Private landlord accountability still matters
Manhattan: It’s not often I see someone defending the worst landlords, so Howard Husock’s recent op-ed caught my eye (“New York City is its own worst landlord: NYCHA,” Jan. 28). If he had visited a building or spoken to any of their tenants, I don’t think he’d be quite so eager to stand by them — or by the mold, rodents and roaches infesting their spaces.
His charge that we’ve “missed” NYCHA is easily refuted at LandlordWatchlist.com, which I encourage all New Yorkers to visit. Every year at our launch, my team and I have called out NYCHA’s failures and massive backlog of work orders, which is also clear at the very top of our site.
We have to take on both private profiteering and public failures. The watchlist itself is based on the city’s data on private landlords with a longstanding methodology based on the way that data is collected and categorized by NYC’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. It would be inaccurate and irresponsible to blend public housing in with these violations — as irresponsible as the mismanagement of the city’s public housing stock has often been.
NYCHA tenants are right — as we’ve said each year, the city is the worst overall landlord. We’ve spent years working with residents to address immediate crises there, and work on longstanding deficiencies in both funding and administration across the system. But to use the suffering of NYCHA residents as a shield against accountability for the people on our list will only prop up the people letting their properties fall apart. Jumaane Williams, NYC public advocate
Subpar swipe
Manhattan: Goodbye, MetroCard. It was a heck of a ride. Now we’re stuck with the terrible OMNY card. Damian Begley
Surrendered authority
Aventura, Fla.: Now that the feds are taking over the dysfunctional Rikers Island jail, will NYC be taking over the equally dysfunctional Metropolitan Detention Center? Jim Dube
Back the nurses
Bayside: Will the mayor wake up and help the nurses? 15,000 nurses on the picket line in freezing conditions, management refusing to negotiate. The mayor wants to tax the rich? Well, check out the CEOs of the hospitals. They all have million-dollar salaries. Glad the mayor is warm and comfy. Please resign — you are not the mayor of the people who make this city work. Big promises and no action. Timothy Collins
Evangelist meetup
Darien, Conn.: Again we are bombarded with forced religion on a national stage. It’s the National Prayer Breakfast. Yes, trying to un-separate religion from our government again. This must stop before it gets worse, like in some schoolrooms and the Ten Commandments. Dan Singer
Practical move
Brooklyn: To Voicer June Lowe: In principle, I completely agree with you that it was shameful for María Corina Machado to give her Nobel Peace Prize away to the dumb-dumb in chief. That said, I think she was savvy to realize that the big baby likes validation and shiny objects, and handing him the medal would be the one way to pave her path toward leading her country. I believe this was not so much a power grab on her part as an attempt to ensure that the leadership of Venezuela is not taken over by U.S. oil companies who don’t even want to be there. Trump thought he was giving them a prize, but they balked at the idea of taking over another nation to bilk its resources. It has to be really bad for oil companies to find something unethical. Katherine Raymond
Tried & tragic
New Rochelle, N.Y.: An insightful aphorism attributed to Mark Twain (which he never uttered but should have) is, “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” A sensitive ear can still hear the echoes from 100 years ago, when a powerful government sent ill-trained, unemployed ex-soldiers to quell uprisings by the populace against an oppressive state. I speak of the infamous Black and Tans foisted upon the Irish in 1920. So haphazard was the preparation that the British government couldn’t even supply uniforms of matching colors, hence the two-color eponym. Lacking police training and thinking they were a law unto themselves, they began a reign of brutality, including the murder of innocent civilians. Just because ICE’s colors match doesn’t make them any better (by the way, who got that contract?). Richard Rodrigue
Kill shots
Manhattan: During the 1970s in NYC, there were stories about these underground films called snuff films. They were said to show people being violently killed. Some said it was an urban myth. I never saw one then, but thanks to our government, I have now seen two. Rest in peace, Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Elaine Fludgate
Confrontational rhetoric
Oceanside, L.I.: Shouldn’t the emphasis of lowering the temperature been on the governor and the mayor in Minnesota? When you refer to a law enforcement agency comprised of American citizens as “Nazi” and “Gestapo” and tell them profanely to leave your city and state, are you not setting the tone for a violent confrontation? When you tell your local police not to be the buffer between the protestors and federal agents, isn’t this what approaching chaos looks like? Has not the potential of violence been lit up when local law enforcement is nowhere to be found when protesters and agitators descend upon the hotels where ICE is staying? The bar was set too low, and cooperation was infected from the outset because of agendas. The instigators were allowed to go beyond peaceful protests to hindering law enforcement from doing their job which escalated with the result of two people tragically losing their lives. Tony Giametta
Hold strong
Manhattan: Roving gangs of masked and ambiguously uniformed agents randomly detaining, shooting (16 so far) and sometimes killing people would normally generate 911 calls and a massive police response. But these agents of chaos, sent by the federal government, have overriding powers and claim immunity from local control. Sen. Chuck Schumer is already losing his leverage to severely restrain this behavior. He’s negotiated with President Trump to give the Department of Homeland Security two more weeks of funding to wreak havoc. All of the above has to be absolutely banned along with Border Patrol enforcement near the border, arrests or breaking down people’s doors without a real judicial warrant, and dragging people away regardless of their right to stay in America. Schumer must keep his caucus together to stop the rogue army that’s taking away our freedom. GOP compromises are worthless. Schumer, don’t disappoint us again. Holly Hester-Reilly
Lawful enforcement
Bronx: To Voicer Joseph J. Rothengast: Democratic presidents had ICE deport those who had committed crimes, not those living productive lives, and they weren’t using Gestapo tactics. As for protesters being paid, as I tell people who claim this: Sign up and show us the check to prove it. W. Twirley
Gangland methods
Zephyrhills, Fla.: To Voicer Joseph J. Rothengast, the reason there were no riots when President Barack Obama deported illegal aliens is simple: ICE didn’t act like a bunch of unruly thugs and did the job according to the legal guidelines set forth for them. Uncle Donald and his gang of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers (ya know, all them Jan. 6-ers who you MAGA folks deny ever happened) thought they ‘d have free reign to wreak havoc because their fearless bone-spurred leader told them to have at it. Well, Joey, guess what? They screwed the pooch one time too many, and us normal Americans have grown tired of it. So suck it up, buttercup, the blue wave is coming. John Honas
Simplify
Port Washington, L.I.: The solution to NYC’s $12 billion deficit is easy to solve. Combine the five NYC pension funds into three, like in other cities. Axe the over 2,500 political positions in the Department of Education. Combine the 100-plus union welfare funds and annuity funds, freeing massive amounts in administrative costs. Stop the $400,000-plus FDNY and $600,000-plus NYPD pension grabs, which are unsustainable and outlandish. Remove the thousands of “light duty” positions across all departments. Reduce the number of NYC paid union positions city-wide. Joe Campbell
