FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 8, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 29
letters & comments
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)
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!
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tweet @QNS or email editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps).
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. (Th e 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
when I was driving. According to them,
I was in their way. I’ve actually seen one
deliver food to the 110th Precinct.
Th ey ride without fear of being caught
because no one cares. Th ey are on sidewalks,
streets and bike lanes. Th ey zig-zag
thru car traffi c in the street, even against
the fl ow of traffi c. Th ey weave around
pedestrians on the sidewalk. Th ese riders
have no license, no identifying license
plate, no insurance, no training, and
most don’t wear helmets. Th ese 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?
Th ey 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
TIME FOR IMPEACHMENT
I watched former Special Counsel
Robert Mueller testify before Congress
last month.
During his testimony, he confi rmed
the results of his investigation: 37 indictments,
at least seven convictions and
guilty pleas, and more than 10 episodes of
obstruction of justice by Donald Trump
himself.
Given all of the evidence, I don’t understand
at this point why Congress still
hasn’t moved forward with an impeachment
inquiry.
No one should be above the law in our
country. Period. I don’t care who you are
— if you’re the CEO of a company or the
president of the United States of America.
Donald Trump must be held accountable,
just like any other American would be.
If it had been anyone else who obstructed
justice as blatantly as Trump did, they’d
be behind bars.
Robert Mueller did his job — and it’s
far past time for lawmakers in Congress
to step up and do theirs.
Some people say that we shouldn’t pursue
impeachment because there are so
many other issues to deal with. What
about health care? Infrastructure? Climate
change? Immigration?
And to these people, I say: Congress
could address these issues and pursue an
impeachment inquiry at the same time?
Th at’s what we pay them to do.
It’s time for our representative and all
of Congress to take action to hold Trump
accountable and open a formal impeachment
inquiry now.
Carol Keegan, Queens
READER: GET RID
OF THE COOPS
Editor’s note: Th e following is addressed
by the author as an open letter to Governor
Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature.
In view of the fact that in Manhattan,
for example, 75 percent 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 percent 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 landlord-sponsors or
other management corporations with
property managers interlocking with the
landlord-sponsor, 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
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