Hochul ignored our best prospect for progress
Brooklyn: In your coverage of Gov. Hochul’s 2025 State of the State speech, you focused solely on public safety (“Everything but new bail reform,” Jan. 15). But you missed one of the biggest threats to our safety, as well as to health and affordability: extreme weather.
In 2023, Hochul promised us a “cap-and-invest” program in which corporate greenhouse gas emitters would be required to pay to pollute, and the revenue from those payments would be invested in climate solutions. Such investments would lower utility bills, protect people and property from flooding, improve air quality and much more. But on Tuesday, the governor put off the program for yet another year.
In 2019, New York State passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act to put us on a path to a renewable energy future that ensured that every New Yorker would reap its benefits. We are not yet close to meeting its 2030 mandates. Responsibility for this looming failure lies with Hochul.
A cap-and-invest program this year could generate revenue that could be invested in, for example, weatherizing buildings like homes, schools and small businesses, and adding solar and heat pumps to reduce utility bills and give us cleaner air — and get us closer to a safer, healthier, more affordable future.
Hochul should keep her promises and act on cap-and-invest. Sara S. Gronim
Options lost
Manhattan: What happened to user-friendliness for the subway? No debit cards accepted? Exact amounts only! No cash! No change! Single rides only. Whatever happened to “going your way”? Fuhgeddaboudit. Aydin Torun
Renovate & repurpose
Pearl River, N.Y.: We all agree that mentally ill homeless people need to be removed from the streets of NYC right away. I don’t agree that we need to spend billions of dollars on new facilities when we have facilities already. Why can’t the mentally ill people be held at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens or the Willowbrook facility on Staten Island, just to name two. Spend the money on cleaning up these existing facilities and updating them for use. I’ll tell you why: because Democratic politicians need to grease the palms of their lobbyists and political backers who poured thousands of dollars into their campaigns with bloated budgets, where not only do they make thousands but so do these Democrats. The quid pro quo needs to stop, and we citizens need to end this corruption with our votes. Let’s make our politicians work for us and not for their personal gain. Robert Brennan
Heal the hate
Providence, R.I.: Re “Tentative end to fighting in Gaza” (Jan. 16): A ceasefire’s better than war / But still, there is much to deplore / It’s time to get over the hates / And work to develop two states. Felicia Nimue Ackerman
Example set
Brooklyn: Leonard Greene’s column “Not friendship, civility” (Jan. 12) was right on point. Those who could not stand the sight of President-elect Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama getting along at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral need to grow up — or, as Greene put it, suck it up and act like adults. Carter was not our best president but he certainly was a man of peace and humanity. I’m sure he was smiling down from the heavens above knowing it was because of him that we got to see two people who said nasty things about each other getting along at his funeral. If only every politician can follow their lead and put egos and parties aside, maybe we can get our country back to where it should be. John De Angelo
Breaking bank and norms
Edgewater, N.J.: So far this century, both Republican administrations have ended in economic shambles while all three Democratic administrations have ended in relative prosperity. What do you think this portends for those of us, four years from now, who are neither locked up nor deported? And speaking of coronations, the sovereign’s vanity would’ve been bigly offended by having to take the oath of office while flags were flying at half-staff honoring the passing of President Carter. So how did he express his extreme displeasure? You’ll be shocked — he told us an outright lie that this has never happened before (of course it has; see Richard Nixon’s second inauguration in 1973 re Harry Truman). Then Trump colluded with his fellow leaders of the Party of Law and Order to defy U.S. Code by proclaiming that flags shall fly at full-staff for his special day. Fasten your seatbelts, folks. Jay K. Egelberg
Signal flags
North Branford, Conn.: On Trump’s Inauguration Day, all flags should be hung upside down. I hope he knows what that means. Stephen Syrotiak
Hypocrites
East Meadow, L.I.: Do you notice that the people having fits about former First Lady Michelle Obama not attending Trump’s inauguration are the same people who had no problems with Trump and his family refusing to attend Biden’s inauguration after Trump refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, caused an insurrection at the Capitol and tried to stage a coup through frivolous lawsuits? Richard Skibins
Effective deterrent
Stockholm, N.J.: I took that hard-faced picture of Trump — you know the one, where he’s trying to look all bad and such — and I rested it on my floor. I don’t know what happened but I haven’t seen a mouse in a week! Nat Saraceni
Restoration agenda
Ormond Beach, Fla.: I voted for Trump because he promised to once again make us energy-independent, make our southern border secure, make our country safer and to keep men out of women’s sports, bathrooms and locker rooms. I expect a stronger stand against terrorism and those who wish to destroy Israel, and I believe he will deal more firmly with Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. I want him to push back on the censorship and biased coverage we have seen from social and news media over the past four years and to eliminate the hateful, divisive and dangerous political rhetoric we saw from an administration that called its political opponents “Hitler” and threats to democracy. I expect less wokeness, fewer DEI appointments and less anti-white, anti-male and anti-America identity politics. I want America the way it should be, not the way some zealots with dystopian dreams want it. Charles Michael Sitero
Family amnesty
Avon-by-the-Sea, N.J.: To Voicer Vincent Sgroi: Considering what you wrote about Trump having no punishment for his felony conviction, what about Hunter Biden, who received a blanket pardon for all of his federal criminal convictions? Both are demeaning to our citizens, yet you say nothing about Biden’s amnesty program. Why? Robert Stiloski
Another way to say it
Manalapan, N.J.: When they didn’t like hearing the truth, it became “fake news.” When that wore thin, it became “alternative facts.” Now “anonymous smears” is the phrase of the day. What will the next version of reality become? Joe Fontanelli
False charges
Staten Island: To Voicer Gregory Topliff: Thank you for your wartime service in the Marines. However, I fail to see how that service qualifies you to interpret the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. Codes 1028 and 1038 do not apply to Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi or Jerry Nadler, as you claim. Code 1028 has to do with using false identification, stealing someone else’s identity or possessing a machine to make false identifications. Code 1038 has to do with making anonymous phone calls to report bombs planted in schools, posting information on social media that could cause mass panic, and disseminating false information or creating a hoax that could result in death. If Schiff, Schumer, Pelosi and Nadler were miscreants, they would never have been elected to the positions they hold. So isn’t it you who’s guilty of slander? Eileen Zanelli
Not laughing
Brooklyn: Re the new “Between the Lines”: Max Garcia is not funny! He can’t draw, his pictures make no sense and I am going to miss “Rapunzel,” which was clever. Please bring back the former artist. Martin Selbst
Cliffhanger
Melville, L.I.: I have been watching “The Pretender” on Amazon Prime. After viewing 85 episodes, Amazon has informed me that they don’t have the rights to the final three episodes. Is there any other option to view them? Larry Leiner