Betty Hughes is absolutely right in her letter ("If Latin Kings are so good, let them clean gang tags") -- I wondered the same thing as I read the original article.

Regarding ages to drink, drive, fight and vote:
The author correctly states: "People between 18 and 20 years old are eligible to vote.".
But the problem is, THEY DON'T.
You can bet that if people in that age range put pressure on legislators, the young people could get things changed. As someone who grew up with an 18 year old drinking age, I understand your angst; but it is people of your age who have to grow a political force to bring it about. People of my age don't really care. We CAN drink.

Maybe Amsterdam can also get a casino as well, to populate that highly successful mall you have in downtown.
Between the two, the city will surely have to turn away people.

>Don't school district taxpayers already pay for a fleet of buses to bring kids to school?
>If the Saratoga school district was able to successfully prohibit a kid from bicycling to school EVEN WITH HIS MOTHER then the BHBL district should be able to prohibit kids from arriving by private vehicle as well.
>Parents, "concerned for their OWN kids' safety", are one of the biggest risk to the kids of all OTHER kids arriving at the school. Only allow buses and staff cars onto school property.

Does this facility NEED to be near an airport at all?
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If it only need be between 34 and 49 acres of land within 150 miles of New York City, and within New York state, why bother with HIGH COST rent areas of the airport? Seems like it could be in almost any area at all. Schenectady County immediately comes to mind, and altho outside the 150 miles, Montgomery or Fulton might make good choices too.

On the poll, I voted "other".
I say, build it in Amsterdam. With that grand bridge to nowhere to attract millions of tourists, some of them might stick around for the casino while they're in town.

Regarding "We don’t eat pets, and shouldn’t our horses" - well, we don't race our pets either to the point where their bones or organs fail and either they die or we must shoot them. Stop RAISING horses if you, Tedesco & Marchione are so concerned about their welfare.
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NEWSFLASH: There's nothing special about horses compared to any other animal. You can take special care of the ones that may have been YOUR special pet, worker or companion and leave those that were not so "special" to their owners to the destination deemed appropriate to those owners. Stop hugging trees, er horses.
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And I WOULD at least sample a bit of Fido or Fluffy too, as far as what we do to our pets.

Common sense takes a holiday!
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Wonder if the neighbors would try to run me out of their neighborhood with the ugly car I drive? What short-mindedness.

I'm 50 years older than the middle school students, but heck, I'd LOVE to attend one of the presentations and hear the veterans' stories.

I've disagreed many times with wmarincic, but I'm with him on this. Reader1 didn't write something like "I've read that ..... (cameras don't peer into private...), but instead wrote as if a statement of fact.
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While I doubt any city camera is actually AIMED into a private dwelling, I'm sure there are shots taken of the goings-on within some private homes .. from a height above that of the person on the street at that, where a person might feel a sense of privacy.
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Q: what happens when the criminal element starts using camera? Maybe tracking all cars and their occupants driving into and out of police station parking lots?
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Technology CAN work both ways!