The Issue: Mayor Adams’ plan to make subways safer by increasing social-service and police presence.
There is little doubt that the issue of homelessness is an issue that needs to be solved (“Subway homeless-aid teams off to slow start,” Feb. 23).
Simply ignoring the issue, as Mayor Adams’ predecessor did, is not a solution. Locking people up doesn’t solve the problem either.
These people were once productive members of society who, for whatever reason, have descended into a life of drug addiction and mental illness.
Adams’ multifaceted plan to include law enforcement, medical care, drug treatment and housing is needed if this homeless crisis is to finally be resolved. It certainly is worth the effort.
Robert DiNardo
Farmingdale
There is one sure-fire way to stop the mayhem on the subway. That is to change every turnstile to the ones we find at unmanned stations.
They are floor-to-ceiling barred turnstiles that you can’t leap over. No more fare-beating and the crazies and homeless who commit many of these violent crimes would be denied access to the platforms because, believe me, few are paying to get on the trains.
Those emergency doors? They should be locked and only opened at the discretion of the fare-booth clerks.
It may slow entrance to the platforms, but it’s a small price to pay for the lives saved and stopping crimes often committed on our subways.
Perry Greenberg
Brooklyn
This week, on the way home from work, I witnessed a disheveled homeless women take up three seats and proceed to put a blanket over herself to obscure what she was doing underneath.
This woman needed treatment. We have allowed activists to set the drumbeat on the treatment of the homeless — all in the name of not believing they are sick and in need of help.
Instead, society is called sick and systemically racist. We need a new way of dealing with this problem — not the Steven Banks way. He has done enough damage
Mark Zafrin
Manhattan
I applaud Mayor Adams’ new policy on tackling crime in the subway.
However, handing out summonses for fare-beating will not be effective in combating this problem. Arresting them and prosecuting them would be a more effective deterrent.
Alan Fenster
Flushing
The homeless are people, too. There are many homeless in New York, and our mayor understands that only too well. That is why he seeks to rid our transportation systems of the homeless.
But he must also understand that the homeless are dying.
Audrey Lummer, 63, was found dead Feb. 9 on the subway platform at the 21st Street in Long Island City. She was homeless. That should not have happened.
I understand what it is like to be homeless. I was homeless myself in 1975 after leaving the US Navy at the end of the Vietnam War.
Our government has a responsibility to help the homeless or more will surely die. Too much time has gone by, and our homeless would have been forgotten if it was not for the homeless sleeping on subways and people being pushed unto the tracks. More must be done now.
Frederick Bedell
Bellerose
While this week might have seen the first day of the mayor’s new plan to clean up the subways, he better hit the ground running.
With six outlandish and unforgivable stabbings committed last weekend, the mayor is already behind the eight ball.
As we all know by now, the NYPD and MTA police want to do their jobs, while the Manhattan district attorney and other woke prosecutors and judges do all in their power to undermine justice for the innocent victims of the rails.
It’s past time for the governor, who seems to be oblivious to the mayhem in New York City, to wake up and confront these issues head-on, instead of burying her head in the political sands, and support the mayor.
Doc Ludemann
Bridgeport, Conn.
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