Readers: Stop the death on our streets!
A 33-year-old Queens motorcyclist
died in a brutal crash in Canarsie
Monday night, according to
authorities.
Andrew Vasapoli smashed into
the rear of a Hyundai Elantra on
Flatlands Avenue at 8 p.m. on June
24, colliding with the sedan as the
driver attempted to make a U turn
on Flatlands Avenue near E. 93rd
Street, cops said.
The collision sent Vasapoli fl ying
from the saddle of his 2010 Kawasaki,
and paramedics rushed the
Queens man to Brookdale Hospital,
where he was pronounced dead, police
said.
The driver remained on the scene
following the collision and was not
arrested, according to police, who
noted an investigation by the department’s
Highway District’s Collision
Investigation Squad remains
ongoing.
Readers shared their thoughts
online:
When will the carnage end? It’s
long past time to ban the wheel.
Local from Here
How many more will have to die
before NYC.GOV stops encouraging
two wheels on streets, perhaps never
and they’ll just factor it into the matrix
of more people coming than going.
It’s all math to them, more people,
more money. Underground,
above-ground, all-over-the-ground,
even smashed into the ground, no
matter to them. Time for a new order
where the people decide instead of
GOV deciding for them.
Ban 2 wheeled from street
God d--- drivers, they are too
plucking incompetent and careless.
Charge the driver with manslaughter.
Dimitri S from Coney Island
We need a nanny state. Life is too
unsafe Speedy Gonzalez
Lane blame
City offi cials ignored a Dyker
Heights community board’s rejection
of a network of bike lanes proposed
for the area, and have decided
to implement the paths over
the civic group’s objections.
“It was surprising to learn in
statements made to the press that
DOT opted to proceed with bicycle
lanes on Ridge Boulevard,” said
Doris Cruz, the chair of Community
Board 10, in a statement on
June 20. Ridge Boulevard is one of
four bike lanes in Dyker Heights
that DOT will paint despite the
board’s objections.
During a community board
meeting on Monday, June 17, members
in Community Board 10 asked
to investigate traffi c safety along
84th and 85th streets between 7th
and 14th avenues before the city installed
a bike lane. The board also
rejected a lane on Bay Ridge Avenue
between Shore Road and 14th
Avenue, arguing that the two-mile
stretch lacks left-turn signals and
contains a steep incline.
But on Wednesday, the transit
agency announced its plans
to paint lanes on all three streets
without further study — as well
as on fi ve other roadways that the
board approved — in the early fall.
None of these lanes would erase existing
parking space, and only one
would be protected, according to
the DOT.
Readers were divided online:
More bike lanes = safer streets.
Keep ‘em coming, please!
Henry Ford from Bay Ridge
Of greater import: Aiden’s discovered
the thesaurus! And we have a
candidate for replacing honcho. Bigwig.
Have you considered Overlords?
Just a thought. K from ArKady
A message to Mayor de Blasio
community board’s are just a waste
of taxpayers money, please suspend
all of them.....
Jim from Greenpoint
Congratulations - you are all subjects,
not citizens - now take these bike
racks and tell us we are right.
Rufus Leaking from BH
The bike lanes are not a waste of
money because thousands of Brooklynites
depend on bike lanes and
bicycling to get to their jobs every
day and do their household errands.
Without bike lanes they are being injured
by reckless drivers.
Susan Rosenfeld from
COURIER L 32 IFE, JUNE 28–JULY 4, 2019 PS
Sheepshead Bay
As usual, the de Blasio regime
cares only for special interest groups
like the pedal pushers rather than
sidewalkers and community residents.
But in the long run ,careless
bikers will continue to die in higher
numbers and erecting more bike
paths will not change that. Pedal safe
and die less. James Maggio
The clueless, oblivious car-hating
cabal at the DoT loathes what car
drivers and outer Borough residents
think or need. Their main priority is
to make driving and parking as diffi -
cult and costly as possible, and to ensure
that the white-biker-bros’ interest
is provided for.
Enough empty bike lanes
from Dyker
I guess some only like elitism only
when it suits their needs. If anyone
tries to claim that the community really
wanted those bike lanes, I would
like to see proof, otherwise my statement
on elitism holds by default. I
highly doubt that a group of bike zealots
from a particular group represent
a majority especially when barely
one percent of the city’s commuters
actually ride bicycles according a to
a recent study in the US Census Bureau.
Then again, as long as they can
get what they want, they will believe
that the end justifi es the means. Of
course, they probably took a page out
of Marty Markowitz, the previous
Brooklyn borough president, who
once threatened to purge community
boards if they didn’t agree with the
Atlantic Yards, which is now called
Pacifi c Park, as well as then-state
governor George Pataki where you
can always get what you want just by
sidestepping everything and everyone
despite any major opposition.
Tal Barzilai from Pleasantville
Alzheimer’s
Awareness!
June is Alzheimer’s and Brain
Awareness Month. The numbers are
staggering — 5.8 million Americans
have Alzheimer’s and by 2050, that
number could rise as high as 14 million.
The numbers don’t tell the whole
story. Alzheimer’s destroys precious
memories and shortens the time we
might have spent with loved ones.
My grandmother died from Alzheimer’s
when I was 11 years old. One
of my fi nal memories of her is visiting
her in a nursing home; she didn’t remember
my name. I’m sure she would
have loved to watch me grow into
adulthood, and I know she would have
added so much joy to my life. I grieve
for the relationship we lost. That’s
why I decided to honor her memory
by working with the Alzheimer’s Association,
New York City Chapter as
an Alzheimer’s advocate.
I am pleased that my member of
Congress, Nydia Velazquez, is a supporter
of Alzheimer’s issues. A few
weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend
her town hall meeting, where she
spoke about her commitment to supporting
all who are affected by it. If
you have lost someone to Alzheimer’s,
please join me in sharing your story
with your legislators. Everyone needs
to understand that there are real people
behind the statistics. We need the
support of our elected offi cials in order
to end this horrible disease.
Vanessa Hannay from
Brooklyn
Bay businesses are
suffering
An old-fashioned video rental
store; a pizzeria; a family clothing
store; a bar; a podiatrist’s offi ce; a
liquor store — what do all of these
have in common?
Once thriving businesses on and
around Avenue U in Sheepshead Bay,
they have all been closed for months
— even years —leaving their original
locations shuttered and abandoned,
often with the original signage
still out front.
Is, as Mayor de Blasio has
claimed, New York City’s economy
“booming?”
Maybe in some places, but not
here.
Businesses close their doors and
nothing replaces them; commercial
properties remain vacant for long
amounts of time. How long, I wonder,
will the site of the just-closed
Payless on Nostrand Avenue and Avenue
Y go without a tenant, damaging
the economic health of the neighborhood
even further?
It’s not as though the solidly middle
class Sheepshead Bay/Marine
Park area can’t support different
types of businesses. So what’s happening?
Are commercial real estate
prices so high, even in the farthest
reaches of Brooklyn, that business
owners are investing elsewhere?
Are the landlords themselves, instead
of seeking renters, using their
abandoned properties as tax writeoffs?
Or is this merely the fault of retail
giants like Amazon, which make
anything and everything available
online.
Whole stretches of forgotten
storefronts, resulting in ghost town
economics at its worst. All that’s
missing are the tumbleweeds. What
a shame.
Stuart R. Brynien
Sheepshead Bay
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