Are building façade rules really about safety?
Manhattan: I am writing this letter about Local Law 11 that New York City buildings are required to comply with. I think it is riddled with corruption. Why is it necessary to have buildings examined every five years to determine if their bricks and mortar are stable? I believe it’s because the unions and other organizations involved in this city’s construction industry, backed by organized crime, receive a large amount of the money spent during these undertakings.
The law was passed during the Ed Koch administration, one of the most corrupt in the city’s history, with the Mafia infiltrating most businesses. Thus, every five years, many residential and commercial buildings must fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure that the buildings’ façades are safe. It’s the main reason there’s scaffolding all over the city, blighting the sightlines for all New Yorkers.
It’s important to note that buildings have stood in this city for decades without a single instance of falling bricks. Perhaps examining them every seven or 10 years for such problems would be fair, but not every five years. And who’s to prove that there is damage to a building within a five-year period if no one is verifying what the engineers and workers are doing? Buildings that are hundreds of years old in Europe and other parts of the world have remained without incidences of falling bricks or other issues.
This law needs to be either repealed or amended so that it isn’t so blatantly abusive and costly. Most New Yorkers (especially transplants) don’t know the history behind it and either don’t care or don’t understand it. Paul Yannolo
Unappetizing
Scarborough, N.Y.: Based on the mayor’s unimaginative plan to cut his way out of a monstrous fiscal crisis, combined with a nascent corruption scandal, I predict Adams’ Apple is well on its way to becoming Adams’ Crabapple (with apologies to Lisa Simpson). Thomas F. Comiskey
Wrong ‘hood
New Rochelle, N.Y.: One of the most important jobs of any newspaper is to be familiar with the city that it serves and its neighborhoods. In the article “Ex-con robs wrong guy, gets shot dead in Wash. Heights” (Nov. 26), your paper stumbled badly in this effort. As you wrote, the incident occurred on Macombs Pl. near W. 152nd St. However, that location is in Harlem, not Washington Heights, which was stated three times — in the headline, article and caption. Oh, and since when is a grocery store a bodega? Charles Seaton
Trinity
Stamford, Conn.: I wrote this about a year and a half ago and posted it on Facebook. Now, ’tis the season again and the silence is still deafening. Now that Florida has passed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, I’m wondering how the religious conservatives will explain this: New kid comes to school and is asked by his teacher to tell the class about himself. Student: “I was born in a barn.” Teacher: “Really? Who are your parents?” Student: “I have two dads and a mom. I also have a sort of uncle, or maybe another dad, who’s a ghost. One of my dads is a carpenter, my other dad I don’t see much but he talks to me a lot. My mom insists she’s still a virgin and doesn’t know how she got pregnant. Don’t know much about my uncle, the ghost, but I’m told he’s close to one of my dads.” Teacher: “What’s your name, boy?” Student: “Jesus Christ.” Michael P. O’Mahoney
Real questions
Astoria: To Voicer Jim Black: You ever stop to think that the Big Bang is the creation spoken about in the Old Testament of the Bible, and that evolution is the “life forms multiplying to kind”? Did you also ever stop to think that if Adam and Eve existed and their children had children, the human race is a result of incest? Bradley Morris
Crude critique
Somerville, N.J.: Your editorial “The Right against rights” (Nov. 26) is one of the laziest pieces of writing I’ve read in a long time. I have no fondness for the people and groups you’re commenting on, but whoever wrote this editorial made no attempt to research this subject. It sounds like this person did nothing more than read some negative commentary in other outlets. You lump several different movements and political operators together and say they vilify LGBTQ. I don’t think Geert Wilders has done anything of the kind, nor do I think he per se calls for the cutting of government functions or a return to some more moral imagined past. He supports legal abortion and euthanasia. The editorial’s author seems oblivious to the fact that what’s fueling a lot of the support for these parties is concern over immigration policies that are leading to problems in a number of countries. It’s not a racist fantasy. As for Javier Milei, like Wilders, he seems pretty weird but he’s almost the opposite of Wilders. I’m not entirely sure what a far-right libertarian is but the purportedly libertarian Milei is virtually the opposite of the statist Wilders. Please make an effort to be accurate in your comments. John Kelleher
By the numbers
Hicksville, L.I.: Hey Voicer Richard A. French: In the last 10 years, white supremacists have been responsible for 262 murders in this country. That’s an average of 26 a year. That’s a weekend of homicides in Chicago. Maybe the 100,000 drug overdoses, or the 10,000 Black Americans murdered last year, 85% of whom were murdered by members of their own community, are more of a threat than white supremacy. But hey, let’s just follow the cue of our senile idiot president and create something to distract from how your party is utterly destroying this country. John Gelormino
Coup de blasé
Brooklyn: Real stupidity? No. OpenAI’s board was just bored! Damo Baliga
No movement
Manhattan: Voicer Tom Crimmins’s letter about the need to offer vegan meals in prisons offers welcome and important insight. More than 20 years ago, several animal activists were invited to Rikers Island to meet with the Department of Correction commissioner about the many homeless cats on jail property and the need to address it humanely. We were all vegans, but when asked what we wanted for lunch, we said nothing special, thinking we’d get by eating bread and salad and not rocking the boat. In the spirit of honesty, we eventually agreed to tell them we were vegan. The lunch prepared by their staff was vegan and delicious. The chefs told us how appreciative and inspired they were to be able to do this for us. Unfortunately, all this time later, vegan food is not readily available on Rikers and the cat problem is ongoing. Both issues continue to fall on the city’s deaf ears. Elizabeth Forel
Good ol’ days
East Meadow, L.I.: I agree with Voicer Marcia Epstein regarding patient portals. The chance of getting a phone call from a doctor has about the same chance of new automobiles costing $4,000 again. Jeff Tuck
Withhold profit
Howard Beach: Hello Jets fans. How’s it going for you this year? You can keep hoping the Jets will improve but don’t hold your breath. As long as fans continue to go to the stadium and spend their money, the Jets see no reason to spend their money to improve their team. So if you want to see a better team, stay away and watch for free at home. Then and only then will the Jets spend money to improve their team and get their money-spending fans back to see the games. In the meantime, let’s go Giants. Nick Di Pasquale
Another dimension
Plainview, L.I.: To Voicer Karl Bean: You say that you feel like you are in “The Twilight Zone.” There is nothing wrong with your TV set. If Donald Trump is elected for the next four years, he will be controlling your transmission. Sit quietly, he will control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the awe and mystery that reaches from the inner mind of Trump to “The Outer Limits.” Frank Mauceri
