More Rent Reg

Rent regulation is crucial in this city (“Rent Spike Denied,” April 26), and was instituted to prevent profiteering by landlords in a market short on available apartments. That it protects the majority whose median income is $37,000/year is important—but it would be better if more tenants, not fewer, had those protections.

James Harmon knew three apartments in the building he inherited were subject to rent regulation even then. He nonetheless bought out his brother’s share. Rent regulation—like the fire, health and zoning regulations from which he benefits—were part of the scene from the get-go.

—Sue Susman

Use Your Horse Sense

My country horses (“Horses Can’t Cope,” April 26) have never been in an air-conditioned or heated building; they don’t have sprinklers in the field, nor do they have fan-waving slave boys to feed them bonbons while they lounge in their hay beds and fret over the next week’s weather forecast. They are coping just fine living pretty much as horses have for a long, long time—only without the fear of being dinner to a saber-toothed tiger.

Horses grow a thicker coat in winter and shed it in spring; come summer, they sweat. They accept weather without questions or self-pity. So stop projecting. When horses are not visible near Central Park, it does not mean that they are now riding around in air-conditioned taxicabs.

—Sarah Bellepeppa

Don’t Cut Tobacco Program

The proposed $5 million cut to the New York Tobacco Control Program by Gov. Cuomo and the state Senate yields troubling news for those who have hoped to prevent tobacco addiction in our nation. Smoking tobacco continues to kill 1,200 people—daily. For every smoker killed by his or her addiction, the tobacco industry is creating two new smokers under the age of 26, a trend that should alarm everyone.

Big Tobacco knows how to peddle its products to unsuspecting youth. More than a million dollars an hour is spent to market tobacco products in this country. Nearly 1.5 million kids will try their first cigarette this year, with 75 percent of these children continuing to smoke into adulthood even if they intend to quit within the next few years.

Unfortunately, despite public support for funding to the New York Tobacco Control Program, our legislators in Albany have routinely reduced funding. In the past four years, New York has cut funding for tobacco prevention programs by 52 percent, from $85.5 million to $41.4 million, and now Gov. Cuomo and the state Senate want to cut more. New York currently spends less than 2 cents of every dollar in tobacco tax and settlement revenue to fight tobacco use.

I encourage all New Yorkers to visit www.yourethecure.org to learn more about ways to stop the continued cuts to the NY Tobacco Control Program.

—Dr. Susanna Horvath

Chair, American Heart Association’s New York City Advocacy Committee

Bike Disaster 

I read the message from Executive Editor Allen Houston in your Bicycle Show issue (April 19). He is obviously very pleased that New York City will be inundated with more and more bike riders. Does he not care that we will have more and more thoughtless, selfish bikers who only think of their convenience, which is to ride on the sidewalk, go through red lights and against traffic? Have we not had enough accidents and heart-stopping experiences? This issue may be a snapshot of “where we are,” but I dread thinking of “where we are going.”

—Bunny Abraham , Upper West Side

Horse Sense

For the people who think it’s okay to drive a horse around the city: Get a reality check. Hook yourselves up to a jitney or whatever you can pull and trot around the city all day breathing fumes, hearing honking horns and only resting when someone says you can, or eat by the same token. You are cold, hot, tired, hungry, your body aches and the harness makes you sore…who do you tell if you can’t speak?

Horses have much more to offer than what they’ve been recognized for. And yes, they have suffered humanity’s whims as beasts of burden for centuries. Isn’t it about time intelligent people support repaying our debt to them? There are many well-educated and well-trained horse people out there who have come around to understanding the natural instincts and needs of horses and using them in a productive and considerate way. Enduring the urban environment that the carriage industry necessitates is most certainly not one of them.

—Jennifer Canfield

More Important Issues

In response to Ms. Rosenthal’s comments about the horse carriages in Central Park, and with due respect—“Horses are farm animals and obviously, unless raised in a city, not used to cars and loud noises”—the number of accidents caused by the carriages is minimal compared to accidents caused by reckless drivers. The horses that pull the carriages are working horses, many of them draft horses. Draft horses are raised to work and are used to pull heavier loads than a carriage.

Central Park horses are not being “forced” to work—they enjoy working! Perhaps Ms. Rosenthal should visit some farms and see what working horses do instead of campaigning to send the horses to a farm to die of boredom.

The carriages in Central Park go back more than 60 years; the idea of bringing in antique cars instead of carriages is absurd.

Asking people to go to a farm if they want to see a horse is almost backward—the reality is that many families don’t have the money or means to do that. There is no reason to go outside the city when one can enjoy nature at home.

—M. Burgos