The mayor can do for EMS what the FDNY has not
Manhattan: Your article on Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore’s support for EMT and paramedic parity with firefighters (“Boss in medics’ corner,” Feb. 8) provides hope that this may finally come to pass. You also point out that commissioners have no control over what happens at the bargaining table since the NYC Office of Labor Relations bargains with the unions.
I applaud Bonsignore for supporting EMS workers and hope that her boss, Mayor Mamdani, takes notice, but parity alone won’t solve the deeper challenge. When EMS was transferred to the FDNY in 1996, the promise was that emergency medical care would become fully integrated into the department’s mission, priorities and leadership structure with equal standing to fire suppression. Nearly three decades later, this institutional shift has yet to occur.
I know this history well. I served as executive director of EMS in the 1980s, when the system operated under the Health and Hospitals Corp. What’s required is sustained executive leadership, backed by the mayor, that explicitly recognizes EMS as a core mission of the department and embeds that recognition into budget and staffing decisions, deployment priorities, training and performance measurement. Absent a genuine and sustained commitment to that cultural change filtering down from the highest levels, the city would ultimately be better served by establishing EMS as an independent mayoral agency, with the resources, compensation, governance and infrastructure necessary to protect lives across all five boroughs. Doing so would stand as a tangible demonstration of what principled, progressive public-safety governance can achieve. James T. Kerr
Short on shelter
Jamaica: The biggest problem in NYC regarding the homeless crisis is the “right to shelter” law. By law, anyone coming here from another state or country saying they are homeless must be provided shelter. This is why shelters fill up quickly. Not only that, but after a 90-day stay, people qualify for a housing voucher, even in new buildings. Not only is this not fair to native New Yawkas in need, but it’s not sustainable, costing billions per year. I wasn’t a big Eric Adams fan but at least he said the law needs to be revised or put on pause to deal with the crisis. Mamdani doesn’t agree. Expect to see more homeless people and fewer apartments available when the city is facing a $12 billion deficit that Mamdani says he wasn’t aware of — even though Adams and others warned about it for the past few years. Yvonne Scibelli
Conspicuous absence
Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.: Mamdani blew off the installation of Archbishop Ronald Hicks, which is an absolute slap in the face to the 3 million Catholics who live in New York, along with every other person of faith. He now becomes the first mayor in 100 years to not attend this sacred and celebratory event, showing himself again to be the divider that we all know he is. What an abhorrent, classless act. Michael P. Devine
Stealing humanity
Tamarac, Fla.: What kind of a human being can kidnap someone, demand money for their return and have no regard for the fear and anguish they put the victim and their families through? The kidnapper, whether revengeful, sane or mentally disturbed, usually seeks financial gain through power and control. The process throughout the ordeal becomes torturous for the family, especially when they are not given proof of their loved one’s safety. Our hearts and prayers are with American broadcast journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie and her siblings as they plead for their elderly mother’s safe return. There is no punishment too strong for these perpetrators for playing their sick games at the expense of human lives. Roberta Chaleff
Con-sistency
Manhattan: Re “Trump’s war on voting” (editorial, Feb. 5): Thanks for your pungent editorial on the subject, which could be recapped in one sentence: “He doesn’t care about the truth.” I’d add: He never did. Frankie Turchiano
Rooting wrong
New Hyde Park, L.I.: Hey President Trump, if you really want to do something good for America, deport U.S.-born skier Eileen Gu to China since she loves the damn place so much that she’s on their Olympic team. Talk about being un-American. Bob Wiecezak
Elite comeuppance
Auburndale: While it is true that we have no kings in America, at least the man who would be our king, Charles III, is holding the Epstein cohorts in his kingdom accountable for their actions. Cathi Venis
Multilingual
Newton, N.J.: To Voicer Frank Brady: What country do you live in? “English is the No. 1 language”? Please show me where in the Constitution that is indicated. There is no national language. And there are plenty of areas in the country where English is not No. 1 (Chinatown, for example). I don’t speak a word of Spanish but I understood everything Bad Bunny was symbolizing: our many cultures. The only insult to the American people is your xenophobic trolling. Michael Schnackenberg
Foreign tongue
Bronx: I am a proud lifelong NYC Democratic liberal for more than 50 years, but it is beyond me how anyone who does not understand Spanish would enjoy the halftime show — the same as if were in German, French, Chinese, Swahili, etc. For the record, ditto for operas. John Cirolia
As American as anything
Bronx: To all of you who have badmouthed the Bad Bunny halftime show: Spanish was the first European language spoken and taught in schools in the Americas. Thanks to Spanish missionaries, that not only made Spanish the universal language of the Americas, but they made the Catholic Church the first Christian religion of the Americas. Suck it up! Daniel Correa
Catalysts for violence
Madisonville, Pa.: By Voicer Charles T. Compton’s logic concerning bringing a gun to a confrontational situation, it would seem that ICE agents violate that principle regularly! They are heavily armed, as if going into battle, and are often the basis for confrontation. Tom Mielczarek
Science says so
Staten Island: To Voicer Joseph Napoleone: Let’s not focus on how cleverly humorous you are, but on how spectacularly wrong you are in your belief that global warming does not exist. Scientists from around the world, whose years of study of the Earth’s warming trends (and who know more about them than either you or I), have determined that humans who use fossil fuel to drive their cars, to heat and light their homes and to produce and use manufactured goods are rapidly introducing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at an alarming rate, which in turn is warming the Earth’s surfaces and oceans at an equally alarming rate. While some areas may be experiencing frigid temperatures (local climate), the overall temperature of the Earth is rising (global warming). Is this so terrible? Scientists believe it is. Eileen Zanelli
