Recognizing Ritchie Torres’ environmental work

To the Editor,

I am writing in support of Ritchie Torres, our present congressman. Although I wish to write about his environmental work both for the Bronx and the rest of the country, I wish to state categorically that his support of Israel and the Jewish community at this time of embarrassingly high antisemitism is a testament to his character and the clarity of his thinking.

Torres has shown his commitment to environmental issues by his score of 100 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group founded in 1970. This means that he voted 100 percent of the time for bills in the House that the league supports as firm governmental policy for the entire country. In 2025 and early 2026 this amounted to 17 bills, although his voting record began in 2021 when he was seated in Congress.

Torres is also concerned about our local needs. These range from cleaning up the Harlem River, stopping contamination of the Bronx River with dielectric fluids used as an insulator and cooling agent originating from the Con Ed plant in Yonkers, as well as the restoration of the Hudson River through the Hudson Oyster Project. He is particularly interested in reducing pollution of air and water that has plagued many communities in the Bronx. Particularly galling is the Cross Bronx Expressway which has adversely affected the health and safety of the adjoining communities. There is a recent study advocating the building of a covering lane above parts of the expressway forming a park for the local population as well as helping to clean up the air.

And in Riverdale itself we are suddenly facing becoming a food desert. Torres has been involved in helping Skyview find a new supermarket as well as one down at Knoll’s Crescent.

Torres is a man with a steady hand on public policy and he deserves our continued support.

SURA JESELSOHN