To the Editor,
We are supposed to learn from history. However, too often, we do not learn its lessons.
New York City is a tourist mecca. Our great landmarks include the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the Coney Island Boardwalk, and the United Nations, to name just a few. These attractions bring tourists to New York and help the economy.
One of these attractions is the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Standing on the Promenade, you get a great view of the New York skyline. I have met many tourists on the Promenade. These individuals then shop in the local shops.
The BQE that goes under the Promenade is due for much-needed repairs. The proposals that seem to be most likely to be adopted would require the closing of the Promenade for several years. This would be a disaster for several reasons:
• It would reduce the number of tourists coming to Brooklyn Heights.
• There would be reductions in store revenue.
• There would be a loss of jobs as a result.
• There is no guarantee that the Promenade would be restored at all, let alone in the magnificent manner that it is.
The better method would be to keep the Promenade as is and use the streets.Alan Podhaizer
Coney Island
Gotcha!
To the Editor,
A few months ago I wrote about those wonderful “smart meters” being installed by Con Edison. By the hundreds, our old meters were replaced with a new wireless system that would let millennials and others watch every watt consumed and do billing and such, using their hand-held device. I also warned that the benevolent Edison would start charging for time-of-day use, though neighbors pooh-poohed the notion. GOTCHA!
Con Edison has just announced that it will inaugurate “Time of Day” demand charges for residents. Now, during certain hours of the day, stay-at-home mothers and retirees have to choose whether to turn on the air-conditioning, pay through the nose, or swelter in the heat. Thinking about doing your laundry at noon? Better put it off until midnight. The price for turning on your electric clothes dryer will bring tears to your eyes, and if you have an electric hot water heater…FORGETTABOUTIT!
We are told that, thanks to the greenies stymieing every effort in power plant construction, we have now started going backward. No power plants equal no additional power to energize your electronic goodies you cannot live without. So, as one by one the major plants retire, without a solid reliable source to replace them, it is time to squirrel away a pile of extra cash to pay for your upcoming energy bills.
Candles anyone?Robert W. Lobenstein
Sheepshead Bay
Control co-op
To the Editor,
It never amazes me to see what landlords and renegade co-op boards can get away with in New York City.
It used to be that when apartments were vacated in buildings, the apartment was painted, floors were scraped, and the new tenant moved in. The apartment next to mine was recently vacated and now it has been sold. While writing this letter, I am being subjected to continuous banging. It becomes extremely difficult to stay in the apartment while all this noise is taking place. There is a notice on the door of the apartment that management has given permission for this remodeling to take place. I keep checking affected areas to see if damage has occurred in my apartment. My luxury co-op is on Avenue Z and is 61 years of age. I question whether the infrastructure of the building can take all this excessive banging without walls collapsing or pipes bursting. How can the Buildings Department allow this to go on?
Last year, when two apartments on the floor below were remodeled, our incinerator became infested with cockroaches who literally came out of the walls.
I believe that this is a very serious situation and something had better be done before there is a major collapse within the structure. My problem is further complicated as we have no representation from our building on the co-op board. Therefore, the board feels it can do as it pleases, as there is no input whatsoever from residents in my building. The co-op consists of three apartment buildings adjacent to each other. We cannot get a quorum to hold yearly elections.Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Vote for 99 percent
To the Editor,
Overcrowded streets, avenues, highways, trains, stores, and such are all due to over development. Enough already! Go build in Wyoming; there is plenty of open sky and green space there for real estate developers and their dutifully approving elected officials to ruin.
And while you are at it, give us some elected representatives who care to improve the quality of our (the tax-paying citizens) lives; and who understand efficient budgeting and oversight so that our tax dollars stop going down what feels like an abyss of nothingness, causing our taxes to endlessly go up with little to show for it, and the work of people elected to representate us.
I recently renamed “The White House” to “The White Nationalist Grifter House.”
This symbolic and very real place that is the whole of D.C. politics needs become “lily white,” via new tenants in the executive and legislative branches, come January 2021.
Frankly, at this point, I don’t care if you vote blue or red because the REAL BATTLE is economic, a CLA$$ WARFARE; and it always has been.
If you’re not part of the one percent you should be VERY angry at the extreme dysfunction of the electoral and political systems in place, and the only partisan voting should be for and with the 99 percent tribe … PERIOD.
In this day and age, there are still some differences between the blue and red parties, and for me the blue rhetoric better approaches a kind, thoughtful, generous heart that is first for WE THE PEOPLE, the tax-paying, voting citizenry.
Please: I implore people to think and feel for yourself; the world isn’t black and white, nor are most decisions; and surely the vital issues before us should not be solely decided by tribal upbringing — unless it’s the 99 percent tribe.Barry Brothers
Homecrest
Eat local
To the Editor,
In these difficult economic times, it is especially important to patronize your local neighborhood restaurant — not only during “Dine The Boroughs March 18–29”— but all year round. There are so many great resturants in Brooklyn to select from. Some of my favorites include Juniors, Floridian Diner, Brennan and Carr, and Roll and Roster.
My wife and I don’t mind occasionally paying a little more to help our local restaurants survive. Don’t forget your cook and server. We try to tip 20 percent against the total bill including taxes. If it is an odd amount, we round up to the next dollar. If we can afford to eat out, we can afford an extra dollar tip. When ordering take out, we always leave a dollar or two for the waiter or cook. It is appreciated.
Remember these people are our neighbors. Our local entrepreneurs have continued to create new employment opportunities without the assistance of federally-funded taxpayers’ stimulus dollars. They work long hours, pay taxes, and provide local employment. If we don’t patronize our local restaurants to shop and eat, they don’t eat either.
Please join me and your neighbors in continuing to support the Park Slope, Bay News, Graphic, and Mill–Marine Brooklyn Courier publications. Patronize their restaurant advertisers; they provide the necessary revenues to help keep them in business. Let them know you saw their ad.Larry Penner
Great Neck
