Dear Editor:
This is in response to your July 24 editorial about the lack of trash receptacles on Fresh Pond Road.
After picking my dog up from the groomer’s on Myrtle Avenue and 66th Street on Saturday, July 26, we began our 2 1/2 mile walk home. As my luck would have it, when we reached Central Avenue and 65th Street, he did his business. I picked it up.
We walked the back streets until we got to Catalpa Avenue at which time we walked along Fresh Pond Road. I was still still carrying this bag which by now was starting to smell a bit unpleasant since it was so hot outside. I didn’t want to throw it in anybody’s private garbage because it’s not right and I don’t like when people do this to me.
We turned up Bleecker Street, went past Notre Dame Academy, along Forest Avenue, turned onto Metropolitan Avenue and finally what do I find in front of Dunkin Donuts but a Sanitation Department trash can. If I’m not mistaken that can was labeled, “Courtesy of Melinda Katz.”
I don’t know the exact distance we walked but it had to have been about two miles. One garbage can in two miles. No wonder the streets of Ridgewood are so disgusting.
I know there’s a problem with illegal dumping. I’ve watched people on my block leave their house and walk a few doors down and throw their garbage out in other people’s garbage cans. Yes they used to dump it in the corner Sanitation Department can, but since that’s gone they dump in in other people’s garbage. By the way, in many cases it’s the landlords doing it and not the tenants.
Taking away the trash receptacles that should be on every few corners makes absolutely no sense at all, especially since these idiotic people are still dumping their garbage where the cans used to be, as is shown in your photo.
Lori DeLeon
Maspeth
Repeating Concerns On Glendale Shelter
Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to Mayor Bill de Blasio and forwarded to this paper. Dear Mayor de Blasio and staff:
No homeless person deserves to be on the street. No one knows their story if they don’t ask-our concern in these particular situations is that no one will ask the background or circumstance of the proposed residents of the proposed Glendale shelter.
Some could have been very welathy and lost their job, teenagers could have suffered abuse, or some could have been shunned from their family, but the fact is that no one truly knows not unless we take an interest in these people.
They are people after all, just like any other person who has a home. And therein is our concern as homeowners near the proposed Cooper Avenue homeless shelter and parents of a teenage girl who frequently walks by that location.
Here are a few of many reasons why a shelter located at the proposed 78-16 Cooper Ave. in Glendale should not exist or be considered. I am sure you have already heard or will hear many or all of the below listed concerns or issues:
– A shelter which can house hundreds of people at a time can strain already crowded schools, increasing the risk of program cuts to pay for educating the additional students.
– Some or many of the proposed residents can be felons, drug abusers or, worse, sex offenders. The proposed location is near several schools, both public and private, and parks.
– This area is a double-fare zone. The M train on Metropolitan Avenue is 1.2 miles away, which is a 25 minute walk, and the L train is 2.1 miles away, a 41 minute walk. How are the proposed residents expected to seek employment or services during the daytime with a lack of easily accessible public transportation? I pray they aren’t getting access-a-ride services-yet another burden on taxpayers.
– Will drug testing become a common practice for people seeking shelter at the proposed location? Can the community be guaranteed that the residents are neither drug users nor drug dealers?
– Will the community be advised of any sex offenders that may potentially be seeking shelter at the proposed shelter?
– While this may not apply for all homeless shelter residents, there are those who suffer from mental illness or have criminal histories. Homeless shelters have limited to no security. Residents of homeless shelters report suffering from threats, domestic battery and sexual abuse. There are private homeless shelters, but these are often limited to particular groups, such as women and children. How will the community be assured that the individuals living at the proposed shelter are not a threat to themselves or others?
– There is a nearby underpass that has had a history of flooding. I wonder with 125 families, possibly 500-plus people, that would mean more water and sewage use for the area, and if the flooding will certainly be worse and a greater health issue can develop in the community and to the resident.
– There already is the issue of housing people at a former textile mill next to a chemical distributor filled with hydrochloric acid and formaldehyde. If the proposed shelter is approved by city officials, homeless families would be moved onto Cooper Avenue in Glendale, next to the Independent Chemical Corporation. Is there no regard to their health?
These are just a few of the many issues and concerns we have to the proposed shelter, not to mention the funds that will be required to get the property up and running and habitable for humans. We would plead with you and your office to vote no on this proposal.
Veronica and Edward Colon
Glendale
Editor’s note: This letter requires clarification. Samaritan Village and the Department of Homeless Services indicated the proposed Glendale shelter would house up to 125 families with children, namely single mothers and their sons and/or daughters. However, under state law, the city is not permitted to deny shelter to any homeless person for any reason, including criminal background.
Though local residents and elected officials dispute its results, an environmental study which the DHS had an independent firm conduct found that 78-16 Cooper Ave. is suitable for development of a homeless shelter.
He Didn’t Have To Die For ‘Loosie’ Sale
Dear Editor:
There is more to the recent tragic
death of Eric Garner. Blame the economy for forcing Eric Garner, like thousands of other out-of-work New Yorkers, to sell street corner cigarettes known as “loosies” two for $1 to make ends meet.
Excessive taxes on cigarettes has resulted in a growing market for those in poor neighborhoods to purchase cigarettes one or two at a time.
Citizens have more to fear from murder, arson, rape, muggings, robberies, auto and identity theft or home break-ins than individuals who sell loosies.
Law enforcement authorities should pursue those who commit real crimes against citizens and property rather than enforcing insane laws outlawing the sale of individual cigarettes.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
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