Littering in Islip, book bans, Huntington housing plan, learning to bike
Don Eklund, of Professor Pedals, gives a youngster a bicycle-riding lesson in April in East Northport. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Littering in Islip? It can cost $2,500
We understand the environment is a complex system with many moving parts. Littering, however, is not so complicated. Littering is a twice ugly act — once for what it says about the litterer, and again for what it does to the beauty of our environment. So I must commend your editorial calling for all would-be litterers to “Stop trashing Long Island” [Opinion, April 27], adding to it, “Stop trashing our home.”
No one enjoys seeing bottles, bags, cigarettes, etc., strewn along roadways or in the green spaces and waterways which make Long Island so beloved. Municipalities work carefully through many initiatives to keep towns clean, but from the town level down to each hamlet and home, the effort to maintain our environment’s beauty falls on each individual and that person’s choices.
In November, a Brentwood student wrote my office with concern, requesting to increase littering penalties. We commended the student at our January board meeting and in February voted to amend town code, increasing the minimum penalty to $250, followed by $1,000 and $2,500 for repeat offenders.
This is one example of Islip’s history of working with residents to further preservation goals — a partnership spanning before commonplace green initiatives to the 1972 founding of Islip’s Town Environmental Council. But it doesn’t take 50 years of history to start making a difference.
Simple steps: Using refillable bottles, planting gardens, monitoring energy use, and yes, not littering, all have an impact when we join in the effort as a community.
Our town has the saying, “Keep Islip clean,” but let’s expand that to “Keep Long Island clean,” and keep our home beautiful for future generations.
— Angie Carpenter, West Islip
The writer is Islip Town supervisor.
Banning books is OK, but guns? No
We hear time after time that the thousands of shooting deaths are the price we pay for freedom, though other nations don’t seem to have such a deadly price tag on their freedom.
Now, on the hypocritical side of those people’s argument is banning books [“Parents want a say in books kids access,” Letters, May 1]. It appears that having books they don’t approve of in public or school libraries is not a price they are willing to pay for the First Amendment.
They want to decide for us what is appropriate for our children to read, and what topics they approve. They want to teach our kids only their sanitized version of history. They seem to want to hide what we did wrong and that we learned from those mistakes.
Conservatives apparently want to hide from their kids that not everyone is the same. Many seem to believe that kids can be taught to be gay and if we hide it we can prevent it.
Where is their outrage at the violence in film, TV and video games? LGBTQ seems a major fear for them, with true Black history another. But violence? Not a problem.
— Robert Broder, Stony Brook
Huntington’s housing plan a bad idea
Huntington Town’s housing plan is bad for the community and harmful to those who need quality affordable housing [“Huntington’s plan for affordable housing,” News, May 7].
Many people do not apply for the necessary permits or make the necessary changes to meet the added demands of another family living in the house.
Accessory dwelling units can be dangerous, especially in the event of fires. Cars parked in streets block emergency vehicles and hamper snow removal. ADUs also create potential health hazards by overwhelming cesspool capacity. ADUs will add students to Huntington’s excellent school system without additional significant tax dollars paid to school districts.
Most Huntington homeowners want single-family housing in stable neighborhoods and have paid commensurate taxes. Are our taxes going to be lowered? Of course not.
— Barry Krivisky, Dix Hills
Honk if you taught your kids how to bike
As I read the article about the season of bike riding on Long Island, I was shocked by the caption of the main picture with it [“Bicycling built for you,” exploreLI, May 17].
It showed a picture of a young boy being taught how to ride a bicycle by a paid professional. Really? Are parents so busy that they can’t find the time to teach their children how to ride a bike?
I have great memories of teaching my children how to do it years ago. To me, this seems to show, in a way, the state our country is in.
— Joseph Mazzella, East Islip
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