FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 7, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 25
oped letters & comments
Protect our seniors
BY SANDRA UNG
As New York’s older population
continues to grow, we
must be proactive in building
a city that takes into
account the needs of seniors
and their families. As the
daughter and primary caretaker
for my father, who has
Parkinson’s Disease and lives
at home, I know the struggles
many working families
face in providing care for their loved ones. Like my
father, most seniors prefer to age in place.
Th ere are many barriers standing in the way. A fi rst
step is building a more accessible city by making our
infrastructure inclusive for individuals who require
mobility assistance. From subway stops that lack elevators
to crosswalks that are piled high with snow, we
must eliminate physical obstacles.
We also need expanded healthcare services for individuals
living at home. Home health aides can assist
people like my father to live at home with quality care,
but Medicare doesn’t cover this expense. For working
families like my own, this option is unaff ordable. It
instead falls to children or loved ones to step up to provide
assistance, but we need the wider support of our
society to ensure our elders’ basic needs are met.
Unpaid care work is particularly onerous for working
families who must juggle an endless number of tasks
while struggling to pay the bills, and COVID has only
exacerbated the struggle. Th is burden has real eff ects
on the health and job outcomes of caregivers across the
United States, especially women who perform a disproportionate
amount of care work. 865,000 women have
opted out or left the workforce compared to 216,000
men just this fall.
New Yorkers paved the way forward when we passed
the Paid Family Leave Policy, which is funded by
deductions from employee wages. Employers should
embrace PFL given its ability to improve staff morale
and increase productivity.
Moving forward, we need to explore options around
increasing the wage replacement rate, especially for
low-income New Yorkers. Low-income workers oft en
live paycheck to paycheck and may be unable to survive
on 67 percent of their wage, which is the maximum
they can get under New York’s program.
We also need a culture shift . Employer acceptability
continues to be a major obstacle for employees seeking
to take advantage of family leave. Employers are prohibited
from discriminating against an employee for
requesting leave. However, many workers are reluctant
to take leave, concerned it may harm their potential for
a promotion down the line. And while leave for new
parents has become more widely accepted, we must still
work on building recognition of value for elder care.
Many of us, including myself, live in multigenerational
homes with parents or grandparents who need
assistance. Whether it’s taking them to the doctor’s
offi ce or helping them apply for government programs,
that time is valuable. We should embrace building a
more holistic care system that recognizes the many different
forms American families take. Th is won’t just
help employees, it will also allow more New Yorkers to
age in place with dignity.
By investing in paid family leave and increasing
employer acceptability, children and family members
can be freed to provide care for their loved ones without
fearing the loss of economic security. Th at is a better
and more just system for all New Yorkers.
Sandra Ung is an attorney, community advocate and
candidate for City Council in District 20, which includes
Flushing, Mitchell-Linden, Murray Hill, Queensboro
Hill, Auburndale and parts of Fresh Meadows.
SENIORS ARE BEING
OVERLOOKED WHEN
IT COMES TO VACCINE
DISTRIBUTION
I read that mostly young congressional
staff ers are getting the
COVID-19 vaccine before most
Americans. Th at means seniors and
fi rst responders — people who need
these vaccines now — are being
ripped off !
I fi nd this disturbing and appalling.
I myself am over 70 years old
and I have seen this virus take the
lives of many senior citizens. Th e
best protection we have against the
disease is the vaccine.
It seems like decision makers
when it comes to the distribution
of the vaccine do not care too much
about senior citizens because many
of us are retired and off er little to
society and we are going to die of
old age anyway. Th is nefarious reasoning
is just wrong.
I am still working to this day and
do charity work in my community
as grand knight of St. Anastasia
Knights of Columbus in Douglaston.
Many other seniors I know also are
committed to works of charity.
We seniors do count and are not
happy that there are others stepping
in front of us on the vaccine line.
So, please tell me, what’s wrong with
that picture?
Frederick R. Bedell Jr., Bellerose
WHAT POSITIVE
TRAIN CONTROL
REALLY MEANS
There is more to a recent
announcement by Long Island
Rail Road President Philllip Eng
celebrating the LIRR meeting the
Federal Railroad Administration
mandate for complete installation
of Positive Train Control by the end
of 2020.
Th is is based on what is known
in the transit industry as a project
“recovery schedule.” Sadly, this
was not the fi rst recovery schedule
for PTC.
Th e FRA originally mandated that
PTC could prevent potential train
crashes, be installed and operable by
2015 to insure safety for the riding
public. Even with a time extension
to December 2018, it was always
doubtful that the LIRR would meet
that new deadline. Th ey did not.
FRA issued the LIRR yet another
two-year extension, until Dec. 31,
2020, to fi nish PTC.
Th e LIRR has known that this was
needed since 2010. I know this to be
true, having participated in several
meetings with both the MTA to discuss
the possibility of using federal
funds for this project many years
ago. Perhaps they did not want to
deal with FTA NY Region 2 offi ce
oversight, supplemented by our own
independent engineering oversight
consulting fi rm assigned to manage
FTA capital projects over $100 million
along with federal procurement
procedures.
Th e MTA ended up deciding to
use local funding. While working at
FTA, I advised my colleagues that it
would be challenging for the MTA,
LIRR and Metro-North to deal with
this complex technical project.
I forecast that the MTA, LIRR and
Metro-North would never meet the
original FRA 2015 deadline. Some
said that I was too pessimistic in my
analysis. I had no idea at the time
that it would take another fi ve years
just to reach benefi cial use for PTC
by the end of 2020.
FRA’s defi nition of complete is
really reaching what is known as
“substantial completion” or “benefi
cial use.” Either usually represents
98 percent to 99 percent of a project’s
progression.
A majority of MTA Metro-North
and LIRR capital projects routinely
have additional tasks to fi nish.
Th ese might include completion for
thousands of contract(s) punch list
items, delivery and acceptance of
all manufacture component maintenance
plans, release of retainage and
fi nal payment to all third party construction
contractors, construction
management oversight engineering
fi rms and vendors. How many more
months will be needed to complete
all of these items?
Complete means PTC is up and
running 24/7 on all LIRR branches
and service areas, It should also
include completion for thousands of
contract(s) punch list items, delivery
and acceptance of all manufacture
component maintenance plans,
release of retainage and fi nal payment
to all third party construction
contractors and vendors.
Needing another two-year extension
to 2020 was, in itself, an admission
of failure. Not completing this
remaining contract close out work
until sometime in 2021 is nothing
to brag about.
PTC should have been the No. 1
priority for the LIRR in recent years,
even if it meant diverting resources
from other capital improvement
projects. Safe, reliable service should
always be the No. 1 priority.
Missing from MTA Chairman Pat
Foye and LIRR President Phil Eng’s
proud announcements concerning
PTC meeting the most recent
FRA Dec. 31, 2020, deadline was
acknowledgement of how the project
is being fi nanced.
Th e MTA paid for PTC on the
Long Island Rail Road and Metro-
North by a $967.1 million Railroad
Rehabilitation Improvement fi nancing
loan from the FRA. It is a 22-year
loan at 2.4 percent interest. Th e loan
will have to be paid back plus interest
as part of the current $51 billion
2020-2024 and following four future
fi ve-year capital programs.
One contributing factor to the
current MTA fi nancial crises is the
agency dependency on long-term
borrowing. Annual debt fi nancial
service payments have grown to
over 20 percent of annual agency
expenditures. Audits anticipate this
will grow to a larger percentage over
coming years.
Th e old-fashioned pay as you go
concept disappeared decades ago.
Now, commuters and taxpayers are
stuck with the bill.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
A WALK THROUGH FLUSHING MEADOWS CORONA PARK //
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY LEANN BUGARIN
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)
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
