FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com APRIL 14, 2016 • THE QUEENS COURIER 35 oped letters & comments MTA WILL NEED FEDERAL CASH FOR IMPROVEMENTS A recent announcement by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that if Albany does not approve the proposed MTA $29 billion Five-Year 2015 - 2019 by July 1, 2016, they will run out of money for initiation of new capital projects is not totally correct. Cuomo still owes the MTA $7.3 and de Blasio $2.5 billion. Federal support for transportation has remained consistent and growing increasing over past decades. Washington has made available more than $1 billion in 2016 for the MTA. This does not include several hundred million more in competitive funding. When a crisis occurred, be it 9/11 in 2001 or Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Washington was there for us. Additional billions in assistance above and beyond yearly formula allocations from the United States Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration were provided. In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided billions more. Most federal transportation grants require a 20 percent hard cash local share. In many cases, USDOT FTA accepted toll credits instead of hard cash for the local share. This saved the MTA 1 billion dollars in the previous 2010 - 2014 Five Year Capital Program. The same will be true with the 2015 - 2019 Five Year Capital Program. Larry Penner, Great Neck UPSET OVER POLICE CORRUPTION REPORTS The latest story regarding the involvement of four highly regarded police offi cials in the evergrowing corruption scandal is very upsetting indeed. These people are civil servants who took an oath to uphold law and order — and they seem to be doing just the opposite. If there are any more police offi cials who are mixed up in this outrageous behavior, they also should be relieved of their positions and all of them should be prosecuted. If these were ordinary citizens who were found to have been involved in this outrageous crime, they would already have been put behind bars in the pokey for a long stint. Let justice prevail — it must! John Amato, Fresh Meadows LAMENTING LOSS OF BIKE RIDER IN BAYSIDE PARK It’s tragic this man died. Perhaps now there will be more patrolling of the park. It is not a dirt bike range and clearly is not a safe place to ride motorized dirt bikes. Way too many people ignore established safety laws in that park; for example I have seen motorized dirt bikes, quads, and the number of unleashed dogs (not in the dog park area) is second to none. It’s horrible someone got so hurt, but hopefully from this death comes something good — safety enforcement. QNS user Emily NOT A FAN OF PARAGON PAINT PROJECT IN LIC The demands on infrastructure are also water and sewer, electricity (think multiple air conditioners for each unit), and hundreds more cars on the area roads. Not good for the environment. QNS user Mary Most A LOOK BACK Here’s another gem from our friends at the Facebook group “You must have lived in Ridgewood if you remember...” This 1970s picture shows the entrance to the Halsey Street station on the L line at the corner of Wyckoff Avenue and Covert Street in Ridgewood. Although a common misperception is that the L line runs entirely in Brooklyn, a portion of it straddles the Brooklyn/Queens border in Ridgewood. The Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues station sits directly on the border. We want your historic pictures of Queens! Share them on our Facebook or Twitter pages, email them to editorial@qns.com, or mail them to The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you. THE FIGHT FOR EQUAL PAY CONTINUES BY ELIZABETH CROWLEY, DEBORAH GILLIS AND DARLENE MEALY On Tuesday, April 12, the city recognized Equal Pay Day — a day to confront the challenges our mothers, daughters and sisters still face in achieving workplace equality. Signifi cant progress has been made, but substantial discrepancies exist between women and men — most notably, a sizable wage gap. As of 2013, women still earned only 78 cents for every dollar earned by men, with a median income over 27 percent lower than that of men. For women of color, the pay gap widens: black and Hispanic women earn 64 and 56 cents on the dollar, respectively. Stretched over a lifetime of work, this leaves women with much less money than the average man. At S&P Fortune 500 companies, women hold less than 5 percent of CEO positions and only 16 percent of board seats. When women are top earners, the pay gap tends to close at a faster pace. But disappointingly, the numbers show that women are vastly under-represented in these higher-level positions, resulting in a persistent pay gap and lack of diversity in board rooms big and small. Yet, women are more educated and prepared for the workforce than ever before. Women now account for nearly 60 percent of annual four-year university graduates, 60 percent of master’s degrees and 52 percent of doctorates being awarded in the United States. Though this longstanding pay gap is an undeniable social injustice; it amounts to much more, and is actually hurting corporate bottom lines. Study after study, particularly those from Catalyst, the global expert on accelerating progress for women through workplace inclusion, has stated that when women hold leadership or board positions, it improves company fi nancial performance, economic growth, productivity and profi tability. This makes it crystal clear that business is better and companies perform most effectively when they bring equal opportunity, allowing everyone a seat at the table. The city of New York, as the global center of business and commerce, and proprieter of billions in private contracts, can play an important role in promoting the levels of diversity we need in the 21st century. Let’s make sure we get the best value for our own tax dollars, and promote businesses that promote equal opportunity. Last week, the City Council voted and passed Introduction 704-A, a bill we sponsored to gather more information on the gender and racial makeup of the individuals who make up executive-level staff and boards of companies that do business with the city. Once made law, it will require the Deparment of Small Business Services to survey companies that do business with the city and obtain the demographics of companies’ executive-level staff and board members. In 2015, the city procured $13.8 billion worth of goods and services through more than 60,000 transactions, yet we do not know who is running the companies that are conducting this business. Intro 704-A will provide the City with the data it needs to ensure that city-contracted companies are promoting the diversity that makes this City so great, and could ultimate boost the economy. It’s a small step that we believe will go a long way to help our city to recognize inequities in our own backyard and create incentives for businesses throughout New York to promote diversity in their top ranks. We hope you will all join us in the fi ght for equal opportunity, and make New York City a place where everyone can succeed. Elizabeth Crowley represents Queens’ 30th District in the City Council, while her colleague in government, Darlene Mealy, represents the 41st District in Brooklyn. Gillis is president and CEO of Catalyst, a nonprofi t organization dedicated toward accelerating progress for women in the workplace.
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