‘Huge Sell-Off of Air Rights Is Eyed by City’

Nearly half a million New Yorkers who live in public housing are experiencing a drastic decline in quality of life because the federal and state governments have failed to meet their obligations [New York, “Huge Sell-Off of Air Rights Is Eyed by City,” August 4, 2008].

Now, the president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer, has decided to inject himself into the conversation and apparently on the wrong side.

Workers may lose their jobs and residents may lose their homes. But Mr. Stringer is more worried about developers and the possibility of their purchasing unused space within housing developments for profit without local input.

It’s apparently more important to Mr. Stringer that public housing be used for developers and not the tenants and workers it was created to house.

The 9,000 public housing employees I represent as president of Teamsters Local 237 are not for sale.

The residents of nearly 200,000 New York City House Authority apartments are not for sale. And NYCHA is not for sale, regardless of what Mr. Stringer or his developer friends may want. Mr. Stringer says no development without community input.

The Teamsters say support public housing, protect tenants and jobs. The labor movement would agree that our position comes first.

GREGORY FLOYD

President

Teamsters Local 237

New York, N.Y.

‘Rooting for Rangel’

Thank you for your reminiscence of your meeting with Rep. Charles Rangel [“Rooting for Rangel,” Editorial, July 28, 2007].

I also had one much earlier, in the late 1970s. I was an economist at the Government Accounting Office and had caused a minor flurry in the policy world by publishing a report that found that black teenage unemployment was much higher in the non-South than the South.

I argued that this suggested that prejudice in the labor market may not be that important a factor in the high black teenage rate.

I was summoned by Mr. Rangel to discuss the paper. I found him to be a man of integrity who, like some of the high-ranking military officers I’d met, made you feel that he really wanted to know how you felt about your work.

And regardless that Mr. Rangel and I differed sharply on policy philosophy, we parted great friends. Quite a guy.

DAVID O’NEILL

Adjunct Professor, Economics

Baruch College, CUNY

New York, N.Y.

‘The AMA’s Apology’

The percentage game is a slippery slope at best [Editorial, “The AMA’s Apology,” July 23, 2008].

As to professions and relative participation by groups can be very bad. The American Medical Association’s stance on black physicians for too long has been reprehensible, but no less than medical schools’ numerus clausus or even numerus nullus for Jews, many of whom had to go overseas or Canada to be able to study.

There are more Jewish doctors than Jews percentage is in the total population. In the same logic what shall be done: Deprive them of their licenses to even the discrepancy?

There is no more sense to demand equal representation in proportion to the general public than to demand the same for “an opera performance or at an airport,” to quote Dr. Thomas Sowell.

ROBERT HELD

New York, N.Y.