FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JULY 11, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 25
DROWNED BY
‘SNOWFLAKES’
Th e snowfl akes fell heavily in
Queens, even though it’s still summer.
First came Tiff any Cabán’s apparent
(but not yet offi cially confi rmed)
Queens DA primary victory. She wants
to de-criminalize sex work, prosecute ICE
agents, end cash bail for all off enders.
Now, Queens City Councilman
Donovan Richards wants the NYPD
to notify minors and their parents
when entering their names in a database
of suspected gang members. He
claims police conduct racial profi ling
and wants to eliminate this database
completely.
Donovan echoes the sentiments of
fellow Councilman Rory Lancman,
who condemned the database for racial
bias. But police tapped this tool to
arrest 14 members of the Trinitarios
gang for the killing of 15-year-old
Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz in the
Bronx last year. Five of them were convicted
of murder.
Police also used the database to
arrest MS-13 members for other violent
crimes. What should they rely on
instead, a list of suspects approved by
the ACLU?
Cabán, Donovan and Lancman are
part of a growing pack of felon-friendly
politicians who want to replace the
rule of law with a wave of sympathy for
criminals. If they win, we all drown.
Richard Reif, Kew Gardens Hills
DON’T KILL THE GEESE!
Th e TimesLedger a Queens Courier
sister publication recently published
a very disturbing article on how thousands
of Canada geese in our area
are being forcibly removed from Fort
Totten in Bayside and taken to an
upstate slaughterhouse and killed.
Apparently, the offi cials who run the
Port Authority’s local airports feel that
this method is the only way to prevent
and avert bird collisions with passenger
jets.
While safety of all air travelers
should always be the number-one priority,
there must be a more humane
method of trying to prevent planes and
birds from interacting. Th e Jamaica
Wildlife Refuge has been there long
before the Port Authority constructed
and opened Kennedy Airport in
1948, which was then called Idlewild
Airport. Why an airport was constructed
so close to a National Wildlife
Preserve made absolutely no common
sense.
It is time for the Port Authority offi -
cials to work with the Humane Society,
PETA and the ASPCA to fi nd less
severe ways to deal with the problems
with Canada geese, as well as seagulls
and other birds, as well as other wildlife
who nest and live near all three
major area airports. Th ere is absolutely
no reason to cull and kill so many
innocent birds, and other wildlife, and
it must stop immediately.
John Amato, Fresh Meadows
THE TRIBORO X FANTASY
Bronx Assembly member Latrice
Walker calling for the MTA to study
potential construction of the Triboro
connector which would run from
Co-op City in the Bronx via Queens to
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn may be a waste of
time and money.
In 2016, the Regional Planning
Association updated release of an old
proposal from 1996 for construction of
the Triboro X new rail service. Just how
did the RPA come up with a potential
cost of $1 to $2 billion? My experiences
of over 31 years in the transportation
fi eld tell me it could easily cost several
billion more.
Any proposed extension of the route
from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to Staten
Island would require construction of a
tunnel and additional station at the St.
George Staten Island Ferry Terminal.
Th is could also provide a connection to
the Staten Island Rapid Transit station
and system. Th is additional work alone
could easily cost $5 billion.
Th e proposed route will traverse dozens
of neighborhoods impacting several
hundred thousand people living nearby.
How will they react to potential noise
and visual impacts of a new elevated
subway? Th ere are serious legal and
operational issues to be resolved with
the Federal Railroad Administration.
Th ey have regulatory jurisdiction
over signifi cant portions of the proposed
route which would run adjacent
to existing active freight tracks. Subway
and freight trains have to coexist on the
same narrow corridor.
Project costs will probably include a
series of new stations with elevators and
escalators. Th is is necessary to provide
transfer capacity with 15 subway and
four commuter rail stations that intersect
along the route.
History has told us that construction
of most major new transportation
system expansion projects have
taken decades. Th ere is the completion
of feasibility studies, environmental
reviews, planning, design, engineering,
real estate acquisition, permits,
procurements, budgeting, identifying
and securing funding to pay for all of
the above before construction can start.
Th ere is not enough space here to list
many other transportation projects in
NYC whose costs range from $50 million
to $6 billion that might be considered
a higher priority than the “Triboro
X” line.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
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Fulfi lling our promise
to ‘Never Forget’
BY CONGRESSWOMAN
CAROLYN B. MALONEY
Last week, we lost an
incredible New Yorker
– an American hero –
NYPD Detective Luis
Alvarez. I vowed that
we would fi nish his last
mission – to take care
of the 9/11 community.
On July 11, the
House is scheduled
to fi nally vote to fully
fund and make permanent the September 11th
Victim Compensation Fund to take care of every
fi rst responder, construction worker, volunteer,
and survivor who is now sick and the spouses
left alone and the children left without parents
because of illnesses caused by 9/11.
In honor of NYPD Detective James Zadroga,
the fi rst person to die from 9/11 illness; FDNY
Firefi ghter Ray Pfeifer and NYPD Detective Luis
Alvarez, who dedicated their last breaths to
fi ghting for the 9/11 community; and for all the
heroes who are still dealing with the eff ects of
9/11 each and every day, we will get this done and
send this bill to the president’s desk.
We have a double moral obligation to these
heroic men and women. Not only were they there
for us in one of our nation’s darkest hours, but
our government told all those who worked on the
pile and lived, worked, and went to school near
Ground Zero that the air was safe to breathe, and
water was safe to drink when it wasn’t. Th ey are
sick because of us.
Last month, Congress heard from Anesta St.
Rose Henry as she testifi ed in front of the House
Committee on the Judiciary, sitting in front of
two of her children that she is now raising alone.
She lost her husband Candidus Henry less than a
month earlier to glioblastoma, a rare brain cancer,
connected to his time working on the pile at
Ground Zero.
She told us and the American people about
Candidus, and the hole he left behind – a hole
only made larger by the fact that, because her
husband died in May instead of two years ago,
she and her family will not receive a full award
from the September 11th Victim Compensation
Fund (VCF) because the fund is currently facing
a budget shortfall.
Th e Special Master of the Fund announced in
February that, because of lack of funding, it was
forced to start cutting awards by 50 to 70 percent
to extend the fund’s life. Th e Henrys are one of
the families devastated by this reduction.
But we will fi x that by passing this bill.
Not only does the Never Forget the Heroes
fully fund and make permanent the VCF for the
future, but it also directs the Special Master to
revisit all the reduced awards paid out to the 9/11
community because of the budget shortfall and
make these families whole.
Aft er 9/11, we vowed to Never Forget and with
that, we made a commitment to make sure every
9/11 fi rst responder and survivor, and their families,
never have to go without the support they
need or deserve. It is the very least we can do as
a grateful nation.
Congresswoman Maloney represents New
York’s 12th Congressional District spanning parts
of Queens and Manhattan.
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