WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 8, 2019 13
FED UP WITH
THE SCOOTERS
I’m writing today because I am
hearing a lot in the news about
e-bikes and scooters being allowed to
share sidewalks and bike lanes, both
bad ideas. (The new bike lanes are a
joke.)
I cannot fi gure out for the life of
me why the large, heavy Vespa-like
delivery scooters, or “fl y-bikes,” are
operated everywhere with impunity.
In fact, the operators ride with the
notion that they’re entitled. I’ve more
than once been cursed at by a rider,
both when I was cycling and driving.
According to them, I was in their way.
I’ve actually seen one deliver food to
the 110th precinct.
They ride without fear of being
caught because no one cares. They are
on sidewalks, streets and bike lanes.
They zig-zag thru car traffi c in the
street, even against the fl ow of traffi c.
They weave around pedestrians on
the sidewalk. These riders have no
license, no identifying license plate,
no insurance, no training, most don’t
wear helmets. These machines are
also silent (as opposed to gas-powered
mopeds/scooters) and you cannot hear
them coming.
So why are these not part of this
discussion? They are far more
ubiquitous and potentially damaging
to life and limb than the transports
currently up for discussion.
And it’s not just delivery people
riding them. I see adults without
helmet with young children on the
back, sometimes two!
It’s a bad situation that has been
growing exponentially in recent
years and needs to be addressed
before someone gets hurt. I’ve already
written to a handful of our local
elected offi cials about the matter. I
am not expecting any replies no less
any action.
John Kerschbaum, Corona
READER: GET RID
OF THE CO-OPS
Editor’s note: The following is
addressed by the author as an open
letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo and
the State Legislature.
THE HOT TOPIC
STORY:
Cardozo High School alum and Queens native ‘hurdles’ her way to a world
record
SUMMARY:
A Queens native and alumna from Benjamin Cardozo High School in
Bayside broke the world record for 400-meter hurdles last week.
REACH:
18,730 people reached (as of 8/6/19)
In view of the fact that in Manhattan,
for example, 75% of the apartment
inventory is of housing cooperatives,
which serve to deplete the aff ordable
rental inventory, as well as promote
other social disharmony, I think the
solution to the housing availability
and aff ordability crises is to legally
abolish housing cooperatives in the
State of New York (which has 99% of
residential housing cooperatives
globally).
Historical understanding points
to this escalation in the co-op agenda
during the 1980s as stemming from
landlords’ decision to respond to the
economic law of diminishing returns
due to stringent rent regulation laws
and maintenance costs of obsolete
real property (NYS Attorney General
Robert Abrams was the “genius”
behind this scheme).
Cooperative apartments, as distinct
from condo actual ownership, are
mere shares in property owned by
the cooperative building and subject
to a Board, democratically elected
(theoretically), but generally fascist in
operation, disenfranchising owners
from rights of rental tenants under
NYS Rent Stabilization other rent
regulation laws.
Most cooperative buildings are
essentially old tenements; some are
even still managed by the landlordsponsors
or other management
corporations with property managers
interlocking with the landlordsponsor,
some even subverting the
democratic process of shareholder (or
proxy) elections and transparency.
A resident is a person, even if one is a
rental tenant in a housing cooperative
building, a point which is sadly denied
in most cooperatives.
Joseph N. Manago, Briarwood
Email your letters to editorial@qns.
com (Subject: Letter to the Editor) or
leave a comment to any of our stories
at QNS.com. You can also send a letter
by regular mail to Letters to the Editor,
38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All
letters are subject to editing. Names
will be withheld upon request, but
anonymous letters will not be considered
for publication. The views expressed
in all letters and comments are not
necessarily those of this newspaper or
its staff .
LETTERS AND COMMENTS
SNAPS
WATER VIEWS AT COLLEGE POINT’S MCNEIL PARK
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY LISA KEST-FEIN
Send us your photos of Queens
and you could see them online or in our paper!
To submit them to us, tag @qnsgram on Instagram,
visit our Facebook page, tweet @QNS
or email editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps).
Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/QNS
/QNS
/WWW.QNS.COM
/QNS.com
link
link
link
