The following Letters to the Editor were written by readers and published by Newsday in the days following the publication of TFI’s February 7th, 2023 op-ed entitled “Hochul must Get Local Input on Housing.” You can read the original piece readers are discussing here.
February 14th, 2023
Richard Murdocco’s essay was on point [“Hochul must get local input on housing,” Opinion, Feb. 7]. These proposed housing sites are nothing more than points on a map drawn by a bureaucrat in a faraway office.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s ideas will help house the influx of migrants. It takes money, though.
Are there any provisions for infrastructure? No. The island is only so big, ocean to sound, and resources are limited. Aquifers are compromised, and where is the garbage going to go?
Many roads already can’t handle the traffic. People and businesses are fleeing to places like Florida and Texas, where living costs are lower.
Are there going to be jobs for all the people coming here? Who’s going to pay for turning a volunteer fire department into a paid one, with equipment to reach the upper floors? Will we need more police, hospitals and medical staff or sewage plants?
Will it take a massive tax increase to pay for all this? If it does, we are right back where we started from.
This is not a well-thought-out plan. Leave our suburbia alone.
— Michael Appice, Westbury
February 12th, 2023
Richard Murdocco points out why Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive mandate is questionable [“Hochul must get local input on housing,” Opinion, Feb. 7]. I had not considered water supply and waste, but I have a more basic problem.
If within a mile of a Long Island Rail Road station there must be 50 new units per acre, where will they be built?
I used Google Maps to follow the LIRR Main Line from Westbury to Queens. I suggest Hochul do the same. Maybe she can find the open space needed.
— Bob D’Agostino, Westbury
