Huge traffic standstill
To the Editor:
Two recent articles point to one huge traffic standstill to expect downtown. First, the stubborn push by the City to build a $500 million Sanitation Garage in Tribeca. Second, no concrete plans for parking and traffic to account for the millions of visitors when the WTC 9/11 Memorial opens.
We have Holland Tunnel traffic backing up across a large swath of lower Manhattan, trucks that use downtown as a route to avoid the Verrazano Bridge one-way toll, congestion on narrow Chinatown streets from private bus companies, and a surge in our downtown population in the past 10 years.
The community has so far been unsuccessful in getting the City to modify the Sanitation Garage. It is far too large in scope, with trucks servicing all the way up to 59th St. using downtown as their base. The alternative, lower cost design the community proposed was right in line with this administration’s green buildings initiative, yet received a cold shoulder. The community also raised red flags about the WTC 9/11 Memorial and that there were no plans on the table where to park tour buses and cars.
We need comprehensive traffic planning from the City that links major projects in downtown Manhattan. With the 9-11 Memorial set to open, the City has even more reason to rethink the scope of the Sanitation Garage before one very expensive $500 million shovel is put in the ground to build it.
Respectfully,
Jeanne Wilcke
A prisoner of conscience
To The Editor:
Re “Pot activist still in the joint: ‘It was all medical marijuana’ ” (news article, March 9):
I really enjoyed Lincoln Anderson’s cover story on Dana Beal. It had a bit of everything: controversy, a strong local character, and a whole lot of interesting angles to consider — including the promise of ibogaine’s curative properties for people suffering from addiction, as well as the rights of an individual to decide on how to appropriately medicate her body.
If Mr. Beal had been carrying a trunk full of booze in the car, we’d call it a tailgate party. But since it was marijuana, we call it a felony. If we take Mr. Beal at his word, that he wasn’t in transit to some regional Rainbow Gathering, but rather, was transporting medical marijuana for the benefit of people living with AIDS, M.S. and other chronic illnesses, then he is a prisoner of conscience.
In experimental programs at top universities across the country, war veterans have alleviated post-traumatic stress disorder with the use of M.D.M.A.; patients with advanced-stage cancer have eased their existential anxiety with psilocybin; and people with chronic pain and nausea have benefited tremendously from the use of marijuana. And yet, our knee-jerk, draconian laws don’t just prohibit people in need from accessing the benefits of these medications — they also muffle the very essence of debate.
Tim Doody
Free Beal and medicine!
To The Editor:
Re “Pot activist still in the joint: ‘It was all medical marijuana’ ” (news article, March 9):
Free our brother Dana Beal! Don’t withhold the medicine. The revolution will deal with the neo-nazi enemies of medical marijuana.
Aron Kay, a.k.a. ‘The Yippie Pie Man’
Rock on Dana Beal!
To The Editor:
Re “Pot activist still in the joint: ‘It was all medical marijuana’ ” (news article, March 9):
Free Dana Beal — let him out of jail!
Let him free! Let him free! Let him free!
Legalize medical marijuana, now!
Peace.
David Peel & The Lower East Side
