Despondent Jets fan joins NY sack exchange at home

The Jets are so bad, I wear a brown paper bag over my head when I watch them on TV.

Dennis Fecci,

Mount Sinai

IDAs should stick to job creation, not patronage

The legislation that created industrial development agencies was intended to create jobs and develop local economies, but, in my view, they have become patronage mills and a developer’s dream come true. After milking a property for all it’s worth, a landlord can let the property stand empty and unproductive for years, then sell it far above its real value because an IDA is giving the buyer a multimillion-dollar tax break, meanwhile telling the public it will look better than a vacant store or factory. The tax code favors real estate developers and landlords to the extent that people like President Donald Trump can use passive losses and depreciation to make millions year after year, often when the property is an empty eyesore. Let’s hope the so-called progressives will take on the moneyed interests and change the tax code and pass laws that would force landlords of huge, empty malls and acres of parking lots to return the property to its natural state if it remains unproductive for five years.

Dunstan Bradley,

Lindenhurst

50 years later, ‘In the Ghetto’ lyrics just as relevant

I was listening to the song "In the Ghetto," which Elvis Presley popularized in 1969. As I look around our country, I see nothing has changed in cities such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and many more. All that politicians do is talk about how things will change. Just look around and see that nothing has changed in more than 50 years. The words from that song are as meaningful today as they were 50 years ago. Why has nothing changed? Read the song’s lyrics and ask the powers that be: Why has nothing changed 50 years later? Because the government has not done its job. When a song such as "In the Ghetto" is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago, one must ask, why?

Edward Tardibuono,

Levittown