9/11 heroes’ parade
To The Editor:
Re “Happiness & hope return to Canyon in a Giant way” (Reporter’s/Fan’s Notebook, Feb. 8 – 14):
Hats off to the Giants and all that — it was a great game — but your quotation marks (appropriate) on “heroes” got me thinking. Why not a parade up the “Canyon of Heroes” for the F.D.N.Y., P.A.P.D. and N.Y.P.D. and court officers? They’d never ask for it, but gee, if it’s good enough for the Super Bowl “heroes” it’s good enough for the true heroes of 9/11(and every day before and since), no quotation marks required.
Michael Burke
Brother of F.D.N.Y. Capt. William F. Burke, Jr., Engine Co. 21, killed at the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001.
Let’s make a pier deal
To The Editor:
Re “Trust can’t swing vote as Cirque stays afloat” and “Schools group gives Trust an ‘incomplete’ on Pier 40” (news articles, Feb. 8 – 14):
I certainly prefer the CampGroup and Partnership proposals. But here’s a deal:
Related dumps the banquet hall and moves the ball fields down to grade level. The Department of Sanitation modifies its Spring St. garage project to incorporate the long-term parking from Pier 40, thus removing parking from the pier, and Related sells an appropriate property in the district as a sweet deal to the School Construction Authority. Twice a year, Cirque du Soleil holds performances at Pier 40 that the sports league families all attend for free.
Odder deals have been brokered: Battery Park City is pretty complex. But this will take the mayor. Hmm, do we know someone on the Hudson River Park Trust with a connection?
Barry Drogin
Parking’s the problem
To The Editor:
Re “Some skeptical as mayor moves to limit permit parking” (news article, Jan. 11 — 17):
Michael “I am not a candidate” Bloomberg must really have “tunnel” vision regarding the illegal placards that inundate Lower Manhattan daily. All he has to do is walk in any direction from City Hall and see how our streets have been turned into a governmental parking lot. But I don’t expect that from a mayor who recently spent a week in China but in the past six years has not walked to Chinatown to explain to the community why he has allowed Ray “I don’t want to be mayor” Kelly to continue the N.Y.P.D. occupation of Park Row.
So add me to that list of skeptics who view the mayor’s plan to limit placards as just another P.R. campaign. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Rich Score
To The Editor:
Re “Drive traffic pricing across the finish line” (editorial, Jan. 25 – 31):
The congestion pricing mitigation commission and the congestion taxing scheme have neglected to mention 150,000 government sector vehicles with parking permits. These vehicles clog our streets, flagrantly disregard existing parking rules and parking permit regulations, and have cost the city about $300 million in parking meter revenue alone during Bloomberg’s watch. In Chinatown specifically, it has been well-documented in the press that longtime businesses have closed directly as a result of illegal parking permit abuse.
Although the congestion pricing scheme, i.e. PlaNYC, says that the government sector will not be exempt, this statement is simply not believable because of the horrendous track record of the mayor, the Dept. of Transportation and the N.Y.P.D. regarding parking placard/permit abuse all these past years. Everyone knows that 150,000 government sector parking permit holders will in fact be exempted from congestion pricing.
The mayor last month stated there will be a reduction in parking permits (again!). This is another empty promise because he will have a “working group” comprised of — you guessed it — the D.O.T., the NYPD and some “concerned” business developers. This “working group” will “enforce parking permit regulations and restrictions” — talk about the hen guarding the chickens!
For the last 8 months, the local precinct has posted No Permit Parking signs, and periodically tickets, tows and confiscates the permits of illegal permit parkers. This has resulted in a better than 90% reduction in permit abuse in Chinatown over the last 8-10 months. I know this to be a fact because I count the cars in my neighborhood on a regular basis. This working system, that includes No Permit Parking signs, needs to be applied throughout the city to effectively close the lid on illegal permit abuse perpetrated by 150,000 government sector vehicles. This would immediately reduce, by many thousands daily, the amount of traffic congestion we have in the city, and especially in the Downtown area where illegal parking permit abuse has been documented to be the worst.
Congestion taxing will never be ready until parking permit abuse has been eliminated first.
Geoff Lee
Murry defense
To The Editor:
Your short article in the UnderCover section was very disturbing to some of the faculty and students at Murry Bergtraum High School (Feb. 8 – 14, “Expel Bergtraum?”). As I stated before in one of my letters to your paper, while we do have a lot of students who misbehave, we also have many, many more that are good students. I have yet to see an article on one of the good students. It seems to be a trend with most papers — you all will write about the bad but never about the good things that students do. It is very upsetting to all to see an article that is so negative. Most of the violence occurs outside the school and does not only involve Murry Bergtraum students. Students from the other schools in the area come and congregate in front of McDonald’s and Burger King. I am wondering if anything is ever reported on that. If you are going to go after Murry Bergtraum and its administration, you should get the facts. We have a great administration and what the kids do outside of school is beyond their jurisdiction. You don’t close a school based on what occurs on the outskirts of the school.
Lorraine Fittipaldi
Letters policy
Downtown Express welcomes letters to The Editor. They must include the writer’s first and last name, a phone number for confirmation purposes only, and any affiliation that relates directly to the letter’s subject matter. Letters should be less than 300 words. Downtown Express reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity, civility or libel reasons. Letters should be e-mailed to news@DowntownExpress.com or can be mailed to 145 Sixth Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10013.
