Readers sound off on homelessness, cigs in subways and slow mail

Manhattan: Kudos to Mayor Adams for issuing a new directive to remove mentally ill and homeless people from the streets of NYC. Homeless and mentally ill people may deserve a roof over their heads and basic services, but they don’t own the streets and other public spaces that we all depend on to accomplish the basic tasks necessary to maintain the quality of our daily lives.

It is imperative that our leaders and elected officials realize that we must keep our streets clean and safe! If we don’t, we will be hurting the many law-abiding citizens that need to use them for the purposes intended. It is basic common sense that sidewalks and public transit facilities are for those who are going places. They are not meant to be homes or safe havens for those unwilling (or unable) to participate in societal norms. We have heard from many of the 30,000 business and civic leaders that we have the privilege to work with that they are in fact scared and disgusted by the decrease in the quality of life because of the misuse of our streets, parks and subways by an unfortunate few. Potential tourists are now calling our 212-CHAMBER number and questioning the safety of visiting our city. This has got to stop!

Nobody deserves to live on the streets, operate unlicensed businesses or harass law-abiding citizens. We will all be better off when we help mentally ill and homeless people obtain the basic services they so obviously need. Mark Jaffe, president & CEO, Greater New York Chamber of Commerce

Brooklyn: A massive accumulation of litter on the tracks at the Rockaway Blvd. station and vagrants in subway cars — these deplorable conditions are yet more evidence of the continued breakdown of law and order brought on by politically driven pro-criminal policies that put the health and safety of every person at risk. Of all the many problems in the New York City subway system, perhaps the one that is most repulsive and poses the most immediate and serious threat to public health is the erosion in the quality of the air caused by the sharp increase in cigarette smoking, both on the platforms and in the train cars. This is pervasive and widespread. We deserve better! Phillip W. Weiss

Manhattan: The continued sharp rise in antisemitic attacks in the New York City (“Hate on the rise,” Dec. 5) represents a deeply disturbing trend. It is also disappointing that this article provides no statistical data about the perpetrators of antisemitic hate crimes. The same applies to news reporting about anti-Asian and other hate crimes. The media frequently reports detailed statistical data about the victims of hate crimes but not about the perpetrators. Surely, the police do have such data. Why isn’t it being shared with the public? Ilya Kapovich

Brooklyn: A father and his son came out of a kosher supermarket. They were wearing yarmulkes. A car passed by and both father and son were hit by shots from a BB gun. Naturally, as always, this shall be addressed as a possible bias crime. We will hear Gov. Hochul saying that this stops now. Governor, this shall never stop, especially given your liberal views on crime and continuing to allow a district attorney such as Alvin Bragg to remain in his position. Ed Greenspan

The Daily News Flash

Weekdays

Catch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon.

Terre Haute, Ind.: In looking at and listening to both Sam Bankman-Fried and his girlfriend, how would anyone with an element of common sense ever have considered giving one buck to these two characters running this Bahamian-based Ponzi scheme? Yet, foolish investors paid herculean sums of money ever-faithfully to this Bankman-Fried charlatan in a manner that is analogous to lemmings mindlessly streaming to the sea. During the Andrew Sorkin interview last week, when Bankman-Fried lamented to his groveling, obsequious audience of having a “bad month” recently, they cavalierly and sanctimoniously snickered and giggled over the bushy-headed one’s remark. This, as thousands of individuals, stupid as they might be, have pitifully lost millions of dollars to the fraudster and his buddy. One might debate which is worse: The fools who trusted Bankman-Fried from the outset or the audience morons who laughed at his “bad month” remark last week. I favor the latter! Earl Beal

Bronx: Is there still a shortage of mail carriers with the U.S. Postal Service going on? I really want to know because working in the South Bronx (Brook Ave.), our mail is delivered only twice a week. When we finally do get the mail, it has accumulated and is a lot to handle. I know the post office is supposed to be reliable but receiving mail twice a week causes a lot of problems, especially when dealing with customers. When COVID was going on, there were shortages and delays all over the country, but with vaccinations and everything mostly back to normal, I would think that would include the post office, too, so why are we still having mail problems? Arlana Solomon Girven

Fresh Meadows: As long as our southern borders remain open, thousands more illegal migrants are going to be able to enter our country, which is going to exacerbate the continuing pandemic further. Unvaccinated and untested, thousands of these migrants are already scattered all across the country, and the pandemic will continue. What is it going to take for President Biden, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to realize that this issue continues to be a very serious and continuous problem? Besides this issue, our economy continues to undulate like a wavy line on a graph; interest rates continue to climb; taxes and mortgage payments are on the rise; and everyday necessities, from food to fuel, are continuing to climb. But just keep allowing everybody to come here illegally. The Democrats don’t give a hoot nor a holler about that at all! We need the Wizard of Oz — and Toto, too! John Amato

Ormond Beach, Fla.: Evidence is coming out that election fraud in 2020 may have resulted from mass media and big tech censorship. Investigations are probing into whether the Biden campaign colluded with the FBI, big tech companies and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to censor and suppress information about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Eight percent of some voters polled said they would not have voted for Biden if they had this information. That is what election fraud looks like and what you have seen these last two years are the disastrous results of that fraud. Charles Michael Sitero

Little Egg Harbor, N.J.: Voicer Sandra Weames, of British Columbia, talks about the threat Republicans pose to democracy and warns against becoming like “Russia, Hungary, China, North Korea and other countries where average citizens suffer under racist, autocratic and dictatorial regimes.” She failed to put her own country, Canada, on that list of dictatorial regimes as it certainly has become under little Justin Trudeau. His response to the Freedom Convoy is very similar to the government response in China. William Cook

Bronx: To all Black Republicans who still support Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans: Do you support pardoning the insurrectionist of Jan. 6 and suspending the Constitution? This would be a giant step toward the destruction of voting rights and, yes, abolishing the 13th Amendment, the abolition of slavery. It would seem that some Republicans would follow Trump into hell. Gilbert M. Lane

Brooklyn: I am a fan of the Giants and the Jets. I really enjoy watching them play on Sundays. This year it seems like almost every Sunday, they are both playing at the same time. Instead of enjoying two games for the whole day, I find myself clicking my remote after every play to try and watch both games at the same time. This is much less enjoyable than watching each game individually. Is it so hard for the NFL to schedule them at different times? I wonder if the sponsors who pay to have their ads on New York television know that most New Yorkers who watch the games are clicking between both games and not watching any of their high-priced commercials. Steve Miller