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22 THE COURIER SUN • DECEMBER 17, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.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: editorial@queenscourier.com for advertising e-mail: ads@queenscourier.com 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 Two-year-old Munchies waiting to welcome Santa Claus in his very own gingerbread house. PHOTO BY THE QUEENS COURIER STAFF 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 editorial@queenscourier. com (subject: Queens Snaps). What are your plans for New Year’s Eve? “I will have a family party.” Amanda Umpierrez “I will go somewhere in the city. Probably I will go to Joshua Tree.” Steve Zitolo “I will probably stay with my family at the beginning of the night and then I will go to the city with my best friend.” Jasmine Davis “I will go to a ski trip with my mom’s side of the family. It’s my fi rst time skiing. Sydney Johnson BY IRENE SPEZZAMONTE “I will go to the city to a rooftop bar. ” Jennifer Gibbons street talk “I have no plans yet, but I will probably stay with my family.” Suzanne Ciechalski “I have no plans yet. I didn’t even think about it.” Lauren Eden  “I will go to my family friends’ house. I go there every year.” Diana Colapietro ‘Freedom Ticket’ to ride through Queens Anyone who lives or works in eastern Queens and doesn’t have a car knows the pain of relying on public transit to get around. There is primarily one inexpensive option for those who lives east of Flushing and Jamaica — a network of buses that is often slowed by competing vehicles on congested streets. Those lucky enough to live within walking distance or a short ride from the Long Island Rail Road have an easy and quick way to get to and from Manhattan — but at rates more than twice the $2.75 MetroCard base fare. Eastern Queens desperately needs more public transportation, but extending existing subway lines to the Nassau border is a non-starter, as these projects are hugely expensive and the MTA’s budget is limited. Even areas in western Queens could use additional transit options with ridership on subways and buses soaring. Therefore, we believe the MTA should work with its partners in state and city government to make the Freedom Ticket idea a reality as soon as possible. The Freedom Ticket idea was recently pitched by the New York City Transit Riders Council. For $215 a month, a Freedom Ticket would get you unlimited New York City transit rides and trips on Metro-North or the LIRR within the city. Currently, someone who uses the LIRR and New York City Transit to get around Queens needs to shell out $218 for an LIRR monthly pass and $116.50 for a 30-day unlimited MetroCard. The Freedom Ticket will save these riders $119.50 every month — money that could go back into the local economy. The riders council suggests launching the Freedom Ticket program fi rst in southeast Queens in 2017 and then phasing it in across the city over the next two years. We believe, however, that commuters across Queens shouldn’t have to wait that long. Albany’s house of cards collapses When 2015 began, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos were at the top of the heap in Albany, about to begin another legislative session in seemingly invincible power. Stunningly, they now fi nd themselves out of power and bound for prison in 2016. Shocking as their downfall was, we now await for someone in Albany to emerge as the leader of true reform that will shatter the “pay-for-play” and “three men in the room” system of government that dominated New York for so long. This might be the most defi ning political moment in New York politics in more than a century. It rivals the downfall of New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker, the last of the infamous Tammany Hall infl uenced politicians, whose administration was brought down in 1932 amid charges of corruption. Walker testifi ed before a special committee that he accepted payments from various fi rms in exchange for procuring them municipal work contracts. Soon after, he resigned from offi ce and absconded to Europe, avoiding prosecution. The remnants of the Walker administration gave way in 1934 to the election of Fiorello LaGuardia, a true government reformer who would spend the next 12 years leading the city through the Great Depression and World War II while rooting out public corruption. The convictions of Skelos and Silver should signal the start of real reform in Albany, not just as a “wakeup call for the Legislature,” as Governor Andrew Cuomo remarked last Friday. We’ve hit the snooze button long enough; it’s time for real action!


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