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editorial 20 THE COURIER SUN • OCTOBER 20, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com SNAPS QUEENS SUNSET // PHOTO BY CHERYL KAY Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us tag @queenscourier on Instagram, Facebook page, tweeting @queenscourier or by emailing editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps). Trust has been lost on shelters Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that the city was no longer considering a plan to transform the Holiday Inn Express on 55th Road in Maspeth into a homeless shelter for adults. However, the city agreed to rent rooms at the hotel to house 30 homeless men for an indefi nite period. In the end, this was neither a victory for the community nor a defeat for the city. Homeless residents are now living at the hotel, and the city continues its boneheaded, tone deaf policy of housing homeless people in whatever hotel space it can fi nd. Even the way they brought homeless men to the Holiday Inn Express showed the city has learned nothing from this months-long saga. As in previous cases where the city housed the homeless at Queens hotels, no one in the community knew the homeless were coming until they checked in. The de Blasio administration does itself no favors. The mayor talks about fulfi lling the city’s legal obligation to the homeless. We understand that obligation. But why can’t he fulfi ll this obligation in an honest way that doesn’t leave us all feeling like fools? It’s probably true that a faction of Queens residents would protest homeless shelters in their community even if the city provided them a modicum of advanced notice. The fact the city just goes along and does it without consulting the community fi rst, however, reinforces a common notion that City Hall just doesn’t care what the people of Queens think, will do whatever it wants and, therefore, can’t be trusted. The past is prologue here. The Pan American hotel in Elmhurst became an emergency homeless shelter in June 2014 after the city had initially ruled it out as a viable site; within weeks, the city did a complete aboutface, not only housing homeless residents there, but also making plans to convert the hotel into a permanent shelter. It’s hard to believe the Maspeth Holiday Inn won’t follow the same path. All the while, our elected offi cials have advised, and continue to advise the city to seek another way forward toward addressing the exploding homeless population. There has been talked about expanding housing subsidies, building more affordable housing, repurposing foreclosed homes, even creating modular homes on vacant land to quickly house residents. These are novel ideas, but why is the city dragging its feet to adopt them? We agree with our lawmakers that the city is moving way too slowly when it comes to fi nding permanent solutions to homelessness. We repeat again that repurposing hotels as homeless shelters — though the city says it fulfi lls its legal obligation to the homeless — is a betrayal of the larger moral obligation that our government has to serve those with the least. sun WWW.COURIERSUN.COM VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH STEPHEN REINA RON TORINA, JONATHAN RODRIGUEZ, CHERYL GALLAGHER EMILY DAVENPORT KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA SUZANNE MONTEVERDI CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI JACLYN HERTLING DEBORAH CUSICK 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 ART DIRECTOR ARTISTS SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER STAFF REPORTERS CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS EVENTS COORDINATOR ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER 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 www.qns.com editorial e-mail: editorial@qns.com for advertising e-mail: ads@qns.com Entire Contents Copyright 2016 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. THE HOT TOPIC STORY: Cops warn Whitestone and Flushing residents about mail theft scams in the area SUMMARY: Police say that thieves are fi shing mail containing checks out of U.S. Postal Service mailboxes using makeshift devices — including sticky mouse traps and bottles dipped into adherent solutions — attached to a string in northeast Queens. REACH: 10,090 people (as of 10/17/16) COMMENTS:


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