I've Got Your Number

Here is a letter from a Scarsdale10583 reader: We live in a town where seemingly eternal education (and its resultant financial success) is the highly valued norm. Within each household, at least one member's name is followed by MD or JD, or at least one person makes the daily pilgrimage downtown to Wall Street, where the stars of the financial sector shine brightly. Having lived in this community for over 17 years, I could not help but notice that our limitless opportunity (read entitlement) has resulted in an interesting phenomenon; each individual person has come to believe that he is uniquely the most important person alive.

Yet I remain in Scarsdale, ensconced in my community, having found my smaller world – friends with shared values, common beliefs and an appreciation of the fortunate hands we have been dealt. Why, then, put forth the effort, take pen to paper to express my view regarding our privileged neighbors? Sadly, intellect and finance do not necessarily have wisdom as a corollary. I have a pet peeve which is clearly not shared by many in this town, a grievance ignored by most, a simple task which if not undertaken, can only result in harm to oneself and possibly others.

HOUSE NUMBERS! Drive through Scarsdale and notice that it is the rare home that clearly displays a number. Homes large (gigantic) and small (still quite large) remain unidentifiable in conflict with the residential code, building code and fire code for the state of New York. This issue has been difficult for me for many years, as I struggled to locate unfamiliar houses for my children's playdates or attendance of birthday parties. The creation of applications such as Waze has vastly improved my life, by immeasurably diminishing my overwhelming anxiety associated with any sentence beginning with "Mom – can you please drop me off at...?" More importantly, I am not the only one unable to readily locate a specific address – the speed with which ambulance workers, firemen and policemen identify one's house is also impeded by an absence of visible house number. A few years ago, the Scarsdale Fire Department, in an effort to facilitate home identification, even went so far as to provide highly visible, reflective white house numbers on green backgrounds to be placed outside an individual's residence, available at no cost to anyone upon request. Did our citizens avail themselves of this opportunity? While few did, the predominance did not ... perhaps the esthetics of the signs were too displeasing. If so, alternatives include personally acquiring a more elegant house number, or delaying the identification of one's home in the case of emergency (or playdate).

I am left wondering why people with such intelligence, so much education, would not perform a task as simple and helpful as placing a visible street number on their home or property. Enable those who want to help you (or have our children play together) to do so. To our emergency workers, when you are in danger, you truly ARE the most important individual alive... give our responders an opportunity to find and assist you, should the situation arise.