To the editor,
Good for the swans, good for swan crusader Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D–Sheepshead Bay), and good for us for having an assemblyman who cares.
The name “Department of Environmental Conservation” sounds so protective, but what a double-edged sword it becomes when it is training its gun-sights on these creator-beautified, aquatic birds with a so-called management plan calling for their extermination by 2025.
Sounds like a final solution, with shades of Nazi genocidal subterfuge. Sure, the agency justifies its plan by “expert” assessment of the damage to the habitat of native ducks and geese.
Come on! This is putting out a contract on the swans. I guess the pesky goose-creatures flanking the swans in the water risking an occasional peck to compete for crumb handouts off the docks is evidence of their inability to co-exist?
That’s it. The ducks are flanking them in protest.
How about picking on a more formidable target, say, the fossil-fuel-exuding fishing and party boats that moor at the piers? Can’t we make them electric or solar-powered at an affordable boarding cost?
And, what of the thriving invisible water rat population? Anyone measuring their environmental negatives? The more garbage they eat, the more disease spreads. Where’s the pied piper to draw them from the waterfronts and dumpsters into the oncoming traffic or A.S.P.C.A. death camp? No, this fishing hamlet ain’t Hamelin. And leave our seagulls alone too.J. J. Lauria
Sheepshead Bay
A-plus for Fontbonne
To the editor,
I applaud Principal Mary Ann Spicijaric of Fontbonne Hall Academy for having the vision and determination to make science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education a priority in her school.
As an educator and community education advocate in Coney Island, it’s wonderful to see other educators thinking outside of the box and moving towards the career and technical education model for education for their schools.
This can benefit students directly by providing earning advantages before and after graduation. It can benefit them indirectly by increasing engagement, retention, and persistence, and by directing them to post-secondary education and pursuit of lifelong learning.
It’s also important to point out that students considered “at risk” or “disadvantaged” and students with disabilities have greater success when they are enrolled in technology education, tech prep, school-to-career, and other career and technical education programs.
Let’s talk about creating a unique pathway to the career and technical education model for southern Brooklyn schools that will involve students from elementary, middle, high school, and college levels of education.
This recipe for education will prepare our students for the 21st century workforce. Isn’t that what education is supposed to be about?Scott Krivitsky
The writer is a teacher at PS 188 in Coney Island.
Snow woe
To the editor,
Councilman David Greenfield (D–Midwood) is to be commended for introducing legislation that would require the city to shovel sidewalks ignored by property owners and charge them for it.
However what happens when people fall in the gutter? I was unfortunate enough to have slipped into a gutter right by my house, and could have been run over by a car.
Also, I heard a report that stated there was more snow in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Colorado, and yet people there used more automobiles but encountered fewer potholes than our city.
Perhaps the City Council should conduct a study — maybe there is something superior to the ice melt we New Yorkers use.Elliot Abosh
Brighton Beach
Pol payola
To the editor,
While Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito supports Mayor DeBlasio’s tale of two cities and concerns about the middle class facing an affordability crises attempting to make ends meet living in the Big Apple, her loyal councilmembers have no problems making ends meet.
Never shy around a camera or microphone, Speaker Viverito recently quietly issued checks for 50 percent of each councilmembers’ awarded lulus of between $4,000 to $28,000 per year. This supplements a $112,000 base salary to her loyal members for chairing a committee or subcommittee. The base salary plus lulu is three times what an average constituent earns for a job officially classified as part time.
Hard-working municipal civil servant employees, most ordinary middle class New Yorkers, and neighborhood residents would never see such treats from their respective employers.
Larry Penner
Great Neck, N.Y.
Poli-diss-ians
To the editor,
In politics, the message is not always the meat or the substance. Instead it is often public relations, good-will, spin-meister tour of sorts to placate the electorate by telling them things they want to hear, and not necessarily the things they need to hear.
This is solely an effort to get their votes while it diverts attention from the real intent, platforms and allegiances of election candidates. In politics, the platform, the substance of the policies presented is what matters.
The problem is how do we know who is being honest, or who is simply playing the electorate?
The media kept playing a statement by Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) in which he was saying that the GOP’s message should be inclusive and happy. No, I’m sorry. It is the GOP’s true platforms and policies, and not their messaging, that should be inclusive, honest, happy, thoughtful, and generous toward the concerns and needs of their electorate.Barry Brothers
Homecrest
UFT ‘disgrace’
To the editor,
The United Federation of Teachers has reportedly refused to go along with state Sen. Jeff Klein’s bill of divesting from those who would boycott Israel. This is a disgrace. All teachers, whether active or retired, must answer to this by divesting from giving to the Committee on Political Education each year.
Apparently, our leadership has been taken over by ultra-lefty lunatics, made up of self-deprecating Jewish people. Why doesn’t the union at least mind its own business? Sure, its members will do anything not to discuss their failures.
They say they oppose the Klein proposal, as it is a freedom of speech issue. What are they talking about? The Palestinians and their cohorts would love to silent Israel for good.
Am Yisroel Chai — the nation of Israel lives!Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
DC clowns
To the editor,
I am not someone who typically believes in the government stepping in to bail the American people and their businesses out whenever there is a problem, but I think they could and should help.
Because of attrition and other reasons, there is a clown shortage in this country and the show must go on. Congress is only in session about one third of the year. With their experience and free time, our representatives could step in and fill some of the positions needed to keep what is now the second greatest show on earth going — the greatest show on earth has been the show in Washington, D.C.
The clowns there must do this for the greater good. Please Mr. President, if we ever needed an executive order, now is the time.Maureen Parker
Sheepshead Bay
Making a splash
To the editor,
I am really happy to hear that the firm that runs Luna Park is thinking of bringing a waterpark to Coney Island (“Company seeks to bring splish-splashing fun to former Thunderbolt parcel,” online March 11).
It will help to restore the People’s Playground to its heyday as one of the nation’s premier recreation spots.
I spent many summers at Coney Island growing up, and it saddened me to see it fall apart a few years back and become a shadow of its former self.
Kudos to Zamperla for investing in the area’s future, and realizing that Brooklyn is indeed the garden spot of the world. I can’t wait to go on one of the planned rides with my grandkids — if my rickety bones are up to it!
It’s great news and I, for one, am looking forward to it immensely.
M. Burton
Flatbush
