WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 3, 2017 13
CELEBRATING
THE OLD
MILLENNIUM
The tortoise called Millennium, a 17
year old African Spurred tortoise that
was stolen was found in Connecticut
by a man who had possession of the 95
pound Millennium.
I am glad he was found unharmed
and not sold on the black market as
was suspected. It is a sad thing when
a beloved animal is stolen and maybe
hurt by those for fi nancial gain and
have little concern for the welfare of
the poor animal. It was a good thing
that the man that traded another tortoise
for Millennium realized that this
turtle was the one that was stolen and
called the police.
Millennium is now at home at the
Alley Pond Environmental Center in
Douglaston. To Millennium let me say,
“Live long and prosper and be safe, for
your were dearly missed by children
and staff .”
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.,
Glen Oaks Village
TIME FOR CONGRESS
TO PASS ‘PUPPERS’
Congress is presently in the process
of reviewing the bipartisan PUPPERS
Act (Preventing Unkind and Painful
Procedures and Experiments on Respected
Species). This bill (HR 3197)
was introduced by Representatives
Dave Brat of Virginia and Dina Titus
of Nevada in response to recent
investigations by White Coat Waste
Project, the federal government and
some of the media that exposed the
many painful, deadly and unfounded
experiments on dogs at the Veterans
Administration (V.A.).
The V.A. has long been using our
tax dollars to perform these lethal
experiments on puppies in the name
of medical research. However, these
wasteful experiments do not provide
any useful scientifi c conclusions for
humankind. This research is outdated
and archaic, and only torture and
death for the animals. The money used
to pay for this is taken away from the
fi nancial support for veterans and is
a waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.
If the act is passed, not only will
monies be released for better veterans’
care, but the egregious animal cruelty
of these tests will be permanently
stopped.
Valerie Horowitz, Queens
NEW YORK
SHOULD
RAISE
SMOKING AGE
On Friday, July 21, New Jersey
Governor Chris Christie signed a
law that will raise the statewide
minimum age to purchase tobacco
products, including electronic
cigarettes, from 19 to 21, eff ective
Jan. 1, 2018.
New York also had a golden
opportunity to pass our own
statewide Tobacco 21 (known as
T21) law last month, aft er bills
passed both the Assembly and
Senate Health Committees only
to have it held up by the Assembly
Rules and Senate Finance
Committees respectively.
Several venues within the
state of New York, including
New York City, have passed local
T21 bills but the pressure by
the tobacco industry once again
showed up in Albany to prevent
the statewide bill from reaching
the full Assembly and Senate in
the fi nal week of the legislative
session.
With the added impetus of
our neighboring state soon implementing
a T21 law it is time
that Albany finally gets this
done during the next legislative
session.
Phil Konigsberg, Queens Tobacco
Control Coalition, Bay Terrace
OP-ED
Fixing the transit crisis
BY JOSEPH RASKIN
Almost a century ago, a visionary
transit planner named
Daniel Lawrence Turner
drew up a program for the New York
Transit Construction Commission for
the expansion of New York City’s rapid
transit system.
Turner’s plan particularly aff ected
Queens, calling for the extension of
all of the then-existing lines and the
construction of new lines. 13 separate
projects were proposed in the borough.
His concept was basic - build transit lines
ahead of development, anticipating
growth, instead of reacting to it. This
was the essential logic behind transit
planning for the fi rst half of the 20th
century. Turner actually feared that
what he proposed wouldn’t be enough to
handle the growth that he saw coming in
New York City. Expansion of the transit
system needed to be an ongoing process.
Much of what Turner proposed was
never implemented, but it had an eff ect
on what growth would follow. One can
actually argue that the transit system has
actually contracted in subsequent years.
Unfortunately for Queens, most subway
expansion work ended when lines had
only crossed half of the borough. For example,
the extension of the Queens Boulevard
Line to 179th Street in 1950 was only
meant to be the fi rst step in an eventual
extension to Little Neck Parkway.
Turner’s point was nonetheless true.
The system needs to continually grow.
Moreover, the need to continually maintain
the existing system remain paramount
What does this say for the current
state of the transit system in Queens?
As a result of station and structural improvements,
new trains and buses and
anti-graffi ti work, I think that it’s in signifi
cantly better shape than it was before
the 1980s, but the recent operating crisis
shows that much remains to be done.
Unfortunately, City and State leadership
seems to be paying much greater
attention to rivalries and aesthetics than
doing basic work. Governor Cuomo criticized
Mayor de Blasio and the city government
for not contributing a fair share
of funding to the MTA. Mayor de Blasio
criticized Governor Cuomo and the state
government for diverting money from
the MTA for other purposes. They’re
both right (and this didn’t start with the
current Mayor and Governor). But what
does this do for Queens transit riders?
The actions that MTA Chairman Lhota
has called for is signifi cant, but only if
it’s part of an ongoing process that must
be funded. Farebox revenue will never
provide enough funding to pay for what
work is needed. Reliable, ongoing and
protected sources of funding beyond
the farebox must be developed and
maintained to meet the short and longterm
needs of the transit system.
We shouldn’t wait for crisis conditions
to exist to take the actions that
are needed to properly maintain the
transit system and to fund the work
that is needed to correct the issues that
created the crisis. The transit system
must also grow to meet Queens’ needs,
refl ecting how the borough continues
to grow.
LETTERS AND COMMENTS
A LOOK BACK
Felix Grodzki owned one of
the last farms in Ridgewood,
which lasted well into the late
1950s. As this photo from the
Ridgewood Times archives
shows, Grodzki holds his horse
Baby while his son Joseph hitches
up the animal for a plowing
session in 1957 at the family
farm on Flushing Avenue. In the
background is the Albert Ehlers
coff ee plant, which stood at the
corner of Cypress and Flushing
avenues. Send us your historic
photos of Queens by email to
editorial@qns.com or mail printed
pictures to A Look Back, ℅
The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell
Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All
mailed pictures will be carefully
returned to you.
