FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.couriersun.com MAY 14, 2015 • THE COURIER SUN 23 for breaking news visit www.timesnewsweekly.com MAY 14, 2015 • times 13 oped letters AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PORT AUTHORITY OF NY/NJ: I live in Hamilton Beach and cannot believe how disruptive and disturbing the planes have become since Runway 13L/31R has been shut down for maintenance. The planes are consistently flying low over our community, at a rate of two per minute at times, for hours upon hours. Something must be done. Some of us have spent years submitting suggestions in one meeting after another only to be told in some instances to “buy earplugs” or “get used to it” or “move.” To date, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has refused to make any changes to resolve the issue. It seems that nothing short of a lawsuit will make our voices heard. Our ability to relax in our own homes and our yards has been taken away by the excessive noise levels created by the jets constantly landing and taking off over us. Our constitutional right for quiet, peace and enjoyment of our private property is completely being ignored. There is no excuse for any aircraft to fly so low that adults and children alike find it impossible to sleep. At such low altitudes, should an aircraft experience a mechanical failure, there is no way out for them at this point. Research indicates that excessive noise can cause significant health problems, such as hearing loss, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal problems and other disorders. In addition, noise may cause interference with communication, sleep deprivation, poor performance at work and in school due to of lack of concentration, and general annoyance. The value of our homes throughout the entire area is greatly diminished by this. We’ve been told how valuable the airport is to our economy but remember, as our property values go down, so does the tax base meaning less tax revenues for the city. Surely you know that it is incumbent upon you to develop a plan to reduce the unacceptable noise resulting from your current operations. You cannot ignore this any longer! You have to make the appropriate changes! Roger Gendron, president New Hamilton Beach Civic Association DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH FOR 7 LINE EXTENSION Remember former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ceremonial ride on the No. 7 train to the line’s future stop at 34th Street and 11th Avenue? This was in December 2013 and was clearly just another feel-good photo op for a lame duck mayor and other politicians. Some believe that it was premature until either NYC or the MTA found $500 million more to build the promised intermediate station at 10th Avenue and 41st Street. This station was deleted from the original scope of work in 2007 as a cost-saving measure to complete the No. 7 line extension within the available project budget. The original budget grew from $2.1 billion to $2.4 billion. Since that time, the anticipated December 2014 opening day has slipped by several times. Subsequent promised dates of June 2014 and April 2015 have come and gone. It was just announced at a recent monthly MTA Board meeting that the newest revised date is now between July and September 2015. Don’t be surprised if it will end up as a Christmas/Hanukkah December 2015 gift of opening day service for riders. Larry Penner Great Neck VISIT QueensCourier.com FOR MORE STORIES RENT RULES HURT EVERYONE BY JOSEPH STRASBURG Mayor de Blasio recently declared war on the rental housing industry by supporting tenant-backed state legislation that would cut off the life blood of city’s existing rental housing. Perhaps the mayor does not realize that the ultimate casualties, if his proposals were to be adopted, will be renters, the city’s economy and his own housing plan. The mayor’s proposals would eliminate rent increases when apartments become vacant, prohibit the deregulation of stabilized apartments and limit incentives for apartment and building improvements. The sources of income that the mayor would eliminate are precisely what keeps stabilized housing alive. They were enacted by the state Legislature because rent increases provided by the city Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) were insufficient to meet ever-rising building operating costs. Long-term, building operating costs have increased by 5 to 6 percent per year, while the RGB has allowed rents to increase by only 3 percent per year. The mayor does not seem to recognize that it takes money to operate rental properties, a cost that keeps increasing primarily because of increases in city real estate taxes and water and sewer charges. These municipal charges make up one-third of building operating costs and are set to increase once again in July. Instead, to keep rents low, Mayor de Blasio has decided that owners have been over-compensated in the past and are now making too much profit. There is no basis for making that judgement across the board. Everyone knows that not all tenants are poor, just as not all owners are rich. Nor was it the purpose of the rent stabilization law to regulate profits. We tried that under the old rent control system which decimated the housing stock and left as its legacy apartments that still rent for less than $100 per month. It’s time to finally acknowledge that rent regulations are a cause of, and not a cure for, the city’s affordable housing crisis. The affordability crisis (which certainly exists for low-income renters but not across the board), is not a result of excessive rents, but a problem of inadequate incomes. The only way to address this problem is through rent subsidy programs targeted for the neediest tenants. In other words, protect the tenants, not the apartments. The mayor understands the need for rent subsidy. His administration has asked owners to help house homeless families using rent subsidies and the industry is ready to help. However, even if there are not enough rent subsidies available, the answer is not to freeze rents. Rent-stabilized housing in NYC produced $19 billion in economic activity in 2014, including 153,000 jobs in locally based businesses. Half of this housing is owned by small business owners utilizing other small neighborhood businesses. This housing also generated nearly $3 billion in city taxes to fund municipal services like police, fire and sanitation. As long as the city needs more tax revenue, rents will have to increase. The only way to protect our neediest tenants is for tenant advocates, the mayor and other elected officials need to join with the industry to support an expansion of the existing rent increase exemption programs to cover all income eligible renters. Joseph Strasburg is the president of the Rent Stabilization Association. It’s no longer here now, but this undated photo shows the Grover Cleveland High School annex at the corner of Central Avenue and 71st Street in Glendale. Constructed in 1893, the wooden schoolhouse contained 12 classrooms and featured sliding walls to accommodate classes of different sizes. After Queens County became part of the City of New York, it was rebranded as P.S. 67, and the structure was expanded in the years that followed to keep up with the growing population in the area. It was taken out of service in the 1930s when neighboring P.S./I.S. 119 and P.S. 91 opened, but was used as an annex to Grover Cleveland in 1937 when the Ridgewood high school became overcrowded. After overcrowding at Grover Cleveland eased, the building was torn down and redeveloped into a public playground. Long called the Glendale Playground, it was renamed in 2006 for the late Vito Maranzano, a former president of the Glendale Property Owners Association whose devout activism in community affairs led many to call him the unofficial “mayor of Glendale.” A LOOK BACK
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