SHB_p018

SC01142016

editorial 18 THE COURIER SUN • JANUARY 14, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com sun WWW.COURIERSUN.COM VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH ALAN SELTZER STEPHEN REINA RON TORINA, JENNIFER DECIO, CHERYL GALLAGHER KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA ALINA SURIEL CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI DEMETRA PLAGAKIS WARREN SUSSMAN CELESTE ALAMIN MARIA VALENCIA VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS PUBLISHER & EDITOR CO-PUBLISHER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VP, EVENTS, WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA ART DIRECTOR ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR ARTISTS STAFF REPORTERS CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS EVENTS MANAGER SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE CLASSIFIED MANAGER CONTROLLER PRESIDENT & CEO VICE PRESIDENT Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 Sales Fax: 718-631-3498 www.qns.com editorial e-mail: editorial@queenscourier.com for advertising e-mail: ads@queenscourier.com Entire Contents Copyright 2015 by The Courier Sun All letters sent to THE COURIER SUN should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE COURIER SUN. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to THE COURIER SUN within fi ve days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. VIctoria Media Services assumes no liability for the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold THE COURIER SUN and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement.  SNAPS QUEENS BAYSIDE AT DUSK PHOTO BY STEPHEN REINA Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us via our Instagram @queenscourier, Facebook page, tweeting @queenscourier or by emailing editorial@ queenscourier.com (subject: Queens Snaps). WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PROPOSED MODERNIZATION OF PENN STATION? “It looks very nice!” Daniel Kwak “Recently the price of tickets has been steadily increasing. A more modern, easy accessible station sounds nice, but people will be angry at the price. It might increase future revenue, but do we really need it?” Jane Choi “It’s a good proposal. Trains have gotten super crowded. But I’m sure the money is coming out of taxpayer dollars.” Krischelle Alexander “On one hand, the post offi ce has historic signifi - cance and I’d be sorry to see it taken down. But there’s so much congestion, chaos and confusion in Penn Station that it’s time for expansion.” Toby Kass BY ERICA SIUDZINSKI “That sounds amazing. A lot of people take public transportation every day. I know I would take it more often if it were nicer.” Gabriel Alvarez street talk “It think it’s a good idea and we should take any chance to modernize. We have a growing population and we need to reshape infrastructure, especially in Manhattan.” John Grima “I don’t like the idea. Things should be kept the same until the economy picks up. We should put the money toward education and the homeless, the people who really need it.” Rita McConnon  “I hate the current Penn and I love the new photos. I think it’s good to be spending the taxpayer money on something worthwhile to make it easier and nicer for commuters.” Diego Von Schmeling Touchless ticket to ride has its drawbacks We were intrigued by a series of proposals Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in the days ahead of Wednesday’s State of the State Address in Albany — particularly one item about “bringing” the MTA into the 21st century through a series of improvements. Cuomo’s ambitious goals for the MTA this year include launching 30 station redesign projects across the city, including seven subway/elevated train stations in our borough. He also seeks “touchless fare payment” by 2018, which would put an end to MetroCards and train tickets. Customers would instead wave their smartphone, credit/debit card or another electronic payment device at an MTA turnstile or kiosk to pay their fare and board more quickly. While we’re quite happy to see the governor making MTA infrastructure upgrades a priority, we raise concerns over requiring customers to pay their fares electronically rather than through other means detached from the consumer. Smartphones contain the personal data of every user, as well as private information such as the phone numbers of friends or relatives. As they are computer devices, they can be hacked by the same crooks. Devices that scan smartphones or credit/debit cards can also be manipulated by hackers to retrieve the personal information of an unknowing victim. The MTA has been hacked before. Two years ago, the authority discovered that two men from Elmhurst allegedly attached credit card readers to Long Island Rail Road ticket vending machines, allowing them to steal the personal information of thousands of users for use in creating counterfeit credit and debit cards. In many ways, the touchless payment methods Cuomo proposes cuts out the middleman between the MTA and your money, as it would pare the authority’s expense in printing train tickets and producing MetroCards. But these methods do not eliminate the risk of criminals manipulating the system. If anything, this proposal seems to open the door for criminals to more easily access someone’s personal information by directly reading someone’s phone or bank card. There’s also the contigent of commuters, few though they are, who rely on cash to purchase their MetroCards and train tickets and either feel uncomfortable about using electronic payment or do not have access to a bank card or smartphone. How would they pay their fare to ride the train or bus without a MetroCard or ticket? All in all, the MTA must carefully weigh these questions before deciding on expanding touchless payment. It should be an option, but not the only option for commuters to buy their ticket to ride. Keep Hamilton on the $10 bill Perhaps more than anyone else in American history, Alexander Hamilton did more to shape our nation without ever having served as its leader. His greatest contribution came in the country’s infancy, when the U.S. was saddled with a heavy debt largely shouldered by each individual state. Hamilton consolidated that debt under the federal government, easing the states’ individual pain and allowing them — and the nation — to build itself up from the ground. He also established the national bank, created tariffs and negotiated a peaceful trade deal with the very empire that we fought to secure our independence, Great Britain. Without Hamilton’s fi nancial sense, not to mention his political leadership, it’s hard to say how this nation would have gotten through those tough early years. For his many contributions to America, Hamilton is honored with his portrait on the $10 bill. But that may change soon, as Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew recently announced that the Treasury would Hamilton’s portrait on new $10 bills with that of a famous American woman — perhaps Eleanor Roosevelt or Rosa Parks. Both women are deserving of being included in American currency, but Hamilton’s place in history and economics is too valuable to be abandoned. We agree with many others who believe a famous American woman should be featured on the $20 bill, replacing Andrew Jackson — who, in trying to destroy the national bank and subjugating Native Americans while in offi ce, was the antithesis of Hamilton.


SC01142016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above