32 The Courier SUN • october 3, 2013 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com editorial letters THE QUEENS Victoria Schneps-Yunis Joshua A. Schneps Bob Brennan Tonia N. Cimino Amy Amato-Sanchez Nirmal Singh Graziella Zerilli Stephen Reina Ron Torina, Jennifer Decio, Cheryl Gallagher Melisa Chan, Liam La Guerre, Cristabelle Tumola Maggie Hayes, Angy Altamirano Cliff Kasden, Samantha Sohmer, Elizabeth Aloni Cristabelle Tumola Bill Krese Jan DiGeronimo Maria Romero Louise Cavaliere Celeste Alamin Maria Valencia Daphne Fortunate Victoria Schneps-Yunis Joshua A. Schneps Publisher & E ditor 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 Web Editor Editorial Cartoonist Director, Business Developm ent Events Manager Senior Acc ount Executive Classified Manager Controller Office Manager President & CEO Vice President Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 website: www.queenscourier.com e-mail:editorial@queenscourier.com ads@queenscourier.com queenscourier@queenscourier.com Entire Contents Copyright 2013 by The Queens Courier All letters sent to THE QUEENS COURIER should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available, as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE QUEENS COURIER. 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 QUEENS COURIER within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. Schneps Communications 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 Quens Courier 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. Patronize local businesses Restaurant Week should be celebrated every week during the year. In these difficult economic times, it is especially important to patronize your local neighborhood restaurant. Why travel to Manhattan when there are so many great restaurants in neighborhoods all over Queens. My wife and I don’t mind occasionally paying a little more to help our local businesses survive. And don’t forget your cook and server at your favorite local restaurant. We try to tip 20 percent against the total bill including taxes. If it is an odd amount, we round up to the next dollar. If we can afford to eat out, we can afford an extra dollar tip. When ordering take out, we always leave a dollar or two for the waiter or cook. It is appreciated. Remember, these people are our neighbors. Our local entrepreneurs have continued to create new employment opportunities without the assistance of federally-funded taxpayers’ stimulus dollars. They work long hours, pay taxes and provide local employment, especially to students during the summer. If we don’t patronize our local restaurants, they don’t eat either. Please join me and your neighbors in continuing to support The Queens Courier. Patronize their advertisers; they provide the necessary revenues to help keep them in business. Let them know you saw their ad. Larry Penner Overcrowding is a fact Near the start of the school year, the UFT documented a huge number of illegally oversized classes. The Department of Education (DOE) insists that this easily verifiable truth is inaccurate. Same old, same old. The teacher union’s figures are not conjured like rabbits out of a magician’s hat. They are not opinions. Class by class, school by school, teacher by teacher, the airtight data is identified. Why is class size important anyway? It’s not because teachers are lazy, fear being answerable and want a free ride at the taxpayers’ expense. That’s what the DOE and its jackals want the public to believe. The real reason, proved by common sense and tons of research, is that lower class size enables teachers to provide greater attention to individual learning styles and needs of students. Last year’s violations, reported in September, were not resolved until practically the end of the school year. This standard operating procedure of the DOE shows the contempt they habitually have for students, parents, teachers and the law. Ron Isaac Fresh Meadows A Lhota fan Mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota has a plan that I believe has merit for all New Yorkers. His plan would reduce NYC’s share of the Hotel Occupancy tax from 5.875% to 5% and as such, might increase tourism. He then would eliminate the General Corporation tax for start-ups with no net income. In addition, he gradually would phase out the 4% Unincorporated Business Tax. He also plans to undertake comprehensive reviews of the Property Assessment Systems and if possible lower property taxes. In my opinion these are truly ambitious goals that are achievable under the right leadership. We need more job creation and an environment where business can flourish. Lhota’s plans need to be considered. As he pointed out, we don’t have a revenue problem, but a spending problem. Now that needs to be looked into. And I feel Joe Lhota is the man that can do the job. Frederick R. Bedell Glen Oaks Village Not right Senator Ted Cruz said “We need to make D.C. listen!” So he talked for 22 hours and injected all his soul into a rendering of Dr. Seuss’s book Green Eggs and Ham. Cruz will stop at nothing to protect the Constitution, which he feels is being defiled by the Affordable Care Act. He is moved that nowhere in that sacred document does it deny an insurance company the right to refuse coverage for injuries from a car accident sustained by a child who had a pre-existing killer disease that was treated by a different insurer which his parents lost because they were downsized by an employer who re-located to Cambodia. It’s an insult to the patriotic faith of our founding fathers to claim that health care is a right. Ron Isaac Fresh Meadows IDENTIFY THIS PLACE Go to www.queenscourier.com and search “Identify This Place” to find out where this is INSULT TO INJURY Imagine being forced onto the streets – twice. It seems this is what’s going to happen to those people whose homes and lives were destroyed nearly a year ago by Superstorm Sandy. Displaced families had been housed in hotels thanks to the city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) Hotel Program that provided evacuees with housing in the interim of receiving federal recovery funds and replacing what was lost. To date, 1,313 households participated in the Hotel Program, costing over $70.5 million, according to court documents. As of mid-September, 179 households remain in the program. Seventy-six of those are linked to a permanent housing program, five are waiting for repairs on their own homes, 94 are working with the Temporary Disaster Assistance Program (TDAP) and four no longer receive DHS payments. The program’s funding was provided by FEMA, because the city “does not have a budget to support the Hotel Program.” But this temporary housing will be coming to an end on Friday, October 4, according to a city official. Originally, the program was set to stop by May 31. The decision was taken to court, and the initiative was extended to Monday, September 30, the date that FEMA funding will end. Program participants should be out by October 4. This begs the question – WHERE ARE THESE PEOPLE SUPPOSED TO GO? Michael Cardozo of NYC Corporation Counsel has an answer – city shelters, as if these are not crowded enough. How can we just turn our backs on these people as they are in the midst of trying to rebuild their lives? How can we force them into shelters? This is where our politicians need to step in to urge the city to find the funding to continue the program. Look closely enough, we’re sure the money is there. Help ‘Slice Out Hunger’ Who doesn’t love pizza? And who doesn’t love giving back? Well, on October 9 you can combine the two during this year’s Slice Out Hunger charity event. Two Astoria pizzerias will be participating in “New York City’s biggest pizza party,” where pies are donated from shops around the city and $1 tickets are sold for slices, drinks, desserts or raffle entries. This year, with over 40 pizzerias participating, all the money raised will go directly to the Food Bank for New York City. With 2.6 million New Yorkers having difficulty affording food for themselves and their families, we think Slice Out Hunger is a great idea. So mangia, and visit SliceOutHunger.org for more details.
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