amNewYork Letters to the Editor
Please curb your pets
Re “Pooper Troopers Keep City Clean,” Dec. 3: Beyond picking up (or not) after their pets, people need to be reminded to lead their pets to the curb to do their business. Too many pet owners allow their pets to pee and poop smack in the middle of the sidewalk — where the rest of us walk.
— Melissa Bell, Manhattan
Mayor shouldn’t try to influence the law
With all due respect to Mayor Bloomberg, I think he is wrong to suggest to the authorities that Giants star Plaxico Burress should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I am not a fan of Mr. Burress, but I think that when someone holds the position of mayor, their words have a lot of power and influence on a lot of things. This is a law enforcement problem that they can handle without his input. The only person harmed in this matter was Burress himself. It was a foolish mistake, and as it stands now with the mayor’s input, it would be hard for him to get a fair trial. Let good sense prevail.
— Valentine Young, Manhattan
A record year for MTA
The MTA hit us with two of the largest fare hikes in NYC history over the last decade and has record ridership, so they have more money than ever. How is it that they now have the largest debt ever, rather than the largest surplus? There is only one possibility if we let them raise the fare again: more record debt, more record service cuts, more record waste, more record fraud. If Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg won’t do their job, they must be fired.
— Liam Kirchberger, Brooklyn
Comments (1)
On December 9th the City Council will vote on budget cuts which if implemented will obliterate essential programs that serve the vast number of New York City’s most vulnerable older adults and their families. Social Adult Day Services—which offer frail older people assistance with mobility, nutritious lunches and snacks, specially designed exercise and cognitive strengthening activities and an opportunity to be a part of a community in which they’ve lived all their lives—will be dismantled. Funding for support services for caregivers who silently shoulder the burden of looking after their chronically frail loved ones would also be cut by 1/3. And to further complicate matters; at a time when these same cuts will likely increase incidents of elder abuse, prevention programs will be eliminated as well as intergenerational programs which link at-risk youth with community and nursing home elders. These programs that have been developed and refined over the past several decades face extinction if these measures are passed. I urge you to contact your councilperson if you are concerned about the loss of these essential programs which both protect and add value to the lives of so many.
Naomi Altman
Assistant Executive Director
Queens Community House