To the editor,
I have spoken to many people since my thoughts and opinions concerning the concreting of the Coney Island Boardwalk were published and debated on your Letters to the Editor page.
Everyone I spoke to agrees that wood is preferable to concrete, but only if it can be properly maintained and replaced when necessary to prevent all the many dangerous situations for the millions of visitors to our beautiful Coney Island resort.
Everyone commented about the wood sticking up, the nails and screws protruding, and the overall poor and weak condition of our beloved Boardwalk. Waiting for grant money each and every time something happens to planks is totally unacceptable and ridiculous by anyone’s standards. To that point we are all on same page and in total agreement. It costs many times more to settle medical and accident lawsuits occurring from poor conditions than it costs to build a completely new Boardwalk — wood or concrete. It is pretty obvious that what is needed is for the maintenance staff to have proper training and permits to do the work themselves. Who can argue that point? Until that happens (and now it is probably too late anyway), we are whistling Dixie, and just fantasizing and dreaming, which in a strange and ironic twist is just what an amusement park is all about.
The biggest difference in my viewpoint, and that of those who still are opposing concrete, is a question of how much time do you let go by before you throw in the white towel of surrender and say fix it once and for all, and stop with the wood already!
I waited 30 years, and think that displays amazing patience, but others disagree. So be it.
The Council has voted and decided not to continue with the wood. For now this is etched in concrete, but I will continue to keep an open mind.
Ron Kriegel
Coney Island
Bottle battles
To the editor,
Carmine Santa Maria (“Big Screecher”), I take Ecotrin coated aspirin, and have also used Bayer, but neither have had push-down-and-turn caps (“Carmine’s had it with bottles of aspirin,” April 26).
Here’s something helpful and less frustrating than carrying around an ax — wrap an ordinary rubber band several times around the screw cap (I don’t know how it would work with the push-down-and-turn caps, which I have only seen on prescription drug bottles).
The rubber band helps immeasurably — even on jars of spaghetti sauce, and bottles of juice and soft drinks. I have muscle weakness as a side effect of a prescription medication I stopped taking years ago — hence my need for help in opening bottles and jars.
Bryna Millman
Kensington
Stan’s ‘wrong’
To the editor,
Stanley Gershbein (“It’s Only My Opinion”) is wrong — many “Occupiers” have jobs, but want to protect income inequality (“Stan takes on jobless occupiers,” April 12).
He also doesn’t like legalizing marijuana. At a meeting of the U.S. and Latin American countries, they agreed that the war on drugs is a failure. Tobacco kills 400,000 people each year, while marijuana has been found to be less harmful.
Legalizing it would stop drug cartel violence and drug smuggling. Drugs are legal in Norway, and regulated.
Also, in his April 26 column, “Stan once again cleans his pockets,” he protests workers’ high wages. Corporations don’t create jobs, consumer-buying does. There are 40 million working poor in this country. Isn’t that enough?
Jerome Frank
Coney Island
Marine ‘Lark’
To the editor,
The forthcoming Marine Park field house had an original price tag of $5.5 million to build. Seven years later, we are up to $16 million, and the “green building” still ain’t finished! It’s cost taxpayers $5,000 per square foot, to date. Government confiscates the wealth created in the private sector of our free-market capitalism.
Bureaucrats have spent $5 trillion since 2008, and where are the jobs? Follow the Reagan-Friedman blueprint for jobs!
Tod Davis
Marine Park
Joan’s two cents
To the editor,
Why haven’t Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton spoken out about the low blow against a white man by drunken Detroit Tigers’ outfielder Delmon Young, who spewed anti-Semitic remarks at a yarmulke-wearing man in a midtown hotel? Could the reason be that they are probably as prejudiced as Young, and speak out only when it’s a white person who is in the wrong?
I pray there’s lots of community service in the future for Delmon Young, like cleaning garbage off the streets of the city.
Joan Applepie
Mill Basin
…
To the editor,
There have been two anti-Semitic incidents recently: Detroit Tiger Baseball Player Delmon Young lapsed into an anti-Semitic rant, and students at Northport High School on Long Island allegedly harassed a Jewish student and the school administration did nothing to stop it.
These incidents prove that anti-Semitism is alive and well-functioning in society. As far as Northport goes, who will the administration have address the graduates next month? Delmon Young or Mel Gibson? I would suggest that they read Laura Z. Hobson’s “Gentleman’s Agreement,” or see its 1947 Oscar-winning film. Ditto for the films “Crossfire,” also in 1947, and “Schindler’s List” (1993).
This disgusting outburst of hatred can’t be tolerated. It just shows that we can never let our guard down. I would like to see our politicians commenting on this, or do they continue to do what’s politically expedient?
Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
‘Despicable’ Bam
To the editor,
I find it disgusting and despicable that President Obama went to Afghanistan to address this nation in what can only be characterized as another campaign speech. There was no reason to spend an obscene amount of taxpayer dollars on that trip when that speech could have been made from the White House at far less of a burden on an already overburdened taxpayer base.
As I recall, “Candidate Obama” stated in 2007 that if elected President, his first order of business would be to bring our troops home. Yeah, right. This man has no shame. His party ran an attack advertisement in which Bill Clinton praised President Obama as a great wartime leader who made the tough decision to take out Osama bin Laden. Then a trailer ran under the video that asked whether Mitt Romney would have done it. That is way out of line, even for this administration.
Obama does rate the credit for giving the order, but then that’s his job. He’s the commander-in-chief, it goes with the turf. I hope he enjoys his 15 minutes of fame, because that’s about the only thing he did right as president.
He must also take the heat for his massive investments in his green agenda that went bust, as were ObamaCare, runaway spending, the massive debt, the bailouts, the pipeline deal, the ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the czars, the loss of our credit rating, the failure to deal with the illegal aliens, Fast and Furious, the appointments of all the cronies, buffoons, criminals, incompetents, communists, socialists, and left-wing zealots who are destroying the republic, the insults to our best allies, and the butt-kissing of our enemies, Medicare, Social Security, the glaring lack of transparency in his bloated government, and last but certainly not least, not passing a legally mandated budget for the third year in a row!
Knowing this gang, they’ll wait until after a presumed re-election of Obama so he won’t have to worry about the political backlash. To vote for another four years of this carnival barker’s conniving would be insane.
David Podesta
Marine Park
Election buzz
To the editor,
Is Ron Paul in bed with the Nazis? A video of him standing under the Confederate flag talking about how the wrong side won the Civil War was put out by a group of hackers who have been going after Paul under what they call “Operation Blitzkrieg.”
Even more shocking is that Mitt Romney may be part of this mix, according to articles printed about him on the Internet.
Looks like this is going to be one heck of an election!
David Raisman
Bay Ridge
Cool off tan-mom
To the editor,
I am in accordance with Peter Orsi’s letter, “Mom burn” (May 10) that the tanning mother, whose daughter got a severe sunburn, is being treated too severely.
Florida, for example, is the sun capital of the nation with the highest rates of melanomas and other types of dermatological cancers. It is equally true that amateur or pro-tennis players have a higher rate of skin cancer. People who want to be outdoors should take precautions, but know that certain risks are involved.
I would suggest a deal should be worked out with the prosecutor and the judge, that this lady should go to counseling. It also needs to be remembered that certain types of drugs and medications, including ones bought over the counter, can make certain people more sensitive to the sun. Also, biological parents don’t always have exactly the same traits as their offspring.
Elliott Abosh
Brighton Beach
To the editor,
Most Tuesday’s at the former Prima Pasta Restaurant’s Buffet in Mill Basin, disgraced ex-senator and convicted con Carl Kruger would make a half dozen trips to the “feeding trough,” eating anything and everything — nothing even close to kosher.
His companions, probably his doctor friend and his mother, would join him to enjoy the benefits of his credit card. Could it have been on his state senator’s expense account card?
Now Carl is kosher and wants to go to Otisville Prison with his gynecologist buddy. Somebody please call the director of prisons and tell him not to be conned by this con.
R. Howe
Marine Park
