Letters to the editor

Volume One, Issue 23, February 23 - March 1, 2007

Letters to the editor

Kudos for illegal hotel coverage

To The Editor:
Re “Advocates, tenants, officials say no to illegal hotels” (news article, Feb. 16):

Thank you for your comprehensive look into the illegal hotels situation.

Chelsea Now did a great job describing the situation in the illegal Marriott ExecuStay on West 24th St., including the goofball decision of the postal service to stop delivering mail to the tenants. Such prominent coverage really helps us in our effort to shut down the illegal hotels and move tenants back into those buildings.

I hope that your coverage will encourage even more Chelsea residents who have illegal tourist hotels in their residential buildings to come forward, inform their elected officials and help us restore the buildings to their proper residential use.

Again, thank you for your help exposing this growing concern in our neighborhood.

John Raskin
Raskin is director of organizing at Housing Conservation Coordinators

State Legislator morally bankrupt

To The Editor:
Re “The governor can’t steamroll separation of powers,” (Feb. 16 Talking Point):

The op-ed by State Assemblymember Deborah Glick concerning the recent vote by members of the New York State Legislature to select Democratic State Assemblymember Thomas DiNapoli to replace recently indicted Democratic State Comptroller Alan Hevesi should be no surprise to anyone. The votes by State Assemblymember Glick and colleagues in favor of Tom DiNapoli reminded me of the cowardly lion from the Land of Oz, otherwise known as the New York State Legislature. The State Constitution affords the governor the right to call and set a date for a special election within 60 days upon any seat in the State Legislature becoming vacant. Why not amend the State Constitution to do the same when the office of State Comptroller or State Attorney General becomes vacant as well? Will Assemblymember Glick or any of her Democratic colleagues be brave enough to come forward and introduce such legislation in the State Assembly? Don’t hold your breath waiting. This would afford the voters, rather than Democratic State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Republican State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and their loyal followers the ability to rig the process and select one of their own, like my former State Assemblymember Thomas DiNapoli, to preserve the status quo in Albany.

How ironic that members of the State Legislature’s Black, Latino and Asian caucus overlooked NYC Finance Commissioner Martha Stark, who is African American, a woman who is clearly more qualified. Ms. Stark manages 2,400 employees and chairs several $100 billion dollar-plus pension boards. Members of this minority caucus, along with all other loyal Democratic State Assembly members, continue marching to the beat of boss Speaker Silver’s instructions in exchange for their share of both pork barrel projects, lulus for chairing committees and special favorable legislation to reward various interests of “Pay for Play” campaign contributors. The New York State Assembly boss, Democratic Speaker Silver, couldn’t care less if you are liberal or conservative, gay or straight, man or woman. Just play ball like Assemblymember Glick, and you’re now just one of the boys hanging out in the smoke-filled back room inhabited by Albany career politicians — an insiders’ clubhouse. How ironic that yesterday’s so-called liberal Democratic reformers from Manhattan, after being elected, quickly morph into everyday Albany regulars under Speaker Silver.

Republicans under State Senate majority leader Bruno will continue down their path to minority status by cross-endorsing Democrats like DiNapoli. Real change can only come in Albany when voters replace the other two men in the room — Bruno and Silver — and their loyal followers who, along with the past governor, Pataki, created the mess we are in today. Please don’t vote to re-elect incumbent members of either the State Assembly or State Senate, regardless of party affiliation, who participated in this tragedy when they come up for re-election in 2008.

Larry Penner

An inconvenient reality

To The Editor:
I have to comment on what I recently heard about the Federal Way School Board prohibiting the viewing of Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” without an “opposing viewpoint.”

What can you say when you hear about a group of schools, whose job it is to put ideas and thoughts into the heads of our children, but which believe that global warming is part of the “Democratic agenda?” What do they think is going on? That God and Jesus are up there smoking a bowl and it’s the smoke that’s blowing a huge hole in the ozone layer?

In the article on the AP wire, which reports on the controversy, the story quotes a parent named Frosty Hardison, who says, “condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore.” Obviously, they don’t belong in Mr. Hardison’s bedroom either, as he’s the father of seven unfortunate offspring who have to grow up with a dad named after a snowman. You’d think that’d be punishment enough.

We see religious zealots spewing their rhetoric all the time. They force their beliefs on us through the press, on their own self-produced infomercials and on the Internet. This time, it’s not about cloning or abortion or heaven and hell. It’s about the incontrovertible evidence showing the slow dissolution of our planet. And, when nearly every credible scientist in the world confirms these findings, how is that a political agenda?

In 10 years, when one of these poor kids is arrested for bombing an abortion clinic, they’re going to do a background check and find out he was raised in Federal Way. We reap what we sow, Mr. Hardison.

David Fagin