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Use caution to avoid becoming victim of theft

To the editor,

I just read Rowena Lachant’s letter, “Crime of Sense,” (Letters to the Editor, Bay News, Nov. 30). Ms. Lachant is a woman after my own heart. I cringe whenever I see a shopper, man or women, leave a wallet, credit card, or handbag on a store counter. Sometimes, I even yell at them!

I get equally upset whenever I see a woman pushing a shopping cart, either in a store or on the street, with her handbag lying unprotected in the cart just waiting for someone to grab it. I myself always hold onto my handbag for dear life. My bag is never out of my sight!

I don’t drive, but I fail to understand why drivers or passengers would leave anything valuable on a car seat, whether the car is locked or unlocked. I don’t know how many parents have left children in their cars while they rushed into a store, only to return and find both the car and the children gone.

As for modern technology, I hang up immediately whenever I receive a suspicious call and never open suspicious e-mails. It is tragic to live in a world where we are all surrounded by scams and scammers. I used to think that living in a world of telephones, automated-teller machines, computers, and automobiles was supposed to make our lives easier and better. However, I have learned that, if we are not extremely careful when using all the modern conveniences that are supposed to improve our lives, dishonest thieves and scammers can make our lives a living horror. Care and caution are essential in today’s world if we want to safely enjoy the benefits of modern life and not fall into its pitfalls. Elaine Kirsch

Gravesend

A call to axe whom?

To the editor,

With each post-Election Day letter I read in the Courier, it brings me to tears with laughter seeing how much correspondence is against the wasteful form of government we are self-saddled with. It is almost as though these writers are “gasp” … closet Republicans!

Of course, city government, under the Democrats, has made up positions to cover with cronies or family members, such as the mayor’s wife. The public advocate, along with dozens of seemingly useless high-paying city positions, is sucking the taxpayers’ till dry.

I promise not to write complaining about the boodle being paid though, I ask each and everyone complaining to look in the mirror and ask, whom did I vote for? The stark reality is that many blindly filled in the boxes, strictly along their own party line, before really looking into the real agendas of these candidates. Doing so, now whom did you really screw? Robert W. Lobenstein

Marine Park

School squandering

To the editor,

What is going to be done with the school officials who squandered all that money? While teachers have to go around scrounging for class materials and depend upon the poorly funded Teachers Choice Money, these so-called education officials, most of whom never stepped foot into a classroom, were living high on the hog spending money at fancy hotels while attending so-called conferences.

These officials, including our recently retired chancellor, must be made to pay back the money. After all, Ms. Farina was collecting her pension while serving as chancellor. Farina, who met our esteemed mayor when she was superintendent of School District 15 and he was a parent on the community board, should have known what was going on.

We have no money to lower class sizes. Others will say that there is no funding for the 600-school concept for unruly children, but we allowed this to go on. Is it any wonder that our schools are in the current mess that they’re in? In addition, this is a perfect example of why the mayor should not be in control of the schools. Where did he do his school budgeting, at his Brooklyn gym?Ed Greenspan

Sheesphead Bay

Get Cuomo off air

To the editor,

Election Day has come and gone, and reminds me of “The Outer Limits” 1960s television show. With the end of ’round-the-clock commercials by politicians, political parties, unions, and pay-for-play special interest groups, we now return control of your television back to you until the next election cycle.

Now if only Gov. Cuomo would do the same. When will he direct the Empire State Development Corporation to stop running its wasteful “public service” advertisements? After eight years in office, Cuomo has had this quasi-independent state agency spend several hundred million in taxpayer dollars to pay for these “feel-good” commercials. They were clearly designed to assist him in greasing the wheels of another term in office and raise his profile in preparation for a Presidential run in the Democratic Party’s 2020 Primary. These commercials periodically run in heavy rotation on many stations several times per hour, day and night.

Diogenes is still waiting for State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, Actimg Attorney General Barbara Underwood, State Sen. Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, or a brave member of the Legislature to challenge Emperor Cuomo to end this waste, fraud, and abuse of public monies.Larry Penner

Great Neck

Prospect Park joggers can leave their water bottles at home during winter runs now that meadow stewards installed the first of several freeze-resistant drinking fountains in the green space (“Slurps up! Frost-resistant drinking fountains arrive in Brooklyn’s Backyard,” by Colin Mixson, online Nov. 27).

Workers with the Prospect Park Alliance — which maintains the lawn in conjunction with the city — on Nov. 22 set up the first sipping spot outside Vanderbilt Playground along the roughly three-mile West Drive running loop, and installed three more frost-repelling fountains near the park’s Garfield Place entrance and Ball Fields 6 and 7 in the subsequent days.

Councilman Brad Lander praised the debut of Prospect Park’s all-year water fountains, which he said couldn’t come soon enough after locals in his district allocated $175,000 to fund them via the pol’s 2016 participatory-budgeting process.

Readers were divided on the fountains’ price and necessity:

I am amazed that Councilman Brad Lander thinks that giving the Prospect Park Alliance $175,000 for “frost-resistant” drinking fountains for runners in Prospect Park is a good and necessary use of his $1.5M participatory budget.

Aren’t there more pressing social needs for Lander’s participating budget than heated drinking fountains for runners in Prospect Park?

How about upgrading technology for local schools, or funding to renovate the kitchen of a senior center that hosts free meals for seniors? Nor do I see how “frost-resistant” fountains could be a priority need for not only the park, where there are always ongoing maintenance requirements that need attention, or in the Park Slope community.

Instead, I might suggest that if the park has a need for these fountains, then the Alliance board should appeal to its members to fund this project.

The neighborhood has more urgent problems that require funding.Carol Brooks

from Carroll Gardens

I’m amazed that Carol Brooks doesn’t understand participatory budgeting but babbles on and on and on.

There were proposals. The community voted. The drinking fountains won enough votes to get part of the funding. Done.Tyler from pps

Each of us could argue that the organizations responsible for these sites — schools, senior centers, and parks — should be ensuring necessities (and running water is a necessity for the health of park users) are provided for. But the lack of resources is what participatory budgeting is about. Vote! And tell all your friends! Or don’t complain later.

Janet from Park Slope

Thank you to the locals that voted to ensure I’ll have a place to get water as I ride through your neighborhood. Cheers!Bike from NYC

Complete waste of money.

Old Tie Brooklyn from Slope

I agree with Old Tie. Four fountains at $42,750 each, for a total cost of $175,000, is an outrageous and ridiculous expenditure for water fountains for thirsty runners in Prospect Park during the winter months.

Park Slopers lived up to their reputation and voted for this extravagant expenditure during the participatory process, and can’t understand why this Carroll Gardener would question the cost. Carol Brooks from Carroll Gardens