Lenox Hill Hospital is here for all New Yorkers
Manhattan: Re “Two hospitals with two different paths” (op-ed, March 10): The picture painted in this commentary about Lenox Hill Hospital and its role in the future of hospital care in Manhattan is unfortunately misleading and built on flawed assumptions.
With a history spanning more than 160 years in the community, we are proud to serve our longtime neighbors. Still, more than one-third of our patients come from the outer boroughs, and a majority — 55% — are people of color. More than 60% rely on Medicare or Medicaid. The piece’s inference that Northwell Health is an outside force is equally inaccurate and uninformed. Our doctors, nurses and staff live across the five boroughs, and our patients are New Yorkers from all walks of life. To dismiss our incredible team members and the essential care they provide as part of some “deregulated marketplace failure” is a disservice to the 144,000 New Yorkers who depend on them for life-saving treatment every year.
Hospitals must adapt to meet an evolving health care landscape. When they don’t, they face the unfortunate reality of closures — an experience too many communities face today. The investments we seek at Lenox Hill are about renewing a facility that has served New Yorkers for more than a century, ensuring that we can continue delivering high-quality care safely and sustainably. Northwell continues growing and investing across the city, and it is neither responsible nor helpful to pit one hospital’s future against another’s. The challenges facing health care in New York are real. We should work together to ensure all New Yorkers can access the care they deserve for decades to come. Daniel Baker, president, Lenox Hill Hospital
On the right track
Bethlehem, Pa.: Re “When crime goes down” (editorial, March 7): Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has it. She and the great cops in the NYPD that we all support and rely on have it. Finally. Thank you so very much indeed. We love New York and we love the NYPD for that! Christoph Broubalow
Target sex crimes
Middle Village: I am pleased to see the big drop in shootings and homicides this year compared to the same period last year, and I congratulate the mayor, our terrific police commissioner and the entire NYPD for helping to make this happen. Now let’s focus on the awful increase in rapes: 298 this year to date versus 229 last year, up 30%. We need to encourage women who are in abusive situations to report, and to add more street vigilance to remove from the streets those lurking to attack unsuspecting females of all ages. Mary Jane McCartney
Friends first
Rockaway Park: If what you reported in your newspaper concerning the possibility that Commissioner of Probation Juanita Holmes has had nepotism involved in her hiring practices, she is only following the lead of the person who appointed her to that position, Mayor Adams. What are her qualifications that made her the right person for that job? All probation officers are college graduates. Anthony Johnson
Cop cronyism
Forest Hills: So, Juanita Holmes is under investigation, correct? No surprise there. When Holmes was a chief in the NYPD, she constantly did an end run around the police commissioner at the time (one of the best ever, Keechant Sewell) and went straight to Adams and got whatever she wanted from him. Holmes is the same person who thought an appearance by Cardi B (“WAP,” anyone?) was an excellent choice to motivate females to join the NYPD. Really? And again, despite the commissioner demanding that Cardi B’s appearance be canceled, Holmes ran right to Adams, and he allowed that repugnant performer to perform. So Holmes is taking on her mentor Adams’ act: pad the city payroll with corrupt, unqualified cronies with sky-high salaries. Please kick her to the curb and charge her with extreme corruption. J.M. Culley
Less lethal
New Rochelle, N.Y.: Voicer Marc Lavietes says, as a physician, that measles is a real killer, saying there were 500 deaths a year before the 1963 vaccine. Meanwhile, accidental ladder falls last year killed more Americans than the last 50 years of measles. This is because of MAGA, he says? Hey, Marc, your Trump Derangement Syndrome is showing! Tripp Hoffmann
No safety net
Holbrook, L.I.: I read your editorial (“Untaxed tips is not so easy,” March 8) with interest and noticed, in my humble opinion, that you missed the point entirely. Trump doesn’t care about those who work primarily on tips. It was all about trying to generate votes. But now it’s a nod to the business community. Why? Because those who are paid mostly or significantly in tips will no longer cost their employers their required 6% contribution to Social Security taxes. Those who spend their working lives in places like New York or Las Vegas, where a worker can live well on tip jobs, will get hurt badly in the end. When the time for collecting Social Security comes, their check will be based on their lifetime total taxable income. Should the economy have a downturn and they lose their jobs, their unemployment insurance benefit will also be based on taxable income. Michael L. Wilson
Turning against freedom
Brooklyn: Are Trump and Vladimir Putin working in tandem to make Ukraine capitulate to agreeing to a peace agreement detrimental to Ukraine? It sure seems like it. Trump has absurdly blamed Ukraine for this war, claimed that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not grateful and demanded repayment for U.S. aid. Now Putin has stepped up the bombing of Ukraine while Trump has pulled technological aid crucial to Ukraine’s defense. Both leaders would love to see Zelenskyy gone and will pressure Ukraine to have elections to get a puppet president favorable to Russia. People who cherish freedom in Europe and America should be more alarmed at what is unfolding. Irwin Cantos
Be a bulwark
Little Egg Harbor, N.J.: What has happened to our elected officials, doing absolutely nothing while our government agencies are gutted by someone not elected by the people? From day one, a man who has had multiple bankruptcies has been able to choose another clown to destroy our government. Why are our elected officials allowing this disaster to continue? This incompetent loser must be impeached! I am certain that even Republicans elected by us to represent our needs must realize they were chosen to protect our government and our way of life — not protect somebody who disrespects our allies and is in love with our enemies all over the world. How long will this go on before someone wakes up and stops this disgrace to our values? Rose S. Wilson
Enemy sympathies
Brooklyn: People supporting Mahmoud Khalil (” ‘New Yorkers will have to take to the street,’ says a demonstrator,” March 11) need a history lesson. Khalil wholeheartedly supports Hamas and Hezbollah, a group that murdered 241 sleeping American service members in 1983 and kidnapped, tortured and murdered Col. William Higgins. If supporting and advocating for enemies of this country are not a reason for deportation, what is? Rob Weissbard
Misled from the start
Jamaica: To Voicer Michele P. Brown: The problem for the Arabs of Palestine was not the League of Nations, the British, the Zionists or the UN. It was their leader, the grand mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini. He orchestrated massacres against peaceful Jewish communities in 1920, 1929 and 1936 and was responsible for the assassinations of prominent Arabs who favored coexistence with Jews. He rejected plans for an Arab state in 1937 and 1947 because each plan offered a state for Jews. He was an ally of Adolf Hitler and an active supporter of the Holocaust. Al-Husseini was influential in the Arab decisions to start the wars of 1947 and 1948, the cause of the Palestinian refugee problem. Ebere Osu
Stay in touch
Bronx: In light of Gene Hackman and his wife dying so tragically and alone (“They died of illnesses,” March 8), with no loved ones or friends being aware for at least two weeks: People, call your elderly loved ones often, especially if one has Alzheimer’s. It is heartbreaking to know that these people had family and no one got in touch with them. And if they called and got no response for several days, they could either go and check or ask the local police to do a wellness check. So sad. May they RIP. Pauline Graham Binder