I was very pleased to see your editorial addressing the escalating problem of graffiti ruining the beauty of our city. Everywhere I look - a building wall, a lamppost, a mailbox, an overpass, a house fence, a traffic sign, a fire alarm box, garage doors, and even the new sound barriers along the Long Island Expressway, to mention a few, I can’t figure out why there are people who think it is permissible to cover other people’s property with their filth. Homeowners and storeowners seem to have given up on trying to remove it, not to mention the city and other agencies. Maybe it is frustration. I do not think that the homeowner who put a white fence around his yard planned for it to be a white fence covered over with white paint or a brick wall painted over in red paint.
Long Island Rail Road overpasses seem to always be covered if not with graffiti, speckles and blotches of grey paint. There is no return to the way the structure looked when erected. I thought the old days of graffiti-covered subway cars were long gone, but they seem to have crept back. For me, worse than living in a city with so much graffiti is accepting it as the norm. I will not accept it as the norm and feel disgust whenever I see it.
Margaret Mahon
Flushing
EDITOR’S NOTE: Remember to call 3-1-1 if you see it and report it. Call 9-1-1 if you see someone actively vandalizing public or private property. Let us catch these punks.
No way to treat a hero
I was appalled to learn of Retired General Wesley Clark’s egregious comments directed against Senator John McCain on a recent Face the Nation.
Clark said about John McCain, “I don’t think being shot down in a fighter plane is a qualification for being president and that Senator McCain lacked executive responsibility,” even though McCain headed a Navy Squadron.
What really got to me was that McCain was a POW and was tortured for defending America. To attack a true patriot and honorable American is un-American in my book.
Meanwhile Senator Barack Obama has separated himself from these comments but we have been down this road before with the Reverend Wright controversy. I believe Senator McCain has the qualifications to be president because he is willing to defend it with his last breath.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Glen Oaks Village
National Disgrace!
Osama Bin Laden and his buddies must get a good chuckle out of our inability to rebuild the World Trade Center. Not only is it a slap in the face to every 9/11 victim and their families, but is a very telling statement on the state of our society, culture, economy, and values. The Greatest Generation built the Empire State Building in 410 days, but we cannot even get plans approved in seven years. I guess that’s why we will go down in history as the Pathetic Generation.
Michael Chimenti
Oakland Gardens
Rebuttal to Frederick Bedell Jr.
Bloomberg for Governor? I think not! Michael Bloomberg has turned the city over to the developers and has given them Carte Blanche to do whatever they want. It doesn’t matter what they want to build, or where or even what it looks like compared to the buildings around it.
Last time I checked they used to call that block-busting - build one and the other people will leave. Maybe they are not on your block yet Fred, but look around you; they are coming to your neighborhood soon.
The building department seems to be there to protect the interests of developers, not the interests of the people who live in and around the buildings. Bloomberg must see himself as a present day Robert Moses.
He’s going to the U.S. Supreme Court to exercise the powers of eminent domain to drive people out of their homes in downtown Brooklyn because he thinks a sports complex is essential to the vitality of the city. Then there is the Willets Point redevelopment project. They want to Manhattanize the borough of Queens with a 700-room hotel.
Finally, there was the congestion-pricing plan. If he stopped some of the building maybe the city wouldn’t be so congested. Thank God for term limits! The only thing Bloomberg should run for is his farm in bucolic Connecticut.
Charles McKenna
Flushing
Seeing red over parked cars
For several months now, the autos belonging to the American Red Cross have been parked, (days at a time/weeks at a time) on Edgerton Boulevard on the 8300 block between the Grand Central Parkway and Croyden Road - usually in front of 83-21.
The 107th Precinct was notified about this storage condition and as far as we know no storage summons were issued.
Is it permissible for them to block the parking spaces in front of private homes this long? This is not done by anyone who lives in the neighborhood.
Curious,
M. Blanc
Letter to the City Council
I understand that the end of the city’s budget season is approaching, and the restoration of $300,000 in cuts to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission’s budget is on the table.
I am writing on behalf of Rego-Forest Preservation Council serving Rego Park and Forest Hills and as a director on the board of Queens Preservation Council, and a devoted NYC citizen. We strongly urge the NYC Council Budget Negotiation Committee to fully restore the budget of the Landmarks Preservation Commission
These funds are integral for the LPC to be able to respond to the intense public need for better protection of our city’s historic neighborhoods and buildings. New York’s historic buildings and neighborhoods are the cornerstones of our city, and their survival and enhancement are crucial to continued growth and sensible development of the city. Without adding these resources to the only agency whose mission is to safeguard our architectural and cultural history, numerous historic properties throughout the five boroughs will continue to vanish, and the soul of our diverse city will be forever diminished.
Michael Perlman
Rego-Forest Preservation
Council, Chair
Letters To The Editor
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