Snow day shoulda been two days
Fresh Meadows: The decision by Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña to open public schools on Friday was nothing short of ludicrous. The hardworking men and women of our city Sanitation Department have been doing a terrific, albeit extremely difficult job in keeping the main roadways and countless side streets of the city open during this extreme blizzard. Did the mayor and the chancellor think that all of the streets near public schools were sufficiently plowed enough so that school buses and cars could bring students to school? They must be living in Shangri-la!
By opening the schools, the mayor and the chancellor needlessly endangered the lives of not only students, but those of teachers, administrators and all other school personnel. They also created problems for parents who brought their children to school by walking on extremely dangerous and slippery sidewalks and streets. Also, suppose that a school bus skidded on an icy street? Students and the bus driver could have been injured. The school bus drivers union should have ordered their membership to stay home on Jan. 5.
The school calendar has a certain number of emergency days built into its schedule. There was absolutely no logical reason at all for the schools to be opened on Jan. 5. Shame on the mayor and chancellor for being so callous regarding the safety of children, parents, teachers, administrators and other school personnel. John Amato
Social Security adds up
Staten Island: To Voicer Joe Fusco on Voicer Jean Hampsas: Yes there is a 2% cost-of-living increase per the Social Security Administration; however, along with that is an increase in medical insurance. So when you do the plus/minus Social Security math, the increase the recipient will see is $3 to not much more, per month. Ang Bove
Social Security barely adds up
East Rockaway, L.I.: To Voicer Joe Fusco, in reference to the Social Security 2% cost-of-living increase: You are correct about this increase, but you are not factoring in the increase Medicare is taking in their automatic charge for insurance. My 2% increase gave me $23 a month. However, the charge for insurance went from $109 to $132. That cancels out my 2% increase. My Rx went down $1. My total increase for the month was $1. Can’t even buy a cup of coffee with that! Meryl Cohn
The Medicare hike
Hillsborough, N.J.: To Voicer Joe Fusco: Your statement that Voicer Jean Hampsas’ math was incorrect tells me that you are not on Social Security, otherwise you would know that the Medicare deduction was increased for most individuals from $109 for 2017 to $134 for 2018. I have a relative who is receiving $9 less than last year. Charles Capra Sr.
Calculating the costs
North Brunswick, N.J.: To Voicer Joe Fusco: While I have no idea what Voicer Jean Hampsas was receiving via Social Security during 2017, you should be aware that while Social Security recipients were granted a 2% increase effective 2018, Medicare premiums were raised up to $134 per month beginning January 2018. As an example, my 2017 Medicare premium of $111 per month will become $134 per month in 2018. You should also know that the Social Security Administration covered this increase by automatically taking it from the 2% COLA increase I would have received. Thus, my 2% increase will be short $23 per month by virtue of this transfer to Medicare. Furthermore, the SSA can be authorized to deduct changes an individual may make to his/her health care benefits under a Medicare Advantage Plan (Part C) directly from their benefit check, thus obscuring the 2% increase. In short, it would not hurt folks to better acquaint themselves with the facts before attempting to discredit others. There is an ignorance by many people as to how our federal government handles such matters. Julie Hinds
Playing the percentages
Brooklyn: I just got my statement from Social Security. I was getting $1,796 so 2% of that is $35.98. But I am getting $11 more starting in January. How does Social Security do their math? Thomas Miller
A climate for leadership
Brooklyn: Donald Trump’s proposal to expand offshore oil drilling would fuel catastrophes like the storm that devastated Puerto Rico. This makes Gov. Cuomo’s weak climate proposals in his State of the State speech all the more disappointing. Cuomo needs to stop the pipelines and power plants that transport and burn fracked oil and gas, such as the Williams Pipeline off the Rockaways, and he must commit to 100% renewable energy by 2030. Anything less than moving New York off fossil fuels amounts to fiddling while the world burns.
Eric Weltman Food & Water Watch
Happy News year
Glendale: Please take advantage of the new year to give readers a balanced and unbiased reporting of all news. Anything less will serve to further fake news complaints. Please consider getting rid of writers incapable of seeing that the truth does not require they decipher it with a negative spin. Embrace all New Yorkers equally and stop catering to a single demographic. God bless America. Jonathan Kiddrane
Billy’s post-Christmas miracle
Bronx: Most people won’t consider this a miracle, but I do: I’m running for the 14D bus at 14th and Sixth. When I catch the bus and get on, my Bluetooth says “out of range.” Uh-oh. The driver lets me off, I race back to my path — nothing. I use a friend’s phone at work to call my sister, then head to T-Mobile to start the insurance claim. After 45 minutes of nonsense, I’m finally about to get somewhere when my sister calls the store: “Stop what you’re doing. I found your phone.” I’ve gotta find a homeless guy named Billy with a red backpack panhandling on 14th St. and Sixth Ave. Billy has my phone (a Samsung 7 Edge), and not only did he not try to sell it, he didn’t even make any calls except to my sister, and the only reason he answered her call was because of my ringtone: “Your sister is trying to reach you on your cellular device” made him think of his sis. I only had $14 and I gave it all to Billy. I offered to let him shower and get something to eat at my place (I’m in a congregate living building) but he said he was OK. I’ve been in Billy’s shoes — maybe not panhandling, but homeless, and I can tell you, back then, in this weather, there is no way I would’ve done what this guy did for me. The money he would’ve gotten might not have gotten him into the Marriott but it would’ve gotten him a bed at the Paradise. My whole life is in this phone and, while I would’ve gotten another one, it would’ve screwed me for a couple of months. So thank you again, Billy. And anyone who sees Billy out there, do the right thing, ’cause he sure did. Neil Reed
Loving that Citi Field
Colts Neck, N.J.: As a transplanted Brooklynite now residing in the provinces, I wish to go on record thanking Fred Wilpon for modeling Citi Field after old Ebbets Field. I know there are not many of us old Brooklyn fans who still revile Robert Moses for forcing Walter O’Malley’s Dodgers to move to L.A. those years ago. I now root for the Mets and even, occasionally, those Yankees. My grandson in Colorado reveres Jackie Robinson, who moved into the big house on the corner in Flatbush before my family moved to Greenpoint. My basement’s walls are still framed with individual pictures of the 1955 champs as well as my program from the ’56 perfect game. So good luck, Fred: I hope you bring back another World Series!
Thomas J. Carey
Age-old scam
GETTY Forest Hills: Ladies, do not fall for the free sample of anti-aging cream as I did. The ad is on the computer now. A couple of weeks ago, it was on Rachael Ray. You pay $4.99 for shipping and somewhere in the fine print, it says it is a trial for two weeks and if you don’t respond, you immediately get billed. I did not read the fine print. Chase called me about an $89.92 charge. I did not order it — only the free sample — and refused to pay. I called the company and told them to remove the charge or I was going to contact the fraud department. Off it went. Beware!
Lillian Zimmerman Astoria: As 2017 slips away, let me recollect a life. Emma Morano of Verbania, Italy, died in April at age 117. She was the last verifiably documented person to be born in 1899. No one alive on this Earth today was born in the 19th century. Many people over 50 probably had a grandparent born in the 1880s or 1890s. All of them are gone. Humankind, while more enlightened now, was no less barbaric then. With this life’s death, we bury a century.
Richard Melnick