Letter: How to get it done

Editor, Daily News:

After Pearl Harbor, the government turned to private industry. The auto industry built tanks, the shipping industry built battleships and aircraft carriers, the aviation industry built fighter planes and bombers. The government called on them because they knew how to get the job done.

After the war, New York City was in desperate need of housing. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. purchased all the land from 14th Street to 23rd Street, from First Avenue to the East River, including Avenues A, B, C and D. A deal was struck with the powers that be that Met Life would build affordable housing. In turn, the city gave Met Life the land tax free for 20 to 25 years. Met Life accomplished its goal of providing affordable housing. The tax deferral has long since passed, but to this day Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village are the best buys in New York City.

School Boards are failing in education. They should stay out of affordable housing. The government is entangled in too much red tape. It, too, should stay out of affordable housing. Private enterprise is the only way to go.

It is the building industry's business to build houses. Let's leave it to the experts!

Richard Calabrese , Golden Gate Estates Candidate, Collier County School Board, District 5