New York City is its own worst landlord: NYCHA<\/a>,\u201d Jan. 28). If he had visited a building or spoken to any of their tenants, I don\u2019t think he\u2019d be quite so eager to stand by them \u2014 or by the mold, rodents and roaches infesting their spaces.<\/p>\nHis charge that we\u2019ve \u201cmissed\u201d NYCHA is easily refuted at LandlordWatchlist.com, which I encourage all New Yorkers to visit. Every year at our launch, my team and I have called out NYCHA\u2019s failures and massive backlog of work orders, which is also clear at the very top of our site.<\/p>\n
We have to take on both private profiteering and public failures. The watchlist itself is based on the city\u2019s data on private landlords with a longstanding methodology based on the way that data is collected and categorized by NYC\u2019s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. It would be inaccurate and irresponsible to blend public housing in with these violations \u2014 as irresponsible as the mismanagement of the city\u2019s public housing stock has often been.<\/p>\n
NYCHA tenants are right \u2014 as we\u2019ve said each year, the city is the worst overall landlord. We\u2019ve spent years working with residents to address immediate crises there, and work on longstanding deficiencies in both funding and administration across the system. But to use the suffering of NYCHA residents as a shield against accountability for the people on our list will only prop up the people letting their properties fall apart. Jumaane Williams, NYC public advocate<\/p>\n
Subpar swipe<\/p>\n
Manhattan: Goodbye, MetroCard. It was a heck of a ride. Now we\u2019re stuck with the terrible OMNY card. Damian Begley<\/p>\n
Surrendered authority<\/p>\n
Aventura, Fla.: Now that the feds are taking over the dysfunctional Rikers Island jail, will NYC be taking over the equally dysfunctional Metropolitan Detention Center? Jim Dube<\/p>\n
Back the nurses<\/p>\n
Bayside: Will the mayor wake up and help the nurses? 15,000 nurses on the picket line in freezing conditions, management refusing to negotiate. The mayor wants to tax the rich? Well, check out the CEOs of the hospitals. They all have million-dollar salaries. Glad the mayor is warm and comfy. Please resign \u2014 you are not the mayor of the people who make this city work. Big promises and no action. Timothy Collins<\/p>\n
Evangelist meetup<\/p>\n
Darien, Conn.: Again we are bombarded with forced religion on a national stage. It\u2019s the National Prayer Breakfast. Yes, trying to un-separate religion from our government again. This must stop before it gets worse, like in some schoolrooms and the Ten Commandments. Dan Singer<\/p>\n
Practical move<\/p>\n
Brooklyn: To Voicer June Lowe: In principle, I completely agree with you that it was shameful for Mar\u00eda Corina Machado to give her Nobel Peace Prize away to the dumb-dumb in chief. That said, I think she was savvy to realize that the big baby likes validation and shiny objects, and handing him the medal would be the one way to pave her path toward leading her country. I believe this was not so much a power grab on her part as an attempt to ensure that the leadership of Venezuela is not taken over by U.S. oil companies who don\u2019t even want to be there. Trump thought he was giving them a prize, but they balked at the idea of taking over another nation to bilk its resources. It has to be really bad for oil companies to find something unethical. Katherine Raymond<\/p>\n
Tried & tragic<\/p>\n
New Rochelle, N.Y.: An insightful aphorism attributed to Mark Twain (which he never uttered but should have) is, \u201cHistory never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.\u201d A sensitive ear can still hear the echoes from 100 years ago, when a powerful government sent ill-trained, unemployed ex-soldiers to quell uprisings by the populace against an oppressive state. I speak of the infamous Black and Tans foisted upon the Irish in 1920. So haphazard was the preparation that the British government couldn\u2019t even supply uniforms of matching colors, hence the two-color eponym. Lacking police training and thinking they were a law unto themselves, they began a reign of brutality, including the murder of innocent civilians. Just because ICE\u2019s colors match doesn\u2019t make them any better (by the way, who got that contract?). Richard Rodrigue<\/p>\n
Kill shots<\/p>\n
Manhattan: During the 1970s in NYC, there were stories about these underground films called snuff films. They were said to show people being violently killed. Some said it was an urban myth. I never saw one then, but thanks to our government, I have now seen two. Rest in peace, Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Elaine Fludgate<\/p>\n
Confrontational rhetoric<\/p>\n
Oceanside, L.I.: Shouldn\u2019t the emphasis of lowering the temperature been on the governor and the mayor in Minnesota? When you refer to a law enforcement agency comprised of American citizens as \u201cNazi\u201d and \u201cGestapo\u201d and tell them profanely to leave your city and state, are you not setting the tone for a violent confrontation? When you tell your local police not to be the buffer between the protestors and federal agents, isn\u2019t this what approaching chaos looks like? Has not the potential of violence been lit up when local law enforcement is nowhere to be found when protesters and agitators descend upon the hotels where ICE is staying? The bar was set too low, and cooperation was infected from the outset because of agendas. The instigators were allowed to go beyond peaceful protests to hindering law enforcement from doing their job which escalated with the result of two people tragically losing their lives. Tony Giametta<\/p>\n
Hold strong<\/p>\n
Manhattan: Roving gangs of masked and ambiguously uniformed agents randomly detaining, shooting (16 so far) and sometimes killing people would normally generate 911 calls and a massive police response. But these agents of chaos, sent by the federal government, have overriding powers and claim immunity from local control. Sen. Chuck Schumer is already losing his leverage to severely restrain this behavior. He\u2019s negotiated with President Trump to give the Department of Homeland Security two more weeks of funding to wreak havoc. All of the above has to be absolutely banned along with Border Patrol enforcement near the border, arrests or breaking down people\u2019s doors without a real judicial warrant, and dragging people away regardless of their right to stay in America. Schumer must keep his caucus together to stop the rogue army that\u2019s taking away our freedom. GOP compromises are worthless. Schumer, don\u2019t disappoint us again. Holly Hester-Reilly<\/p>\n
Lawful enforcement<\/p>\n
Bronx: To Voicer Joseph J. Rothengast: Democratic presidents had ICE deport those who had committed crimes, not those living productive lives, and they weren\u2019t using Gestapo tactics. As for protesters being paid, as I tell people who claim this: Sign up and show us the check to prove it. W. Twirley<\/p>\n
Gangland methods<\/p>\n
Zephyrhills, Fla.: To Voicer Joseph J. Rothengast, the reason there were no riots when President Barack Obama deported illegal aliens is simple: ICE didn\u2019t act like a bunch of unruly thugs and did the job according to the legal guidelines set forth for them. Uncle Donald and his gang of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers (ya know, all them Jan. 6-ers who you MAGA folks deny ever happened) thought they \u2018d have free reign to wreak havoc because their fearless bone-spurred leader told them to have at it. Well, Joey, guess what? They screwed the pooch one time too many, and us normal Americans have grown tired of it. So suck it up, buttercup, the blue wave is coming. John Honas<\/p>\n
Simplify<\/p>\n
Port Washington, L.I.: The solution to NYC\u2019s $12 billion deficit is easy to solve. Combine the five NYC pension funds into three, like in other cities. Axe the over 2,500 political positions in the Department of Education. Combine the 100-plus union welfare funds and annuity funds, freeing massive amounts in administrative costs. Stop the $400,000-plus FDNY and $600,000-plus NYPD pension grabs, which are unsustainable and outlandish. Remove the thousands of \u201clight duty\u201d positions across all departments. Reduce the number of NYC paid union positions city-wide. Joe Campbell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Private landlord accountability still matters Manhattan: It\u2019s not often I see someone defending the worst landlords, so Howard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,264,63,299],"class_list":["post-118889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-nyc","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}