Outrage over comments
To The Editor:
I was outraged to read the comments made by Stephen Meister, attorney to Independence Plaza landlord Laurence Gluck, in regards to what he would do if tenants win their rent stabilization case in the article, “Feds say Gluck is gouging I.P.N.,” in the February 5 -11 issue. Mr. Meister’s threat to “screw” tenants if they win rent stabilization is shocking. Mr. Meister’s comments are out of line and unprofessional. As an attorney, Mr. Meister violates the spirit of the Lawyer’s Code of Professional Responsibility, which directs practicing lawyers to maintain the integrity and competence of the legal profession. Mr. Meister demonstrated his clear disregard for these standards when he made his comments. Further, his comments illuminate the extent to which attorneys will go to harass tenants on behalf of their landlord clients. This kind of behavior should not be tolerated. Tenant harassment by attorneys is an ongoing issue that my office has sought to address.
Deborah J. Glick
Assemblymember, 66th District
To The Editor:
I am totally shocked that Gluck’s lawyer would make these threats to the people of I.P.N. … that he shows no concern for seniors or handicapped or young families just starting out, scaring them. That he wants to hurt people is an abomination. Very sad what we have come to, and Mr. Gluck, how can you let him say these things?
Anne Compoccia
Independence Plaza resident since 1975
Saving Hudson
To The Editor:
I wanted to clarify certain misimpressions that may have been left by your article “Hudson Hotel No-Go” (Mixed Use, Feb. 5 – 11).
No one was more enthusiastic than I when Trinity entered into a long-term ground lease in 2007 for our building at 330 Hudson St. Our hope and expectation was that Tribeca Associates, our net lessee, would provide new commercial space in this long vacant building, create a hotel through a new addition to be built on top of the existing structure, and bring some vitality to a stretch of Hudson St. which badly needs it.
However, the net lessee was unable to attract either a tenant or financing and Trinity certainly took no action to hinder the net lessee from achieving either of these desirable goals. (At no time did Trinity sign a lease with a new tenant, or modify or renew a lease with one of its existing tenants, which was even remotely considering 330 Hudson St.)
All construction on the premises stopped almost one year ago. The roofless building was left open to the elements, creating a serious threat to the integrity of the structure, a potential safety hazard for the neighborhood and an unsightly street condition.
In order to safeguard the neighborhood, protect the building from further erosion, and reduce the negative impact on street conditions, we had no choice other than to step in and repossess the building, create a site safety plan, remedy all existing hazardous conditions and commence the seal-up of the building. This work is well underway and now will be completed expeditiously under our management.
We look forward to identifying a new and exciting use for 330 Hudson St. so that it can be a major contribution to Hudson Square’s revitalization and renewal.
Carl Weisbrod
President, Trinity Real Estate
9/11 trials
To The Editor:
I am a resident of Lower Manhattan and want to express my concern and outrage for the current plan of holding these trials in our neighborhood.
The security costs are outrageous. The economic impact on the Financial District and our neighbors in Chinatown are high and it does nothing to mitigate the high risk of terror that we must already endure.
Furthermore, the value of holding these trials in our civilian courts is highly dubious. Civil laws and rights are for citizens and invited guests who have pledged to support or at least abide by the laws of this country. These individuals on trial, have sworn to tear down the government that protects our rights. The prospect of criminal punishment means little to suicidal fanatics. We all know the price that’s been paid for the rights we enjoy. They should not be granted to our enemies lightly.
I strongly support Julie Menin’s campaign to move the trials elsewhere. She has offered numerous preferable solutions. West Point, Governors Island and the other options are all more workable than securing the hundreds of narrow street-corners in Lower Manhattan where some 40,000 of us now live, work and play.
Bradley R. Bodwell
To The Editor:
There has been an uproar over the proper location in which to try five detained 9/11 suspects.
The majority of people don’t want to try them in their backyards. Just the mention of 9/11 brings people into a place in their minds that they don’t want to be. I can understand that. I have been in that place for over 8 years now when my only brother, Kenneth Zelman, disappeared while working on the 99th floor of the North Tower. I think people should be more realistic about these thugs who are in custody and probably have no chance of ever being out of custody.
Many of the 9/11 families feel that the wheels of justice have come to a halt over 9/11. Let those 9/11 families who want to face the accused do so. Don’t let your imagination of what could happen trump what has already happen to our families.
Barry Zelman
To The Editor:
We’re all in favor of dumping toxic waste. Just not in our neighborhood. Yours. How does that sound?
Did you vote for Barack Obama for president? Wasn’t his promise to close Guantanamo Bay and extend Constitutional rights to international terrorists and try them in civilian courts one of the chief platforms of his campaign? Did that somehow slip by everybody? Where did you think that was going to happen? New Jersey?
Now we have the rank hypocrisy of elected officials, both big and small and others proclaiming still that the while the “rule of law and the U.S. Constitution” demand we stage (and that’s the word; “stage”) the “terror trials” in federal court just not here. This takes liberal limousinism to profound new levels. I think we should try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s fat, hairy profane person in Julie Menin’s living room. She can listen as he exercises his “rights” with endless vile diatribes about the evils of Western civilization. At night, he could bunk up with Jerrold Nadler. They could do yoga tapes together.
Principle demands one of two positions: either they get federal trials in the proper venue (your neighborhood) which all these high minded politicians nobly embraced this time last year — or, and this is the one for grown ups, we try them in military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, as the rights of man, the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution and common sense and respect for the history of 9/11 actually does demand.
It is evident by now that 9/11 rolled off this president’s back like water off a duck. That he has not the heart or character to understand and appreciate it. Now, however, he and his clueless attorney general have managed to reduce the trial of the perpetrators of that crime into another exercise in NIMBYism. The investment he made in the “rights” of terrorists as compared to his detachment from the crime and its victims was a betrayal; now he has added disgrace to that.
Michael Burke
Brother of Capt. William F. Burke, Jr., a firefighter killed Sept. 11, 2001.
West St. from afar
To The Editor:
To help the situation on West St., please look into using the Barnes dance (stopping the traffic in all directions for one light cycle). They use a version of this by the Municipal Building and also by J & R. Also, use count down signals on West St. like they do on 14th St. D.O.T. has rejected these items before but they are sorely needed to save lives–even if it means slowing traffic a little.
Barry Skolnick
Minnesota
Earthquake memory
To The Editor:
The terrible tragedy in Haiti should be a reminder of our mortality and that all of us are hanging by a thread as we realize how unprepared we are for nature’s wrath. I can recall an earth tremor my mother and I experienced in Brooklyn about 80 years ago when I was about 17 years of age. We were the only ones at home one evening. I was studying, probably for an exam. It was very quiet. You could hear a pin drop.
Suddenly the house seemed to move. Mother and I were startled. We looked at each other frightened. We went outside to see what was going on. There was nothing unusual to be seen or heard. Few people were on the streets, but the next day the newspapers reported that an earth tremor had taken place in New York. I don’t recall if anything else was reported after that to the non-scientific public.
That Haiti was a target so many years later reminds us that there is no precaution one can take. There is, of course, much more information in a scientific journal. Seismologists are now closer than ever to predicting where earthquakes will occur, but they have no idea as to the exact day or time when the earth will begin to shake.
Can you envision such an event here in New York? A magnitude of such proportions is beyond our imagination. We are all at the mercy of nature, especially when there is no way to prepare for it.
Geraldine Lipschutz
Editor’s Note: Barry Cohen, who e-mails his friend Geraldine Lipschutz’s letters to the editor, tells us an Internet search confirms her earthquake memory. On Aug. 12, 1929, two months before the stock market crash, a large earthquake hit Attica, N.Y. and was felt in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Canada, parts of New England, as well as New York City.
