Subways are going off the rails
Manhattan: The MTA is a Grenfell Tower waiting to happen. All the warning signs and complaints have been there for years. I know. I have been writing to the MTA, the governor and the mayor for at least five years about subway deterioration with not a single reply. The service delays, lack of station personnel, overcrowding, poor scheduling and unsanitary conditions are only part of the story. The infrastructure itself is positively Third World and way past the expiration date. A recent picture of a control (signal) panel looked like a remnant of the Normandy invasion. Having just returned from London, there simply is no comparison between our two systems. It’s infuriating to be a New York taxpayer with property taxes that have risen 60% in five years to receive such poor service and disregard.
Neglected for so many years because of mistaken priorities, a campaign finance system where candidates are beholden to special interests and not the citizenry, and a bias against mass transit that goes all the way back to Robert Moses, New Yorkers who ride the subways (and I do) are doing so at their own risk. Susan Simon
Sign me up again
Jerusalem: Some 30 years ago, the transit system was in a state of total collapse. Into this disaster entered Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Robert Kiley, Transit Authority President David Gunn and me, a TA conductor. Kiley has since passed away and Gunn is now 80 and happily retired, but I’m willing to relocate back to New York as the subway system is once more heading to chaos with skyrocketing delays and increasing numbers of derailments. Mike Steinbach
Help wanted
Staten Island: I read on Facebook that Norfolk Southern Corp. was hiring signal maintainers to repair and upgrade its freight rail network. Perhaps they could loan some experts to the MTA?
Joe Gamoran
The return of Joe
Glen Oaks Village: Last week, Gov. Cuomo appointed former MTA Chairman Joe Lhota to come back to the job.. It is going to be a big job to solve the problems at the MTA. And here is a former chairman who knows how to solve problems. Just look what Lhota did during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, getting the city moving in a most trying and difficult time. He did what had to be done. Cuomo has made a good decision in appointing Lhota, hopefully the man with a plan. The city is dealing with massive delays with an aging subway system. We need the answer man, and Lhota hopefully can get the job done. Congrats, Joe, for coming to the aid of our transportation system.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Where is the money going?
Bronx: Of all the articles explaining the breakdown of the subway as a failure to maintain the infrastructure with an appropriate level of capital spending, I have yet to see one that explains the cause of this failure. With all the money the subway takes in, is it possible that too much of it goes for wages and health benefits to active staff and pension benefits to retirees? Is it possible that the subway system is being brought to a halt by the rapacity of the Transport Workers Union and the spinelessness of the bureaucrats who negotiated with them? Were actuaries ever consulted when pension benefits were calculated? We need to be honest with ourselves as to why taxpayers are having to pay more and more for deteriorating service and to decide how much longer we poor nontransport workers can carry this elephant on our backs. The TWU and their allies in the Democratic Party will have a lot to answer for when the system comes to a halt. Orville Brown
Not enough change
Manhattan: Dump Lhota, he’s a has-been who couldn’t hack the job before. Privatize the MTA.
Kevin Conway
Rockets’ red glare
Seaford, L.I.: I have seen the report on how the police demonstrated how a shed with fireworks exploded, causing a fire. I have come to dread the Fourth of July and the weekends before and after it. You cannot sit in your yard and have a barbecue because of rockets flying and the noise, not to mention the smell of gunpowder. I was always under the assumption these were illegal. My blocks are like a war zone for at least four hours. So where are the police during this time? Why can’t they have unmarked cars patrolling the streets? You call, they come, the fireworks stop and start all over again. My dogs are shaking. I’m sure babies and the elderly get frightened by the noise as I do. Some are so loud they shake the house. These people spend hundreds of dollars on these fireworks and they should be fined hundreds of dollars. Where do they get that kind of money to waste just to show their families and friends fireworks? In my neighborhood they have already started with the fireworks, and I’m sure they will be bigger and louder on the Fourth. Maybe the police can step up the patrol when they receive a complaint. I understand there are a lot of people calling in, but maybe some jail time will stop it and bring the quiet back to our yards.
Frances Harwood
Charter lessons
Wayne, N.J.: Alyssa Katz’s June 26 column, “Turnover, a charter school plague,” is a shocking indictment of the charter school industry’s inability to hold on to its teachers. This is an issue charter school proponents and education reformers won’t talk about as they push to expand New York’s charter schools. Katz points out that while the district’s teacher-turnover rate is 18%, the charter school rate is a distressing 41%, with the much touted Success Academy charter network topping the list at an astonishing 60%! If we recall our own school days and what it was like to have had a substitute teacher or to have had your favorite teacher leave, imagine the disruption in the education of charter school students where this is a common occurrence. Katz notes that charter school teachers are leaving charters at such an alarming rate for the public school system primarily because “union jobs are better jobs, where educators build careers.” Schoolchildren need competent career educators they know will be there each day for them, not teachers who will suddenly vanish midyear through the charter school industry’s revolving doors. And as for the vanishing charter school teachers, welcome to the UFT.
Joseph Verilla
Young and immature
Maspeth: I can not believe how much of a crybaby Vince Young is about not having an NFL quarterback job (“Giving him the Fitz,” June 28). Dude, you sucked. That’s why you don’t have a job. Don’t go hating on other quarterbacks in the league that are average. Maybe they bring other qualities to the team like knowledge — Ryan Fitzpatrick graduated from Harvard. Maybe they bring team spirit and are great with players — not crying “Me, me, me.” Young should be ashamed for making this a race issue. He just sucked, that’s the reason. Lance Lovejoy
Good for the gander
Bronx: It appears that the GOP is having a terrible time trying to get its health care bill passed. The problem is cutting costs, so it seems. I have a suggestion. The House of Representatives members and the Senate members should agree to give up their retirement benefit of free health care insurance for life. It would certainly save a fortune, and they will have the experience of shopping for health care policies for themselves and their family just like their constituents have to do. Fair is fair, isn’t it? It seems to me that what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Anna Maria McCorry
Out of bounds
Clifton, N.J.: To Voicer David Weiss: You have some nerve comparing slavery to animals in a circus! Would you find “it amusing and rather ironic” if someone compared the Holocaust to being in the circus? How dare you make such a stupid, ignorant remark! Next time, find a better example!
Jackie Hilliard
Double fault
St. Louis: Re “Mac unapologetic for Serena remark” (June 28): John McEnroe was a great tennis player. Please note the use of “was.” He is no longer relevant. He also was and is a jerk. Half of his tennis story back when was due to his bad behavior. He is attempting to regain attention by slamming Serena, who is relevant. Do you really think anyone takes him or his opinion seriously? Grow up, little boy. It’s finally time to put on his big-boy pants, if he owns any. Sharon Gaines
Got it covered
TWU Tampa: Re “It’s ‘Time’ to admit his own fakery” (June 28): If Donald Trump displaying phony Time magazine covers at his golf clubs isn’t clear evidence of a fraudulently dishonest and mentally ill man, what is?
Chuck Hudson