I give kudos to our new governor, Eliot Spitzer, for taking on corruption in Albany. He has the kind of moxie and determination that we need in this state. In light of the recent scandals, I think he is the right man at the right time to strengthen campaign finance laws and to reform lobbying and election laws to limit the influence of special interests.
Alfonso Quiroz
Remembering A Friend
I read with appreciation and sadness the story in The Queens Courier of the death and the memorial service for my friend Bill Booth. Bill and I became friends at Queens College in about 1939. In the early 1950s, we renewed and revived that friendship as practicing lawyers in Queens County, frequently in the criminal courts at the same time.
In the mid 60s, when I was an Assistant District Attorney we occasionally opposed each other. Our friendship survived those instances. Had I been aware of his death and of the memorial service, I would have been there.
Thank you for a splendid article on an outstanding person.
Thomas Dent
Garden City
Enemy Is At Our Gates
Recent articles about the fate of our neighborhood are deceptive, calculated to alarm residents, and offer us a Hobson’s choice. Because “development is taking away our neighborhoods” and causing “nightmares,” we are warned our only “choice” and salvation is to assign the rights to the exterior of our properties to the Landmark Commission and bask in the utopia and paradise that only a benevolent caring bureaucracy could make possible.
Development is not necessarily a bad thing; it is regulated by zoning laws and building codes. It is not true that “without a designation from the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, homeowners remain unrestricted from expanding or renovating their houses.” The sole remedy and only option the perspicacious “urban planners” could conjure up for “illegal” development is forfeiture of our property rights in order to protect them, our Hobson’s choice. The irony is we have no “choice”; the Commission makes the final decision. The injustice is 1,300 homeowners are precluded from voting on the issue.
Thomas Jefferson’s principles regarding property rights are expressed in his favorite quote from William Pitt the Elder: “The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake, the wind may blow through it, the storm may enter, the rain may enter, but the King of England cannot enter. All of his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined cottage.”
The inalienable right to exclude others, including government, from one’s property, is enshrined in the Fifth Amendment. By virtue of the NYC Landmark Laws, I fear the “enemy is at our gates.”
Ed Konecnik
Flushing
Back To School Orientation
Dear Mayor Bloomberg:
We commend you on reaching a contract agreement with the UFT in record time. One issue that Presidents’ Council of District 26 feels is of utmost importance is a uniform instituting of a Back to School Orientation. We believe that this should have been addressed in the new UFT contract as a mandatory obligation of the teachers to be available for parents at a set time to “meet the teacher” and learn the curriculum. Ideally, this event, or series of events, should be held within the first month of the academic school year.
Some schools in our district hold this “meet the teachers” and curriculum meeting during the school day while students are in a cluster class. Other schools structure the event as a Back to School Night. Currently, the teachers in every school vote to decide whether or not to host this meeting with parents. This leaves some schools with parents who do not receive the opportunity to engage in an exchange of critical information which would aid in the academic success of their children. Moreover, parents who do not meet the teachers, lack the tools needed to help guide their children to achieve the academic goals of the classroom. We need Back to School Orientation as a regularly scheduled event with full teacher participation in every school.
As you know, Presidents’ Council of District 26 is a strong organization representing 26 schools, 16,000 children and their families that support the Back to School Orientation. The more parents are involved in their child’s school the better informed they are about how and what their child is learning.
We look forward to our continued collaboration. Thank you in advance for your kind attention to this matter.
Presidents’ Council of District 26
Bayside
Rest In Peace
It is with great sadness to read about the passing of the N.Y.C. police officer, Cesar Borja who died of a lung disease related to his work at the WTC site after 9/11.
I would like to praise his son Ceasar Borja Jr. who did his father proud by being at President Bush’s State of the Union address and a guest of Senator Hillary Clinton. It was, I imagine, very painful for him after hearing about the death of his father hours before.
I think Cesar Borja served as an excellent reminder of the need of medical care and funding by our government for the WTC responders, who are sick and some who are dying. I also would like to applaud Ceasar Borja Jr. on his ongoing mission to make our government aware of these brave men and women who gave so much to this nation and now need our help. I also hope Borja Jr. gets that meeting with President George Bush and gets to plead his case for those in need.
Our heartfelt prayers go out to his family and may Cesar Borja rest in peace after giving so much to this great nation of ours.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Bellerose
