Sooner or later, every well-intended policy becomes another weapon wielded by New York City bureaucrats to legally pick our pockets (“Fine Dining a la Bloomberg,” Editorial, June 16).
Mayor Bloomberg’s Department of Health has become the city’s poster child for numerous other agencies whose overzealous employees, either through a lack of proper management, policy guidelines or training, robotically distribute heavy fines upon the public and small businesses.
As The Post stated, we all agree with enforcing penalties against threats to public health and safety, but harsh fines enacted for obscure reasons damage the city’s business environment and the public trust.
Ironically, The Post reported on recent data citing a rise in deaths from speeding vehicles. This is an area where the city can collect huge fines to fill its coffers while protecting the public, a win-win situation.
Yet it chooses to fine those selling 16 oz. sodas, gum on the curb or taking up two seats in an empty subway car.
Joanne Norris, Brooklyn
Priority: unions
Michael Benjamin’s “Destroying Good Schools” has clearly pointed out that the majority of the Democratic mayoral candidates were more focused on “angling for the endorsement of the United Federation of Teachers” than on preserving the good schools we already have (PostOpinion, June 18).
By calling for the elimination of high-school admissions tests to get into schools like Bronx Science, as well as eliminating successful charter schools, they have clearly lost sight of the fact that in order for “equal opportunity” to succeed, excellence must be rewarded.
N. Auerbach, New Rochelle
Compost yourself
He can’t let it go (“Garbage In, Garbage Out,” Editorial, June 19).
Bloomberg now wants to expand composting and recycling citywide.
Nothing satisfies his meddlesome thirst — not smoking laws, soda bans or flouting term limits.
Enough already. Think of the smell. Imagine the piles. After snowstorms, garbage bags already reach biblical heights.
The only waste Bloomberg ought to worry about is his own.
Next election, I’d rather vote for a peach pit than anything resembling Hizzoner.
Oliver Mosier, Astoria
Intern-al struggle
Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, as Naomi Schaefer Riley seems to be doing when disparaging anything but paid work as worthwhile for young people (“Skip the Internship,” PostOpinion, June 18).
Internships, paid or unpaid, can be a huge boon to a firsttime job-seeker.
Yes, it is important to make sure you learn marketable skills. Part of that responsibility lies with the intern.
An internship can make you savvy about a business or field of endeavor when you make it your business to learn everything you can.
You may need to find, negotiate or approach an organization and develop an internship that makes sense and benefits all parties — one that allows you to gain experience and skills that would be interesting for other organizations you may wish to target and that benefit the company as well.
As an educator and a former job coach, I see a huge need for internships to bridge the gap between higher education and the real-life world of work.
Katherine Meeks, Manhattan