Staten Island Advance Editorials

Local opinions from the Staten Island Advance

• No 'saving grace'
As the final vote on the bailout was cast on Friday in the House of Representatives, there was a collective sigh of relief across America.

• 'Step Out' for a cure
There are nearly 24 million Americans with diabetes. In the last 10 years, the number of New Yorkers who have been diagnosed with diabetes has increased by 250 percent and the death rate has nearly doubled.

• Fair play, or 'Get Straniere'?
Politicians insisting on fair treatment for a politician of a rival party in the midst of a campaign is not something you see every day, to put it mildly

• The St. George mess
All those people who were wondering what was going to happen in St. George when a major construction project in the heart of that community started can stop speculating.

• Healthier care
America's health care system isn't healthy.

• Good news; bad timing
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- Coming soon, to Great Kills Park! A handsomely refurbished playground!

• MTA penny-pinching
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is hurting for money these days. You may have heard about it. Officials of the MTA and Transit officials have been crying poverty to justify all kinds of cost-saving and revenue-raising initiatives, large and small, prudent and, well, downright silly.

• A time for leadership
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- Take that, you conniving, greedy Wall Street fat cats!"

• Money woes?
Amid chaos on Wall Street and turmoil on Main Street, Gov. David Paterson is reminding New Yorkers they can turn to Albany for help.

• Mr. Bloomberg, Take 3

• Not this way
The economic picture hasn't ever been pretty in 2008. That had government officials scrambling to adjust their budgets. That was before the crisis of the last several weeks, however; now the situation is really grim.

• Put it in the books
Admit it, Mets fans: You held out hope that your team would find a way into the post-season, but you saw this disaster coming.

• Finally ... maybe
Congressional lawmakers ended their day yesterday feeling confident that they have finally reached a compromise on the bailout mess.

• It was an honor
Over the weekend Staten island said goodbye to its most famous visitor -- the Intrepid. But it isn't going far -- just up the Hudson River a piece to its regular Manhattan berth.

• Mr. Silver's $5B myopia
So Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver thinks it might be a good idea to reinstate a tax on suburban and out-of-state commuters who work in New York City?

• Taking the transit initiative
Take a large institution that draws a lot of people to it every day, several government agencies, and a glaring need to improve traffic flow in and out of that institution.

• Deadbeat diplomats
"Every time you hear Wall Street's having a bad day, just know that New York is having a worse day" -- Gov. David Paterson.

• A way out?
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- That the nation is facing a huge financial crisis that has the potential for wrecking our economy for years to come, as President Bush warned, seems to be indisputable. A lot of very smart people, of all political and ideological persuasions, agree that the nation's investment and banking systems have been damaged to an historic extent by risky investments in dubious mortgages amid a housing bust.

• First, get rid of waste
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- As we noted above, the Wall Street meltdown now being confronted by the White House and Congress is going to hit all Americans, but it's going to hit New York City particularly hard.

• Biking vs. golf
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Let's stipulate right at the outset that we think bicycling is a terrific recreational activity. It affords those who enjoy the sport a thrilling ride -- especially on days like we've been having lately -- and great exercise.

• Judicial plea
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Asking a lawyer for help is customary.

• Texting + driving = lunacy
Investigators in California still haven't reached a final determination about what caused the crash of a commuter train near Los Angeles earlier this month. That crash killed 25 people, including the engineer. There are strong suspicions, however, that the engineer was text-messaging at the time of the crash and missed a stop signal.

• The MTA's many woes
Amid one of the worst economic slumps and plummeting tax revenues in this state and city, it's not surprising that an agency like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is facing a grave budget crisis.

• A bill worthy of support
It is said -- truthfully -- that Oprah Winfrey's clout makes or breaks any cause she targets.

• Another traffic win
Borough President James Molinaro continues to wage his boroughwide war on Staten Island traffic -- one congested intersection at a time.

• A situation growing worse
The situation today in Pakistan appears to be worsening. Overnight, Pakistani troops reportedly opened fire on U.S. helicopters that had crossed into the country from neighboring Afghanistan, intelligence officials said.

• The Alaska money pit
When you think of Alaska, what do you think of?

• Public eyes
If you see something, send something.

• The future of the ferry
The Staten Island Ferry has often been described as this borough's "lifeline" to the rest of the city. There are other ways of getting off Staten Island, of course, but the ferry is the most direct link with Manhattan and all the great things that fabled borough has to offer.

• 'Elect me instead'
Running for legislative office against an incumbent is a tough row to hoe, to say the least.

• DHS pork for Podunk
The creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the wake of the shattering events of 9/11 was supposed to be about coordinating government's response to terrorism and other threats to national security. But for lots of members of Congress, it's just another federal agency with a multi-billion-dollar budget that can and should be milked for all it's worth.

• The bank guard
Sheila Bair is the most powerful woman in America. So reports Forbes magazine.

• A fiscal calamity
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- There was a lot of grousing a couple of months ago when Gov. David Paterson, warning of a grave impending budget shortfall, called lawmakers back to Albany to make spending cuts in the recklessly optimistic $122-billion budget they adopted in April.

• Ferry heroics
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Hannah Upp, they say, came to New York City full of idealism. The 23-year-old Oregon native and minister's daughter always wanted to teach inner-city public schoolchildren and set about doing so after leaving Bryn Mawr College.

• Museum dead end
It was going to be the kind of glittering waterfront attraction that would lure tourists off the ferryboats, which dock right next door in St. George, and help fuel the budding cultural and economic resurgence that the community has needed for so long.

• Sheldon Silver, reformer
Another month, another state lawmaker in trouble for serious ethics violations. This time it's 30-year Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio of Queens.

• A doomed comeback
Was it possible that loyalists in the camp of disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella were actually testing the waters for a possible political comeback by the congressman this fall?

• What's in a name? A lot
New Meadowlands Stadium, the group that controls the new stadium being built for the New York Giants and New York Jets, is still looking for a company willing to fork over millions for naming rights to the new facility.

• Disturbing report
Last week the New York City Health Department released its report on domestic abuse.

• Planning for winter
With temperatures soaring, and it feeling more like June or July than mid-September, it is almost impossible to envision a time when snow covers the ground the paying of heating bills threatens to bust a family's budget.

• A widening awakening
Borough President James Molinaro has been taking his show on the road a lot lately. His subject? Our roads and the traffic that floods them most of the time.

• Primary letdown
Newspapers and other institutions that try to promote good citizenship regularly exhort people to get out and exercise their right to vote. The Advance, like most other newspapers, has done that often.

• Tiny things, big science
Is mankind about to unlock the most basic physical secrets of the universe?

• Back to the future?
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- When the state Legislature gave control of New York City's public schools to the mayor in 2002, it was considered a major political miracle, and rightly so.

• Fool me once...
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- There are some people who have a peculiar genius for posing as someone they're not.

• 917-ASK-NYPL
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- For the past 40 years, the New York Public Library has been answering questions over the telephone from callers seeking information on all sorts of topics.

• Seven years after
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- Seven years. Could it really have been that long ago?

• 'Dig they must,' but . . .
"Pardon our dust, but dig we must for a better New York" was the slogan Con Edison once used to deflect public ire at its disruptive excavations on city streets.

• Truth, even as a joke, hurts
Gov. David Paterson is said to have a terrific sense of humor -- a quality rare in politicians, who are usually better known for taking themselves way too seriously.

• BP vs. Parks, again
Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the City of New York to become the "greenest" city on the planet in the coming decades. That's why he's invested so much political capital in advancing his PlaNYC 2030 initiative to reduce energy use and promote cleaner air.

• The greening of the fleet
Here's something else that's getting "greener": New York City Transit's bus fleet.

• The last ride?
We refuse to give up hope that, come next summer, one of the city's most familiar and beloved attractions will reopen just as it has done for the last half-century.