To challenge Mamdani, grapple with his issues
Upper Nyack, N.Y.: Kudos on your fresh-off-the-presses editorial on Mayor Adams quitting his reelection bid (“Adams is out, Sliwa must be next,” Sept. 29). Your voice is important to residents as they figure out who the next leader should be. The reasoning is sound — the city requires stability in government, schooling, policing, housing and cost of living. This is not a time for more radicalization. The President Trump era has thrown the republic into dangerous disarray, and the last thing NYC needs is more disruption, though of the leftist/socialist view rather than the extreme right.
Yet, in backing Andrew Cuomo, the advice you should give is that the former governor absolutely must address those pocketbook and life issues that Zohran Mamdani stresses and that could get him elected. Wages are too low compared to ever-higher rents. The housing shortage is dire, and even if “affordable” units were constructed, the amount would be small and expensive anyway — the city must be bolder. Crime is saturating neighborhoods where police motor patrols are not enough — officers walking beats and connecting with residents is more than required.
Finally, the only way to deal with the city’s increasing woes is to pay for remedies by requiring participation from the rich through taxes and other investment. Cuomo will have to govern differently from when he was in Albany. If he takes to the street as Mamdani has and actually offers pocketbook and life-quality solutions, he can win. The people are against the wall, and at this point, they may well believe that only extreme socialist solutions will work. Cuomo must offer concrete alternatives. Art Gunther
Daily failures
Forest Hills: Probably not one member of the MTA leadership even takes a subway or bus. I take the R train. Seven days a week, almost every hour of a 24-hour day, there are door, track, signal (why are brakes activated so many times during the day?) and switch problems. When you pay more for something, it’s supposed to be better quality. Not so with the MTA. Sherri Rosen
Dumbing us down
Garden City, L.I.: What reasonably intelligent person thinks closing the Department of Education is a good idea? The answer should be none. Could the reason for doing so be to keep MAGAs and others ignorant enough that they will not question the tyrant in chief and blindly obey? Or is it just another stunt to mask the fact that this White House has done nothing to make life easier for the middle class, but did dump a load of money into the pockets of those who need it the least? Wake up! Paul Falabella
Sinister signs
Jackson Heights: In the name of all that’s holy, wake up, America. The autocratic president is rising to dictatorship. He is trying to control the airwaves, closing the Education Department and cutting funds allocated by Congress. His enemies list grows by the day, with the Republicans kissing his ring, as do the members of his cabinet. He owns the Supreme Court conservatives. He is sending troops into American cities. What comes next? Internment/reeducation camps? We should shave his head, which might reveal “666.” Michael Lawrence
Upside down ideas
Glendale: In our modern society, the creation of monsters has become a daily occurrence. Those inclined to believe what they are told by our negative media and its many sources are cultivating hatred as a weapon against common sense and logic. Hiding behind interpretations of our Constitution declaring hate speech as free speech and propaganda as free press has manufactured a divided nation. Those who can’t see and hear what is happening have already been brainwashed. They’re not willing to step away from the all-encompassing enemy who masquerades as the caretaker of our democracy. It’s never too late to change the narrative and embrace the truth. The side wanting to stop lawlessness and violence are not the enemy. The side yearning to keep us from having a peaceful, united future deem us too stupid to make decisions for ourselves, as if we’ve been living with abnormal brains in need of repair. Jonathan Kiddrane
Freedom at stake
Nutley, N.J.: As Americans, we have to make the most important decision of our lifetimes, which is to live as we have in this country for centuries or to live under a dictator, with our freedoms taken away bit by bit. The Justice Department takes orders from Trump to bring criminal charges against his so-called enemies. He sends ICE into our cities to root out criminal immigrants (many who are not criminals, living in this country peacefully for many years, obeying our laws, working in honest jobs and enjoying the same freedoms we all do) only to deport them to reach quotas. Our only recourse is to vote for what we stand for: freedom and justice for all. Elaine Bucino
Last vestiges
Hempstead, L.I.: To Voicer Veronica Kwiecinski: I agree, and only buy the Daily News for “Mutts” and “Red & Rover”! Leslie Feldman
A good run
New Windsor, N.Y.: To Voicer Robert Chirieleison: I certainly remember when Jimmy Kimmel was Ben Stein’s co-host on that Comedy Central game show that ran six years. It was fun to watch, albeit with tough questions and the droll, sardonic style of Stein and the wisecracking Kimmel. The best part was the “best of 10” test of knowledge. Whenever the contestant would defeat Ben and win his $5,000, Ben would whine sour grapes. The show kind of jumped the shark when Jimmy left in 2000 and it was then co-hosted by Nancy Pimentel and later Jimmy’s cousin, Sal Iacono. Todd Schuster
Throwback themes
San Francisco: Kudos to CBS for celebrating the 50th anniversary of its “NFL Today” pregame show on Sept. 21 with a touch of nostalgia. It brought back original host Brent Musburger to open the program with his iconic words, “You are looking live!” and Jan Stoeckart’s classic “Horizontal Hold” theme music (officially credited to his pseudonym, Jack Trombey). When I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, Sundays in autumn did not begin without them! Stephen A. Silver
Unlisted achievements
Flushing: You wrote of the Mets that 2016 was “the last year they qualified for the playoffs in consecutive seasons — and still the only time in franchise history the team has reached the postseason in back-to-back years” (“Wait till last year,” Sept. 29). Are you unaware that the Mets won the National League Wild Card in the consecutive seasons of 1999 and 2000, when there was only one Wild Card in each league? The second time was particularly memorable inasmuch as the Mets advanced to meet the Yankees in the World Series. Mets fans are already mourning the unexpected end of their season. We don’t need to have salt rubbed in our wounds with an incorrect diminishment of our team’s achievements. It’s not that difficult to research a team’s history before writing about it. Howard Fein
Odd omission
Millburn, N.J.: Pete Alonso is a terrific player and a great guy. I hope the Mets re-sign him. But in all the postmortems about their disastrous season, no one mentions Alonso’s crucial role in the collapse. His bad throw on June 12 to Kodai Senga, who was covering first base, caused Senga’s hamstring injury as Senga tried to catch the ball. Senga never pitched again for the Mets. Had they won just one more game — just one! — they would have made the playoffs. I like Alonso, but that bad throw was the costliest play of the season. Ed Marks
Out of line
Brooklyn: To Voicer Don Adler: Often in theater and in comedy, the town drunk, the clown or the fool will say something profound. In Eddie Murphy’s film “The Nutty Professor,” Prof. Sherman Klump mumbles, “Being overweight can be partly predisposed by genetics.” Contrary to your negative screed, there are people who are arguably overweight who routinely exercise and avoid foods that typically cause people to gain weight. There are people arguably overweight who take Ozempic and never lose weight. Read this as a repudiation of your arrogant, presumptuous generalizations against people who are overweight. Consider yourself chewed out. Woe to you if you ever have a health challenge. Stanley McKie
