Sunnyside walks on eggshells

Sunnyside: The Daily News needs to consider what development would mean for Sunnyside, a low-rise, multicultural and congenial community (“Sunnyside up,” Dec. 9). The No. 7 train is already a crowded line. Buses have to run the bottlenecked gantlet of the Queensboro Bridge. How will the MTA deal with thousands more passengers? Con Edison already asks New Yorkers to reduce electricity during peak summer usage. How are new developments going to be served? How will Sanitation deal with more refuse pickups on already crowded streets? With schools already overcrowded, how will even more children be accommodated? Parking and the fate of small shops are two more issues to consider.

With all the upbeat reporting about real estate development on and near Sunnyside Yard, New York needs detailed information regarding these questions. We should fully understand who is developing what for whom, and how we are all affected.

Simon Cohen

Project runway

Woodside: So if someone builds condos along Queens Blvd. in Sunnyside, they will “sell like hotcakes”? Beware! After moving in, buyers will want to drop their apartments like hot potatoes. Sunnyside and Woodside have no quality of life. We have planes coming over our homes and schools every 40 seconds for up to 20 hours a day. They are loud and low and spew disgusting jet fuel. I am a lifelong resident. I no longer enjoy my home. Do your homework on flight paths before buying. What was once a wonderful place to live is no longer so.

Phyllis Pastuzyn

Build to last

Teaneck, N.J.: NYCHA’s leadership should be commended for tapping public-private partnerships as a solution to the agency’s financial woes (“Developers, NYCHA eye $200M deal,” Dec. 8), but their plan to sell off public housing leaves much to be desired. The agency is robbing Peter to pay Paul: transferring the burden of repairing NYCHA’s decaying properties from the city to the federal government, which will pay the difference between the subsidized rent and the rent that renovated units will eventually fetch on the market. Relying on a one-off infusion of public money to fund ongoing housing needs is particularly risky at a time when federal housing support is dwindling. The city needs to explore truly sustainable solutions that can fund themselves, such as a combination of market rate and subsidized housing together with robust retail on the ground floor.

Leonard Grunstein

Pay up

Manhattan: I have a two-word answer to help alleviate the financial struggles of the Port Authority and MTA: Commuter tax. Bring it back. People come into the city to make the money from the jobs here, so let them support the infrastructure of this great city and keep it alive.

Diane Galli

Yoo phooey

Sunnyside: Shame on the Daily News for printing trash disguised as an opinion piece (“A torture report for the dustbin,” Op-Ed, Dec. 10). Anyone paying attention at the time knew what John Yoo and the Bush administration were doing in America’s name. But we were the ones called traitors. Yoo, along with Bush and Cheney, should be swinging from the gallows for treason.

Mark McGriff

Charged issue

Stony Point, N.Y.: It is shocking to learn that only patrol sergeants are assigned to carry Tasers (“NYPD zap decision,” Dec. 11). Why, in the largest police department in the country, isn’t this regulation equipment? In smaller cities with smaller budgets, Tasers are used in place of bullets on unarmed suspects. Body cameras are necessary but Tasers more important. A noncompliant person is far more likely to survive a Tasing than a bullet.

Lois Baruch

...Or

Dover, N.H.: Disarm the police.

Anne DeMaria

Let it go

Hartsdale, N.Y.: Voicer Glenn Hayes got it right. A lot of people of both races cannot let go of racism. Forty-plus years ago, while taking care of three children for my friend, who is black, I was subjected every day to verbal remarks. People thought they were mine and did not approve. Today, there are many mixed marriages and still many people of both races who give children dirty looks and sneers. Some biracial students are still bullied in school. Maybe in years to come, when everyone is of mixed race, Americans can finally let go of their racism.

Cindy Costello

Other side of the street

Kew Gardens: To Voicer Glenn Hayes: As an African-American woman, I would love to let go of racism and live my life without the ignorance it brings. It seems as though the racists can’t let go of it, though. You and I both live in the same neighborhood and unlike you, I was greeted on a beautiful Saturday morning while I was out to get my Starbucks and newspaper by an older white gentleman who greeted me by saying: “Get out of my neighborhood, n----.” Who can find comfort in that? Walk a day in my shoes and tell me who isn’t giving it up.

Denise Brathwaite

Son salutation

Franklin Square, L.I.: Exactly what did Mayor de Blasio teach his son about police interactions (“Bill thoughts on ‘losing Dante,’ ” Dec. 4)? Was it to be respectful, not to assault a police officer, not to resist arrest or just not to commit a crime? All that is what my parents taught me.

Arthur Staudinger

Trial by trauma

Manhattan: Columbia Law School students were so “traumatized” by the Garner and Brown grand jury decisions that they demanded, and school officials allowed them, to postpone their final exams. Seriously? Could you imagine if they were actually on a case and upset by a judge’s ruling on an objection, or did not like the way their adversary questioned their witnesses, or refuted their evidence? “Sorry, your honor, I am too upset to continue with this trial.” My only consolation is that the buffoons who let the students get away with this are the same idiots who will hire these whiney, coddled morons as their lawyers down the road.

Lori Rudolph

Small justice

Bronx: Totally insane is all I have to say about Judge Laura Taylor (“Too small to jail,” Dec. 10). What does Annette Bongiorno’s size have to do with her sentence? What is wrong with the criminal justice system? As for Bongiorno’s health issues: Too bad. What about the health of all the people who lost their life savings to Bernie Madoff? This judge should be fired. The criminal justice system is a joke and an embarrassment. More corrupt than Madoff.

Kelly DiGirolamo

A wash

Belle Harbor: It has been over two years since we were devastated by Superstorm Sandy. Where did all the money raised in the 12-12-12 concert go? As I watched the concert two years ago, all I kept hearing was the money was going to be distributed to local community groups to be handed out to the people who needed help. One of those groups highlighted was the Graybeards. How much money did they receive from the Robin Hood Foundation? Where did it go?

Carolina Hidalgo And who exactly did they help? There should be a full accounting for where the money went. The community was angry that the Red Cross and FEMA didn’t do enough to help us in our hour of need — well, nor did donations of generous Americans across the country reach many of those who were suffering.

Joe Saunders

Root of the matter

Bronx: Black cohosh root may be good for eliminating or reducing hot flashes, but what Hoda and Kathie Lee did not mention (“Hoda’s hot for herbal remedy,” Dec. 11) is that black cohosh may also raise your blood pressure.

Valerie W. Hunt

Mane point

Wantagh, L.I.: Nobody in good conscience can support the inhumane horse-carriage industry. In a growing number of accidents, horses have been spooked and injured themselves and members of the public. I urge all City Council members to support Intro 573, making New York City a more humane place for residents, two-legged and four, and tourists alike.

Julie Cappiello

Radio replay

Fresh Meadows: I agree with Voicer Mike Pedano that talk radio is overflowing with commercials. My solution is to listen to podcasts, which air only a few hours later. A one-hour show, stripped of all commercials and station jingles, lasts only 35 minutes.

Charles Tal