To the Editor,
We are supposed to learn from
history. However, too often, we do not
learn its lessons.
New York City is a tourist mecca.
Our great landmarks include the
Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the
Coney Island Boardwalk, and the
United Nations, to name just a few.
These attractions bring tourists to
New York and help the economy.
One of these attractions is the
Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Standing
on the Promenade, you get a great
view of the New York skyline. I have
met many tourists on the Promenade.
These individuals then shop in the
local shops.
The BQE that goes under the
Promenade is due for much-needed
repairs. The proposals that seem to
be most likely to be adopted would
require the closing of the Promenade
for several years. This would be a
disaster for several reasons:
tourists coming to Brooklyn Heights.
store revenue.
a result.
Promenade would be restored at all,
let alone in the magnificent manner
that it is.
The better method would be to
keep the Promenade as is and use
the streets. Alan Podhaizer
Coney Island
To the Editor,
A few months ago I wrote about
those wonderful “smart meters” being
installed by Con Edison. By the
hundreds, our old meters were replaced
with a new wireless system
that would let millennials and others
watch every watt consumed and
do billing and such, using their handheld
device. I also warned that the benevolent
Edison would start charging
for time-of-day use, though neighbors
pooh-poohed the notion. GOTCHA!
Con Edison has just announced
that it will inaugurate “Time of Day”
demand charges for residents. Now,
during certain hours of the day, stayat
home mothers and retirees have
to choose whether to turn on the airconditioning,
pay through the nose,
or swelter in the heat. Thinking
about doing your laundry at noon?
Better put it off until midnight. The
price for turning on your electric
clothes dryer will bring tears to your
eyes, and if you have an electric hot
water heater…FORGETTABOUTIT!
We are told that, thanks to the
greenies stymieing every effort in
power plant construction, we have
now started going backward. No
power plants equal no additional
power to energize your electronic
goodies you cannot live without. So,
as one by one the major plants retire,
without a solid reliable source to replace
them, it is time to squirrel away
a pile of extra cash to pay for your upcoming
energy bills.
Candles anyone?
Robert W. Lobenstein
Sheepshead Bay
To the Editor,
Your paper broke new ground
last week — and not in a good way —
with a two-page editorial for congestion
pricing instead of a letters page
(“Congestion tolls are the price of
progress,” Editorial, March 29–April
4). You are asking us to write lawmakers
a blank check to fund the
MTA. Many unanswered questions
first need to be addressed:
MTA, and what percent will be spent
within New York City on subways
and buses? How much will go to paying
bonds and pensions? Past proposals
called for half the monies to go to
roads. Would any money go toward
bicycle lanes and ferries? If so, why?
implemented, will it increase every
two years as fares and tolls
currently do?
and why should it be in effect on
weekends when half the subways are
not operating normally?
on just providing improved off-peak
service levels so bus riders do not
have to wait forever and subway riders
are not packed in like sardines on
Saturday nights at 11 p.m.?
should someone traveling a mile on
Canal Street just to get from Brooklyn
or Queens to New Jersey be
charged the same as someone traveling
five miles or more in Manhattan?
Their alternative is traveling an
extra 20 miles using the already congested
COURIER L 32 IFE, APRIL 5–11, 2019 M BR B G
BQE to reach the Verrazano or
GW Bridge. Congestion pricing will
not reduce congestion.
MTA bridges as once promised if congestion
pricing is enacted, and how
long would that remain in effect?
become more efficient by cutting construction
costs and inflated management
and to care more about its riders?
How much of this money would
instead go toward increased salaries?
Those old enough will remember
other false promises such as if we
double to TBTA tolls from 25 cents
-
lems will be over, a bond issue will
get us a Second Avenue Subway, and
a state lottery will greatly increase
our support of public education. Instead,
teachers now have to use their
own money for school supplies.
The days of trusting our politicians
to do the right thing is over.
Money should be used to fund new
and restructured bus routes, not trading
increased frequencies for reduced
bus coverage as the MTA wants to
do. Yes, there should be no tolls on
the Cross Bay and Marine Parkway
Bridges. However, we need assurances,
not promises, before we support
congestion pricing. Allan Rosen
Sheepshead Bay
To the Editor,
Overcrowded streets, avenues, highways,
trains, stores, and such are all due
to over development. Enough already!
Go build in Wyoming; there is plenty of
open sky and green space there for real
estate developers and their dutifully approving
elected officials to ruin.
And while you are at it, give us
some elected representatives who
care to improve the quality of our
(the tax-paying citizens) lives; and
who understand efficient budgeting
and oversight so that our tax dollars
stop going down what feels like
an abyss of nothingness, causing our
taxes to endlessly go up with little to
show for it, and the work of people
elected to representate us.
I recently renamed “The White
House” to “The White Nationalist
Grifter House.”
This symbolic and very real place
that is the whole of D.C. politics needs
become “lily white,” via new tenants
in the executive and legislative
branches, come January 2021.
if you vote blue or red because the
REAL BATTLE is economic, a CLA$$
WARFARE; and it always has been.
-
cent you should be VERY angry at
the extreme dysfunction of the electoral
and political systems in place,
and the only partisan voting should
be for and with the 99 percent tribe
... PERIOD.
In this day and age, there are still
some differences between the blue
and red parties, and for me the blue
rhetoric better approaches a kind,
thoughtful, generous heart that is
first for WE THE PEOPLE, the taxpaying,
voting citizenry.
Please: I implore people to think
black and white, nor are most decisions;
and surely the vital issues before
us should not be solely decided
99 percent tribe. Barry Brothers
Homecrest
To the Editor,
In these difficult economic times,
it is especially important to patronize
your local neighborhood restaurant
— not only during “Dine The
Boroughs March 18–29”— but all
year round. There are so many great
resturants in Brooklyn to select
from. Some of my favorites include
Juniors, Floridian Diner, Brennan
and Carr, and Roll and Roaster.
-
ally paying a little more to help our lo-
your cook and server. We try to tip 20
percent against the total bill including
taxes. If it is an odd amount, we
round up to the next dollar. If we can
afford to eat out, we can afford an extra
dollar tip. When ordering take out,
we always leave a dollar or two for the
waiter or cook. It is appreciated.
Remember these people are our
neighbors. Our local entrepreneurs
have continued to create new employment
opportunities without the
assistance of federally-funded tax-
long hours, pay taxes, and provide lo-
our local restaurants to shop and eat,
Please join me and your neighbors
in continuing to support the
Park Slope, Bay News, Graphic, and
Mill–Marine Brooklyn Courier publications.
Patronize their restaurant
advertisers; they provide the necessary
revenues to help keep them in
business. Let them know you saw
their ad. Larry Penner
Great Neck