'Queensifying' LI, LIRR, fishing, and more

'Queensifying' LI? Tell us, and stop

These so-called “smart development projects” are really smart for the developers and the politicians they support “Building block,” Our Towns, July 20]. Usually, these projects have an adverse impact on the surrounding communities.

If it is the intent to “Queensify” Long Island, then state that as your intent. These projects should be put on hold until the surrounding infrastructure is improved to accommodate more people, more students, more waste, the need for more power and more cars. That would create thousands of jobs.

An alternative is not to rezone but to honor the existing zones. If a one-family house is dilapidated, most would appreciate the demolition and construction of a new replacement one-family home.

Our schools are already overcrowded, our electric grid is a crapshoot, our roads cannot take even “one additional vehicle every two minutes traveling on West Shore Road,” as the study said, and our waste management facilities are overburdened. My six-mile commute sometimes takes 40 minutes.

Enough already!

Chris Re’, Massapequa

In its assertion of “benefits” to Port Washington by constructing a seven-story rental building on Hempstead Harbor, Tennessee-based Southern Land Company has shrouded its over-the-top sell job with the promise to clean up the alleged environmental waste site. This in itself indicts the owner of the site for not maintaining or remediating the shoreline property since purchasing it in 1986.

As it stands, a failure to remediate the original pollution and then continue to further pollute the site with increased water contamination, sewage and marina waste would negate the company’s attempt to tout itself as savior of Hempstead Harbor. Is this nothing more than a marketing/selling ploy to cover the costs of remediation under an Industrial Development Agency tax abatement?

Edda Ramsdell, Port Washington

LIRR's old M7 plan worked out just fine

A sense of history appears to be lacking in the suggestions made at the end of the editorial "LIRR needs new car game" [Opinion, July 19]. This is the project plan used for the joint procurement by the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North of the M7 cars. They were delivered on time and under budget. They replaced the M1s, which had a mean distance between mechanical failure of fewer than 24,000 miles. Our goal: Achieve 200,000 miles between mechanical failure. The M7 is 20 years old and the miles between failures are more than 400,000, double our goal and more than 16 times better than the M1. We had a team that worked solely on this project. We spent countless hours during the Request for Proposals process to make sure we selected the right car builder (Bombardier). We had people assigned for months at a time to the Colorado test site and the upstate Plattsburgh assembly site. We worked hand in hand with Bombardier's team to visit every component manufacturer at their facilities. Therefore, there is no need to write a new playbook, just dust off the M7 plan.

Robert J. Gandley, Baldwin

The writer retired as the LIRR capital program project manager.

Fish far from us to keep sharks away

I am one of those lucky people who gets to enjoy our gorgeous South Shore beaches. Long Beach is one of Long Island's crown jewels.

I see people fishing from the shore on a regular basis. Surf casting draws all sorts of aquatic life, and that aquatic life can also draw predators such as sharks ["More shark surveillance," News, July 19]. It seems that there should be designated areas for fishing so fishermen can enjoy their hobby and the rest of us can swim more safely.

Wendy Frischer, Rockville Centre

Grievance companies put Nassau in mess

I was disappointed to read that Nassau County appears to be undoing former County Executive Laura Curran's attempt to straighten out the homeowner assessment system ["Nassau County tax settlements increase again," News, June 27]. I learned this firsthand, dealing with my elderly parents' house in Plainview and seeing how messed up it was. It's pretty clear to me that politics is behind the mess and the grievance companies are the problem. A homeowner said he "literally challenged his assessment every year." Why would you need to do that if the first time you grieved your house it was reassessed to where it belonged? Something is not right here. I’ve heard some of these grievance companies are big political contributors. Why don;t we read about Suffolk County having this issue?

Ray Seeback, Ronkonkoma

Abe assassination a rare Japan shooting

The assassination of Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a rare story about gun violence in that country ["Shocking Japan assassination," News, July 9]. A little research shows that Japan, with a population of about 125 million, rarely totals more than 10 gun-related deaths in a year. The United States, meanwhile, had nearly 25,000 gun-related deaths last year. In addition to singing "God Bless America," maybe we should add "God help America."

John R. Brooks, Babylon