Letters: Christie admin charges troubling

I find it both unbelievable and appalling that so much attention has been paid to the George Washington Bridge traffic debacle ["Ex-Christie allies plead not guilty in bridge case," News, May 5].

The investigation finally resulted in several people associated with the Christie administration being charged with conspiracy and fraud, simply because a few thousand people had to sit in traffic for extra hours.

Meanwhile, not a single senior executive of Countrywide Financial, Washington Mutual, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers or any of the other mega-banks has ever been so charged, even though their actions resulted in millions, or perhaps tens of millions, of American lives being affected by lost homes, financial ruin and worse.

Barry Winter, Melville
 

Wherever New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie goes, corruption seems to follow. The George Washington Bridge scandal certainly seems to be part of that pattern, but in the end, Christie may have sufficiently insulated himself from the actions of his staff for him to actually be charged with anything.

What is more troubling, however, is Christie's diversion of Port Authority funds to finance the reconstruction of the Pulaski Skyway. While technically an access road to the Holland Tunnel, the Skyway was ineligible for Port Authority funding because both it and the Holland Tunnel itself were built before the creation of the bi-state agency.

Christie persuaded the Port Authority to declare the Skyway to be an access road to the Lincoln Tunnel. The problem is, the Skyway is miles away from the actual access roads to the tunnel.

The actual funds used for the Skyway project were originally slated for the construction of a badly needed trans-Hudson commuter rail tunnel, but early in his first term as governor, Christie canceled New Jersey participation in that project.

Leonard Cohen, Wantagh