Readers sound off on injury attorneys, empty apartments and Gov. Hochul

Hazleton, Pa.: The commentary “About all those Camp Lejeune ads” (op-ed, Oct. 24) took the cake.

Guest writer Victor E. Schwartz is from a law firm called Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP — LOL. If this former law professor and dean was ever in any enlisted branch of the military, he would at least know what life could be like behind those hallways. I am a Camp Lejeune survivor. Did I call an ambulance chaser? No. Have I been believed to suffer from some of the many cancers on the list? Yes, but don’t you worry about who gets what, Mr. Schwartz.

Maybe if you walked in our Camp Lejeune shoes in the Vietnam era you may have experienced what life deals or does not deal some of us. Yes, these attorneys have gone overboard, but what about the actual victims? Do you share a little legal advice except for your take on the cash flow? Maybe you can assist a family who lost their loved one to a scenario as terrible as this toxic water problem.

I sincerely hope that each person affected by this tragedy gets what they deserve. If the writer of this commentary had a little more time on his hands, maybe he could get his law firm to help those who really need it. Gary Yacubeck

Brooklyn: How is the ACLU not being investigated for graft galore, as revealed in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial? Do our attorneys general and district attorneys ever do their one job? The ACLU rarely protects our rights. They are all out waterskiing at their summer homes because they pay themselves millions of dollars for two hours of work a week! Richard Stone

Bronx: Regarding the picture of the unicyclist riding in the street in Manhattan (“A unicycle rider takes the high road in East Village,” Oct. 22), not only is he not in the bike lane, there’s a bike lane right next to him. Richie Nagan

Manhattan: It’s great that the Daily News is addressing the serious problem of warehoused rent-stabilized apartments (”Unlock these units,” editorial, Oct. 21), but the 2019 rent law’s caps on landlord profits are not the cause. It has been reported that most of the warehoused apartments do not need a gut renovation to be habitable. The costs need not be great. Evidently, the landlord group CHIP is not satisfied with the average $6,400 annual income over costs for each rent-stabilized apartment (increased each of the prior 13 years) cited by the Rent Guidelines Board in 2019. Those units could have been kept habitable all along. Warehousing deprives New Yorkers of existing affordable housing, skews the rental market, may make the government spend more than is necessary for building and purchasing alternative spaces and endangers neighbors where the vacant units are not maintained. Tenant protections are not the issue. Landlord greed may be. Sue Susman

Staten Island: In response to the Daily News and Manhattan borough president’s views regarding deliveries in NYC (”A package deal,” editorial, Oct. 24): Please don’t assume that all delivery drivers belong to large corporations with deep pockets. There are plenty of small business owners who distribute products through a route system that is independently operated. They are responsible for all the food deliveries to grocery stores. These are the same drivers who continued to deliver their products during the height of the pandemic, when getting food on the shelves was critical, making them essential workers. These drivers receive plenty of tickets but they don’t have the luxury of a discounted rate. I would ask that you not forget about the little guy when you are trying to combat this issue. Gina Ottrando

Bloomington, Ind.: Are we essentially at war with Russia? If so, it better stop now! If it becomes firmly established that the U.S. was involved in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, it’s game on for World War III. This terrorist act would clearly be understood as an act of war by Russia. How on Earth did we reach a point where waging a proxy war with Russia over Ukraine would be worth risking the very existence of humankind? We are now in the midst of a situation where something could easily go wrong and set the world on fire. This is insane! Scott Thompson

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Ridgewood: As we face the 10th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, which killed 43 New Yorkers, damaged hundreds of thousands of homes and left survivors with severe health problems, let’s not forget the root cause of the devastation. Rising seas and ever more powerful storms are caused by burning oil and gas. We must re-elect Gov. Hochul, who is upholding our climate law mandates to reduce the dirty emissions that have driven us to disaster. The Climate Action Council is now deciding on a plan to fulfill the law. Gas company representation on the council is using its corporate influence to expand its profits at our expense by trying to slow climate action. Lee Zeldin is pro-gas, pro-fracking and anti-climate action. We would suffer under his promised lack of climate leadership. Chandra Bocci

Brooklyn: Gov. Hochul is now taking action against crime (“Safer underground,” editorial, Oct. 25). Why, because she is falling behind in the polls? Absolutely. Mayor Adams stated he will take care of crime in NYC. He hasn’t done a thing. It was obviously just a lie to get elected. Sadly, he is just another de Blasio! Subway crime every day, people getting stabbed, slashings, people pushed onto the tracks and street crime out of control: Maybe NYC needs to go red. Maureen Deman

Manhattan: Since the 1960s, I have been a Democrat. However, woke Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has turned me into a voter who can now only support tough-on-crime candidates, and I don’t see any in today’s Democratic Party. Patricia Clark

Hempstead, L.I.: It was so disappointing to see the big headline on the front page of the Daily News: “Hochul’s huge slide” (Oct. 24). Really? Why would you print a heading like that right before the elections? It’s the media tilting the elections unfairly and, as far as I’m concerned, giving free press to Lee Zeldin’s campaign. Does Zeldin have a better plan for New Yorkers? If so, I haven’t heard it. He is a big proponent of the Orange Guy and he will be playing by that guy’s playbook. Our rights will be gone, including abortion rights, and the police will be back out there with stop-and-frisk unfairly targeting minorities. Of course we want a safe New York but Zeldin is not the way. Wake up, New York! Dawn Diaz

Forest Hills: On Jan. 6, 2021, Mike Pence had much to gain by helping Donald Trump steal the election. He would have kept his job and he would have been less likely to be hanged. But, to his credit, he remembered having sworn to uphold the Constitution and placed duty to his country above loyalty to one particular demented individual. Trump bootlicker Lee Zeldin, however, had no problem violating his oath by refusing to acknowledge the simple reality that more than 270 electors had voted for President Biden. Anyone choosing to live in some kind of an alternate reality, as Zeldin did, is too dangerous to ever be governor of the great state of New York. Alan Hirschberg

Garden City, L.I.: So it seems that Trump’s 757 is back in the air. That refurb, including a Rolls Royce engine and a new paint job, must have cost millions. Yet the man that claims to be worth $4 billion (that’s 4,000 times a million!) continues touring the country raising money for himself. I hope his followers are getting frequent flier miles! Paul Falabella

Kearny, N.J.: So Trump acolyte Steve Bannon was just sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress for not complying with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. He is appealing, but if he does go to jail, there is one good thing about this — a shower every day! Kevin Dale