymous and was not Mr Lang.

In the enquirer online article, the reporter was able to get comments from both Trustee Lee Wong and from Trustee George Lang. It was these comments that I found interesting and thought I would address in this article.

I’ll get to the title of the article below, first I’d like to address Trustee Wong’s comments.

Trustee Wong stated he was in a hurry and did not notice the handicapped sign…

“I got there late and it was an open parking lot, I backed it in and ran right in,”

Wong told The Enquirer.  ”I am sorry. I apologize. I will be more vigilant the

next time. I did not know I was in a handicapped spot. I did not see it. 

I don’t go out to break laws.”

It would be hard to “not” notice that giant handicap sign driving into the parking lot. Anyone that drives  or rides in a car has noticed the empty parking spots generally located near the entrances of public and private buildings. Regardless of how full a parking lot is, people tend to park in the closest spots and fill to the furthest spots. It’s rare to catch one right up front in a busy lot with a high turnover like Kroger or Walmart and finding one at a scheduled event (low turnover) is even rarer.

In other words, the first indication that the space was a handicapped space was the fact that it was in front and empty. 

 

 

 

Assuming that was not enough, there is the giant wheel chair symbol we are all familiar with. I might be a bit more willing to buy the excuse that he didn’t notice it if he had parked a full sized truck. I own a large extended cab truck and based on the image, it would cover the handicap symbol. Even the small car to the right would partially block the symbol, possibly enough to not notice it if you were in a hurry. However, looking at the image, I find it difficult to believe that a driver of this car exiting and walking to the front would not notice the huge handicapped symbol, even if in a hurry.

 

 

The other quote in the cincinnati.com article I found interesting was the one by George Lang.

Lang said, “I just want to know is he taking advantage. I’ve seen him in trustee meetings do things that only benefit him and his neighbors.”

(I suspect there is a typo or misquote there, It makes more sense that Mr Lang wanted “others” or “voters” or “people” to know)

I’m sure some people will just write this off as opportunistic on the part of Mr Lang as well as whoever took the picture. Is there any truth to his claim? Does Lee Wong only care about some of the people in West Chester Township? I personally believe he does. I don’t base that on just my feelings or political leanings. I had a very reliable source tell me that Mr Wong has stated himself that he only cares about Beckett Ridge. I doubt I’ll ever get him to go on the record but I have no reason to believe he would make that up since I was told this before I began writing articles for this site. I understand that is just “hearsay”. What about some real proof?

 Watch the beginning of these two videos. The two Trustee meetings are less than 2 months apart. Watch how Trustee Wong votes differently for the people that wish to address the Trustees outside of the official citizen comment period.

 

Video 1 – On June 12th 2012, Trustee Wong voted no to allow a comment after the official citizen comment period was ended saying “He can come next meeting”.

 

Video 2 – This video is from the April 24th 2012 Trustee meeting where Mr Wong asked his neighbor if he wanted to speak after the official citizen comment period was ended

 

The second video was the beginning of a huge blowup and the subject of an earlier article here (Who I’m endorsing for West Chester Trustee Election) regarding the Eagleridge Crosswalk.  In addition to the crosswalk debacle, I also believe the unpopular zoning amendment addressing RV and commercial vehicle parking was brought about by pandering to Beckett Ridge voters. As I stated in another article (The Character of the Community), I have nothing against Beckett Ridge but West Chester Township should not be managed as a subsidiary of the Beckett Ridge HOA as it seems Mr. Wong does.

Based on these two videos, it seems that Mr. Lang’s comments were well grounded in fact.