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Brooklyn Daily
To the editor,
Last autumn, many streets in Gravesend were finally repaved, although the condition of these streets was logged with the city years earlier. They were turning into dirt roads.
While the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was working for the past couple of years to improve the west end B trains along 86th Street — from Stillwell Avenue to New Utrecht Avenue — that road dramatically went to pieces. It looks worse than the surface of the moon, with potholes galore. When you ride over that street in either a car or a bus, your teeth rattle.
The avenue beyond New Utrecht Avenue to the west is in poor condition also, all the way to 12th Avenue.
There was recently a notice that there would be roadwork on 86th Street. Finally there would be some road improvement, I thought. When I went back a few days later, I discovered to my everlasting shock that the only repaving done was from Bay 29th Street to Bay 31st Street! In a road that is a little more than two miles long and in desperate need of repaving, only two short blocks were repaved.
I know that the Department of Motor Vehicles has a way of rating the road conditions to determine which roads are in need of repaving, but if 86th Street is not on the top of the list, something is wrong. To make it worse, only two blocks were approved.
I wonder which idiot approved this. He or she should be fired. If they want to correct this, then pave the remainder of the route, all the way from 12th Avenue to Stillwell Avenue — this year.
Ronald Cohen
Gravesend
Oceana loo-nacy
To the editor,
Shavana Abruzzo, one of the most interesting and enjoyable sections of this newspaper for me — for years — has been the page with your’s (“A Britisher’s View”) and Stan Gershbein’s (“It’s Only My Opinion”) columns.
I know of many other conservative residents in Oceana [Condominiums] who go straight to that page for that same reason.
Your style and content are always strongly opinionated, passionate, sharp, courageous, thought-provoking, and going against popular opinions of the liberal media.
When I saw your ironic comments about Oceana [Condominiums], I was appalled (“High on the bog,” Month in Review, online May 3). Unlike everything else you write, they were ambiguous. At least for me.
Other people felt you are on the side of the government bureaucrats who are about to literally destroy lives of many Oceana residents, or on the side of people who don’t care about who will be impacted as long as they can conveniently urinate and defecate near the beach, while peaking into Oceana apartment windows. But I told my Oceana neighbors not to rush into judgment, until we hear more about your position on this.
It’s not about swanky digs and obstructed ocean view. There is much more that will happen if this monstrous toilet complex is erected here, such as wiped-out life-time savings of many retirees living in Oceana apartments, negative equity pushing hard-working middle-class mortgage holders into foreclosures, the safety of our kids, anti-sanitary conditions 30 yards across from our kitchens and dining rooms, and becoming an epicenter of homeless, alcoholics and drug-addicts, as is the case in and around similar facilities on the Boardwalk. Keep in mind that the apartments that you call swanky still have broken windows and leaking ceilings and walls because after Sandy, neither government nor insurance companies provided any assistance at all.
Hopefully, you are on the right side of the fence. Otherwise, it will be a great disappointment personally for me, as well as many others.Boris Natkovitch
Brighton Beach
Editor’s note: “Month in Review” is not an opinion column, but a synopsis of some of the previous month’s news stories.
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To the editor,
I understand that your column, “Month in Review” is intended to be humorous in tone, but wanted to inform you of all the reasons that the Oceana community opposes the public bathrooms in front of our homes.
They’re a waste of taxpayer money. Each bathroom costs $5 million, which is enough to construct a beautiful multi-story building. The total bathroom project is over $100 million. The government is wasting an incredible amount of money.
The concrete slab foundation that the city is now planning is against Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations because it’s unstable in a flood and literally could propel the bathrooms into our homes.
There are environmental concerns that the city has not considered. Also, the prefabricated bathrooms are being constructed in Pennsylvania — are there are no available New York firms or unemployed New York construction workers? Just getting the bathrooms here is like transporting the space shuttle, with a convoy parade required.
We’ve asked the city to help protect our homes from future floods. Constructing the bathrooms here will prevent that in the future.
The location is also wrong. This is the only location on the beach where the bathrooms are being built in front of residential homes. When the previous bathroom was built in the 1960s, our location was not a residential site.
The height is a concern, too. The planned bathrooms will be a total of three stories from the ground. The previous bathroom was just one story, or about the same height as the Boardwalk.
As for permits and notices, the city misclassified the project as an alteration, not a new building, and used the wrong address and zip code in its public notices. There was no public notice, or public hearings for a project of this size.
The city also ignored Community Board 13’s request for a moratorium on shorefront construction, until there was more study. The city ignored the board’s preference that the bathroom be located on the west end of the beach, which has had a temporary bathroom for years. The city informed us that it was too late to change the project because it had to be complete by Memorial Day, ignoring that the west end of the beach has had a temporary bathroom for years.
The real issue is that the city government is ignoring what the people want, and doing what it decides is best for us. We all want the freedom to live our lives in peace without being controlled.
Everyone should be concerned that the city government can do something like this to them. What would you do if they built a three-story bathroom directly in front of your home?Joe Scott
The writer is treasurer of the Oceana Homeowners Association.
‘Real-deal’ Vinny
To the editor,
I am writing to thank Councilman Vinny Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) for standing up for us at the recent public hearing of the New York City Water Board.
A lot of politicians talk the talk, but Councilman Gentile walks the walk. I read statements from some other local elected officials, who will remain nameless and who made a lot of noise, but none of them even showed up to the hearing. Only Councilman Gentile came and testified.
Most politicians are all bark and no bite. Vinny is the real deal. He fights for us and he doesn’t just pose for photographs in the paper, or release empty statements without backing them up.
Another area elected official said he was going to transport an army of angry residents to testify at the water board hearing. And what did he do? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Crickets. Only Vinny stood his ground and stood up to the blood-sucking water board and its endless and outrageous rate hikes and fees.
Michael Collins
Dyker Heights
Safety first
To the editor,
The walk light on Brighton Seventh Street and Brighton Beach Avenue only gives about three or flour seconds to cross before flashing “Don’t Walk.” I saw a man who was almost run over at Brighton 11th Street and Brighton Beach Avenue by a van because the light had just changed.
What is urgently needed is a city ordinance that does or did exist in Los Angeles, Calif., where if a motorist sees a pedestrian, he should yield the right of way.
In Phoenix, Ariz., there is a city ordinance that if the pedestrian crosses improperly, he should be fined. And if a motorist crosses improperly, the driver will be fined.
If the City Council were to enact an ordinance where motorists were to yield the right of way to a pedestrian — or like the Phoenix ordinance where the culpable party would be fined — more money would be saved, not to mention more lives.Elliott Abosh
Brighton Beach
Train day
To the editor,
May 11th is National Train Day, and with continued growth in Amtrak ridership, there is good reason to celebrate. It confirms why real long-term financial solutions to enhance our nations rail infrastructure is worthwhile. It is time for our elected officials to support decisive action and develop a dedicated capital revenue stream that could include allocating a penny per gallon gasoline tax to Amtrak. These funds could provide a reliable yearly source for financing capital investments to upgrade tracks, signals, passenger equipment, stations and maintenance facilities.
Any responsible agency needs the assistance of a long-term, dedicated, and secure revenue stream. This is needed to develop a capital infrastructure plan for maintaining both an operating system in a state of good repair and any system expansion.
Perhaps establish a reasonable minimum fare-box recovery rate of 50 percent to justify continued operation of any route. Give local governments one year to come up with locally generated operating assistance to support service on routes to those communities that can’t meet this goal. In the long run, these simple reforms would take the politics out of inter-city passenger service. Ask unions to allow management more flexibility in work rules and assignments to support greater productivity. Share some of the savings accrued from this with workers to foster improved partnerships between management and employees.
With all of this in place, many more routes could survive and some would grow stronger. Service on other high-density corridors beyond the Northeast Washington, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston routes might also come closer to financially operating with minimal subsidy or even turn a small profit, which Amtrak management could use to support other routes.
How many times have winter storms stranded thousands at airports while Amtrak kept rolling? The ability of Amtrak to reduce travel time by increasing the speed of the service in high-density corridors can provide consumers with choices other than flying.
Larry Penner
Great Neck, N.Y.
Union dues
To the editor,
City workers took lower salaries in exchange for the benefits they receive. There is no incentive for the city to resolve contract negotiations with its unions due to the Taylor Law. The latter prevents city workers from striking. As a result, the city can take its time in settling with the unions.
The Taylor Law needs to be modified in order to make sure that the city bargains fairly and in a timely manner.
All Mayor Bloomberg does is to complain about city workers. How about the consultants that the city has hired? These people are pulling down huge salaries. Will they face cuts? Of course not.
We have two reasons to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. For me, the major one is the end of the Bloomberg Administration.
Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Tape tips
To the editor,
We all have trouble finding the once-started edge on Scotch tape, masking tape, and other rolls of tape, so out of necessity we scratch the edges till we find the starting point. Frustrating!
Well, you know the very little plastic squares (about 1 inch) that have the expiration dates and prices on them, that go on loaves of bread to close the loaves after you take a few slices out to toast?
Do not discard the plastic squares. Keep a few around for they are perfect to adhere to the edges of tape. It makes it, oh, so simple to find the tape edge next time you need the tape.
No more searching for the edge. Try it; you’ll like it. Oh, so simple.
Joan Applepie
Mill Basin
Business plan
To the editor,
We the people have a blueprint for American business success, and it is thew Reagan-Friedman policies — 21 million jobs were created, in a business-friendly, low-tax, and minimal-regulation environment.
Today, we have two huge obstacles in our path to success; Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Repeal these two unjust and un-American laws, and we can build again.
God bless free markets and our sacred documents, written by wise men from the past. Liberty first.
Todd Davies
Marine Park