FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM DECEMBER 6, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 33
letters & comments
WHY CAN’T NYC
RESIDENTS SHOP
AT WALMART?
Once again this holiday season, outof
work, part-time, single-income, poor,
senior, working and middle-class residents
looking for reasonable priced holiday
gift s had to pay more. Th is is thanks
to elected offi cials who believe they know
what is best for you.
Polls of ordinary New Yorkers continue
resulting year aft er year and now
decade aft er decade to support the right
of Walmart to open stores in the Bronx,
Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten
Island.
Residents in the other 57 counties outside
of NYC within New York state have
had the option of shopping or not shopping
at Walmart for decades. Th e same
is true for virtually every other city and
state. Only NYC is behind the times.
NYC residents continue to be denied
the opportunity to shop at Walmart due
to excuses made by politicians such as
Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Scott
Stringer, City Council Speaker Corey
Johnson, most members of the City
Council along with numerous fellow liberal
Democratic Party elected offi cials and
their union allies. Many other Democratic
State Assembly, State Senate and Congress
members also oppose Walmart opening
stores within their respective legislative
districts, boroughs or any place in NYC.
Th ey feel that we should oppose
Walmart because of substandard salaries
and unfair competition they would provide
against smaller stores.
Construction of a new Walmart can
provide work for construction contractors
and their employees. Once opened,
there are employment opportunities for
many workers.
Many New Yorkers including students,
housewives, heads of single-family households,
senior citizens and others currently
out of work along with those who have
given up looking could fi nd employment.
Th e city would benefi t by millions in
sales, payroll and real-estate tax revenue
which could help fund essential municipal
services everyone desires.
Walmart is the nation’s largest private
sector employer with over 1,200,000
employees and growing each year.
Starting pay averages several dollars above
the minimum wage for new employees
around the nation. Promotional opportunities
including training for higher paying
managerial positions are common. Th ey
also off er health care and other benefi ts.
It is time to allow Walmart the opportunity
to compete in the NYC marketplace
as well!
Larry Penner, Great Neck
REMEMBERING A
DEAR FRIEND
It’s been a year now since my dear
friend Harry Weymer passed away
around Christmas last year from brain
cancer. We had known each other for
over 50 years. We fi rst met when we both
attended Grace Lutheran Day School in
Queens Village when we were both in
third grade.
Harry and I were both in the Boy Scouts
and sang in the church choir at Grace
Lutheran Church. We also played parts
in various Christmas plays and in one of
them we were both wise men.
When my mother passed away in 1963,
Harry got the word and came over the
very same day to tell me how sorry he
was. I will never forget his compassion.
In 1964 we both attended the World’s
Fair and learn what the future had for
us and that the possibilities were limitless.
Harry and I attended diff erent high
schools but got together oft en and rode
our bikes and went on many adventures.
We rode to many parts of Queens and
into Nassau.
Aft er high school Harry attended
Cortland College and one spring break,
he invited me up; we had a great fun fi lled
weekend with concerts and a beer bash off
campus. I later went into the U.S. Navy
and Harry went onto Europe to further
his education. He later became a teacher
and ended up teaching in Ithaca until
he retired. We lost touch but reconnected
aft er almost 40 years when he found
me on Facebook.
Harry and his wife Melania lived in
Ithaca but in the last three years we kept
connected by phone and emails and on
Facebook and short visits when he would
drive down with his wife. We talked about
many of our great teachers and including
our choir master. We also talked about
our health issues, where I was recovering
from an aggressive prostate cancer and
Harry with brain cancer. Mine went into
remission and Harry’s didn’t.
I received an email and a posting on
Facebook by his sister, who lives in
Mineola, that Harry had passed away.
Th at brought me much sadness but I was
very thankful we reconnected. Yet I still
miss Harry as another Christmas passes
by.
All I can say if I could to Harry is,
“Th anks for the memories.” I will never
forget you.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.,
Glen Oaks Village
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GIVE SUBWAY RIDERS
A REAL LIFT
I wrote the following message to the
MTA this morning, Dec. 3:
Hello MTA,
I have never visited a place that has a
broken or inactive escalator as frequently
as the Flushing-Main Street 7 train
station.
It would seem that a station that serves
so many New Yorkers would not be in
such a bad state of repair. It seems like
25 percent of the time at least one of
the three escalators in the station’s eastern
most entrance/exit are either blocked
off due to repairs, or just shut down.
Why don’t you just fi x it permanently
next time you shut it down? Why not fi x
it so it won’t break for a long time? Are
your escalator repair-people incompetent
or are they working with a tiny budget
that does not allow them to make the
necessary repairs? Because it seems like
those are the only two options.
People in Flushing deserve better service.
Th ere are a lot of us and we pay
taxes and we are regular customers of the
MTA; it’s not right to have the Flushing-
Main Street station in such a bad state
constantly.
Th e Flushing community already has
to deal with congested streets due to
everybody in northeast Queens and
many people in Long Island utilizing
the Main Street subway station by way
of buses that clog our traffi c and make
our streets less safe and less clean. Th e
least you could do is make our life a little
easier by keeping the escalators in tip
top shape.
We put a man on the moon. We can
make the escalator work without breaking
down every other week.
Th ank you and I hope you have a beautiful
week.
Rob Reynolds, Flushing
GEARING UP FOR CHRISTMAS ON MYRTLE AVENUE //
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY HRIDAY TULADHAR
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