FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com MAY 12, 2016 • THE COURIER SUN 23 oped letters & comments A NICKEL FOR GOOD THOUGHTS ON GROCERY BAG ‘FEE’ Congratulations to New York City for stepping into the 21st century. Now fi rst of all, all the people against the bag fee should really read up on the reasons that this was introduced. It is not a tax, it is a fee. It shouldn’t be a fi nancial hardship on anyone. If you don’t want to pay the fee, just bring your own bag. Simple. My wife and I have been doing that for years. Aside from all the cleanup of these bags, which are not recyclable, they are bad for our environment. There is a sea of plastic, fl oating in the Pacifi c Ocean that is the size of Texas. The fi sh and birds ingest this plastic and die, which of course will bring up the cost of seafood by more than 5 cents. The fi sh that live may be your dinner. When you eat fi sh, you may very well be eating the plastic and chemicals that are now part of the fi sh. These bags clog drains and sewers resulting in fl oods. For years, people have been encouraged to bring their own bags, but most just don’t care or can’t be bothered. Putting a small fee to encourage people to bring their own bags is probably the only incentive to the push the uncaring people to bring bags. There are many cities where this law is in effect and it works, and most people have come to like it. Again, this fee does not apply to people who use food stamps. Reusable bags can be bought for less than a dollar and many are given out for free as promotional items. Once more, it is not a tax. It is to encourage people to do the right thing and care about our environment. Bring your own bag and you don’t have to pay anything. QNS user Steve GROCERY BAG FEE PUNISHES THE MIDDLE CLASS This new law is nothing but a regressive tax on the middle class. We all should hold the mayor and the guilty City Council members responsible on Election Day. QNS user Donald Aridas SHOULD HAVE SPENT THE MONEY ON ADVERTISING The City Council has just approved new 5-cent bag fee for consumers who don’t use their own bags at checkout counters. The idea is to get consumers to bring their own reusable bags. Mayor de Blasio is on board with this legislature, because he is going for zero waste. Now I’m for recycling but not for taxing the poor, who cannot afford another expense when they go shopping. I think an ad campaign about recycling is a smarter way to get people to do the right thing for our environment. The City Council in my opinion seems to be operating under the infl uence of stupidity in this case that effects so many elderly and hardworking people. Frederick R. Bedell Jr., Glen Oaks PART OF THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION Once again, the City Council (like legislatures at all level), instead of fi guring out how to reduce the cost of providing services, and instead of discarding services that are not part of a government’s responsibility, have passed another expense onto the already overburdened citizenry. The NY City auto use tax, instituted in the mid 1970s to help the city out of a fi nancial crisis, and allegedly a temporary tax, has never been rescinded, and one local legislator could not even fi nd the budget line item to determine where the money goes. Our government representatives have become uninterested in the wishes of the electorate, and worse yet, we allowed it happen. QNS user Steven Katz FOLLOW THE MONEY TO HOMELESS SHELTER PROBLEMS? With City Hall smelling more like corruption fi lled Tammany Hall, and Mayor de Blasio looking more like the notorious Boss Tweed, things simply do not pass the smell test behind its murky doors. The mayor has repeatedly claimed to the press that all his and his administration’s actions were legal and appropriate. Meanwhile, dozens of state and federal subpoenas were served on the mayor’s staff, donors and campaign masterminds. Contrary to a previous court verdict requiring City Hall to publish the list of staff served by law enforcement agencies, the mayor remains silent on this topic and has hostilely defl ected questions since day one. The mayor’s supporters are hinting that it is on behalf of Governor Cuomo that Board of Election Chief Enforcement Offi cer Risa Sugarman leaked damaging correspondence and that Attorney General Schneiderman is selectively enforcing campaign laws. Rather, the FBI fi rst broke the news that the mayor’s cronies were allegedly bribing NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks in exchange for favors. This single event snowballed into at least fi ve investigations into the “pay-to-play” scheme. Based on these recent revelations, one thing is certain so far: the mayor’s hiring decisions has resulted in unqualifi ed candidates running critical city agencies. The resulting fallout left agencies without leadership, or has overwhelmed remaining staffers with more responsibilities on their plates. Poor decisions run the gamut from lucrative $3,800-per-month hotel room homeless shelter contracts to ineffective and costly “Task Force” teams. We now urge federal and state investigators to look into the complex network of homeless hotel shelter landlords who are also deeply entrenched in NY politics and receive 50 percent of lucrative contract payouts. The signifi cant, troubling rise in the number of these hotel shelters coincided with Mayor de Blasio’s election into offi ce and must be examined to ensure hard-earned taxpayer dollars are not being stolen. Phil Wong, member, Elmhurst United MORE WORK TO BE DONE TO IMPROVE MAIL SERVICE USPS, you have a long way to go for better service. As a community leader, I can’t believe how many times I had to contact representatives at your agency for so many different problems. Contacting the Post Offi ce was very easy, but taking care of so many problems at your end either never happens or takes very long. Upper management needs to be trained better or I can actually see the Post Offi ce going out of business. QNS user Danny Ruscillo CITY SHOULD HOLD M TA BOARD MAJORITY BY COUNCILMAN JIMMY VAN BRAMER In 1968, the state took over New York City’s buses and subways and created the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Nearly 50 years later, riders suffer as the MTA struggles with aging trains, bloated projects and long delays for needed upgrades. Meanwhile, the balance of power at the MTA board rests with Albany and the suburbs, preventing the city from governing its own transit system. Albany’s leadership on the MTA is lacking. It’s time for the city to take control. As a City Council member from western Queens and a regular subway commuter, I know in real time when the No. 7 train has a meltdown. My phone buzzes with tweets and texts about overcrowded platforms, stalled trains and poor communication from the MTA. I press MTA offi cials at oversight hearings, organize rallies, and host town hall meetings that bring MTA leaders directly to riders. But we can and must do more. Unfortunately, because Albany controls the MTA, our city can’t hold it accountable for the quality of service it provides. Earlier this month I hosted a town hall where No. 7 train riders asked questions of MTA offi cials. New York City Transit President Ronnie Hakim had some good answers, but on many issues, she left us scratching our heads. Hakim didn’t seem to know much about cross-honoring MetroCards on the Long Island Rail Road when service is disrupted. One of her colleagues dismissed our claim that service is worse on Mondays after weekend track work, only to have riders cite specifi c delays and disruptions that the agency forgot. A recent report by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli showed the MTA used misleading math to calculate how long riders must wait for a train — and found that wait times are actually increasing. The MTA is even failing to meet its own goals. The signal upgrades and track replacement needed to keep the century-old system from constant malfunction are decades away from completion. There isn’t even a timeline to bring modern signals — which allow countdown clocks and more frequent trains — to half of the subway system. Even worse, the MTA is mismanaging its biggest, most expensive projects. The new Hudson Yards station is leaking because the MTA’s contractors cut corners. Across town, East Side Access — a bloated project designed to benefi t suburban commuters, not New Yorkers stuck on the subway — is $6 billion over budget and 14 years behind schedule. Albany’s latest budget provides only a portion of the cash required for the MTA to make much-needed upgrades, and in fact raises the MTA’s debt ceiling. By requiring the MTA to borrow billions of dollars instead of funding improvements outright, Albany is setting New Yorkers up for massive fare and toll increases down the line. As straphangers get squeezed, Albany has little incentive to act. A recent Baruch College/NY1 poll found nearly half of New Yorkers think the city controls the MTA. Who can blame them? The MTA’s own numbers show that 94 percent of its annual ridership is within the fi ve boroughs. And yet, the city is only given four votes on the MTA’s 17-member board. Meanwhile, suburban counties, which include towns as far as Poughkeepsie and Montauk, control the same number of votes. Adding insult to injury, Albany inaction has held three of the city’s board nominees in limbo since last June. The city has increased its commitment to funding MTA capital improvements to $2.5 billion. Contrast that with Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties, which each have a full vote on the MTA board yet don’t contribute a cent to MTA upgrades from their budgets. The city deserves a bigger say. I’m calling on the state to increase the city’s representation on the authority’s board, and have sponsored a City Council resolution to this effect. The city, after all, stands to gain the most from improved service — or suffer the harshest consequences if the system is neglected. Now is the time. With the city’s future hanging in the balance, it makes no sense for Albany and the suburbs to call the shots for our subways and buses. Van Bramer represents the 26th City Council District, which covers parts of Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside. This op-ed fi rst appeared in Crains New York.
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