Queens Gazette

Letters to the Editor


Queens Civic Congress

To The Editor:

We all have missed having in-person meetings. It would appear that we will be able to start having in-person meetings by the fall. Therefore, we are looking forward to holding the Legislative Reception on December 5, 2021 at 1:00 PM at the Douglaston Club. Hopefully, the course of the pandemic will cooperate.

One of the most serious issues facing our communities today is the New York City Council’s Int. 2186-2020: Planning Together. The purported intention of this proposed local law is to create ten-year comprehensive planning cycles connecting budget, land use and a strategic planning process. It totally fails and instead causes a top-down approach to planning. What it does is create an extremely bureaucratic process that does not allow for true public participation. In their proposed planning process, having Public Hearings with citizens allowed to speak for two to three minutes is not meaningful participation. It negatively affects ULURP, reduces Community Board input, and creates a new position of Director of Long-Term Planning who will have massive authority rivaling that of Robert Moses. A true hero throughout our review of this bill has been Paul Graziano who has championed the cause to multiple Community Boards throughout the City. Because of his efforts, Queens Community Boards 7,8,9,11,12 and 13 have unanimously opposed this bill. A petition is available at: www.change.org/p/mayor-bill-deblasio-speaker-corey-johnson-stop-nyc-intro-2186-2020-planning-together-from-becoming-law-and-ruining-nyc-forever. if you have not yet signed and indicated your opposition to this bill. Thank you, Paul. A link to documents explaining the issue can be found at: https:// www.change.org/p/ mayor-bill-deblasio-speaker-corey-johnson-stop-nyc-intro-2186-2020-planning-together-from-becoming-law-and-ruining-nyc-forever/u/28447688

Currently, Int. 2816 has been laid over in committee in the City Council. Another ongoing issue is the planned closure of Rikers Island Detention Center and the opening of four borough jails. We sent another letter to the Mayor calling for the cancellation of this plan and for the rebuilding of modern facilities on Rikers Island. You can see the letter at www@qcc.ny. Some of the developments that prompted this new letter to the Mayor were: Despite early releases due to COVID-19 and fewer incarcerations due to bail reforms, the jail population stands at 4,749 and the proposed inmate population will be approximately 3,544. The project is two years behind schedule; crime has increased including a 38.2% increase in homicides; we are still incurring budget deficits and this project will cost too much. While we have historically opposed these measures, we have not taken a stand specifically on this legislation itself. We plan to do so at our May 18 membership meeting.

I personally urge anyone who has not yet been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine to do so as soon as possible. While the death rate is lower than it was several months ago, the virus still kills, can make you very sick, and comes with what appear to be an ever-increasing number of new long-term complications, many of which are severe.

Kevin J. Forrestal
President, Queens Civic Congress

Congestion Pricing Myth

To The Editor:

The MTA forecast of $15 billion in congestion pricing revenue is a myth. Since November 2019, Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have delayed announcing their appointments to the MTA Traffic Mobility Review Board. It is now twenty months late. (De Blasio just made his nomination this week.) Details of who will pay what can never be resolved until this board is established and completes its mission. It was previously announced that they will be meeting behind closed doors. This is inconsistent with both Cuomo and deBlasio’s promises of open transparent administrations. Toll pricing recommendations were originally promised to be made public by November 2020.

This process is politically sensitive. MTA officials previously forecasted a January 2023 date. Final details of who will pay what have never been established. Elected officials will lobby for discounts or exemptions for police, fire, teachers, low income, outerborough residency, seniors, physically disabled. small commercial delivery businesses, users of electric vehicles, or other special niches. These discounts or exemptions will be adopted to placate the constituents of elected officials running for reelection in 2021 or 2022. They will result in less revenue. You can’t capture five years of toll revenues estimated to be $1 billion per year (leveraged to raise $15 billion in support MTA’s $51 billion 2020-2024 five year capital plan) when you implement the program three years after 2020.

In sum: a late start for implementation, downturn in the economy, exemptions, toll discounts, and more people telecommuting full and part time will result in billions of lost anticipated revenue.

Larry Penner
Great Neck

Prevent War

To The Editor:

I’m not sure if hypersonic missiles or Iran’s drones have a chance of first strike capability. If so, or if some countries will think so, and/or don’t fear a second strike, then we need to take preventative steps. The same applies to nuclear weapons, with or without these, and perhaps likewise even poison gas.

If there is a chance of conquest by China, Iran, or North Korea—or a chance of destruction by any of those countries or by Russia, we need a freeze on new missiles and/or weapons of those sorts; there should be immediate inspections of any suspicious sites in order to verify this. If they don’t fear a second strike, or would furnish to terrorists, we need to have them dismantle what they already have—again with immediate inspection.

Perhaps the way to do this is by offering and/or establishing increased trade while threatening increased sanctions, with the spread wide enough so that they won’t want to chance our missing any of the sites.

For Russia, we might also try diplomacy, like a NATO invitation. Alternatively, increased economic ties might forestall destruction. For North Korea, perhaps we might also give them a choice between de-nuclearizing the Korean peninsula or putting enough arms in South Korea and nearby to destroy them.

Perhaps we can bring about human rights, such as freedom of religion, and perhaps we can get China to stop supporting North Korea if nothing else works with the latter.

Alvin Blake
Flushing

Weaponizing Our World

To The Editor:

Let’s stop lamenting the latest shooting or act of violence and commit ourselves to making real and meaningful positive change. This, of course is an invitation and not a mandate because we cannot be ordered to stop something that has long been a part of our lives. However, if we are not ready to do this, then sorrow and lamentation are simply wasted emotions that prompt the build-up of more and more tolerance for the horror and mayhem. In fact, it stokes the fires of our appetite for revenge, retribution and more of the same. When you look at what we look at in the news and entertainment media, it is difficult to refute my claim that violence begets more violence. My husband and I went to a movie over the weekend while waiting to check in at the place where we were staying. Midway through, I was compelled to write down a phrase that was indicative of what I felt about the movie’s content. Without wanting to seem overly reactive, it seems appropriate to register my opinion here with the hope that it will not quickly be misunderstood: “Violence becomes us.” I don’t mean that violence is flattering or a “good look” for us; instead, I mean that the violence we immerse ourselves in becomes who we are. For me, the film’s story line became a meta-analysis of what happens when you take children and turn them into murderers and killers through deliberate and calculated means. The plot even put the story in the context of a family set against the backdrop of espionage and intrigue. A less obvious connection was made in reference to efforts to reverse the deadly effects of killing gone wild. Not having words and actions with the capacity to transcend the primal response to pain and suffering, the film illustrated how we use weapons and violence to communicate.

 

Guns are doing the talking for those trapped in misery and powerlessness. Guns become the false promise of power and control born from fear, helplessness and hopelessness.   Victims and perpetrators of violence appear to be getting younger and younger. Movies and shows depicting violence may just be entertainment for a child returning to a safe and loving home, but what about the child in a home where money replaces love or where there is no safety. Let’s not think that the problem is just about poverty because there are probably as many or more root causes of violence among the wealthy, as among the poor. Bystanders are as often a victim of gun violence as the intended target, so we all might do well to consider the sweeping impact of people with guns. Environment and economics alone probably are not fully responsible for make-believe violence becoming real violence. I suspect that lovelessness and the expanding consciousness of hatred and alienation are likely to be as much a cause of violence as anything else.

 

Guns are easy to see as weapons, but we are also seeing other commonplace items becoming weapons. So far this summer, I have heard of an injury to a swimmer by someone on a jet ski and there are many other reports that include a woman with a skull fracture. Perhaps a stunt double in a movie can pull off some of the daring actions we see on the screen, but real life requires real safety. In one incident the person operating the jet ski was allegedly drunk. Just this week, a four year old boy who is now in critical condition was struck by the rider of a dirt bike in Queens. The sad statistic is that eight people have been killed in such accidents and 350 others have been injured. It appears that a jet ski or a dirt bike can be turned into a lethal weapon. Fast living can become fast dying if thoughtful consideration is not given to safety. The situation can get even worse if alcohol and drugs join the driver “behind the wheel.” Unintentionally a car can become the weapon especially when drinking and driving embrace the newest addition to the lethal mix; namely, marijuana. Before I could get out of my car in a nearby parking lot yesterday, the smell of marijuana fumes coming from the car next to me filled the air. I have no intention of debating the “pros” and “cons” of recreational drugs; however, there is a case to be made for how such use might affect driving safety and the subsequent impact on other drivers and pedestrians with whom one might share the road.

 

We are seeing weaponized recreational vehicles and cars, in addition to seeing young people armed with guns; and then we turn on the six o’clock news only to gasp in horror at the next tragic incident or death. We have a food system fully loaded with sugar and junk food and aimed at our liver, heart and waist line; as well as a health care system that is costly and a pharmaceutical industry that profits from our illnesses that can take from the cradle to the grave. As trite and overplayed as this definition of insanity is, I am willing to risk judgment by saying that “insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.” If we unplug logic and turn-off restraint, we could easily live our lives on the edge of a dangerous “tipping point.” Right now, I suspect that we could use an urgent re-boot or at least a careful reconsideration of our values; a redress of some reckless versions of fun and a review of the consequences of dangerous choices that subsequently rob us of those lost, traumatized or seriously injured by the effects of violence or other forms of harm. I don’t happen to believe that we are powerless and unable to make a change. Failure to do so will ensure a future that perpetuates all the worst parts of human history that have included political assassinations like the recent one in Haiti, wars, crime, character assassination and other forms of intentional harm. All of these can easily become the rotting core of a modern civilization destroying itself from within. It’s not just a slippery slope, it is a fatal drop off of a sheer cliff, and we can’t say we didn’t see it coming.

 

Even with everything that I have stated, I know that we can do better and I fuel that belief with a focus on words and actions that summon our best efforts with “a call to action.” I am equally sad to think that someone hurt or killed another human being in a rash moment of anger or thoughtless haste. I have empathy for those of us who are struggling with a food or drug addiction that threatens their health or sense of well-being. I have compassion for the individuals and families that have suffered losses and those who are overcome with negative emotions, grief and sorrow. For that reason, six years ago I developed a curriculum entitled: “”Building a Life in the Community: Seven Pillars of Success” that includes the following: 1. Self-Regulation 2. Self-Awareness 3. Self-Care 4. Self-Help 5. Self-Direction 6. Self Advocacy 7. Self-Support. The focus on self is my attempt to bring us home to our essential nature where we carefully contemplate the use of our innate capacities to survive, strive and thrive in our complex world. Even if we gain mastery in just self-regulation, we empower ourselves with sound life supporting thoughts and actions. In June, our family book club selected The Art of Communicating by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh in which he reminds us that everyone faces some form of suffering and it behooves us to bring mindful appreciation of this fact into our speaking and “deep listening.” Loving, compassionate communication can provide a pathway out of our collective suffering, and may help us reduce the likelihood that we will use guns, violence or other self-destructive forms of expression that arm us and deprive us simultaneously of the nourishing food of human kindness that we all need. I hope that you will find peace and restoration as you ponder your next breath; your next thought and your next action.

 

Dr. Sharon M. Cadiz
To read the full letter, visit Qgazette.com.

Congrats Gazette

To The Editor:

Congratulations Queens Gazette on 39 years of great service! The Queens Gazette is very informative and my favorite section is the Dining and Entertainment section. Keep up the great work!!

Renee Perez
Whitestone

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