24 THE COURIER SUN • OCTOBER 15, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.couriersun.com editorial 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 ANGY ALTAMIRANO, KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE ANGELA MATUA, ALINA SURIEL CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI ANGY ALTAMIRANO 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 WEB EDITOR 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.couriersun.com editorial e-mail: [email protected] for advertising e-mail: [email protected] 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 Dorothy, with a friend, visits Forest Hills on New York Comic Con weekend. Photo by Joe Abate 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 [email protected] (subject: Queens Snaps). identify thisPLACE Go to www.queenscourier.com and search “Identify This Place” to fi nd out where this is Bring MTA capital cash to the 7 line Finally some good news for transit riders: the city and state have agreed to pay their fair share toward the MTA’s $26.1 billion fi ve-year capital plan for improvements. Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed on Saturday that the city will kick in $2.5 billion over the next fi ve years after initially balking at raising the city’s contribution to the program. That money will be used toward public transportation improvements in New York City as agreed upon by the MTA board through collaboration with city representatives. In Queens, the list of public transit needs seems almost endless — from more buses to keep up with rider demand on congested lines to expanding the communications based transit control (CBTC) system on subway lines so riders can know where their train is any time of day. But we hope the MTA will make renovating stations along the elevated 7 line in Woodside and Jackson Heights an immediate priority. A recent Citizens Budget Commission report found that four 7 line stations — 52nd Street, Woodside-61st Street, 103rd Street and 111th Street — ranked among the top 10 of Queens stations with the most structural problems such as peeling paint, broken tile, eroded platform edges and creaky staircases. These stations are ideal candidates for the MTA’s successful “station renewal” program, which brought much-needed improvements to stops along the M line in Ridgewood and the A line in Ozone Park. In recent months, western Queens residents have endured regular service disruptions on the 7 line for track and signal work. Inconvenience is a regular experience for 7 train riders, but they will put up with it if it means better service and a better commuting experience. So let’s get to work on upgrading the dilapidated 7 line stations, inconvenience be damned. At least the riders will fi nally feel like they’re getting the most of their fare. Beat cop comeback is most welcome Often in life, one must look to the past to fi nd solutions to the problems of the present, and challenges in the future. It would seem the NYPD is doing just that with a restructuring that will restore the beat cop concept to neighborhoods across the city. Today, younger people only know of beat cops in hearing stories from their elders or watching old movies or TV programs. It is a simple yet effective concept-- a uniformed police offi cer walking the beat on local streets, keeping a careful eye on the public. The beat cop became a local celebrity in one sense as people got to know the offi cer after a while. In another sense, the beat cop also became a blue security blanket-- a public reassurance to residents and merchants alike that help, if required, wasn’t that far away. Over the years, the NYPD moved away from the beat cop concept, as the department’s technology advanced, its roster shrunk and its priorities shifted resources to more pressing concerns such as counterterrorism. But now, under the leadership of Commissioner Bill Bratton, the beat cop is coming back, largely through the addition of 1,100 new offi cers being hired this fi scal year. The beat cop initiative can be a force for good at a time when police-community relations are still strained over previous episodes of brutality. Having an offi cer patrolling a neighborhood on a constant basis allows store owners and residents to get to know who they are, and allows the offi cer to know them in return. Ideally, this will instill a mutual sense of trust and respect, which will instill greater collaboration and cooperation between police and the communities they serve-- which will make these communities safer than they already are. Queens residents should welcome the beat cops back to their streets.
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