As food prices go up, Deerpark resident Gladys Murphy has quit buying cakes and started baking them at home. She also seldom purchases meat now, except for chicken on sale.
“I cry every time I go to the store. I pick something up, and then I have to put it down because it costs too much,” Murphy told The Epoch Times outside the polling site at Deerpark Senior Center, New York, on Nov. 8.
Both Murphy and her husband are retired and live on Social Security income.
They use oil for winter heating, and the cost of filling up their 275-gallon tank could go well above $1,500 this year. Typically, they need to refill three times during the winter.
“I dread the upcoming oil [charge.] Nobody can afford that,” she said.
Murphy is also very concerned with crime in New York City. She quit visiting her sisters down there and only talks to them through video chat or phone.
A dozen voters in Deerpark, Mount Hope, and Port Jervis expressed the same sentiment outside polling sites. They told The Epoch Times that their top two concerns are the rising cost of living and crime.
As gas prices remain high, Port Jervis resident Kathy Walsh carefully plans her trips to minimize mileage.
“I don’t go shopping and browse around like I used to do. If I have to go somewhere, I combine my trips to one location and do it all at once,” Walsh told The Epoch Times.
She works part-time as an office worker to supplement her Social Security income, which alone cannot support her living.
Walsh used to visit New York City for shopping, sightseeing, and Broadway plays. But, just like Murphy, she quit going down there over the crime concern.
“There are shootings all the time. It is crazy,” she said.
Port Jervis resident Richard Messerle only buys food on sale at grocery stores and has cut big on dining out—he usually doesn’t come out of the house unless for those purposes to save gas.
He blames the rising cost of living on those in power—the Democrats.
A Democrat for most of his life, Messerle voted for the greatest number of Republicans this year, hoping to restore some balance in both the federal and the state government, he said.
“I don’t think one party completely dominating the other is a good thing. That is not good for Democrats and not good for Republicans,” he said. “Positive changes in the state have to start with a Republican majority to check on the Democrats.”
Since 2019, the New York state government—the senate, assembly, and governorship—has been under full Democratic control.
Lifetime Deerpark resident Bob Zeller said he is worried about the inflation and rising cost of living, which he thinks is caused by the overspending by the federal and state government.
One such example is the unemployment payments, he said.
“I think the government is aiding [unemployment] by paying people to stay home,” he said. “A lot of people are sitting home waiting for that perfect job, but sometimes you have to take a lesser job to get to the perfect job.”
His son has a job but still can’t afford to live on his own under the current economy. He lives with Zeller now.
Zeller also worries about the crime in New York City but said it hadn’t reached places like Deerpark yet.
However, Mount Hope resident Henry Grusz fears that the crime in the city will eventually make its way upstate.
“They are moving up here, and the crimes come with them,” Grusz told The Epoch Times.
Deerpark resident Rich echoed the sentiment.
“I’m afraid it is going to get here with people moving out of the cities,” he said. “We just have to protect our area and our families before it gets out of control.”
Rich and his family used to take the train down to New York City for Yankees games but no longer do it now.
He declined to disclose his last name.
Rich blames the crime on the state bail reform, which was passed right after the Democrats gained full control of the state government in 2019; the reform did away with cash bail for all misdemeanors and most nonviolent felonies.
Since its passage, there have been two fixes to make more crimes eligible for bail under public pressure.
“It seems like they are giving the criminals more rights than they are giving the law-abiding citizens,” Rich said. “We are just headed in the wrong direction. I don’t want New York to end up like California. We are close.”
Other Concerns
Two residents, Calina Vasquez from Deerpark and Jim Seymour from Mount Hope, told The Epoch Times that their top concern is access to abortion post-Roe v. Wade.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 6-3 ruling, overturned Roe v. Wade, a decades-old legal precedent that largely legalized abortion in the nation.
Vasquez said she supported legal abortion services for women, especially teenagers and raped women who want to end their pregnancies.
Seymour said that nobody, except women, is entitled to make decisions on abortion.
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Cara is an Orange County, New York-based Epoch Times reporter. She can be reached at cara.ding@epochtimes.com
