Readers sound off on e-commerce, legal weed and female anchors

Long Island City: I agree with much of what John Massengale wrote in his op-ed in Sunday’s paper (“Traffic flow and status quo,” Jan. 15.) I do not agree with his suggestion to use more cargo bikes and delivery trucks by Amazon, UPS and FedEx. We should be discouraging the incredible increase of people using these delivery services.

We should be encouraging the use of more brick-and-mortar stores. The Bed Bath & Beyond on Sixth Ave. around 19th St. used to be a vibrant store filled with all sorts of wonderful and useful products. Now it is an empty shell of itself. A good part of the blame goes to poor management, but also to the increased use of e-commerce. We need vibrant neighborhoods to make this city work and be relevant. We do not need more empty storefronts.

I am an avid bike rider from Red Hook to Astoria and observe what is happening all over the city from the Battery to the George Washington Bridge. Another example of poor use of public space is the Berry St. open streets program, which also has a bike lane. It has become impassable to average bike riders because the Amazon, UPS and FedEx trucks use it as their parking spaces.

The batteries on e-bikes are an incredible fire hazard that should be addressed. The city should put a surcharge on all home deliveries of packages to discourage their use. It would also be a good revenue source instead of legalized gambling and cannabis. Paul Camilleri

Avon-by-the-Sea, N.J.: Requiring all the rules to operate a bike in NYC is futile. How many people now drive cars without a license, insurance, registration or inspection? Issue a ticket and they most likely skip court or have Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg dismiss the tickets. Robert Stiloski

Bronx: Susan Shapiro provided the most outstanding article on cannabis issues (“Cannabis shop turning nabe to pot,” op-ed, Jan. 14). Our politicians have employed the logic of a “Quick Draw” without much thought on the effect of the laws they implemented. I can see all the red flags caused by smoking marijuana (lower voter turnout, no desire for booster shots and corporate needs for foreign workers). Susan, please consider running for office. Mark Walter

Astoria: A mind is a terrible thing to waste. By smoking weed, that is being accomplished. When I drove by a high school (no pun intended) the other day, the smell of weed blew my mind. I witnessed numerous students smoking what these politicians legalized. Ex- Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other trusted officials should be ashamed of what they have created. You guys are worse than the pot peddlers who frequented the streets. Aris Sakellaridis

Brooklyn: On Aug. 14, 2003, when the power in NYC went out for the day, many of us already had electric appliances. However, I lived in the same building as my great-aunt and she had a gas stove. So during the blackout, the only way I was going to be able to eat a cooked meal was by heating it in the gas stove. And that is what I did until the power was restored. To the politicians who want to ban gas stoves, here is this: In case a situation like this happens and you need to heat up food, how will that be done if there are no gas stoves to do it? We don’t live on camping grounds where we can learn to make fires. Maybe you can make portable stoves with propane gas available? We love electricity but if a situation like this happens and we have nothing to cook with, we are stuck. Please think about this. Frances Pam

Manhattan: It used to be that TV anchors had clear, easy-to-understand voices. I don’t want to be sexist, as I am obviously a woman, but most of the woman anchors hired lately sound like ducks. Or perhaps it’s fair to say they sound the way young girls talk these days, which makes them sound like quacking ducks. They are unintelligible to me without subtitles. A case in point is PBS, which lost Judy Woodruff to retirement and, with her, the last of the clear-spoken women anchors on television in New York. I don’t know where young women learned to speak this way, but the men are easier to understand. Perhaps the women need elocution lessons. As for me, I turn the sound off and put the subtitles on, if I watch at all. Girls, learn to speak intelligible English. We watchers of TV news deserve it. Marcia Epstein

Cambria Heights: To Voicer Jaclyn Grimm: I am not, have never been, nor will I ever be, a Will Smith fan. I have never been, nor will I ever be, a fan of Chris Rock (the most unfunny comic I’ve ever heard, but I do not think Smith should have gone to jail). However, I am, and will always be, a Tom Hanks fan! He is one of the best of his generation! The tripe that is called movies is nothing less than gawd-awful trash. With very few exceptions, what is considered acting today is absolutely abominable! What I find most disturbing is your comparing what goes on in Hollywood with what went on in Nazi Germany! You have trivialized one of the most horrifying chapters in human history! P.S.: I have no idea who Chris Pratt is, nor do I care. Terri Gilbert

Brooklyn: To Voicer John Brandenburg, who wrote to complain about the word “oomph” not being a legitimate word to use in the “Jumble” puzzle: Please note that the word does, in fact, exist in Webster’s Dictionary. It follows “oompah.” Oomph is a word used to describe “personal charm or magnetism” — glamour, sex appeal, vitality. In other words (pardon the pun), it is a legitimate word. No one was misled, Mr. Brandenburg. Allan Guberman

Utica, N.Y.: To Voicer John T. O’Connell, who wrote about the Republican-led Congress cutting Social Security: I agree with you, but about these Republicans not being retired and trying to collect, they’ll never need to since most of the clowns are already rich. Just saying. Francisco Matos

South Hempstead, L.I.: President Biden keeps saying he takes classification very seriously — so seriously that he was compelled to take classified documents home. What did he do with the photocopies? Michael Quane

Manhattan: Let’s get real. Both the Trump and Biden transgressions represented irresponsible handling of classified documents. That’s where the similarity ends. The two distinctions pertinent to juxtaposing the two: 1) Nefarious intent instructing underlings to relocate classified documents to a private residence before leaving office in case they might somehow come in handy someday versus unintentional oversight on the part of the underlings carrying out orders to clear things out and get classified documents back where they belong before leaving office and 2) proactive cooperation upon discovery of classified documents where they don’t belong versus evasive obstruction associated with responding to authorities’ subpoena to turn over all documents so that they can be relocated to where they belong. Mic drop! Ken Blomster

Stockholm, N.J.: Vladimir Putin and Hillary Clinton get locked in an elevator. Who comes out? Nat Saraceni

Larchmont, L.I.: Voicer Toni Lasicki makes a feeble attempt to dehumanize early human life by calling it “cells.” Well, of course they are cells, just like you and me and all living things in this world are made up of cells. But unlike other kinds of cells, those early human cells are part of an organism with a developing body and soul that becomes a born person. If you abort that early preborn human life, you kill the person. That is why those cells must be preserved at all costs and that is why abortion is murder. Cecily Carrigan