Homeless need help, not swarms
Manhattan: Re “New NYC ‘swarm teams’ to help homeless get off streets and into shelters” (May 1): City Hall continues to try to “manage” the city’s homelessness crisis when they should be trying to solve it. The mayor’s latest reinvention – “swarm teams” – sounds like a Giuliani-era plan to sweep needy people away from voters’ eyes. Homeless individuals, who the city acknowledges have a high incidence of mental health issues, need access to housing and services, not warrant sweeps and intimidation. Teams with uniforms that say “DHS” – the same initials as the agency enforcing immigration laws — will scare people and discourage them from coming off the street for services or housing.
More studies, revamped programs and interventions with nonhomeless panhandlers are a waste of time and money. The only true fix to thwart growing homelessness and position recovering homeless on a life course of self-sustainment is permanent affordable housing safeguarded in the city’s control.
Joshua Goldfein, Homeless Rights Project, the Legal Aid Society
Palin behaved horribly
Staten Island: To Voicer Thomas DiPietra, who wrote of his disgust at Sarah Palin showing up with the other two stooges, Ted Nugent and Kid Rock, at the White House: Disgust is putting it mildly. You were absolutely correct in stating that it doesn’t matter what your party affiliation is, the way that traveling pack of monkeys behaved (my apologies to the monkeys of this planet) was nothing short of despicable. What makes it worse is that this is the woman who wanted to be vice president. Yet another show of a lack of class from the Mama Grizzly who can see Alaska from her backyard. As far as the other two, there are just no words. All it did was once again prove to me something I was taught many years ago: Water really does seek its own level. Marsha Korot
The poor need help
North Bergen, N.J.: Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama states that healthy people should be rewarded with low insurance rates, while unhealthy people should pay for their nutritional mistakes that made them unhealthy by paying much higher rates. President Trump is rolling back Michelle Obama’s initiatives that helped schools give children healthy lunches. How does any of this make sense? We are putting our children at a nutritional disadvantage that may follow them for the rest of their lives. The only winners here are the insurance companies and fast food companies. I guess this is what it means to have a “businessman” running the country. We should be assuring that poor people have fresh food available to them just like rich people, and we should be assuring that children develop healthy eating habits as early as possible.
Diane Capozzi
Thor’s too muscle-bound
Los Angeles: Regarding the “blame” for the injury to Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard: Is anyone talking about how Syndergaard came to camp all buffed up and ripped, and that he added a lot of muscle in the off-season? Could tighter muscle tone lead to more of these types of injuries? I love this guy, and hope he recovers quickly to continue what is shaping up as a great career, but maybe pitchers are better off looking like Greg (The Accountant) Maddux, or Bartolo Colon, Big Sexy himself, rather than Superman. Or, yes, Thor.
Paul Kleiman
Mets let best players walk
Scarborough, N.Y.: The sports talking heads are saying that the Mets have to learn to survive without their best hitter and best pitcher. Of course, they mean Daniel Murphy and Bartolo Colon, whom the Mets let walk right out the door.
Thomas Comiskey
De Blasio’s out of line
Manhattan: Did anyone notice that the king and queen of New York, the de Blasios, did not attend the May 1 gala event of the year supporting our greatest cultural institution, the Met Museum? It’s an event our former Mayor Bloomberg attended with honor and dignity. Instead, de Blasio’s priorities were joining a May Day protest where many demonstrators were arrested, touting the start of a ferry service at a dock and attending a televised Q&A with CUNY students. What an embarrassment it is to have a mayor who promotes and speaks at public protests. That’s not what he was elected to do.
Susan P. Forman
Trump’s history lesson
Somerset, N.J.: Since he is a big fan of Andrew Jackson, I wonder if President Trump is aware of, and what his reaction would be to, the following quote attributed to Jackson: “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.”
Arthur Bressler
A hairy situation
Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Perhaps Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un should meet. It looks like they use the same terrible hairstylist. Renee Keane
Let’s trade with N. Korea
Yonkers: Here’s an idea: Let’s swap President Trump (since he’s this close to impeachment) with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. This way, Trump can screw that country into the ground while we could probably impeach Kim even faster. Just a thought.
Francisco Matos
Tell Trump the election’s over
Boca Raton, Fla.: When is someone going to tell Donald Trump that the election is over? Why is he still holding rallies around the country? Why is he wasting our taxpayer money doing this? I didn’t vote for him to go around performing unnecessary duties that have nothing to do with government to just inflate his already inflated ego, and I certainly don’t want to pay for his airplane rides, Secret Service and other security measures while he pontificates to his adoring crowd with my tax dollars. When are the American people going to wise up and see that this man is basking in his position as POTUS, but doesn’t have a clue as to how to use it. Rosanne Gordon
Stirring Riker’s pot
Manhattan: Re “Drug use soars at Rikers Island as inmates get high and rarely face punishment” (May 1): Given that marijuana, which the article stated was responsible for “the overwhelming majority of failed drug tests” on Rikers, is known to have a mellowing effect on many people, some of us with knowledge of the violence in many prisons have urged that inmates be permitted to openly smoke marijuana, especially since many do so illegally anyway. Our belief is that smoking marijuana may calm many inmates, making them less prone to commit violence while incarcerated. I believe the saying is “thinking outside the box.”
Edward S. Hochman
Keep your promises, Trump
Port Jefferson Station, L.I.: America has aborted 60 million children since 1973. California alone has 2 million children living with an undocumented family member. It’s time to defund Planned Parenthood and build the wall. President Trump should not break his campaign promises!
Thomas Patrick Folan
Pay for your own wall
North Bergen, N.J.: Putting the legal questions regarding the JEFFERSON SIEGEL border wall aside for the moment, here’s a simple question for President Trump. If he truly wants to reduce our tax burden, then instead of proposing to use public funds to pay for the construction of the wall, why not ask his millions of supporters to personally contribute the necessary funds? If the border wall is so important to them, prove it. Irving A. Gelb
Same ol’ Jets won’t change
San Antonio: As a lifelong Jets fan from New York who actually viewed Super Bowl III on TV, Woody Johnson’s new plan is just more of the same (“No more quick fixes . . . Woody Johnson says Jets are trying out a new strategy for building a winner,” May 3). Johnson hired the new GM, who hired the new coach. Incompetence from owner to coach. Of course Johnson couldn’t care less, since his money is in his bank account while he has tea in London. If he were serious, he would refund 90% to all ticket holders until the Jets qualified for the playoffs. Hopefully, season ticket holders will sell their tickets to suckers who enjoy losing teams. Gerald Geraci
C’mon, Daily News, shape up!
Bronx: Tuesday’s Daily News had a total of 48 pages. Of those, nine are full-page ads, and there are 10 half-page ads. There are assorted ads on just about every page, except, of course, the gossip pages. Are you guys kidding? How about a newspaper that prints the news?
Jeanette Dennehy