Without any master plan, the shops are a flop
Stamford, Conn.: After reading “Eating, drinking at LIRR’s E. Side terminal in works” (Jan. 23), one would think that the MTA is making good progress on the retail leasing initiative at Grand Central Madison. In reality, it’s a story of abject failure. The MTA should have engaged a premier third-party leasing team long before the January 2023 station opening. Retail leasing requires intelligent advanced planning and a sense of urgency. For newly built retail space that is not yet proven, the MTA should have negotiated leases well in advance through the use of adequate incentives to induce potential tenants to take the leap. It’s now more than a year since this terminal opened and it remains a leasing ghost town.
To make matters worse, the MTA is now belatedly taking bids for a master lease, which will prolong vacancies and take much of the control of the process away from the landlord. A master lease holder’s first priority is to cover costs. Tenant quality and tenant mix isn’t a main concern. With the huge investment to create Grand Central Madison, commuters deserve more than a slipshod leasing program run by outsiders that brings in a hodgepodge of disjointed tenants.
As I see it, this is a textbook case of MTA mismanagement driven by an incompetent team that has fumbled best practices in the world of retail leasing. A gleaming multi-billion dollar commuter terminal in the finest city in the world should be operated in a blue chip manner. So far, the retail component has been an abysmal flop. Peter Janoff
Gone quiet
Manhattan: With all the selfcongratulatory patting himself on the back, I’ve noticed Mayor Adams has never mentioned Black male unemployment in our city, nor has the press asked him about it. Do the employment statistics of American Descendants of Slavery matter or count any longer, Mayor Adams?
Heyward Johnson Jr.
Who’s in charge?
Middle Village: I heard Friday morning that seven massage parlors on Roosevelt Ave. were shut down for prostitution. Neighbors had been complaining for years about them and finally, action was taken. But what follow-up will there be to be sure the women were not trafficked from their native countries? Will NYC go after the pimps? This is a problem at least as important as the illegal brothels.
Mary Jane McCartney
Plane pun
Kearny, N.J.: So glad the issues that grounded the Alaskan Boeing 737 Max aircrafts have been corrected. Those planes are so aDOORable! Kevin Dale
Which is it?
Park Ridge, N.J.: I’m watching the political ads on TV, Tom Suozzi running for Congress. The Republicans run a spot where Suozzi proudly announces how he kicked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement out of Nassau County. The Democrats run a spot where, in an interview, Suozzi proclaims his avid support for ICE, stressing that they do important work. I would like someone in the news business to sit Suozzi down, show both of these clips and ask him to explain his polar-opposite statements. Just another example of politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouths. Steve Ostlund
Not like the old days
Belle Harbor: In its heyday, the Daily News had a daily readership of 2.5 million, but today it is under 60,000. Sad to see. I remember as a boy in Broad Channel, people would gather at the local store around 9 p.m. awaiting delivery of the “night owl,” which was the early edition of the next day’s paper. Great sports section, nonpartisan articles and generally the best paper in town, outlasting the LI Press and the Mirror. I watched in dismay as the paper lurched leftward with strident woke idealism that grows stronger each day as it becomes unreadable to many New Yorkers. I believe the paper is close to the dustbin of history unless new ownership steps in to return The News to its former glory. Tom Barry
Armed with information
Manhattan: It is thanks to your writers that I learned that my retirement’s promised traditional Medicare/Medigap health care insurance is no more, but that there is a group fighting it. That group has now won in court against the city four times and 520,000 retirees have a second home — with lots of homework! Thank you, Daily News!
Suzy Sandor
Company pride
Manhattan: Troy Walcott (“New York must finally close the digital divide,” op-ed, Jan. 24) got one thing right: Spectrum didn’t connect the number of homes the state required — because we connected nearly 30% more. We delivered high-speed internet access to 185,000 rural upstate homes and small businesses, on time and using our own funding. That’s far from the only fact Walcott got wrong. He criticizes our internet speeds, yet the Federal Communications Commission has found that Spectrum internet has offered the “most consistent” service for five consecutive years. And while Walcott criticizes Spectrum’s recent dispute with Disney, we reached an innovative agreement that has been widely hailed as a major win for consumers. Despite Walcott’s claims, Spectrum has proven its commitment to New York. We employ more than 10,000 residents and serve 3.5 million customers and counting. We have already made great strides to close the digital divide — and New York can count on Spectrum for further progress. Rodney Capel vice president, government affairs Charter Communications, Inc.
Danger to the nation
Pasadena, Calif.: Donald Trump’s statements unleashed his millions of weak-minded sycophants upon E. Jean Carroll. Carroll testified that she received an onslaught of attacks over the years including death threats. Several of those were presented to the jury, including one that read, “stick a gun in your mouth and pull the trigger and send yourself to HELL.” Are we in America going to allow this misogynist and his followers to threaten our citizens for protecting their rights? As political scientist Brian Klaas wrote, Trump is “a 77-year-old racist, misogynist bigot who has been found liable for rape, who incited a deadly, violent insurrection aimed at overturning a democratic election, who has committed mass fraud for personal enrichment, who is facing 91 separate counts of felony criminal charges against him and who has overtly discussed his authoritarian strategies for governing if he returns to power.” Why would anyone vote for this narcissistic sociopath? Richard A. French
Bad for business
Old Bridge, N.J.: To Voicer JoAnn Lee Frank: Kindly remove your lips from the derrière of a sociopathic egomaniac who couldn’t have “experience” or “strong leadership” on his resumé unless he had a brain transplant. Have you ever counted the entities that have gone bankrupt under his “experience and strong leadership”? Janet Cecin
Down, not out
Whiting, N.J.: While Nikki Haley trails in polls and has lost two (yes, just two of numerous) primaries, does this necessarily mean the race is “over, done — kaput” as one Voicer implies? If a pro baseball team goes down 7-0 in the second inning, do the players take their bats and balls and go home? Haley quitting is exactly what Donald Trump wants, preferably before any of his criminal cases go to trial. If Haley has the financial means (and it appears she is still raking in contributions) and the will to carry on, I say go for it and let the chips fall where they may.
Bill McConnell
Restore sanity
Brooklyn: There is a real dangerous poetical syndrome sweeping America that must be cured. It is not “Trump derangement syndrome.” It is “Trump can not do any wrong” and it is affecting normally rational human beings. These people believe that it is OK to lie, refuse to admit errors and be totally ignorant of facts and history. There is a cure and that is to vote and eliminate the danger to our sanity.
Alan Podhaizer
Requested recognition
Lackawaxen, Pa.: In response to Voicer Steven Edlin’s plea for “more letters reflecting the other [pro-Israel] side”: The Jewish immigrants can be commended for pulling off the greatest heist in history — offered a refuge from persecution, they declared a Zionist state out of territory 90% occupied by Muslims and Christians. John A. Mackinnon