Letters To The Editor

Letters from readers are invited and should be sent by regular mail to Times Newsweekly, P.O. Box 860299, Ridgewood, N.Y. 11386 0299 or by e mail to info@times newsweekly.com. All letters must be accompanied by the writer’s full name and address, which will be withheld upon request. Anonymous letters will not be considered for pub lication. All letters are subject to ed iting. The opinions expressed in each letter are not necessarily those of the Times Newsweekly.

Maspeth needs more than a park Dear Editor:

I wanted to write in response to the letters I have seen in various local papers lately about putting a park where St. Saviour’s Church was in Maspeth. That area is not appropriate for a park.

What we need in this part of Maspeth is a supermarket. When you walk around this area after 5 p.m. or on the weekends, there is no place to buy a quart of milk or a loaf of bread. There are blocks of houses around this property. I am sure not all of these residents have a car at their dis posal. There are quite a few people that I know of personally who are like me and use a shopping cart to go back and forth to the stores.

If you don’t want to open a super market or a store such as a Wal Mart on this property, then consider a com munity center like the one Commu nity Board 5 suggested. I have a four year old daughter and there is no place in Maspeth, Ridgewood, Mid dle Village or Glendale where I can take her for low cost or no cost ac tivities. There is no public swimming pool in these areas. The libraries have activities, but even they are a trek from here.

I would also like to mention that there are a number of senior citizens who live in western Maspeth, but there are no senior citizen centers here. The nearest ones are in Ridge wood or on the other side of the Long Island Expressway.

Before you start saying in the pa pers that Maspeth needs another park, please ask the residents what they want on that property.

Ask the people who live across the street from Grover Cleveland Park in Ridgewood how they feel about that park. I read in the Times Newsweekly recently that residents can’t use that park because there are too many people coming from other neighborhoods to use it for card games which block the walkways. They also said vendors leave garbage behind and they have a vermin prob lem.

I would also advise you to talk to the people who live near Reiff Park on Fresh Pond Road in Maspeth. When I walk to some people there, they tell me after the parents take their children home from the park, il legal activities go on. One woman told me that she wished they would get rid of the park and put a super market there.

We don’t need a park in Maspeth when we need other things. If you build the community center, maybe a green area could be built with it.

I hope more research will be done to see what the community’s needs are before anything is decided on what to do with that property.

Charlene Stubbs

Maspeth

A ‘reality check’ on healthcare

Editor’s note: The following letter is a response submitted by the author to a mass e mail sent from David Ax elrod, senior advisor to President Barack Obama. Dear Mr. Axelrod:

A ratio that consists of more indi vidual responsibility than govern mental involvement has always been the best formula for a creative and holistically healthy society. Govern ment has deceived itself into believ ing it can and should be all things to all people.

From the local and state level on up, we see real people with real lim itations trying to fulfill the fantasy roles that we as Americans have sculpted for our leaders. It’s proven one thing: Each is responsible for him/herself, and the thought that rel egating individual power to others in the hopes of creating Utopia is, at the very least, naive. Such stress is too much for these “leaders” and they are doomed to fail and with that failure, the citizens should not express be wilderment.

Applying this approach to the healthcare fantasy is doomed to fail ure, and with it much more than be wilderment. In no way should the government extend its reach into the role of the medical professional. Medical decisions must not include governmental considerations. It cer tainly will lead to a lesser degree of care for everyone at a greater cost to society.

Additionally, the impact on indi vidual self esteem generated and pro moted by this governmental interference is immeasurable. Micro managing is recognized as just about the most detrimental practice any leader can effect. With the healthcare program that is proposed, the health of each citizen will be micromanaged for him/her. Is this where the virtue of “American ingenuity” finds itself?

I have much greater faith in the common sense, drive and intelligence of the individual that in our leaders’ ability to lead our lives for us. And this is the reality check you must con sider.

Kay Carpenter Richmond Hill

Reform state authorities

Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to Gov. David Paterson. Dear Governor Paterson:

On behalf of the Queens Civic Congress, an umbrella organization for more than 110 community and neighbor hood based groups repre senting tenants, co op and condo owners and homeowners living in every part of Queens, we write to to express support for legislation await ing your signature into law to intro duce much needed oversight and sunlight into the administration of public authorities that operate in New York State.

Reports that you and Mayor Bloomberg gang up on sound and necessary efforts to reform the state authorities and bring some trans parency and accountability to the Metropolitan Transportation Author ity, the New York City Industrial De velopment Agency, the State Dormitory Authority, the New York State Thruway Authority, the New York City Economic Development Corporation and other agencies that borrow and spend billions, sell assets and pretty much operate under the public radar.

These quasi independent agencies continue to operate and have done so for decades free of any mean ingful oversight from elected officials or the legislature.

The mayor’s expressed concern that regulation would slow down projects like Atlantic Yards, which the MTA made possible by selling development rights to public property far below market value, actually demonstrates the need for this impor tant and much required reform.

The question Queens Civic Con gress and many concerned New Yorkers pose to you as our governor and the mayor remains: What's wrong with public oversight? And what's wrong with public authorities obtaining fair value for the sale of public property?

Absolutely no reason exists for you to do anything but embrace and sign what began during your service as lieutenant governor as a governor's signature reform measure and good government demands that you sign it into law.
Corey Bearak
President
Patricia Dolan
Executive Vice President
Queens Civic Congress