To the editor,
Your article on taking away parking and charging to enter Manhattan by vehicles is short sighted much the same way the city’s is. All New Yorkers currently lose over a billion dollars a year due to traffic congestion. How do they solve the congestion? By removing lanes of traffic for bike lanes, removing parking spots, Vision Zero changes and lowering requirements in new building to provide less parking spaces for tenants. This is just some of the reasons why traffic just keeps getting worse. If we had a good mass transit system, it might convince people to use it.
You can’t use London as an example. It’s twice the size of New York with about the same number of people and has a much better transit system. Don’t I deserve a parking space when I go into Manhattan to service a client? People who could use mass transit to commute legally use parking placards to park illegally. The city has ignored the congestion for too long hoping people will stop driving into Manhattan and it has not worked. The city needs to step up their efforts to fix congestion before taking any more away from drivers. Stop putting the cart before the horse. Greg Ahl
Bay Ridge
Clean up the blotter
To the editor,
Please allow me to comment on the Police Blotter section.
The section is very important to the community. It keeps us aware and alert. My only suggestion is to leave out words like “peep,” “crook,” “goon,” etc. It doesn’t look professional or intelligent. Just say “man” or “woman,” etc. It appears that you have run out of these words and are using words like “cretin.” I hope I do not sound too critical. I appreciate the section, and I will continue being a faithful reader of the paper.
Mike Boutross
Dyker Heights
Where are police?
To the editor,
How often has the subject of more police east of Ocean Parkway been brought up? The major concerns of the community is number one: bikes on the sidewalk, two, bikes on the Boardwalk, three, cars that back down the street looking for a parking space. So I cannot remember the last time I saw any police walking on Brighton Beach Avenue.
Undercover cops to stop crime when it happens is okay, but, getting hit by a bike will cause injuries to a senior, child, or someone handicapped. As we well know, Coney Island will always have cops from other precincts to flood the area to make it safe for all visitors. So are the rest of us still part of the same precinct, I often wonder.
The precinct received more rookies and auxiliary police, where are they east of Ocean Parkway? Then we hear how cops should get to know people in the neighborhood? Can’t do that if you don’t see cops.
Solomon Rafelowsky
Brighton Beach
Parks Dept. useless
To the editor,
I totally agree with Rob Burstein about his and others concern about the Boardwalk. My question is why do we need a parks department? I would like to know what repairs are being done to fix broken wood. How many broken boards were fixed? I could count them on maybe one finger.
What amazes me the middle portion between Coney Island Avenue and Brighton 15th Street is concrete and not one vehicle uses it. That was the reason to install it. So why do we need a parks department in the first place? How many people have to fall until something finally gets done? In order to get something done we needed our local city councilman Deutsch to nail a few boards.
John Snow
Brighton Beach
School rules
To the editor,
The recalcitrant couldn’t even wait for the school year. The day before the end of the term, a 63-year-old dean of students was punched in the face by some so-called student.
What will be done with this recalcitrant? Jail time is certainly in order. We talk about mayoral control of schools. What a farce that is. When will we wake up and instill military discipline in the schools? Yes, some of our schools are so bad that military discipline is needed.
We must have people who have been in the schools on the front lines who are aware of what is really going on. The mayor, chancellor along with Ms. Kirsch live up in an ivory tower. They think like Father Flannigan that there is no such thing as a bad child. Why don’t these people come down to reality and see for themselves what is occurring in our schools on a daily basis?
For many teachers, summer vacation couldn’t come faster. Congratulations to those who have made it to retirement. How many teachers are just quitting this year or moving on to another school system? To all those venturing back in the fall, have a fantastic summer. You earned it!
Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Cuba si, Castro no
To the editor,
While I have many misgivings about Donald Trump’s presidency, he is to be commended for nullifying if not reversing this predecessor Barack Obama’s (move) to lift restrictions against Cuba. I believe it is correct.
I agree Barack Obama’s policy would benefit both our economy and Cuba’s, but America’s honor should have been and should be the deciding factor. The now-deceased Sen. J. William Fulbright (D–Ark.) felt Castro was a minor nuisance. However, Fidel Castro forged revolutions all over Latin America. Perhaps with a more centrist president of Cuba we can restoree the Monroe Doctrine. I doubt that most people, including America’s history majors and political science majors, gave this much thought, but James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, who was Abraham Lincoln’s predecessor, favored statehood for Cuba, but Congress did not want to consider this proposal because the peoples’ minds were on the slave issue and secession was what people were preoccupied with, not statehood for Cuba.
In 1856 Buchanan’s victory was more of an anti-Catholic victory since General John Fremont, the first Republican nominee was opposed to slavery and (was) encouraging people to move westward. I cannot, however, not think that if there had been statehood for Cuba, we might not have had the problems with Latin America that we had for the past 60 years.
Elliott Abosh
Brighton Beach
TV dress code
To the editor,
I pray I’m not speaking out of turn, but I’m truly concerned about the sloppy clothes TV contestants and some personalities wear. Why can’t the men wear decent starched shirts instead of plaid sloppy shirts — and dungarees too? It appears that most of the guys are headed for a week at a ranch instead of appearing on national television. Then we wonder why kids today look so sloppy walking down the street. TV personalities are their models for daily clothing, I do believe. Come on, show some class on contestant shows.
On June 14, a contestant, Cedric, was wearing a hat during “To Tell The Truth” show. Duh? Why didn’t someone tell Cedric hats are outerwear, not to be worn during a TV show? Please think about what I’ve written. My family and I are disgusted at some of the outfits that we see on television shows.
Joan Applepie
Brighton Beach
Happy birthday
To the editor,
July 2017 marks the 53rd anniversary of federal government support for public transportation. The success of public transportation can be traced back to one of the late President Lyndon Johnson’s greatest accomplishments, which continues benefiting many Americans today. On July 9, 1964, he signed the “Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964” into law. Subsequently, this has resulted in the investment over time of several hundred billion dollars into public transportation.
Today, millions of Americans, including many residing in Brooklyn, utilize various public transportation alternatives on a daily basis. They include local and express bus, ferry, jitney, light rail, subway and commuter rail services. All of these systems use less fuel and move far more people than conventional single occupancy vehicles. Most of these systems are funded with your tax dollars thanks to President Johnson. Depending upon where you live, consider the public transportation alternative. Larry Penner
Great Neck
