To the editor,
As far as I’m concerned, Mayor DeBlasio has been a big disappointment so far into his first term.
Our public school system is in disarray and continuing to fail, violent crime is occurring, and there is little affordable housing, but all he talks about are horse-drawn carriages. This is not a major issue, DeBlasio.
Pretty soon, the Rent Guidelines Board will meet to set increases on rent-stabilized apartments where the leases are expiring. What will the mayor do about this? Will he allow landlords to continue their harassment of tenants in rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments, so that they will move and the landlord can raise the rent to the sky?
How about automatic denials of rent increases in those buildings where there are existing violations? When the violation is removed, the rent increase — if any — should not be retroactive.
Will the mayor bow to the landlords in this town in the same way that he has virtually bowed to Success Academy Charter Schools founder Eva Moskowitz and her group of charter school advocates? They now seem to be in control.
Of course, charter schools are better than public schools. The former does not have to put up with the discipline problems that are routinely dumped on public schools. Let’s see how well the Moskowitz schools and other charters will do if they are made to accept half of the discipline problems that the public schools have to put up with.
This mayor, with his extremely liberal attitude problem, doesn’t actually believe that there are discipline problems. He probably thinks that if you talk to the child and show him or her much love, the child will become a model citizen. Wake up to reality, Mayor DeBlasio.
Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Life lesson 101
To the editor,
Educators need to enlighten our youngsters on social behaviors by taking immediate action to condemn bullying in our schools.
They should make every effort to bring students who don’t behave correctly to the school psychologist for a psychiatric evaluation, followed by appropriate counseling. If parents object, they have the option to enroll their child in another school. If the bullying continues, the Department of Education needs to intervene without parental consent.
Teachers must not allow any pupil to be bullied because inconsiderate social behavior is likely to cause the victims to lash out inappropriately. We should not as a society allow attacks on anyone’s self esteem. This type of cruelty isn’t to be minimized. It breaks the spirit to the core and causes insanity.Amy Kaye
Sheepshead Bay
‘Ostrich’ officials
To the editor,
I often wonder why members of Congress have their heads buried in the sand like ostriches when disaster strikes.
To this day many people are still struggling to rebuild their homes after Hurricane Sandy. Just recently California came close to a water shortage. At times I hear about the polar caps breaking off with the possibility of the tides flooding low-lying areas of the coastline.
After watching what Sandy did to anyone living near the coast, it makes me wonder that future storms may be even bigger and make Sandy look like a minor thing.
In the Midwest, year after year, tornados cause massive destruction, which causes the price of food to go up. Why have we not learned a lesson about building near the shoreline? What will these politicians tell their grandchildren when they ask why they can’t go swimming, why there so many floods, why they can’t see the sun?
Is this the legacy there are going to leave? It’s really a poor one, as far am I’m concerned.Jerry Sattler
Brighton Beach
Dressing down
To the editor,
It is vacuous and stupid that Florida is imposing a dress code for parents as well as students.
People in Florida believe that parents should serve as role models for their children, but they are naive in this instance. What happens if the parents are on welfare or unemployed?
Some schools also won’t admit children unless they take the flu shot. I believe the best way all this can be rectified — although not perfect — is to build more sectarian, private schools, which at one time had 100 students in total, with 12 students to a class.
There might be less pedophile teachers and more conscientious principals in the private sector because they have a greater reputation to preserve.
Elliott Abosh
Brighton Beach
Kudos, Mark & Bill
To the editor,
It’s a breath of fresh air to see the cooperative and collaborative efforts between Councilman Mark Treyger (D–Coney Island) and Mayor DeBlasio in regards to the reforms needed to the federally funded Build It Back Program (“Reforms to Build It Back,” April 25).
Councilman Treyger realized that not enough was being done to help with post-Sandy relief efforts. He also knew that Mayor DeBlasio would be the perfect connection to make these relief efforts a reality.
As an educator and community education advocate for Coney Island, I know how cooperative or collaborative learning is used in a school environment. Team members develop and share a common goal and contribute an understanding of the problem. They respond to questions, insights and solutions, and are accountable to others, who are accountable to them.
Now, it’s time to bring the resources of government and education together for our local schools. We need to bring back individual community school districts. When we had individual school districts, there was a sense of collaboration and cooperation, with regard to specific local school or parental issues that might arise.
We need to bring back the differentiated degrees or options that students could graduate with. Previously, students had the option of graduating with a Regents, general, or commercial degree. Why have different degrees or certifications? Remember, our students learn in very different ways. They might be visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic learners.
We have to offer more career technical education courses and provide the skills needed that tie-in to the Common Core Standards of Education. Our students are lacking the skills needed to be successful in the 21st century workforce.
Let’s talk about Reforms to Build it Back for Education as an educational renaissance. Cooperative and collaborative efforts are what we need for this educational transformation to occur.
We want Councilman Mark Treyger, Mayor Bill DeBlasio, and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina on our education reform team. When you want something done, you want and need the best resources for the job.Scott Krivitsky
The writer is a teacher at PS 188 in Coney Island.
American biz
To the editor,
Next year we are on track to pass Russia in energy production. Energy independence is a noble goal indeed.
Conservatives like me believe fossil fuels are a gift from God, and that global warming is a big fairy tale. The ugly left has been conducting a war on coal for the last 21 business quarters, with 12,000 once full-time coal miners being tossed from their jobs.
The leftists have been closing coal-fired power plants, which will cause the price of electricity to skyrocket by 2015.
Forty-eight percent of the nation’s power grid relies on coal-fired burners, which incidentally burn much cleaner than in the old days. Kentucky and West Virginia have been hit the hardest.
You can produce solar and wind energy, but don’t use my taxpayer dollars. Free market capitalists like me have the moral courage to invest their own capital, at risk, in contracts, ventures, and markets to make profit and dividends. That’s the all-American way of doing business.Todd Davis
Marine Park
Dem Bums
To the editor,
Did you know that the first game to be played at Ebbets Field was an inter-league exhibition game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees on April 5, 1913?
Ebbets Field officially opened on April 9, 1913 against the Philadelphia Phillies. If it had not been for mega builder Robert Moses, along with both the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers leaving the Big Apple in 1957 for California, there may have been no Barclays Center or the Brooklyn Nets.
The golden era of baseball in the city took place in the 1950s with a three-way rivalry between the American League New York Yankees, and the National League New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. All three teams claimed to have the best center fielder in baseball. On street corners all over town, citizens would argue whether the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle, Giants’ Willie Mays or Dodgers’ Duke Snider was champ.
Ordinary Brooklyn natives could ride the bus, trolley or subway to Ebbets Field to see their beloved Dodgers. Working and middle-class men and woman of all ages, classes, and races co-mingled in the stands. Everyone could afford a bleacher, general admission, reserve or box seat. Hot dogs, beer, other refreshments, and souvenirs were reasonably priced.
Team owners would raise or reduce a players salary based on their performance the past season. Salaries were so low, that virtually all Dodger players worked at another job off season. Most Dodger players were actually neighbors who lived and worked in various communities in Brooklyn.
Residents of the era sat outside on the neighborhood stoop, shopped at the local butcher, baker, fruit, and vegetable stand. Television was a relatively new technology and the local movie theater was still king for entertainment. Brooklyn still had its very own daily newspaper — the Brooklyn Eagle. During the 1950s, Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley tried to find various locations for construction of a new baseball stadium which he pledged to finance using his own monies. With limited seating capacity at Ebbets Field, he needed a new modern stadium to remain financially viable.
Moses refused to allow him access to the current day Atlantic Yards project site. This location was easily accessible to thousands of baseball fans from all around the Big Apple via numerous subway lines.
Thousands of fans who moved to other neighborhoods in eastern Queens, Nassau and Suffolk County would have had direct access via the LIRR. Imagine how different Brooklyn would have been if elected officials had stood up to Moses and allowed construction of a new Dodgers stadium in downtown Brooklyn. Without the departure of both the Brooklyn Dodgers (becoming the Los Angeles Dodgers) and New York Giants (San Francisco Giants), there may have been no National League expansion in 1962. There would have been no Colt 45s (original name of the Houston Astros), our beloved New York Mets or the Barclays Center hosting the Brooklyn Nets basketball team.Larry Penner
Great Neck, N.Y.
