Housing should reflect '26 realities

Suffolk County Legis. Anthony Piccirillo's remarks are about 70 years out of date ["Affordable housing needed but how?," News, Aug. 31].

The presiding officer said, "Homeownership is the gateway to the middle class." At a median home price of $750,000, a 10% down payment would cost the buyer $75,000 and a 20% down payment would be $150,000. One would already have to be middle class to afford that. Then Mr. Piccirillo says: "They want yards, they want single-family homes." Not all households are nuclear families with children. We have singles, we have couples without children, we have elderly. We're not all up to lawn care. My wife and I live in a seven-story co-op apartment building with elevators, which allows us to live on Long Island affordably, and we don't have to worry about stairs as we grow old. The fact is that we already have another Queens because two, three or even four families are living in one single-family home, legally or illegally. So let's forget the idyllic suburban dream of the 1950s and face up to current realities.

Dan Okrent, Hempstead

State laws limit auto app safety rewards

A Johns Hopkins University professor recommended that insurance companies offer incentives to customers to avoid using their cellphones while driving — such as by rewarding them for installing apps that monitor their use while driving ["Prison time for men in NYC staged accidents scheme," News, Aug. 28].

I have just such an app from Allstate, Drivewise, which monitors cellphone use, and specifically declares that, under current New York State law, insurance companies are prohibited from using that information in determining insurance rates.

Apparently, there is proposed state legislation to rectify that situation and allow such consideration in setting rates, but unless and until that is finalized, New York is missing out on an important opportunity to discourage such phone usage on the part of drivers.

Bill Ciesla, Northport

Humane options can curb deer herds

Your editorial's headline should have read "kill more deer" ["Save LI from ticks, cull more deer," Editorial, Aug. 27].

Euphemisms don't eliminate the intent of killing more of these beautiful animals to eliminate ticks. Ticks will survive and find other hosts to feed off including dogs, cats, and humans.

Control the population by using birth control and other forms of human sterilization. Relocate the deer to other forested areas. Murdering such creatures is never the answer except if it is for food.

Gabriele K. Libbey, Harbor Isle

I strongly object to your solution of killing harmless animals. How about we sterilize them? The males can be neutered; females can be darted with birth control.

At the same time, the ticks must be killed with serum on the darts and spray. Deer are animals — they feel fear, pain, and hunger.

Also, I don't want to hear about feeding the hungry. People can eat legumes, beans, vegetables, and fruit and be healthy.

Linda Carson, East Northport

Kindness and music define a true legacy

I was never much "into" country music. But whenever a Dolly Parton song came on the radio or I saw her on a TV show or in a movie, I stopped to listen, smile, and sing along with her ["Music icon who spanned generations," News, Aug. 26].

What was it that caught the attention of so many of us? I've been thinking about this since we heard of her untimely passing.

Perhaps it was the magic of her songs, her presentation of them, her joy in singing them, her infectious smile, her emblematic persona of honesty and goodness as a human. Or maybe it was all of these, and so much more.

She was the face of humanitarianism, empathy, kindness, joy, generosity, and what it means to feel and impart a true sense of joie de vivre.

Dolly Parton, we will always love you.

Janet Hoffman, North Bellmore

A costly bowl and a cheap name change

I just paid $8.79 for a box of cereal, and we're wasting energy talking about changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America ["Trump orders lake renaming," News, Aug.  28]?

What's happening?

Kathleen Drew, Sea Cliff

I still remember learning the names of the Great Lakes in elementary school with the mnemonic "HOMES" — for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.

Will children be taught "SHAME" now?

Margaret Dunn, St. James