Volume 21, Number 11 | THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN | July 25 – 31, 2008
Letters to the Editor
Money is missing
To The Editor:
Re “Ward says he’s no Moses, but promised land is in sight” (news article, July 18 – 24):
At Thursday’s Community Board 1 meeting, my C.B.1 colleague Michael Connolly stated that the World Trade Center’s Performing Arts Center “seems to have been forgotten.” Apparently, so has $5 million.
When the chairperson of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. states in your article that $55 million has been allocated to the PAC, he is shortchanging the PAC by $5 million. Why?
One answer may be a lack of clarity.
Over the past few years, I’ve been tracing the billions of dollars in W.T.C. monies that came to our community, and it seems clear that the L.M.D.C., in their disbursement of HUD’s $2.784 billion, gave slightly over $60 million, or approximately 2 percent, to the Performing Arts Center.
These monies, according to the L.M.D.C.’s director of planning and development can be traced by anyone by viewing its Partial Action Plans #8 and 11:
https://www.renewnyc.com/content/PAP/12_1_1578909153.pdf and
https://www.renewnyc.com/content/PAP/16_1_1578909153.pdf.
The problem is that this information is difficult to find and use in its present form. To avoid any potential error in allocation of these billions of dollars of Downtown amenities, it is essential that we have better access to and use of authoritative source documents that trace and summarize such important allotments.
Tom Goodkind
Unsafe cycling
To The Editor:
I agree with much of your editorial, but both your editorial and the accompanying articles barely mention pedestrians. (July 18 – 24, editorial, “Greasing the wheels for better bike ways, ” news article, “City’s Grand bike plan,” and photo caption, “Big wheels keep on rolling”)
The Dept. of Transportation is supposed to be using Copenhagen as a model. Often other cities are mentioned as fine examples of the success of bike ways. I have been to Copenhagen, Berlin and Vancouver and they all put the safety of pedestrians as the number one priority. Cyclists must obey traffic signals. Where there is a pedestrian/biker conflict as in Stanley Park, the cyclist must dismount.
Too many New York City cyclists want it all ways. Bike ways should be introduced with an educational and enforcement campaign for both the bikers, pedestrians and violators fined. There is no safe mixture of pedestrians and cyclists. Parents should not have to hold a child’s hand when walking through a park. Cyclists must dismount. Pedestrian traffic through City Hall Park is constant as people walk to the subways and the Brooklyn Bridge. The Battery Park City esplanade is very active, especially on weekends. A multimillion-dollar bike path was built along the Hudson bypassing the esplanade. If cyclists want to view the esplanade, walking their bike is no great punishment.
Perhaps we need a department for pedestrians to safeguard New Yorkers from the Department of Transportation.
Ted Gottlieb
To The Editor:
While I am all in favor of drivers sharing the streets with cyclists, pedestrians and any other non-motorized form of transportation, it seems now drivers are being forced into a very small box in favor of cyclists, etc. It seems these barrier type bike lanes are cropping up all over, especially Manhattan, and now spreading to narrow one-way streets, in the name of cyclists’ rights, which article after article in your paper seems to endorse. Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan proposes bike lanes, street closure to cars, pedestrian malls, narrowing thru traffic to one lane, as is the case 14th St. and 9th Ave., and these are all approved without public input. I guess this is how they are getting revenge for the congestion tax not being passed.
Also the “experimental” congestion parking is another idea of Janette’s team. I have also observed, while committing the cardinal sin of driving in Manhattan, cyclists, for the most part, ignore traffic and cycling laws, such as sailing thru red lights, riding against traffic, riding in traffic lanes even where bike lanes are provided. When there is a cyclist fatality, right away ghost bikes are put in place in memory of the cyclist. Drivers and cars are damned and cursed, but the fact is 85 percent of cyclist accidents are due to the fact of the biker being negligent. Of course that fact never gets mentioned. That 85 percent figure is from the N.Y.P.D.
Richard Nielsen
Sunlight on the Seaport
To The Editor:
On July 8, at a special meeting of the Community Board 1 Seaport Committee, Michael McNaughton, vice president of General Growth Properties, spoke eloquently of community support and resident amenities. Certainly, Mr. McNaughton is strong on public relations and I suspect spent some time in the past as a used car salesman. Let us examine some of the existing policies in place at the South Street Seaport and directly affect residents as a way of judging G.G.P.’s sincerity. To begin with local dog owners know that they are not allowed to bring their pets on the Seaport piers despite adherence to city ordinances governing pet behavior.
Last Friday, I had placed my upright chair on the pier’s end about 100 feet from the Brooklyn Bridge side. I was approached by Security Guard French, most polite, who informed me that it was not permitted to sunbathe. I queried about signage and he agreed that it should have been posted. I pointed out that Mr. McNaughton had just addressed the community espousing interest in our needs. Guard French excused himself saying he needed to talk to his supervisor. He came back in 30 minutes to say that the matter was being referred to the Seaport assistant manager. About an hour later, as I was leaving, I was approached by a female security guard who identified herself as a supervisor. She also informed me that sunbathing was not permitted. I asked if the tourists who were sunbathing on the steps were so informed or prohibited and she said no. Clearly, G.G.P. is interested in tourist trade and not in accommodating those of us who live here.
Mr. McNaughton made statements about supporting water related activities at the Seaport. There are signs about every 25 feet along the railing prohibiting fishing. Certainly, this was probably one of the very first activities that our ancestors engaged in and yet G.G.P. chooses to prohibit it. This is just another instance that makes us question Mr. McNaughton’s veracity and that of G.G.P. in claims made in an effort to get this community, this community board, and our elected officials to support their land use development (ULURP) application. I submit that their present policies are a clear indication that this community is not of importance to this company. It is an indication that we should and must be suspect of their offers as their present policies do not support residents.
Paul Hovitz
Paul Hovitz is a member of Community Board 1 and its Seaport Committee
Editor’s Note: A General Growth Properties spokesperson told us that the firm does not have a policy to prohibit sunbathing.
West Side health
To The Editor:
Re “Politicians support St. Vincent’s, and are jeered” (news article, July 18 – 24):
Perhaps the anonymous woman who called a rally held by nearly 200 people in support of a new St. Vincent’s, which will take our hospital into the 21st century, “insulting and cheesy” is the one lucky person on the planet who is in perfect health, who will never have any health issues, who will never need to see a doctor or who will never ever have to visit an emergency room.
As a breast cancer survivor who was treated at St. Vincent’s and lives in Greenwich Village, I believe that a new St. Vincent’s, in its historic home of Greenwich Village, will provide the kind of state-of-the-art care that New Yorkers and visitors up and down the West Side need, want and deserve.
Some 200 people – including hospital workers, laborers and members of myriad community organizations – took time out of their busy day to have their voices heard outside the Landmark Preservation Commission. More than 3,000 people have signed up to be Friends of the New St. Vincent’s and show their support for a new hospital.
Building a new 21st century state-of-the-art St. Vincent’s Hospital isn’t about vanity; it is about humanity.
Marisa Acocella Marchetto
To The Editor:
Thank you to our elected officials — Chris Quinn, Jerry Nadler, Scott Stringer and Tom Duane — for supporting St. Vincent’s plan to build a twenty first century hospital on the current site of the O’Toole Building. Their leadership recognizes the critical need for healthcare in Greenwich Village. They are truly representing the interest of all of us, who sooner or later will be thankful for the compassion and care that St. Vincent’s will continue to provide in a facility which will bring state of the art healthcare technology to our neighborhood. Our family knows too well how important the hospital is to the Village. When seconds mattered, St. Vincent’s was there to save Liza, wife and mother, and Greenwich Village resident. To those who advocate moving this invaluable asset, we pray that they never experience how essential St. Vincent’s location is to our community.
Michael and Liza Mirisola
