Cuomo wants the city for what it can do for him
Bronx: I live a block away from the Williamsbridge Oval park with its granite recreation center, lush, beautiful green space and tree-lined upper tier transformed from a water reservoir. This gem was constructed via the Works Progress Administration program under FDR and opened in 1937 while Robert Moses served as NYC parks commissioner until 1960. This park is a salient reminder that our city, along with our federal government, used to fund and construct positive, wonderful structures for diverse communities.
Yet, the morning after the June 4 Democratic debate for mayor, I found myself sick to my stomach that as a female, I will once again be collateral damage for a man’s lust for power, like the many communities of color who were collateral damage for Moses’ lust for power. Our current subway system is held together by weak tape and rusty pins amidst disinvestment (Andrew Cuomo’s legacy of the MTA) in public infrastructure and a rage palatable via Donald Trump’s scapegoating of those who ride the subway. Cuomo lacked a sincere love for NYC. He stuttered and offered a lot of “umm, yeah… I used to…” while collapsing within his own physical stature. He was only on that stage as a means to regain power through his last name, not to uplift and steel a city against attacks from weak politicians with little creativity, empathy or moral conviction.
Do better, NYC voters. Our elected officials should not shuck and jive around their moral ineptitude, and future generations should not be ashamed that we had the opportunity to elect someone better than a hardened bully of a small man afraid of his past and future constituents. Elisabeth von Uhl
Return of his reign?
Stratford, Conn.: I’m so happy I don’t live in NYC. These supposedly educated citizens elected Bill de Blasio twice (whatever happened to the $1 billion given to his wife to solve the mental health crises in the city? Never accounted for — follow the money), the current mayor and the possible new mayor in Cuomo, the man who outright killed hundreds, maybe thousands, of senior citizens during the COVID outbreak. He picked the Parole Board members who have released dozens of cop killers, resigned from office due to sex scandals, and made you, the N.Y. citizen lackeys, pick up his legal bills. Wow, what a great selection. You New Yorkers have made your bed for years, now be comfortable sleeping in it! Peter Sulzicki
Unfairly accused
Little Egg Harbor, N.J.: I get truly annoyed when I read letters such as Voicer Davis C. Bloomfield’s, whose opinion of Cuomo is so screwed as to be libelous. Yes, his staff helped him type the manuscript, then they decided they wanted a percentage of his funds. When he did not give them what they wanted, they decided to accuse him of sexual harassment. It was not up to him to have nursing homes place patients with COVID with their populations, but in separate sections. The homes were getting paid well and it was their responsibility to treat patients adequately, not the governor’s. If you are a Republican, no Democrat will ever do anything right as far as you’re concerned. Stop making false and baseless charges. Cuomo is the best candidate New York City has ever had the good fortune to have to save it from the incompetent characters in the game. Rose S. Wilson
Who is a Jew?
Margate, Fla.: Audrey Sasson’s embrace of Zohran Mamdani’s anti-Zionist agenda (“A progressive vision that should win Jewish support,” op-ed, June 22) is a rejection of the 3,500 years of Zionism that is the sole foundational narrative of the Jewish Bible: a return to Zion — what today is Israel. A Jewish Bible that is the sole source of Judaism. For a “Jew” like Sasson to support Mamdani is to reject the Jewish Bible and to thereby reject Judaism. Richard Sherman
Not making enough
Upper Nyack, N.Y.: Your double-truck piece “How can we afford to live in our city?” (June 22) with responses by seven mayoral hopefuls offers the usual mix of rezoning, rent freeze, red-tape removal and some innovations to address a worsening housing crisis. Yet the key factor — wages — is missing. The old rule was to spend just one-third of monthly income on rent or mortgage. Today, that ratio can be 50-70%. Until workers earn more, the statistics you note — “about half of households struggle to pay for the basics while a quarter live in poverty” — will become even more dire. The great and continuing, even accelerating, transfer of wealth from a threatened middle class to the rich will make serfs of the poor and send many in the middle to that income level. Without significant wage increases, “affordability” will be a dream no matter how many units are built. Art Gunther
Dropped data point
Brooklyn: There was an article (“Extreme heat visits NYC for few more days,” June 23) in which you wrote, “Central Park last had a 100-degree day on July 18, 2012, and hasn’t seen a triple-digit temperature in June since 1952.” This is incorrect. New York hit 101 degrees on June 27, 1966, which I remember as a very hot summer. I was 17 and working in the city that summer. Jeffrey Meyerson
Doesn’t deliver
Maspeth: AOC is a joke and she should be the one impeached, not President Trump. Her district is a total mess and her stupidity cost Long Island City an Amazon headquarters that would have brought thousands of jobs. Lance Lovejoy
What nukes?
Staatsburg, N.Y.: Re “U.S. bombs three nuke sites across Iran” (June 22): In March, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard advises that U.S. intelligence did not believe Iran was building a nuclear weapon. Trump says she’s wrong and she doesn’t know anything. Really? So why have her in that position? By the way, how certain was the intelligence that the nuclear weapons were actually where the bombs were dropped? Decoy planes were sent to distract for bombing purposes. How do we know the U.S. wasn’t set up with decoys for the nuclear weapons as well? Glenn Marowitz
Firestarter
Union, N.J.: Well, Donald said that after the 2024 election cycle, there would be World War III! Only, he lied to you, saying the Democrats would start it or be responsible for it. Seems he is responsible for potential nuclear annihilation. Way to go, MAGA — or should it be MAAWA (Make America At War Again)? Lou Alt
Criminal rulers
Manhattan: Khamenei, Netanyahu and Trump / Will cut the world down to a stump / They should, we can see / (with Putin & Xi) / Be thrown into history’s dump. Jonathan J. Dobkin
Hunger strike
Toledo, Ohio: Watching hundreds of people maimed, burned and killed every day just tears at my insides — too much like when I nursed hundreds of wounded from our war in Vietnam. Veterans are continuing their 40-day fast at UN Headquarters through June 30. I fasted to demand humanitarian aid resumption under UN authority and to stop U.S. weapons from fueling the genocide, and to tell Americans that the same corporations that made billions by butchering people in Vietnam cleaned up in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in Gaza, right before our eyes in real time. Our taxes help Israel provide full health care to all citizens while millions of Americans go without it and we spend billions killing people. This madness will only stop when enough Americans demand it. We’ve been out there since May 22. I had to quit on day 21, but the others are still there. Mike Ferner
Leave the best for last
Belle Harbor: Regarding Voicer Anthony Vasser’s (and Dagwood’s) habit of reading the comics first to prepare himself for rest of the paper: I am the opposite. I slog my way through the disappointing, dismaying (and, at times, disgusting) news of the day and save the funnies for the end, leaving me on a mental upswing. Reading them first seems like eating dessert before dinner. I’d rather save the sweets for last! Bobby Nelsen
