After my article in today's Saratogian about the issues between residents of the west side neighborhood sandwiched between St. Charles Place, West Avenue and Grand Avenue and the Developers Steven Kamen and Steven Komp, I received a phone message from one very dissatisfied area resident.

A Mr. Al Bonacio, presumably father of developer Sonny Bonaccio, called to express his displeasure.

"The articel is slanted toward the developers, and didn't help us at all," he alleges. For the record, Mr. Bonaccio was not present at a Tuesday afternoon press conference that I attended, though his wife, Linda, was.

Well, I suppose that when you call in the press, offer them stories about how tightly knit the community is, with people plowing each other's driveways and building wheelchair ramps, and claim that the developers are ruining the neighborhood's character, you expect the story's sole source.

I think that our readers deserve a more balanced approach, and that is why I reached out to the developers. When the developers tell me that they intend to find a way to make good on the neighbor's complaints, I have no reason not to take them at their word, and so that perspective gets written in to the story. The alternative would have been to serve as the resident's mouthpeice, and that is not my job.

Mr. Bonaccio also asked if we had read the group's position paper, which details the resident's complaints against Kamen and Komp. The answer is that yes, I did. It is true that the neighbors have listed several instances in which the developers have not made good on their word. I was not able to independantly jerify any of these, and as such, I didn't think it was fair to rake anyone over the coals.

However, I did leave one question unanswered in yesterday's story, and that is the question of enforcement. The city Planning Board is responsible for guiding development through the planning process, it is not their job to ensure that plans are followed to a 'T.' That is the role of the city's building department, which has responded to Kamen's failure to meet his approved site plane by granting him only temporary certificates of occupancy, which have been renewed every six months.

Should the building department have sharper teath?