It’s not the breed
To The Editor:
Re “Famed punk photog’s dog dies after attack by big ‘crusty’ pit bull” (news article, Aug. 6):
If there were no pit bulls, these homeless people would have German shepherds, Dobermans, Rotweilers or other large mixed breeds that can be just as aggressive. The problem isn’t the breed of dog; it’s the fact that dogs are sometimes off leash or their owners are asleep and fail to control them.
Fortunately, most of the homeless dogs seem to be relatively numb to their surroundings. It’s rare that I’ve encountered homeless people with aggressive dogs. Still, it’s something I fear each time I have to pass them when they’re camped outside my apartment building.
Obviously, more needs to be done to address the increased homeless population and better accommodate those with pets. People shouldn’t be permitted to sleep on the sidewalk if it threatens the well-being of residents and passersby. Maybe some people choose to live this way but the dogs deserve better.
Stacy Walsh Rosenstock
This needs to stop
To The Editor:
Re “Famed punk photog’s dog dies after attack by big ‘crusty’ pit bull” (news article, Aug. 6):
Roberta, I love your photos and am so sorry for your loss. Sidney is adorable in that photo. I hope that by speaking out, you will help save another beloved pet’s life.
Too many of our pets are being killed gruesomely by pit bulls — many on the streets of New York City. There are several videos of pit bulls attacking small dogs that are horrific.
It needs to stop.
Lucy Muir
Better safe than sorry
To The Editor:
Re “Famed punk photog’s dog dies after attack by big ‘crusty’ pit bull” (news article, Aug. 6):
I am so sorry for Ms. Bayley’s loss.
So please let me say this: Dogs are wolves. We throw them together without understanding their language and expect them to mimic us, to be an extension of our personality.
Over the course of two and a half years, my pit bull was attacked in the dog run by a Husky, a hound and his pack, bitten by a German shepherd, and outside the park attacked by another pit bull. It took me a full year working with an animal communicator to calm her and myself down. I almost re-homed her.
I learned the hard way, when out with our dogs, to allow them space and keep them at a distance from each other unless they have met and agreed to be friends. This applies even if your dog is friendly.
This will keep us all safe.
Most people will say: Well, if your dog is vicious you should not have it on the street. This is the point: You don’t know the history of the dog you are approaching. After being attacked, my dog turned like a crazy girl snarling at a dog that got too close and sniffed her. (She’s never bitten another dog. If she had, I would not have kept her. But she’s been bitten.) I’ve started screaming at people who get too close — so they wake up and learn.
Linda Justice
Condolences
To The Editor:
Re “Famed punk photog’s dog dies after attack by big ‘crusty’ pit bull” (news article, Aug. 6):
Condolences to Roberta. I hate pit bulls. This is an all-to-common tragedy.
Legs McNeil
The show must go on!
To The Editor:
Re “Trying to keep the show going on St. Mark’s Place” (news article, Aug. 6):
I once saw Dave Brubeck there, and my wife and I saw many great movies there. We gotta keep it going!
Michael Lydon
It’s time to give back
To The Editor:
Re “Trying to keep the show going on St. Mark’s Place” (news article, Aug. 6):
Lorcan and Genie are the true spirit of the LES and must be supported just as they and Theatre 80 support our community!
We need to come together to make sure this grand community institution continues!
Penny Arcade
A must-save resource
To The Editor:
Re “Trying to keep the show going on St. Mark’s Place” (news article, Aug. 6):
Loran and Genie and Theatre 80 are a must-save Lower East Side community resource. They work extremely hard and make a large contribution to the community.
From providing free space for social-service meetings, such as 10-step programs, to opening their doors to Alan Kaufman and his successful benefit to provide money to GOLES to help the Second Ave. explosion victims, to holding public events, like the introduction of the real Henry Hill — made infamous in “Goodfellas” — to hosting the New York City Acker Awards, to putting on so many great performances and theatrical events, Theatre 80, Lorcan and Genie have contributed in so many ways.
The place’s employees range from local characters to movers and achievers. Theatre 80 is overflowing with decades worth of must-save LES and New York City history. It is a crime against future generations to completely strip bare and erase all this history, its details and stories.
Clayton Patterson
We love our library
To The Editor:
Re “Extra! Library digitizing Villager’s entire archives” (news article, July 23):
We love our library and the library staff. Their hospitality has made Jefferson Market a second home for me on hot days, and many a book have I found there by just browsing that I did not know existed.
Both the computer setup (T1, please) and the video library are about as good as you will find in the city. And the community room rocks (so to speak, in a library).
I recently saw local novelist Lisa E. Davis do an evening with her book “Under the Mink” the centerpiece of a fabulous discussion about the bar life in the ’30s and ’40s when the mob made us safe in their bars as we watched the floor show of girls become boys become girls. (The kids today think they invented gender illusion. Ha!) And the crimes that lurked around the corners of the Village and under the elevated —El yes!
The talk was enlightening, the author chock- full of stories and very funny. I Iearned things I did not know. And yes, I bought the book, too.
Jim Fouratt
We didn’t want asphalt!
To The Editor:
Re “Good letter, by George!” (letter, by Shirley Secunda, July 23):
Community Board 2 screws the neighborhood again. Why didn’t you demand that the Department of Transportation restore the cobblestones, not asphalt-over the potholes?
Now that D.O.T. has done that, as far as they’re concerned, problem solved. D.O.T. removed all the cobblestones; we’ll never see them again.
Will Shirley Secunda and Terri Cude be as diligent in following up with D.O.T. to get done what we’ve really wanted, for years — to replace and restore the cobblestones?
Noreen Shipman
G.L.W.D. rode roughshod
To The Editor:
Re “Showing up and speaking up, even against the odds” (talking point, by Micki McGee, Aug. 6):
This is an excellent summary of a community’s attempt to preserve the character of its low-rise neighborhood against the giant forces of development, which rode roughshod over the South Village, and destroyed part of its character, history and life.
It is still shocking to me that a charity, In God’s Lack of Love We Deliver — with the help of local politicians sentimental about its long-gone role in the AIDS crisis — was allowed to ride roughshod over residents’ actively voiced wishes in its zeal to promote its own real-estate agenda.
Rhoma Mostel
E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 Metrotech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.
