Readers hold forth on medallion taxis, Kristi Noem’s canine and campus guidelines

Rideshare automobiles at the moment are choking NYC streets

Manhattan: Re “Congestion pricing is good for NYC’s rideshare” (op-ed, April 24): Frank Reig, CEO and co-founder of the Revel rideshare automobile service, defined how congestion pricing will probably be good for the town by decreasing the variety of automobiles coming into Manhattan.

I agree that Manhattan can be a greater place with fewer automobiles, however he failed to say one of the simplest ways to lowered the variety of automobiles: Eliminate the unneeded 100,000 rideshare automobiles which were allowed to make use of our streets basically totally free, whereas medallion cabs needed to pay as much as $1 million every.

That invasion of for-hire automobiles led to 9 suicides and a whole bunch of bankruptcies of medallion house owners who had been bamboozled after which back-stabbed by the town’s Uber and Lyft Benevolent Association (formally known as the Taxi and Limousine Commission. It stole tens of millions of rides from the MTA subway and bus techniques, and now represents roughly 43% of the passenger automobiles in Midtown.

The medallion system restricted the variety of automobiles and charged to be used of the Midtown streets at a really excessive fee. It is NYC’s first congestion pricing system. It deserves extra respect, and NYC can be higher off with none rideshare automobiles. Lucius Riccio, former commissioner, NYC Department of Transportation

Hostile takeover

Bronx: Politicians who offered out to the rideshare giants are guilty for the strangulation of the yellow cab business and the owner-drivers particularly. Someone legalized the gypsy cab business for the good thing about the moneyed people. That some owner-drivers dedicated suicide doesn’t appear to hassle these interlopers. Hustlers with non-public license plates now function with impunity round Penn Station and Grand Central whereas the respective taxi dispatcher performs along with his cellphone. Virgilio Carballo

Expect will increase

Wappingers Falls, N.Y.: It was introduced that beginning on June 30, congestion pricing will take impact. As a outcome, motorists will begin being charged the suitable each day charge. Then on Friday, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber introduced that the MTA will want $6 billion to guard transit from local weather disasters, akin to flooding. The article states that the plan is anticipated to be funded by the upcoming five-year capital plan. That plan is due out by the tip of this 12 months. So my fellow motorists, tighten your belts and maintain on as we are going to obtain a New Year’s Day present from the MTA, a rise within the congestion pricing charge to twice the unique quantity. Just watch. Stan Siekierski Sr.

Gear minimal

Brick, N.J.: The Daily News repeatedly mentions the NYPD in riot gear. I’ve not seen any nightsticks. So a helmet with a masks is riot gear? By the best way, what occurred to these nightsticks?
Billy Rath

Non-lethal power

Metuchen, N.J.: To Voicer Mary Caggiano: Like Barnaby Jones, Joe Mannix was one other TV detective who displayed an uncanny capacity to wound the unhealthy guys with out killing them. Also, Mannix had an outstanding capability for punishment: He was knocked on the pinnacle every present, it appeared, and sometimes winged by a bullet, but he all the time answered the bell the subsequent week, seemingly none the more severe for put on. They don’t make ’em like Mannix anymore! Bob McCormick

No-shows

Bronx: Why are your TV grid listings for the Smithsonian Channel all the time incorrect? You present varied applications, however they’re almost all the time “Airline Disasters” and “Airport Alaska,” by no means what’s listed in your grid. You make these errors persistently, night time after night time. Marc Sawyer

Classics

New Windsor, N.Y.: I’m in complete settlement with Voicers Joseph Miserendino and Andrew Cioffi concerning Johnny Maestro and the opposite acts talked about that belong within the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Especially Blood Sweat and Tears, the Chicago of its day. The voice of David Clayton Thomas, with songs like “You Made Me So Very Happy,” “And When I Die” and “Spinning Wheel.” But you must take heed to “Sometimes in Winter,” a reasonably music to listen to on a chilly, snowy night time with Steve Katz on vocals. Just lovely. Todd Schuster

Short-circuited

Brooklyn: Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, you failed us by blocking the NY HEAT Act, and we’ve bought you and your cowardly cohort, Assembly members Didi Barrett, Ken Zebrowski, Bill Magnarelli, Carrie Woerner, William Conrad, Patrick Burke, Monica P. Wallace, Karen McMahon and Crystal Peoples-Stokes, guilty for our rising gasoline payments. Despite Gov. Hochul’s and the Senate’s help, with 76 Assembly co-sponsors, you’d reasonably do what fracked-gas firm National Fuel Gas needs than enable democratic passage of a invoice that will assist rescue our local weather and decrease our gasoline payments. But that doesn’t imply there isn’t excellent news for renewable power: Giant-sized photo voltaic arrays are coming to Queens (“JFK’s parking lot to become the biggest solar array in the state,” April 24). Not solely is solar energy low-cost, but it surely comes with a battery power storage system that collects power when the worth is low and frees it up at peak instances. Sophie Dalsimer

Cruel intentions

Brooklyn: A well-known music with revised lyrics that I dedicate to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem: How a lot is that doggie within the window? / The one with the waggly tail / How a lot is that doggie within the window? / I do hope that doggie’s on the market / I would like that canine to go looking / But if that doggy ought to fail / I’ll take out my gun and blow out its brains / Even although my daughter ought to wail / I wish to go to the White House / As Donald Trump’s trusted VP / So I’ll brag how I shot that poor doggy / To present how robust I might be / How a lot is that doggie within the window? / The one with the waggly tail / How a lot is that doggie within the window? / I do hope that doggie’s on the market. Dennis Middlebrooks

This one of the best you bought?

Cranbury, N.J.: I can’t consider that the Republican Party can’t supply the American individuals a finer human being to vote for president than Donald Trump. The man is despicable. Surely, someplace on this nice nation of ours there are attainable candidates extra first rate, honorable and exemplary for our youngsters to look as much as. The man shouldn’t be match to wipe the ground of the White House. Ann Solomon

Past retirement

Manhattan: The scariest factor about President Biden is that he’s an “old” 81, that means he appears and acts like he’s 95. I fear that one night time at 3 a.m., an aide has to wake Biden up with the ghastly information that 3,000 Russian hypersonic missiles are headed to our shores — a terrifying problem even for a person half Biden’s age. But the GOP has its personal issues with age: Trump fell asleep on the protection desk every day he was in court docket final week. Sadly, we’re a nation of 336 million over-caffeinated soccer fanatics, however haven’t established a political bench to name upon for future political management. Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis for the GOP and perhaps Gavin Newsom or Josh Shapiro for the Dems are the one minimally believable contenders underneath the age of 65 — the age at which most company CEOs are put out to pasture. Ron Donut

University property

Manhattan: As Americans, we’re fortunate to have many freedoms, together with the liberty to consider what we would like and publicly categorical our ideas. But in exercising the fitting to free speech, we don’t have the fitting to harass, bully, threaten, intimidate or assault anybody who doesn’t share our beliefs. Furthermore, a college has the fitting to control the time, place and method of the expression of free speech on its campus in furtherance of offering an schooling to its college students and a protected setting for all school, college students and workers. Anyone who violates these guidelines have to be punished. It’s actually that easy. Chana Schwartz

Initial atrocity

Manhattan: Has the world gone mad? Has everybody forgotten concerning the harmless Israelis Hamas murdered in October and the greater than 250 hostages they took, a lot of whom are useless or nonetheless in captivity? It’s time the media centered on that as a substitute of the protesting kids, who don’t appear to know why they’re now sitting in tents. I wish to ask these college students: How would you react if a terrorist organization stormed your school campus, slaughtered your family and friends and took you hostage, away out of your family members, for greater than 200 days? Cindy Roberts