A multi-agency effort for faster response

Manhattan: Your reporting on the city’s worsening emergency response times highlights a problem that can’t be solved by focusing on ambulance travel time alone. As a former executive director of NYC EMS, I believe response time is the product of an entire system — from 911-call processing and dispatch through staffed ambulance capacity, deployment, workforce recruitment and retention, traffic, and patient transfer at receiving hospitals.

FDNY operates EMS, but several important factors affecting its performance are controlled or influenced by other city agencies, hospitals and labor-management decisions. The City Council’s Oct. 20 oversight hearing on ambulance response times provides an opportunity to examine how those pieces of the system work together, and where capacity is being lost. The city should bring together FDNY, Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Labor Relations, EMS labor, Health + Hospitals and the broader hospital community, use their existing data to determine where capacity and delays are occurring, establish meaningful clinical and operational performance standards, and determine what resources and changes to all the factors listed above are required to achieve them reliably. An EMS Improvement and Modernization Task Force could provide the mechanism for doing that work and for turning its findings into measurable improvements.

New York does not lack data or expertise. It needs a coordinated mechanism for turning them into action.

James T. Kerr

Major omission

Staten Island: I guess the Daily News aren’t hockey fans, because on Thursday, Rangers goalie Igor Sheriken was only 18th in all of NHL history to score a goal, but when I looked in the paper the next day, what do I find? Nothing. Every sport except hockey. And not just a Rangers win, but a feat that happened only 17 times before.

Mark Tarasiewicz

Get the facts

Chester, N.J.: The failure to prosecute the sex assault at Cornell University shows a basic failure of the law defining consent, and the district attorney and police working the case. While the initial sexual activity may have been consensual, those who participated after supplying ketamine to a drunk victim were clearly guilty. Add to this that the availability of sex was advertised on the fraternity’s social media, and it’s a clear case of multiple sexual assaults by perpetrators the victim didn’t recognize. More facts may come out that are either incriminating or exculpatory, but investigation is warranted.

David J. Melvin

Intractable issues

Manhattan: Kudos to the City Council for demonstrating undeniable political acumen by becoming the nation’s first legislature to haul the AI architects in for formal scrutiny (“The City Council must hear everyone on AI,” op-ed, Oct. 4). However, now the Council finds itself tethered to a remarkably intractable dilemma. A similar inertia plagues its approach to local canine waste. Consequently, the ubiquity of sidewalk detritus has become, in my mind, permanently inextricable from the Council’s legacy. These are the distinct dangers of trying to conquer the defining issues of our time. In aggressively claiming stewardship over both existential tech threats and dog poop, the Council has ensured that every future failure — algorithmic or canine — now belongs entirely to them.

John Smith

Choose ethically

Phillipsburg, N.J.: Re “Where the blame lies” (Oct. 4): In John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel “East of Eden,” the Hebrew word “timshel” is prominently featured. It means humans have the power to choose between good and evil. We eventually learned that my Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. has legitimate health issues that kept him isolated from his constituents for nearly four months. That’s not evil. However, Tom has chosen evil by never holding democratic, public town hall meetings where constituents can ask him questions, especially about Tom’s support for President Trump’s ignorance and evil.

Reggie Regrut

Wild goose chase waste

Long Island City: Can Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel please do the country a favor and stop spending man hours and tons of money looking for the boogeyman (voter fraud) and use those resources to look for Nancy Guthrie?

Daniel Mckevitt

Take the baton

Utica, N.Y.: We’re a couple of Boomers who humbly apologize to younger generations for the messy world we’ve left you. Having said that, this is your opportunity to make your world better! Oct. 17 is the next No Kings Day and Nov. 3 is America’s crucial Election Day. We implore young people to show up for both. We need to see more purple hair along with the gray! Although we Boomers may have messed up a lot of things — notably, by focusing mainly on making money, and by electing Republicans — we’ll soon be gone, and the effects of these bum decisions will fall on you and your families. There are plenty of people in power conspiring to suppress your right to vote. We Boomers made mistakes, but we also showed up to protest the Vietnam War and promote the Civil Rights movement. We made a difference. So can you!

Jeff and Joan Ganeles

Let them eat cupcakes

Bronx: It is truly appalling to see the AI-generated video of Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino riding a gold luggage cart and spraying champagne, accompanied by his wife and some of Trump’s family members. It’s truly a Marie Antoinette moment. How disgraceful while so many Americans are suffering at the hands of Trump because of his ridiculous policies, such as expensive tariffs, the folly of war against Iran and the price of oil, diesel and groceries skyrocketing. Trump and his billionaire friends are giving Americans a hard middle finger. The Orange Demon is aware of how much Republicans will pay in the upcoming elections for their contemptuous behavior, so he’s bribing voters with $5,000 if Republicans win. Isn’t that corruption at its highest level? He’s now proposing $90 for each Medicare recipient who meets certain criteria starting this month. How convenient. Don’t be fooled by this flimflam man.

Pauline Graham Binder

Conflicting accounts

Bronx: I have a question for the administration. If the tariffs are being paid by foreign governments, as is claimed, then why were the court-ordered refunds paid to American companies?

Maria Bonsanti

Pension problem

Baldwin Place, N.Y.: Just like Voicers Ed Greenspan and John T. O’Connell, my husband Richard Ferrier also had an issue with his pension being stopped. He chose to go to the union office (Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ), where they were very considerate in processing the form as he waited. It’s almost impossible for any union pension fund to have knowledge of all members’ passings. Some retire before being eligible for Social Security benefits yet collect their pensions. There are greedy people who attempt to collect a deceased union member’s monthly pension check, which affects the union’s fund. So sorry for those inconvenienced, like my husband, but a phone call to your union can help. They send you a new form that you can send back by fax or mail.

Marie Ferrier