13
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, APR. 8-14, 2022
BXR
letters & comments
To the Editor,
In recently concluded, secretive
negotiations, the NFL’s
Buffalo Bills franchise was
gifted an astounding $850 million
from the taxpayers of New
York state in order to build a
new stadium. How many hospitals,
schools and mental health
facilities could have been constructed
with this extravagant
sum? How much progress towards
generating renewable,
clean energy could have been
achieved with these funds?
How many crumbling roads
and bridges could have been rehabilitated?
We, the taxpayers,
will never know.
The Bills and the state contend
that in view of the cost of
renovating the old stadium,
which they pegged at $862 million,
a new stadium was in order.
Yet, a licensed engineer
hired by the Investigative Post
reviewed county and state
studies, and concluded that
the renovations would cost as
little as $123 million. Another
reason to reject this latest example
of “corporate welfare”
is economic research that has
found that sports stadiums
have rarely had a substantial
impact on overall economic
growth. In other words, the
taxpayer gets swindled and the
team owners, Terry and Kim
Pegula, who have a personal
fortune of $5.8 billion, increase
their already bloated bottom
line.
This shameless misuse of
public funds must be halted.
The Legislature must approve
the governor’s budget and if
enough pressure is applied to
its members this giveaway can
be blocked. I urge readers to
contact their representatives
in Albany and express their
disgust with this glaring misappropriation
of public funds.
Pasqual Pelosi
Kathy Hochul speaks during a news conference
the day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced
his resignation, Aug. 11, 2021. Photo | REUTERS/
Cindy Schultz
Photo | Adrian Childress
To the Editor,
I am the owner of AI Rides LLC,
a personal electric vehicle repair
and sales shop, located in the South
Bronx off of Bruckner Boulevard on
132nd Street and St Ann’s Avenue. I
became the owner of this business in
August of 2021, and have since been
met with open arms and flowing traffic.
My business is not located in any
storefront, so all of my business is
done by appointment only. The only
way that my business can be found
online at this current moment is
through Google Maps searches for
personal electric vehicles and bike
repair. I am concerned that a bill in
Congress may negatively impact and
potentially be the end to any growth
of my small business and many others
like it that cannot afford storefronts
or pay for large ads putting
them at the forefront of Google
searches.
The customers I receive via the
internet keep my business alive and
running. Passing the American
Choice and Innovation Online Act
in Congress will work against everything
I’ve been working hard to build.
I understand both the House and
the Senate are considering passing
this bill, which would not allow
Google searches to contain Google
Maps as part of the results. Since the
Senate majority leader is our one and
only Sen. Chuck Schumer, I strongly
urge him to consider the devastating
impact it could have on small businesses
like mine.
New York City is only just now recovering
from the pandemic. I think
we should reconsider doing anything,
even inadvertent, to hurt small businesses
in New York City.
Samuel Pacheco
To the Editor,
NYC Transit subway train
runs continue to be canceled
every month due to a shortage
of both conductors and
engineers. This is primarily
due to the devastating impact
of COVID-19, combined with
the prior short-sited policy of
canceling training classes for
new employees. It takes three
months for conductors and
eight months for engineers to
be fully trained.
Even after resuming training
classes one year ago, NYC
Transit is still short hundreds
of conductors and engineers.
As a result, they will not be
fully staffed until some time
later in 2022. One wonders
how many trains may have
to continue to be canceled in
coming months, until this
shortage of critical employees
is finally resolved.
NYC Transit should have
the ability to hire part-time
employees to deal with peak
service requirements. This
might have provided a larger
pool of employees resulting
in far fewer canceled trains.
Why not include this in the
next round of contract negotiations
between management
and the unions?
Larry Penner
To the Editor,
Re: “Lieber’s Next Choice,”
written by Larry Penner in the
April 1 edition of this newspaper.
Larry Penner just doesn’t get
it. The New York City Subway
will keep on keeping on, no matter
who is in charge. It will provide
a mostly reliable ride during
the day, less so at night. The
fare will eventually rise. Once in
a while a passenger will be struck
by a train or will fall ill, wreaking
havoc up and down the line.
On occasion the 7th Avenue line
will be rerouted down Lexington
and visa versa. Announcements
on and off the train will be unintelligible.
The subway will continue
to operate in the red. This
will take place until the fall of the
republic. Under Pataki, Spitzer,
Patterson and Cuomo, there was
no significant improvement or deterioration.
Ironically, the author recently
posted an opinion piece talking
about how well U.S. DOT ran
without Peter Buttigieg. The subway
will run with or without the
new NYCTA president.
The author states what an insult
it is to transit employees and
5 million riders. Make it 4,999,999.
I’m not the slightest bit insulted. I
doubt my fellow riders are. Ninety
percent of the author’s opinion
pieces insult my intelligence,
contradict each other, sometimes
within themselves, or require
multiple Google searches to understand.
As a resident of Nassau
County, the author speaks with
authority about things he knows
nothing about, such as how great
the ferry service expansion in the
Bronx is, without understanding
the vast majority of the Bronx
lives nowhere near the ferry. Not
a sin in and of itself not to know,
but he refuses to do perfunctory
research such as looking at a map
or asking anyone who actually
lives in the Bronx.
The practice of bringing people
from without has been going
on since Noah was building
a boat. I’m not agreeing or disagreeing.
I doubt a station agent
giving a passenger directions or
a track worker working on the
third rail will care who the new
president is. I know I don’t.
Nat Weiner
LET US HEAR FROM YOU
Letters to the editor are welcome from all readers. They should be addressed
care of this newspaper to Laura Guerriero, Publisher, the Bronx Times Reporter,
3604 E. Tremont Ave., Bronx, NY 10465, or e-mail to bronxtimes@cnglocal.com.
All letters, including those submitted via e-mail, MUST be signed and with a
verifiable address and telephone number included.
Note that the address and telephone number will NOT be published and the
name will be published or withheld upon request.
No unsigned letters can be accepted for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit all submissions.
A W train in Queens. Photo courtesy
Wikimedia Commons Facebook
Author is wrong to
think anything is
going to change with
the subway system
Taxpayer-funded Buffalo Bills stadium is a
‘shameless misuse of public funds’
New bill could hurt small businesses without
storefronts by eliminating Google Maps
NYC Transit
should hire parttime
employees
to compensate for
staff shortages
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