NIMBY at a New High (or Rather, Low!)

A June 10 Riverdale (NY) Press article reported that for some time now 45 residents of a health care facility for elderly and disabled in the Bronx have been obliged to travel by special bus, most on a daily basis, to obtain their methadone from a maintenance facility in the neighboring town of Yonkers. It has obviously been a great inconvenience to the patients - as well as costly and disruptive (an estimated taxpayer cost of $150,000 yearly, and "loading and unloading the patients, some of whom are in wheelchairs, on the buses backs up traffic..."). So . . .the facility has proposed operating a methadone program on-site under terms that would involve a maximum of four non-facility residents receiving methadone there.

The reaction: outrage of the local residents who "just say no to methadone." There is worry over "what kind of people" would be attracted to the proposed program . . .[and] the possibility of a different breed [sic!] coming around here... "

Even with stories about NIMBY appearing from cities and towns around the nation, this one really is beyond the pale. How terribly sad!

Article can be accessed by clicking here.