To the editor,
I have heard many rumors about the proposed building that is supposed to go up in the Trump Village and Walgreens shopping centers (“Trump tower toxins,” online Nov. 6). The only facts not in dispute are that the developer has not renewed at least one lease and has told several store owners that he will not renew their leases.
This proposed construction will be a disaster for the community, and especially our senior citizens and other physically challenged individuals.
Trump Village, Warbasse, and Brightwater Towers are the three developments that make up the bulk of the area affected by the proposed building.
The shopping center currently contains two banks, two pharmacies, a satellite post office, a discount store, a Chinese restaurant, and a pizza place. The loss of any of these establishments will be a severe loss to the entire community, but particularly for senior like myself.
Most seniors do not have a car and are not mobile, so therefore they depend on the services provided by the stores currently located in the shopping center.
Without the satellite post office, the pharmacies, and banks, where would seniors go to do their mailings, get their medications, and tend to their finances?
There are other important issues that also must be addressed.
This is a very crowded area with major transportation problems. It is hard to cross Neptune and Surf avenues on W. Fifth Street, due to speeding drivers. If a new, large building is erected, crossing them will become impossible. Our seniors will become a target for serious injuries and even death if the building becomes a fact.
Increasing the vehicular traffic will make a bad situation worse.
Coney Island has again become a major tourist attraction and this development will have a severely negative impact on it. Increasing the population will severely affect our public transportation.
We only have the F and Q trains to service the area. With an increased population the system will not be able to sustain reasonable service. Another prospect is that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is going to sustain a budget shortfall in the next few years, likely resulting in service reductions.
I have every confidence that our Councilmembers Chaim Deutsch and Mary Treyger will fight for our best interests.
Alan Podhaizer
Trump Village
Speed demons
To the editor,
Time after time I’ve either read or heard about many hit-and-runs by cars where someone was usually killed. It was no surprise about a women being hit and killed by a biker in Central Park. I feel sorry for the family that lost a wife and mother.
The downside about Brighton Beach is some bicyclists think the Boardwalk is a place to speed. We’ve got seniors and children who use the Boardwalk, and in my heart I hope neither gets hit by some out-of-control bicyclist.
When you bike down Emmons Avenue and make a left turn, there are bike lanes going from south to north, and on the other side of the street the lane goes in the opposite direction.
Crossing over Coney Island Avenue going west there is a bicycle lane, and once again on the other side of the street there is a bike lane which ends at Neptune and Coney Island avenues as well.
What do we consider a sidewalk? Not a place for anyone to bike ride, but for people to walk on.
Being courteous of walkers should be the theme and concern every day.Jerry Sattler
Brighton Beach
Mental block
To the editor:
It is unfortunate a woman was harassed by a mentally ill, homeless man (“Crazed vagrant threatens to behead Arab community leader,” Sept. 12). To his brother he is merely a pain, but the suspect could be put in a hospital, recover, and have a normal life.
Many thousands of mentally ill people recover in hospitals every year. Movies and television give the impression that they can’t recover. This is inaccurate.
The public has many wrong ideas about the mentally ill.
One is they are violent, but they’re more likely victims of crime then perpetrators of them.
I would say to Bill Boshell, get your brother into the hospital fast. Winter is coming and homeless people have been known to freeze to death in winter. Jerome Frank
The writer is a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Quality care
To the editor,
Once again I must praise the staff of Coney Island Hospital, and I do so with the utmost enthusiasm. The care which my mother received in the emergency room, and from each successive team once she was admitted, was unparalleled.
The attention was a manifestation of total professional commitment, and it continued from Dr. Beecher and the surgeons to the nurses in the Intensive Care Unit and Dr. Kumar who personally took and brought back my mom for her scans.
I wish I had everyone’s names.
Let it be known that no other Brooklyn hospital provides the quality care that Coney Island Hospital does!Judith Mandiberg
Sheepshead Bay
Teacher troubles
To the editor,
How about the students reapplying at Boys High and Automotive? After all, the behavior problems there are causing all the trouble. These schools are like so many others, with students marauding the hallways, fights breaking out all over, vandalism, cursing, answering teachers back. The list is endless.
Those teachers reapplying and are not accepted back will be placed as absent teacher reserves and will be glorified subs.
This will do nothing to lower class size or improve academic achievement and discipline. I thought that we were going to solve that situation, not exacerbate it.
I’m hearing from people that these reserves are still not being offered regular positions as they become available. Instead, these positions are going to people just off the street.
Absent teacher reserves were duly licensed teachers with many years of satisfactory ratings. They had the bad luck to be in a school that suffered population loss of students or were just closed by our former mayor.
I want to know how the union could accept such current conditions? After all, the reserves are regular teachers paying dues, but are treated in a substandard way. The National Labor Relations Board needs to be called in, as the city and union are playing games.
Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina, union chief Michael Mulgrew and others should apply for positions at these schools and get accepted so that they may see first-hand what is going on in our schools.
Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Toke-n law
To the editor,
Sen. Charles Schumer’s call to ban synthetic marijuana would not be necessary, if he would come out of the closet and support legalization of the real thing. Consumption of marijuana for both medical and recreational use is part of mainstream America, transcending generations.
Creative entrepreneurs will always provide the citizens’ desire, regardless of government approval. Consumers have voted with their dollars, making marijuana consumption a multibillion-dollar enterprise today. Legalize it and add a sales tax. Revenues will more than cover the costs of any abuse. Our tax dollars will be better used if police and judges spend more time prosecuting those who commit real crimes against individuals or property than going after those who consume or distribute marijuana.Larry Penner
Great Neck, N.Y.
To the editor,
When President George W. Bush was about to threw the first pitch at a game at Yankee Stadium a month after 9-11, Derek Jeter told him something like, “You’re in New York, throw from the rubber, and don’t bounce it over or they will boo you.” Bush threw a strike and people in New York felt a little better that day.
A-Rod here is some advice for you. You’re in New York and nobody likes a rat. Even though we know the despicable things mobsters do and know how bad they are, we still despise them for being a rat just to save their own hide. Yankees’ fans and most New Yorkers don’t like you, not because you used steroids — we forgave you for that. You are hated because you are a cocky, overpaid liar, who is committing a capital in New York by ratting on your buddies.
It’s always about money, and A-Rod you are no different, but if you choose a career other than baseball — like that of a mobster for instance — you would be worrying about a different kind of contract, not the kind that involves your paycheck.
You should have never donned a Yankees uniform. You only brought shame to that uniform, to New Yorkers, to the Yanks, and to all the kids who looked up to you.Peter G. Orsi
Marine Park
