Letter: Town didn't want to hear from opponents

“Rezoning for housing,” the May 8 news story about the Hempstead Town Board’s decision to permit apartment complexes north of the Lawrence and Inwood train stations, noted that, “Some Oceanside residents have previously expressed wariness about the project, but no members of the public spoke for or against it at Tuesday’s meeting.”

I am one of those residents, and I believe the reason no members of the public spoke against it at the May 7 meeting is simple and a terrible reflection on how the town has handled this debacle.

The town website typically uploads meeting agendas on the Friday before a meeting the next week. Despite the town’s knowledge that several residents are outraged, I believe it deliberately scheduled the hearing for a morning meeting which would be inconvenient for most. I was attending a trial in court at the time.

This was another act by the town that appears to have been designed to prevent Oceanside residents from expressing their negative views, but this is not the end of this issue. Improperly made municipal decisions can be challenged in court.

Aaron Eitan Meyer,

  Oceanside

Editor’s note: The writer, an attorney, is a member of the Oceanside Civic Group formed to oppose an apartment complex in his neighborhood.

Feeling even more trapped on LI

An 18,000-seat stadium, a 250-room hotel, and 435,000 square feet of retail space near the almost-always gridlocked Cross Island Parkway, the only western Nassau County route from the South Shore to eastern Queens and the Long Island Sound bridges [NHL forecast on Belmont construction,” News, May 4]?

Are we insane? This road jams starting at 5 a.m. every workday. A Long Island Rail Road stop on the north side? You know most people will head for Belmont Park in cars.

I am beyond depressed, as now I feel more imprisoned on Long Island, more cut off from the rest of the world.

Joseph Tague,

  Baldwin

Presidential medal for Tiger Woods

While it’s great that Tiger Woods received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, I have two additional recommendations: Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell, who both sacrificed their lives to save others.

Castillo was fatally shot when he tackled a gunman on May 7 at a high school in Colorado. Howell died after tackling a gunman at University of North Carolina at Charlotte on April 30.

I believe posthumous medals of freedom should be presented to the families of these deserving and courageous men.

Beth Rose Macht,

  Long Beach

Explain to me why the president awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods merely because of his great comeback in golf. The award is supposed to be given to individuals who demonstrate “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

This same president criticized Sen. John McCain because he was captured in Vietnam, where Trump avoided service. With all due respect to Woods, does he deserve this medal more than McCain or any other soldiers who were injured, died or imprisoned?

Michael McBride,

  Moriches

Death camps were built by the Nazis

Accuracy is important, so it is critical to point out that Auschwitz was not a “Polish extermination camp,” as it is described in the May 8 news story “The horror on display.”

That and other such camps were built in occupied Poland by Nazi Germany.

Oswiecim, Poland, was the location of camps where more than a million Jews and thousands of Poles were killed. The younger generation must be taught the truths of the horrors of the era so that this darkest chapter in history and complete inhumanity never happen again.

Geraldine Proferes,

  Mount Sinai

The Derby narrowly missed a pileup

A reader wrote there was no blatant interference by Maximum Security at the Kentucky Derby, and the horse’s actions did not alter the outcome of the race [“Controversial end to Kentucky Derby,” Letters, May 9].

Well, he must have been watching a different race. Any horseman knows that whether it is the first race at Aqueduct in mid-December, or the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, the rules apply — and the stewards at Churchill Downs made the correct call.

If horses had gone down at the top of the stretch in the biggest race of the year, there would have been devastating results.

Not only would there have been an outcry to ban the sport because of the deaths of multiple horses at Santa Anita, but a pileup of these magnificent animals due to the actions of one jockey would put a major black eye on the industry. The disqualification of Maximum Security was valid.

Jim Donnelly,

  Franklin Square