Rideshare vehicles are now 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 car service, explained how congestion pricing will be good for the city by reducing the number of cars entering Manhattan.
I agree that Manhattan would be a better place with fewer cars, but he failed to mention the best way to reduced the number of cars: Eliminate the unneeded 100,000 rideshare cars that have been allowed to use our streets essentially for free, while medallion cabs had to pay up to $1 million each.
That invasion of for-hire vehicles led to nine suicides and hundreds of bankruptcies of medallion owners who had been bamboozled and then back-stabbed by the city’s Uber and Lyft Benevolent Association (officially called the Taxi and Limousine Commission. It stole millions of rides from the MTA subway and bus systems, and now represents approximately 43% of the passenger cars in Midtown.
The medallion system limited the number of cars and charged for use of the Midtown streets at a very high rate. It is NYC’s first congestion pricing system. It deserves more respect, and NYC would be better off without any rideshare vehicles. Lucius Riccio, former commissioner, NYC Department of Transportation
Hostile takeover
Bronx: Politicians who sold out to the rideshare giants are to blame for the strangulation of the yellow cab industry and the owner-drivers in particular. Someone legalized the gypsy cab industry for the benefit of the moneyed folks. That some owner-drivers committed suicide doesn’t seem to bother these interlopers. Hustlers with private license plates now operate with impunity around Penn Station and Grand Central while the respective taxi dispatcher plays with his cellphone. Virgilio Carballo
Expect increases
Wappingers Falls, N.Y.: It was announced that starting on June 30, congestion pricing will take effect. As a result, motorists will start being charged the appropriate daily fee. Then on Friday, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber announced that the MTA will need $6 billion to protect transit from climate disasters, such as flooding. The article states that the plan is expected to be funded by the upcoming five-year capital plan. That plan is due out by the end of this year. So my fellow motorists, tighten your belts and hold on as we will receive a New Year’s Day gift from the MTA, an increase in the congestion pricing fee to twice the original amount. Just watch. Stan Siekierski Sr.
Gear minimum
Brick, N.J.: The Daily News repeatedly mentions the NYPD in riot gear. I have not seen any nightsticks. So a helmet with a mask is riot gear? By the way, what happened to those nightsticks?
Billy Rath
Non-lethal force
Metuchen, N.J.: To Voicer Mary Caggiano: Like Barnaby Jones, Joe Mannix was another TV detective who displayed an uncanny ability to wound the bad guys without killing them. Also, Mannix had a phenomenal capacity for punishment: He was knocked on the head each show, it seemed, and occasionally winged by a bullet, yet he always answered the bell the next week, seemingly none the worse for wear. They don’t make ’em like Mannix anymore! Bob McCormick
No-shows
Bronx: Why are your TV grid listings for the Smithsonian Channel always wrong? You show various programs, but they are almost always “Airline Disasters” and “Airport Alaska,” never what is listed in your grid. You make these errors consistently, night after night. Marc Sawyer
Classics
New Windsor, N.Y.: I am in total agreement with Voicers Joseph Miserendino and Andrew Cioffi regarding Johnny Maestro and the other acts mentioned that belong in 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 have to listen to “Sometimes in Winter,” a pretty song to hear on a cold, snowy night with Steve Katz on vocals. Just beautiful. Todd Schuster
Short-circuited
Brooklyn: Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, you failed us by blocking the NY HEAT Act, and we’ve got 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, to blame for our rising gas bills. Despite Gov. Hochul’s and the Senate’s support, with 76 Assembly co-sponsors, you’d rather do what fracked-gas company National Fuel Gas wants than allow democratic passage of a bill that would help rescue our climate and lower our gas bills. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t good news for renewable energy: Giant-sized solar arrays are coming to Queens (“JFK’s parking lot to become the biggest solar array in the state,” April 24). Not only is solar power cheap, but it comes with a battery energy storage system that collects energy when the price is low and frees it up at peak times. Sophie Dalsimer
Cruel intentions
Brooklyn: A famous song with revised lyrics that I dedicate to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem: How much is that doggie in the window? / The one with the waggly tail / How much is that doggie in the window? / I do hope that doggie’s for sale / I need that dog to go hunting / But if that doggy should fail / I’ll take out my gun and blow out its brains / Even though my daughter should wail / I want to go to the White House / As Donald Trump’s trusted VP / So I’ll brag how I shot that poor doggy / To show how tough I can be / How much is that doggie in the window? / The one with the waggly tail / How much is that doggie in the window? / I do hope that doggie’s for sale. Dennis Middlebrooks
This the best you got?
Cranbury, N.J.: I can’t believe that the Republican Party can’t offer the American people a finer human being to vote for president than Donald Trump. The man is despicable. Surely, somewhere in this great country of ours there are possible candidates more decent, honorable and exemplary for our children to look up to. The man is not fit to wipe the floor of the White House. Ann Solomon
Past retirement
Manhattan: The scariest thing about President Biden is that he’s an “old” 81, meaning he looks and acts like he’s 95. I worry that one night at 3 a.m., an aide has to wake Biden up with the ghastly news that 3,000 Russian hypersonic missiles are headed to our shores — a terrifying challenge even for a man half Biden’s age. But the GOP has its own problems with age: Trump fell asleep at the defense table each day he was in court last week. Sadly, we are a nation of 336 million over-caffeinated football fanatics, but have not established a political bench to call upon for future political leadership. Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis for the GOP and maybe Gavin Newsom or Josh Shapiro for the Dems are the only minimally plausible contenders under the age of 65 — the age at which most corporate CEOs are put out to pasture. Ron Spurga
University property
Manhattan: As Americans, we are lucky to have many freedoms, including the freedom to believe what we want and publicly express our thoughts. But in exercising the right to free speech, we don’t have the right to harass, bully, threaten, intimidate or assault anyone who doesn’t share our beliefs. Furthermore, a university has the right to regulate the time, place and manner of the expression of free speech on its campus in furtherance of providing an education to its students and a safe environment for all faculty, students and employees. Anyone who violates those rules must be punished. It’s really that simple. Chana Schwartz
Initial atrocity
Manhattan: Has the world gone mad? Has everyone forgotten about the innocent Israelis Hamas murdered in October and the more than 250 hostages they took, many of whom are dead or still in captivity? It’s time the media focused on that instead of the protesting children, who don’t seem to understand why they’re now sitting in tents. I would like to ask those students: How would you react if a terrorist organization stormed your college campus, slaughtered your friends and family and took you hostage, away from your loved ones, for more than 200 days? Cindy Roberts