Senior housing, fair compensation, Atlantic menhaden, South Asian Americans

Let nonprofits lead on senior housing

Pilar Moya-Mancera asks the right question: Who are we building housing for? “It’s more than houses vs. apartments,” Opinion, Oct. 14].

Medford Gardens, which the state announced Oct. 8 as complete, has 67 affordable apartments for Long Islanders 55 and older. Thirty-three are set aside for seniors leaving homelessness who live with mental health challenges, and 11 are built for residents with mobility or sensory disabilities. WellLife Network developed it. I worked there on the early planning for Medford Gardens and for a 136-unit building in the Bronx before retiring as chief information officer in 2024.

I know what this work takes. I was responsible for the technology at WellLife’s Cypress Avenue residence in Glendale, Queens, a project that took more than a decade.

A nonprofit developer doesn’t build and sell. It stays, as owner and as the service provider down the hall, offering case management, transportation and crisis help. That persistence comes from a mission, not a profit timeline.

Nonprofits can also answer the neighbors’ concerns the essay rightly respects. Medford Gardens is all-electric, manages its own stormwater and sits within a half-mile of a grocery store, pharmacy and library.

If Long Island wants housing for seniors, veterans and people with disabilities, towns should make it easier for mission-driven nonprofits to build it.

— Blaine Atkins, Bay Shore

Pay scrutiny drives wedges between us

We are disappointed that Newsday articles continue to undermine Long Island’s union workforce [“$1M-plus pay at LI nonprofits,” News, Oct. 25].

Those of us in the labor movement have worked hard to shed the misconception of a “union boss.” We are elected representatives entrusted with protecting workers, negotiating fair wages and benefits, and representing the backbone of Long Island’s shrinking middle class.

Rather than recognizing the critical role unions and public employees play in sustaining our communities, Newsday scrutinizes their compensation, creating division among working families. We should be celebrating good-paying jobs, not portraying them as something to resent.

At a time when Long Islanders are struggling with rising costs and affordability, we need more opportunities for middle class prosperity, not fewer.

— Pat Guidice, Yaphank

The writer is business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1049.

Cut the catch to help bunker rebound

Kudos to Newsday for its coverage of Atlantic menhaden aka bunker [“Seasonal halt to industrial menhaden harvest urged by fishing groups,” News, Oct. 22].

Striped bass anglers are finally seeing some bunker along South Shore beaches, but as Newsday reported, the situation along the coast has not been good.

The massive schools of large adult bunker that we had been seeing off New York and New Jersey in spring, summer, and fall have largely disappeared. The consequences are far-reaching, affecting osprey — which depend on adult bunker to feed their chicks — baymen who have traditionally harvested them for bait, and the marine wildlife and fisheries that thrive when bunker are abundant.

On Nov. 10-11, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will vote on setting the future for bunker and all who rely on them being abundant. Unfortunately, the commission doesn’t have a good track record. For too long, it has put short-term interests of a single company, Omega Protein, above the long-term benefits of the entire coastal ecosystem.

The New York delegation to the ASMFC should do everything in its power to set next year’s total allowable catch to a level with at least a 50% chance of achieving ecosystem targets. It is the least that they should do.

— Carl LoBue, Cold Spring Harbor

The writer is the ocean programs director of The Nature Conservancy in New York.

Intolerance ignores what immigrants give

Each year, Newsday publishes pictures of high school valedictorians and science contest winners who often are South Asian. People of goodwill see this as representative of the beauty of America because people from around the world immigrate here and succeed in making our country stronger. Some intolerant people, though, see South Asians as foreigners taking the place of white people [“Report: South Asians feel shock of online vitriol,” News, Oct. 25]. Perhaps they should consider the words of Ronald Reagan in his final speech as president, quoting a letter he had received:

“You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”

— H. Mitchell Schuman, Brightwaters