Close Rikers, then turn that place inside out
Ossining, N.Y.: Re “City Hall considers abandoning plan to replace Rikers with borough jails” (May 3): Mayor Adams’ purported attempt to abandon the plan to close the jail on Rikers Island would be a step backward for all New Yorkers. In addition to ending the history of violence and mistreatment of incarcerated people and improving conditions for Department of Correction staff, the jail’s closure — which is mandated by law — will open the door for the single most transformative project of the 21st century for New York City’s air and water.
When Rikers closes, the island’s 413 acres could house enough solar power and battery storage to shut down asthma-causing fracked gas power plants in Hunts Point in the Bronx and Astoria. Alongside the energy infrastructure, a new state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant would save New Yorkers $10 billion and form the cornerstone for sewage pollution reductions that will restore waters across the city for fishing and swimming.
On top of these benefits, compost processing on the island could provide much-needed capacity for the city and move trucks out of communities of Black, Indigenous and other people of color and low-income neighborhoods. Each of these measures would provide well-paying jobs for local residents.
This Renewable Rikers vision is the consensus among those whose lives have been impacted by the jail along with leading environmental experts for how to best utilize the island to benefit all New Yorkers. It’s time to turn the page on Rikers from a place once described as “an affront to humanity and decency” to one that sustains life and health for generations to come. Mike Dulong, legal program director, Riverkeeper
Betraying his own
Milford, Pa.: I am a retiree who left the city. We still get NYC news channels where we live. On a daily basis, we see shootings, stabbings and other heinous crimes and I say to myself, “Good job, Eric, way to go.” Yet, through all this, your illustrious mayor is still trying to take traditional Medicare from its most vulnerable population. I refer to retirees who, for the most part, kept the city running during various crises over the years. This is the thanks we get? Mayor Adams, you should be ashamed of yourself. Robert K. Greco
Fight for our future
Brooklyn: Re “More jobs for the NYC green economy” (op-ed, May 9): Too bad that President Trump seems to hate any energy sector job that isn’t drilling for oil or digging coal out of the ground. His halt to offshore wind is a big job killer for the workers who would have been receiving the turbines in Sunset Park and the folks who would have harvested wind energy coming ashore in Long Island City. He is killing our clean energy future as well as our jobs. Gov. Hochul is making the right move by suing Trump over his foolish and illegal halt to offshore wind. Laurel Tumarkin
Tabled measures
Manhattan: The Albany folks got the budget passed, and 1 billion in taxpayer dollars is devoted to climate programs. Sounds like enough, but is it? New York’s nation-leading climate law passed six years ago, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, looks to 2050 and beyond, but the budget offers little long-term community protection or climate leadership. Will Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie finally bring the transformative and widely popular NY HEAT Act to a vote? Will Hochul stop foot-dragging on the Cap and Invest program, which would make polluters pay for climate mitigation instead of us taxpayers? If our leaders don’t act more boldly, our — and their — grandchildren will get whacked by climate assaults that we can’t imagine. There is still time. Let’s get it all done! Rachel Makleff
Electrical rate surge
Fresh Meadows: I’m a senior living in the same house for more than 50 years. In that time, I’ve been through many mayors and governors, and never has my January Con Edison bill hit $1,000. If we had Gov. Lee Zeldin and Mayor Curtis Sliwa, would I have the same bill? George Glowacky
For profit
Manhattan: Bravo for your editorial “Limiting eminent domain” (May 11). For too long, it has been overused to advance private developments with no real public purpose. Roberta Brandes Gratz
Subversive spokespeople
Montebello, N.Y.: Re “Rounding up campus speakers won’t protect Jews” (column, March 30): The Trump administration’s rounding up of speakers who support Hamas is doing more than protecting Jews. These protesters and their useful idiots are really working toward radical Islam’s conquest and enslavement of the United States. Essentially, they are an invading force sent here by Tehran. If radical Islam and its Sharia law succeed, do you think you will still have freedom of speech and due process? Wallington Simpson
Never heard of it?
Bronx: We’ve reached another low point in our country’s history when the only truth coming out of the White House is contained in the president’s oft-repeated answers to important questions that are posed to him: “I don’t know” or “I don’t know anything about it.” This is especially disturbing when he’s asked about the Constitution. Just what we need, someone who took an oath to uphold the very document he admits he’s unfamiliar with. Maria Bonsanti
Perfect candidates
Port Orange, Fla.: Well, the president does have a unique idea to reopen “The Rock.” Once they use our tax money to fix the place up and ready it for new boarders, we should celebrate. The greatest joy would be to see it open its cell doors to the whole Trump and Co. crew. All those billionaires and wannabe superstar minions of his could enjoy the fresh air for their one hour per day of recreation. Let’s not forget those recently pardoned Jan. 6 rioters, either — plenty of room for the whole gang. Great idea, Donald, to bring Alcatraz back into circulation. Philip Farruggio
Pious process
Little Egg Harbor, N.J.: You will be getting a lot of mail regarding Pope Leo XIV by many who probably have not been to a Catholic church for years, are not even Catholic or who say they are Catholic but it was only someone in their family who observed the religion. Still, they have an opinion, such as Voicer Maria Suzanne Napoleone, who, to our misfortune, lives in New York. How dare she judge a decision made through two days of prayer by some of the holiest of the Church’s representatives! What does she know about all the prayers and considerations that went into this decision? Why is she suddenly the know-it-all visionary of the Roman Catholic religion? This decision was made by 133 cardinals praying for God’s direct message. We do not need anybody’s opinion on how this man was chosen above all others. Rose S. Wilson
Elevated American
Stratford, Conn.: My independent theory on the non-accidental choice of Pope Leo XIV would be that the 133 cardinals were collectively guided by the Holy Spirit to specifically elect him as an American counterweight/offset to #47’s uber-strong executive branch/presidency in a way that no non-American pope would be able to achieve. He’s been described as the most culturally non-American embodiment of all U.S. cardinals. Right now (at least in the eyes of Catholics), former Cardinal Robert Prevost indeed is the highest ranking U.S. citizen, as Vicar of Christ on Earth — with an open-ended tenure! James McHale
Gone quiet
Ramsey, N.J.: Dear Bob Raissman, I write in response to your comment about the absence of St. John’s University basketball games from the radio (“No dancing on the radio,” column, March 23). I’ve been around for a while and have a vague recollection of listening to Marty Glickman doing play-by-play coverage of college basketball from Madison Square Garden a while back (he would describe a score as being “good like Nedick’s). I also recall a guy named Dave Halberstam (I believe) broadcasting St. John’s games on WCBS 880 more recently, but still quite some time ago. He was succeeded by Gary Cohen, who did basketball play-by-play coverage as well as he does baseball. The school switched from Cohen to John Minko, perhaps as a cost-saving measure. This motivated Seton Hall University to bring Cohen to do their radio coverage. Good luck finding coverage of either schools’ games on AM or FM radio today. Michael F. Reilly