Letters of 2024: North Shore flood, bus cameras, student debt, school armed guards, LIRR fares, OT, congestion pricing, Trump, Biden, Harris, election, Cabinet picks, Hunter Biden pardon, sex abuse, transgender girls ban, Nassau casino, migrants, Newsradio 88

Aug. 28: My heart goes out to everyone whose homes and businesses were flooded during the rainstorm. I’ve been living with flooding issues for decades and can say these people will forever be affected by this. With every threatening forecast, they will be stressed.

Suffolk County’s North Shore is getting plenty of attention. We on the South Shore, though, are affected not by a creek but by poorly designed village stormwater management.

— Rich Gosline, Farmingdale

Aug. 28: Everyone talks about the weather, but all we do is throw money at the devastation it leaves behind. We have two opposing forces, those who understand that climate change is real, and those who deny it’s a reality and tell us that the weather will return to normal soon.

The warning signs for climate change have been around for 50 years, and yet we only make incremental progress at controlling it. In time, the climate will cost us real money out of our pockets. Crops will be harder to grow, and the price of food will increase. Climate change is truly an existential threat.

— Bill Olson, Westhampton

Cameras catch drivers

April 8: The bus camera law is well-meaning, but it has turned into a profit-making boondoggle. Fining a driver $250 or more is a disgrace and indicates the purpose is apparently to make money.

— Jerry Bland, Middle Island

June 10: A person making minimum wage needs to work more than 16 hours to pay for a bus camera ticket. This is theft from our poorest neighbors. A normal $50 ticket would suffice, but $250 is outrageous.

— Bridget Billings, Kings Park

June 16: I don’t understand the uproar over the school bus cameras. Just don’t pass a school bus. It’s that simple.

— Irene Semon, Setauket

Dec. 3: Saving lives should be the ultimate goal. Red-light cameras? Instead, place video cameras to catch drivers who wreak havoc on our roadways.

— Ed Feinberg, Commack

Forgiving student debt

April 17: The cancellation of $7.4 billion in student debt is nothing more than President Joe Biden reaching for more votes for the election. How is it fair to students who responsibly paid back loans or to tradesmen who paid for schooling?

— Kurt Butcher, Yaphank

Sept. 4: Forgive all the loans people like me needed after Superstorm Sandy. I had four feet of water in my basement apartment, destroying almost all I owned. I’m still paying it off.

— Terry Blackburn, Long Beach

Regents exams a must

June 23: By eliminating the requirement that high school students pass Regents exams to graduate, the Board of Regents has sounded the death knell for education in New York State. A high school diploma is not a participation trophy; it is a credential earned that indicates mastery of subject matter. It is farcical that students will sit for exams in English, algebra and a science but will not be required to pass these exams.

With no requirement that students pass exams in history and government,

yes, more students will graduate, but a high school diploma will mean nothing.

— Matthew Witten, Great Neck

School armed guards

May 22: America is armed to the teeth with pistols, shotguns and assault rifles, and yet we think an answer to senseless violence is more guns. The only thing arming guards at our schools will give parents and students is a false sense of security and another costly line item on the annual budget.

— Bob Bascelli, Seaford

May 22: In 1998, the NYPD created a program that allowed private businesses to hire NYPD officers part-time at $25 an hour to provide security for business sites. The officers would wear their uniforms.

Why not do this on Long Island for school security?

— Peter Kelly, Medford

Leave cellphones at home

Sept. 6: Having taught middle school for 33 years, I learned early that classroom distractions sabotaged learning. National health experts agree that, at best, cellphones are distracting to students and at worst dangerous to their mental state.

While they might sometimes aid student interaction, generally they interfere with participation in their physical and mental development.

In an emergency, parents can call the school, or students can call their parents with permission from school officials.

Leave them home.

— Hank Cierski, Port Jefferson Station

Rising LIRR fares, OT

May 3: The Long Island Rail Road bills riders who say they cannot afford to ride? In what universe does anyone expect them to pay?

My fares have at least quadrupled in more than two decades of riding the LIRR. I pay or I don’t ride. Kick off the people who say they can’t afford it.

— Linda Kibak, Franklin Square

May 15: While commuters face ever-increasing transit fares, LIRR overtime is out of control. The LIRR was rife with bogus disability fraud claims costing us millions. Now, overtime again drains money on the train to oblivion.

— Michael J. Vicchiarelli, Eastport

Congestion pricing

March 8: The only play in the MTA playbook seems to be raising prices on commuters, be it bridge and tunnel tolls, subway, bus and railroad fares or, now, congestion pricing.

— Doug Heimowitz, Jericho

June 9: It doesn’t take a tree full of owls to realize the key “fact” influencing Gov. Kathy Hochul’s putting congestion pricing on hold was polling that showed it would have severely impacted the election and Democrats’ chances.

— Nancy Schnell, Kings Park

July 10: Anyone who objects to congestion pricing has forfeited the right to ever complain about traffic jams.

— Daniel Mintz, Eastport

Nov. 26: As many predicted, Kathy Hochul waited until right after the election to impose congestion pricing, albeit at a lower price of $9.

— Maureen Beyer, Woodmere

A busy year for Trump

Feb. 15: Former President Donald Trump is brazenly standing up for American taxpayers who have been subsidizing nonpaying members of NATO by declaring that Russia can do “whatever the hell they want” to delinquent members.

— Eugene R. Dunn, Medford

April 5: Many readers criticized Donald Trump’s visit to NYPD officer Jonathan E. Diller’s wake. I saw a compassionate ex-president extend his condolences to a grieving family.

— James H. Wood, North Babylon

June 4: As our 45th president is found guilty of falsifying business records, the party that has touted itself as the party of law and order is undermining our judicial system.

— Gerry Hirschstein, Old Bethpage

July 16: The attempted assassination is an abhorrent act that challenges our democracy.

— Clifford D. Glass, East Rockaway

Sept. 25: How does a man with two attempts on his life not scream for gun control reforms?

— Emily Lester, East Setauket

Nov. 12: We don’t yet know what he will do come Jan. 20. While his rhetoric was sometimes vindictive, his actions might be quite different.

— Michael Zisner, Bethpage

Biden out, Harris in

July 23: The man we thought would be our candidate stood down. President Joe Biden is a man who gave more than 50 years of his life in service to our nation. How many of us could survive the loss of a wife and a child and move forward?

He made a major sacrifice on behalf of his country and party. We owe him a debt of gratitude for stepping down.

— Michael Cohen, Brightwaters

July 28: Joe Biden stepped away long after he should have, then anointed Vice President Kamala Harris. The Democrats are trying to make her look like an attractive candidate.

— Donald Miller, Riverhead

Presidential election

Nov. 10: I was delighted that our country approved President-elect Donald Trump — a strong leader to put us back on the map as the world’s most respected country.

— Pat King, Merrick

Nov. 10: It is not surprising that Donald Trump won, but the Democrats need to reconnect with the working middle class, focus on issues like the economy, migrants and border security. They must find new and younger leaders.

— Nick Ziino, Ridge

Nov. 10: I fear for our democracy, personal safety and future.

— Mireille Taub, Freeport

Cracks in the Cabinet

Nov. 20: Senate Republicans will soon have to decide if they still have an important role in “advice and consent” over Cabinet nominations, or if they’re just going to let President-elect Donald Trump run roughshod over all three branches of government.

— Lennard Axinn, Huntington Bay

Nov. 20: What does Robert F. Kennedy Jr. know about health and disease? And choosing former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general? He was being investigated by the House Ethics Committee. This will be some Cabinet if they’re confirmed.

— Camille Morselli, Islip Terrace

A controversial pardon

Dec. 6: President Joe Biden would probably not have pardoned his son if President-elect Donald Trump had not said he was planning to punish adversaries. Trump’s choices for his Cabinet underscore that plan.

Biden didn’t lie; he changed his mind with a new situation. If Hunter Biden were not the president’s son, many agree he wouldn’t have been prosecuted.

Obviously, Joe Biden cares deeply for his son. He did not want to give Trump the chance for revenge for defeating him in 2020. It saddens me that some would not see this as necessary because the new threats to our justice system are apparent.

— June Zeger, East Meadow

Dec. 6: I condemn the holier-than-thou Democrats on their righteousness in criticizing the pardon. Joe Biden acted as a father to protect his son.

— Ben Horlick, Dix Hills

Sex abuse on LI

May 2: More than three years and $100 million in legal fees have been spent, or misspent, by Bishop John Barres to avoid settling with victims who endured sexual abuse by priests at the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

That’s time and money our church will never get back.

— Pat McDonough, Long Beach

May 10: The school sexual abuse situation is abominable on so many levels. Students who were victimized by predators may never recover from the horrendous abuse by these supposed educators.

Now, current students may lose educational opportunities because school districts must compensate victims.

It is outrageous that educators who abused children collect pensions while their victims seek belated accountability.

— Chris Marzuk, Greenlawn

Blakeman's casino try

March 11: Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman tries to deflect blame from himself onto Hofstra University President Susan Poser for a mess he made by overseeing an improperly executed lease transfer in an attempt to rush through the Las Vegas Sands casino process to “done deal” status.

Blaming Poser for this is like a burglar blaming the person who called the cops for the crime that was committed.

— George Krug, Garden City

Transgender girls ban

April 29: District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury and state Attorney General Letitia James should be commended for their bravery and steadfast values in the face of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s transphobic order to ban transgender girls and women from athletics in Nassau County facilities.

Clinicians, trainers, educators, coaches and athletes have stood firmly against Blakeman’s discriminatory and evidentially baseless executive order. Time and time again, Blakeman has abandoned his campaign promises, choosing instead to devote time and resources to demonizing the transgender community.

— Carter Allen, Garden City

May 2: Bruce Blakeman’s statement was not transphobic. It’s simply a way of protecting biological female athletes, assuring they compete with their peers on an even basis.

— William Lorusso, Williston Park

The immigrant issue

Jan. 15: If America grows, it needs new sources of labor. Migrants are not looking for handouts; they seek a better, safer life for their children and are willing to do the hard work needed.

— Robert Broder, Stony Brook

April 3: It is wrong for anyone to label those of us who want secure borders as being anti-immigration.

So, no thank you to those who don’t follow the rules.

— Richard M. Frauenglass, Huntington

Adieu, Newsradio 88

Aug. 22: Learning that WCBS/880 AM is departing hurt my heart. Newsradio 88 has been a constant in my home for over 30 years. Those professionals became family “friends.” I feel sad and lost, like a ship without its skipper. These familiar aspects of my daily life held a lot of meaning.

It’s the basic, simple things in life that keep us anchored and feeling on an even keel.

— Patricia Quinn, Rockville Centre