#Letters to the Editor — June 27, 2021

Education win
The Post is one of the few papers in our state to ever report the widely unknown fact that it’s the Democrats, the supposed “party of the poor,” who have for decades opposed parental choice in education, a key factor hurting low-income families (“Listen to the Parents,” Editorial, June 20).

Giving parents the right to pick a private school for their kids would also help all public-school students by providing competition, which improves education for everyone.

Most folks also don’t know why Democrats oppose parental choice in education — it’s their fear of our powerful public-school teacher unions.

Everyone wins with school choice — students, parents and taxpayers, but sadly most voters have no idea it’s the Democrats who are stopping school choice.

Frank Russo
Port Washington

Victims in shelters
It is very sad and frightening to see homeless people attacking others on the city streets (“Cops bust homeless man for attempted Midtown rape,” June 23).

People who are victims of domestic violence also experience homelessness. To preserve their lives, they had to flee to shelters.

Domestic violence is said to be the biggest single factor for homelessness in New York City. One in every four women have been victims of domestic violence, putting them at greater risk for homelessness. 2018 statistics from the comptroller’s office showed 41 percent of people living in city shelters were domestic violence survivors with children.

It is important for the next mayor to put high priority on survivors of domestic violence who are homeless in ensuring that they have access to affordable housing in New York City, especially through increasing funding to housing vouchers.

Sandy Gabbidon
Brooklyn

Meat hypocrisy
The Yulin meat festival rightfully outrages people around the world (“68 dogs rescued from China’s dog meat festival,” June 21). However, while 20 million dogs are slaughtered in China every year, 25 million land animals are slaughtered in the United States every day.

Why is a dog different than a pig? Both of these animals are friendly, intelligent and feel pain. Shouldn’t we stop justifying the slaughter of animals altogether?

Racheli Holstein
Pittsburgh

Helping landlords
At its annual meeting last Wednesday night to establish rent guidelines on 1- and 2-year leases for New York City’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments (effective Oct. 1, 2021-Sept. 30, 2022), the Rent Guidelines Board once again failed to understand that rent-stabilized property owners — the largest providers of affordable housing — depend on adequate rent increases in order to maintain aging buildings, pay continually rising property taxes and water rates and meet other increasing operational expenses (“6-mo. city rent freeze,” June 24).

The RGB gets an A for creativity in providing a 1.5 percent rent hike for six months of a 1-year lease — as inadequate as it is — and for not enacting a complete rent freeze.
But the RGB gets an F for surrendering to political influence and ignoring the desperate plea of members of the Rent Stabilization Association (during public sessions) of the need for rent increases commensurate to their expenses — validated by the RGB’s own data and reports.

Our hope is that the next City Hall occupant realizes landlords are partners, not the enemy, and allows the RGB to act independent of political interference so affordable housing is not the next industry in New York to collapse.

Aaron Sirulnick
Chairman of the Board, Rent Stabilization Association of New York City
Manhattan

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