Readers sound off on NYC history on Facebook, paying for potholes and N.Y.’s unemployment insurance
A volunteer effort that honors the city we love
Middletown, N.J.: I would like to acknowledge a woman who, in my opinion, is a true New Yorker! Her name is Sandra Roth Ruskin, she is an administrator for a Facebook group called “New York City Images 1850-1980.” It is a large group of people who celebrate NYC (all five boroughs) by posting images with photos and paintings of our fair city!
Sandra is an expert in not only posting these images but also explaining in great detail who painted the portrait or who took the photo, and when and where it occurred! She loves the interaction of the members regarding all the images that are posted. She also keeps the members in line by not allowing any current politics to be involved. She is a consummate professional in all this. In my opinion, Sandra is a New Yorker at its best!
I would bet that many of you who use Facebook have joined this group. There are other administrators as well, but in my humble opinion, Sandra is the best of the best. She works for hours researching these images and posting them, and gets no compensation for the time she spends.
She is a true New Yorker who cares only that we members actually see New York City at its best and its worst (at times), and always at its most interesting moments. Please, if you have never been to that group, take a look at it, as I am sure you will be thrilled seeing all the images. Thank you, Sandra! Herbert Hanrahan
Holes in the system
Greenburgh, N.Y.: This is pothole season and many motorists are experiencing car damages due to potholes. New York State’s government treats itself differently than every town, village and city in the state. If you drive on a state-owned road or highway between Nov. 15 and May 1 and you go over a pothole, you are out of luck — even if someone reported the pothole to the state and it did nothing. They won’t give you a penny towards repairs that they caused. This is unfair. Every other government in the state is liable for pothole-related damages if they received written notice and did nothing about it. Why should the state be treated differently? Paul Feiner
Friendly territory
Las Vegas: Now that one of the only primaries (or caucuses) that GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley has won is Washington, D.C., maybe she should move to D.C. and run for mayor — as a Democrat. Arthur A. Ahr
Democrat dyslexia
Brooklyn: I have noticed that Republicans and their supporters in the right-wing media keep referring to the Democrats as the party of slavery and Jim Crow. While there is certainly some truth to this claim, I find it ironic that the Southern Democrats who embraced slavery and then Jim Crow laws are the revered and honored forbears of the current base of the GOP in the South, i.e. the whites who fly the Confederate flag, wear MAGA caps and go into conniptions when Confederate statues and monuments are torn down. Trump’s southern base worships those Democrats of yesteryear like Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart et al. Also, the Union could not have won the Civil War and ended slavery were it not for the mass participation of Northern Democrats in the Union army and navy. Indeed, some members of Lincoln’s cabinet were Democrats! Dennis Middlebrooks
Shell company shills
Edgewater, N.J.: It looks like a former president (not Jimmy Carter!) is trying to finesse his private media startup into a shell corporation to simplify his ability to take it public and collect more of his fans’ money. Haven’t we been listening to his friends in Congress for months sneer that the use of shell corporations is shifty and shady (because they think a member of the current president’s family may have used one)? Anybody hear similar sneering now on this latest shell game? With all the House oversight-committee talk disparaging shell corporations, I began to wonder who invented them anyway, and caused them to be viewed as devious: Financiers who’ve historically voted for the House’s current majority party, or advocates of working families who tended to vote otherwise? Jay K. Egelberg
Free to flee
Commack, L.I.: The gangs of Haiti have stormed a main prison in Port-au-Prince, releasing 4,000 prisoners. I would take a bet that they will be crossing our border within a week. John Flanagan
Around again
Hoosick Falls, N.Y.: As a Giants fan, I’m nervous that “wait until next year is almost here!” Jack Bakaitis
Solutions averted
Great Neck, L.I.: The excuse by MTA and NYC Transit that permanent improvements are on hold until congestion pricing is resolved (“MTA’s big overtime leak,” March 3) doesn’t hold water. The MTA has had three years to program funding that resolves this issue by allocating some of their $1.8 billion in annual Federal Transit Administration capital funding. Excessive overtime could have been avoided by assigning patrols to temporary, part-time or employees out on partial disability who were physically still able to walk around the bus depot. This is just one of many examples of MTA and NYC Transit waste, fraud and abuse. No wonder so many commuters, taxpayers, transit advocacy groups and elected officials have little faith in MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and NYC Transit President Richard Davey’s management abilities. Larry Penner
Not on their dime
Manhattan: The report that New York City paid out more than $500 million in NYPD settlements (“Not ready to settle,” editorial, March 4) is a worrisome sign that civil suits do not deter flawed policing. Against this backdrop, the NYPD should be required to tap into its asset forfeiture account to shoulder a significant portion of damage awards arising from wrongful convictions, settlements and trial verdicts, rather than NYC taxpayers. It does not appear that risk management is practiced by the police commissioner. Roger B. Adler
Push it through
Rye Brook, N.Y.: Ukraine is in desperate need of the military aid approved by the Senate, but Rep. Mike Johnson is preventing the bill from going to the House floor. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries needs to initiate a discharge petition to obtain the necessary signatures to force a vote on the bill. Demes Poulos
Missed your point
Whiting, N.J.: Voicer Glenn B. Jacobi paints a scenario where “the Squad” lives in a country under authoritarian rule for a month and then seeks to get out and return to the U.S.A. as quickly as possible. I am not clear on the point he is trying to make — that the Squad should have more centrist views, or is it justifying the wave of migrants trying to escape despotic regimes? Bill McConnell
Bread and circuses
Jackson Heights: America is divided politically and racially. Wars are raging across the globe, and what concerns Americans most? Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, along with dancing to Beyoncé’s country song. What should be of concern is: Where is Melania? Michael Lawrence
Underfunded UI
Albany: Re “Union: hike jobless aid” (March 3): New York’s unemployment insurance (UI) benefits should not increase without a significant infusion of state resources to its fund, which is still more than $7 billion in debt from state-mandated COVID shutdowns. This includes expanded benefits for striking workers, who are already afforded easier access to UI benefits than most workers, who must be actively engaged in a work search. State-level unemployment insurance benefits are funded exclusively by taxes on employers, so any benefit increase results in increased taxes on them. While many states incurred UI debt during the pandemic, New York remains the only state to take no significant action to address the UI debt and its impact on employers. Any consideration of increased UI benefits needs to be done as part of a comprehensive plan to restore the state’s fund to financial stability and lower UI tax burdens on business. Ken Pokalsky, Business Council of New York State
Soon-to-be centurion
Middle Village: On a different note, let’s raise a glass to Eva Marie Saint, one of the last surviving actresses of the Golden Age, who turns 100 this July 4. May God bless! Robert Chirieleison
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