Letters

Hypocritical Hypocrites
To The Editor:

That’s a lot of bull what the Democrats said about working with the administration; that they’ll put the interests of the country first before imposing their views. Can a tiger change its stripes?

Even before President-elect Bush was sworn in his critics mounted an attack on him and some of his appointees, particularly the prospective attorney general Senator John Ashcroft who is for the death penalty and against affirmative action. He’s against affirmative action because it’s a quota system. If quotas were obnoxious in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, they are obnoxious today. There are ample laws on the books to protect all of its citizens.

Why have these same critics been so silent about three of the five District Attorneys in New York City who are for the death penalty, Brown of Queens, Johnson of the Bronx and Morgenthau of Manhattan? All three have gone on record as saying they would impose the death penalty only as a last resort, thus revealing their true feelings about the subject. I’ve written to all three saying they should uphold the law and to leave their personal ideas out of the picture. Only Brown and Johnson have answered but not to the questions asked.

These same guys are quick to say that we are the only industrialized nation with the death penalty but are close-mouthed about us being the only industrialized nation with the highest homicide rate: over 20,000 in 1998.

If Ashcroft can leave his personal feeling to himself when upholding the law, why can’t the above DAs?

Sincerely,

John Carno

Astoria

Has Questions For TA

A copy of the following letter was received by the Gazette.

Mark Green

Public Advocate for the City of

New York

Municipal Building (15th Floor N.)

One Centre Street

New York City 10007

Dear Mr. Green:

We know your office has been studying the Transit Authority’s plans for rerouting trains in conjunction with the opening of the 63rd Street Tunnel–Queens Boulevard connection. As you know, the 63rd Street services will bypass most of Long Island City, have only one inconvenient stop on the east side of Manhattan, and not transfer to the Lexington Avenue IRT.

The project allows the TA to reshuffle Queens Boulevard line express service, but not increase it. Indeed, small increases in service come at the expense of large inconvenience.

Under the TA’s plan, ‘F’ trains will operate via 63rd Street rather than 53rd Street with the attendant disbenefits. When it is suggested that the TA leave the existing E and F services alone and simply provide a Queens Boulevard local service (those tracks having unused capacity), the TA says it won’t get any riders. Hence, to get riders via 63rd Street and show the federal government that its investment was valid, the TA, in essence, has to "force" existing riders to use it by rerouting an existing service. F riders going to places bypassed in the reroute have the option of crowding on the E or taking the slow ‘V’. (train).

Also note that the TA’s service plan cuts 53rd Street service by 20 percent. While the TA says it will restore the level of service when it has more cars, the TA is not good in keeping service promises. Back in the 1960s, the TA spent a large amount of money to allow the operation of 90 trains per hour through DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn, but has never operated anywhere near that level of service. Is it a case of transit service "fraud" again?

Sincerely,

Dr. Stephen Dobrow

President

Committee for Better Transit, Inc.

Woodside

Improvements Needed

To The Editor:

I raise my voice to express the urgency of improving the service rendered to the Astoria residents concerning their private bus lines and the ‘N’ train.

As you know, so many Astoria and other Queens residents who work in this area depend upon the Triborough, Queens Surface Transit and other private bus companies in order to go to work, senior citizens’ centers, school and to other places in the neighborhood. For some senior citizens, these bus lines offer their only means of transportation at a very inexpensive rate.

It has come to my attention that as of Dec. 31, 2001, these companies will be sold to the lowest bidder contractors, thus causing disruptions in service and causing driver dissatisfaction in terms of their pensions and other job security rights. We do not want any drivers to take out their dissatisfactions on their jobs and compromise the safety of their passengers. The city should incorporate these private bus lines as part of their MTA bus network. Thus the drivers will receive the city benefits and the passengers will be afforded the opportunity of riding in city bus lines.

In addition, the ‘N’ line trains are few and far between and during the cold weather people have to wait on cold elevated platforms for at least 45 minutes till an ‘N’ train arrives. There are more number trains. Why are the ‘N’ train users the forgotten ones?

Also, Access-A-Ride should be part of the MTA so that the drivers will also receive New York City benefits and service for the handicapped and elderly users will be improved greatly.

It is important for all who read this letter to flex their political muscle and raise their voice in unison in order to implement these suggestions. Better mass transit facilities in our area are urgently needed. The quality of life in our area will thus be greatly improved as a result.

Cynthia Groopman

Long Island City

Why Leave Out Greeks?

To The Editor:

At this moment it’s urgent and my duty to bring to your attention an oversight and affront, and at the worst, possible ethnic discrimination against Greeks due to our exclusion at the [Senator Charles] Schumer and [Congressmember Carolyn] Maloney ethnic press conference on the census at City Hall a few days ago.

According to John Toscano in his political article in the Jan. 10, 2001, Queens Gazette ; the ethnic groups invited to participate in the press conference were: African-American neighborhoods, subcommittee Chairman Adolfo Carrion, Jr, Dennis M. Walcott of the New York Urban League, Glenn Magrantay, Asian-American Legal Defense Fund in Flushing, Angelo Falcon, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and Esmeralda Simmons, Center for Law and Social Justice.

The panel recommended that a statistical sampling should be used in the 2010 census count to avoid miscounting.

When I formed the first Greek Census Committee, the U.S. 2000 Census, Hellenic Steering Committee of New York state, 185 races and ethnic groups were years ahead of us in getting out the census message. Starting out at ground zero I believe that from 1998 to 2000 we [Greeks] accomplished amazing results. For example, Kerry Katsorhis, the former sheriff of New York City,was sent to Washington, D.C. as the first Greek to attend the census diversity meeting and represent the 1,100,000 Greeks in New York state and the six million in the United States. At the request of our committee Dr. Dimitry Gemelos, director of the Press and Information Office of the government of Greece translated the basics of the census into Greek. When the census bureau asked for 50,000 documents to be printed for New York state a historic decision was made to include Greek as the 49th language on selected federal forms. Other accomplishments include a census float in the Greek Independence Day parade, a census poster in Greek and the employment of Greeks tto administer census tests at the Federation of Hellenic Society, Chian Federation and Macedonian library. Through the Greek media Greeks in all 50 states got our message.

Please contact Minna Elias, New York chief of staff for the Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney, (212) 860-0606, and tell her that Greeks should not be excluded from any ethnic meeting now or in the future.

Very truly yours,

Athan J. Christodoulou

Chairman

U.S. 2000 Hellenic State Committee

of New York