The problem: Mayor Adams’ plan to make the Underground trains safer by increasing social service and a police presence.
There is no doubt that the issue of homelessness is an issue that needs to be resolved (“Subway Homeless Assistance Teams to a Slow Start,” February 23).
Simply ignoring the problem, as Mayor Adams’ predecessor did, is not a solution. Locking up people doesn’t solve the problem either.
These people were once productive members of society and, for whatever reason, descended into a life of drug addiction and mental illness.
Adams’s multi-faceted plan to include law enforcement, medical care, drug treatment and housing is needed if this homeless crisis is ever to be resolved. Definitely worth the effort.
Robert Denard
Farmingdale
There is one surefire way to stop the chaos on the subway. This is to change all the turnstiles to the ones we find in unmanned stations.
They are floor-to-ceiling turnstiles that you can’t jump on. The insane and homeless who commit many of these violent crimes will no longer be denied access to the sidewalks because, believe me, few pay to board the trains.
Those emergency doors? They should be locked and unlocked only at the discretion of the fare booth clerks.
It may slow entry to the platforms, but it’s a small price to pay for lives saved and to stop the crimes often committed on our subways.
Perry Greenberg
Brooklyn
This week, on the way home from work, I saw a shaggy homeless woman taking up three chairs and proceeding to lay a blanket over herself to hide what she was doing underneath.
This woman needs treatment. We have allowed activists to beat the drums of treating the homeless – all in the name of not believing they are sick and in need of help.
Instead, society is called sick and systematically racist. We need a new way of dealing with this problem – not the Stephen Banks method. He’s done enough damage
Mark Zafferin
Manhattan
I applaud Mayor Adams’ new policy on tackling crime on the Subway.
However, handing out subpoenas to hit the fare will not be effective in combating this problem. Their arrest and prosecution would be a more effective deterrent.
Alan Finster
water flow – drain
Homeless people are people, too. There are a lot of homeless people in New York, and our mayor understands that very well. That’s why he seeks to rid our transportation systems of the homeless.
But it must also be understood that the homeless are dying.
Audrey Lommer, 63, was found dead on February 9 on a subway platform on 21st Street in Long Island City. She was homeless. It should not happen.
I understand what it means to be homeless. I was myself homeless 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. It’s been a long time, and our homeless would have been forgotten had it not been for the homeless sleeping on the subway and people being pushed onto the rails. More must be done now.
Frederic Biddle
Bellrose
While this week may have seen the first day of the mayor’s new plan to clean up the subway, it’s better to get down to business.
With six strange and unforgivable stabbings committed this past weekend, the mayor was already behind the eight ball.
As we all know by now, the NYPD and the MTA want to do their job, while the Manhattan District Attorney and other prosecutors and judges are doing everything they can to undermine justice for innocent victims of bars.
It’s time for the governor, seemingly oblivious to the chaos in New York City, to wake up and take these issues head on, instead of burying her head in the political sand, and support the mayor.
Doc Ludman
Bridgeport, Connecticut.
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