I’ll take Westway over 9A any day
To The Editor:
Stu Waldman’s triumphal but regrettable remarks about the long-ago defeat of Westway (“Meier as the new Moses: Villagers ratchet up overdevelopment fight” [April 21, news article]) really irk me. Thanks to him and his ilk, the West Side Highway today is an atrocity of perpetually clogged traffic, dangerous crosswalks and honking horns. It cruelly severs Chelsea and miles of other Manhattan neighborhoods from the Hudson River Park. It puts fast-moving, aggressively driven cars, buses and trucks in frightening proximity to walkers, joggers, bikers, children, baby strollers and dogs. And when you’ve managed to traverse the obstacle course and finally reach the park, you’re unavoidably cheek by jowl with a depressing tangle of thousands of cars incessantly starting and stopping, not to mention the accompanying air and noise pollution. What should be peaceful is stressful.
Whatever may have been the downside of a below-ground Westway, it is unimaginable that the result could have been worse than the disastrous West Side Highway we are forced to endure today. I’ll wager it’s more divisive even than Robert Moses’ Lower Manhattan Expressway could have been, considering the enormous area and huge population that are denied convenient riverfront access to a leisure-time venue. Waterfront preservation? Hah! Perhaps most frustrating of all, certain already-existing roadways made the consequences utterly predictable. Start with Queens Boulevard and portions of East River Drive.
I’ve lived in Chelsea two blocks from the Hudson since 1995 (I don’t own a car) and would love to go to the park more often were it not for the short-sightedness of people like Waldman and his cronies. But when I do go, I’ll think fondly of Stu and, in his own intemperate words, I’ll be pissed off. Thanks for nothing.
Bruce Haxthausen
Bagel’s absence has left a hole
To The Editor:
In the March 24 article “Tio Pepe weathers the changes on W. Fourth St.,” The Villager touched on the closing of The Bagel — one of the street’s most memorable and longstanding eateries. Ironically, the owners of Tio Pepe are the sole cause of The Bagel’s demise.
While the Sanzes may bemoan the changes on the street, on the issue of The Bagel I understand they are the problem. As the landlord of the beloved Bagel, apparently they gave the restaurant a mere three weeks notice, after decades of existence, when they chose to reclaim the space so that another family member could open a business. Since then it has remained vacant…an eyesore…a reminder of what used to be.
The Bagel is sorely missed by locals and visitors as an authentic and legendary landmark. It was very wrong of the Sanzes to take it away, and The Villager should think twice before celebrating their accomplishments at preserving the authenticity of our beloved Village.
Eve Silber
Feeling overlooked in Union Sq.
To The Editor:
Re “Downtown Manhattan is getting greener,” Progress Report, by Adrian Benepe, April 21):
I was pleased to read the article about how the parks of Downtown are getting greener by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. But I was also dismayed and puzzled that there was no mention of Union Sq. Park, especially at a time when there is a plan for the square’s north end that includes a badly needed new playground, new plaza and restoration of the pavilion building. Union Sq. Park is one of the busiest parks in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the city. We’re hoping that, while the commissioner was remiss in not mentioning our beautiful park, the plans for its future are very much in his field of vision.
Susan Kramer
Kramer is co-chairperson, Union Square Community Coalition
Wants no part of UNITTY
To The Editor:
I am writing in response to your recent article “Group hopes to better relations on Christopher St.” (news article, April 7), as well as to express my discontent and disgust with Using New Ideas Together with Today’s Youth’s activities in the West Village.
As anyone who lives on or near Christopher St. will tell you, UNITTY has greatly compromised the quality of life for local residents by facilitating late-night noise, loitering and rowdy gathering, prostitution and drug dealing in the residential neighborhood. UNITTY’s stated goals in its informational brochure (available at https://www.gvycworld.org/unitty.html) are to:
1) enhance understanding among West Village community members
2) create a safe environment for youth
3) create positive opportunities for diverse youth
4) compile and collect concrete data that inform us about youth and community needs and issues.
Rather, they have succeeded in:
1) enhancing hostility and resentment between West Village residents and “youth who … congregate in the area”
2) creating a public nuisance for residents and a hotbed of antisocial and criminal activity
3) destroying the opportunity for residents to live peacefully
4) ignoring community needs and issues.
It is a shame that UNITTY’s so-called outreach program has, no matter how well intentioned, spawned a nightmare of noise and crime for local residents. What is even worse is that this program has gained unwarranted legitimacy through the undiscerning support of: the New York District Attorney’s Office; Judson Memorial Church; Lucille Lortel Theater; N.Y.C. Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; Children’s Aid Society — Greenwich Village Center; Community Board 2, Youth and L.G.B.T. Committees; Project OMNIBUS — Community School District 2; N.Y.C. Department of Public Health; Congressmember Jerrold Nadler; State Senator Tom Duane; Assemblymember Deborah Glick; The Empire State Coalition; The Ali Forney Center, Greenwich Village Youth Council; Councilmember Christine Quinn; Councilmember Alan Gerson; N.Y.S. Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services; and the N.Y.S. Office of Children and Family Services. Elected officials especially may want to reconsider their support for UNITTY’s destructive program, instead of alienating their constituency.
Contrary to the accusations in your article by the youth who “say all that the residents are concerned with is their property values and, in some cases, are simply racist,” I would just like to be able to get a full night’s sleep without young people congregating, screaming and engaging in illegal activity outside my building. Is that overly capitalistic and “simply racist”? Is it really too much to ask that elected representatives and government offices not overtly sanction such behavior with our tax dollars?
Miles Holden
Claim Wesbeth owes city money
To The Editor:
We liked your article “Westbeth residents demand administrative records” in the April 21 issue. Thank you. However, one very important detail must be corrected. Westbeth was never intended to be middle-income housing. Westbeth was conceived and set on its way, with federal grants totaling $1 million, by Roger Stevens when he was chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts. These grants have stipulations attached. The most important of these stipulations is that artist residents and their families are to pay the lowest possible rents on combination live/work loft-type spaces.
Mr. Stevens prevailed upon HUD to allow us to have 18 percent of the total square footage set aside for commercial “arts-related” use. The income from these “arts-related” buisnesses was intended to offset the rents of the artist tenants. In addition, the city is permitted by state law, to give us considerable tax exemptions. There is also an income ceiling. Those artists and their families whose incomes exceed this ceiling are required to pay a surcharge on their rent, which is due to the city of New York. To date, Westbeth owes over half a million dollars in accumulated rent supplements that have never been turned over to the city.
Successive boards have never adhered to the conditions of these N.E.A. grants set up by Mr. Stevens to protect artists in perpetuity. Our quarrel with past boards is that they never adhered to Westbeth’s fundamental structure. Legal action is necessary because, although we have hopes for our new “neighborhood-centered” board, even they have still failed to get the picture.
John Silver
Jessie McNabb
Martin Lowenstein
Silver, McNabb and Lowenstein are members, Westbeth Preservation
Two Potato, no potato, still noisy
To The Editor:
The weather’s been beautiful since last Saturday, has it not — warm and sunny? And so, therefore the nights are noisy, and for those of us who live on Christopher St., this means being awakened during normal sleep time. Young, vibrant, rollicking people gather and laugh and talk and sing — and this comes out as noise when you’re in your apartment.
And, what do you know? It’s been as noisy these past few nights (and mornings) as it was when Two Potato was open last summer and serving black and white homosexual men! It was the same crowd. So, it wasn’t the “crowd” in Two Potato that was causing the noise and was the “bane” of certain resident bigots — who successfully got rid of Two Potato!
Two Potato has been succeeded by a new entity in that commercial space that, it is my observation, might as well have a sign in the window, “WHITES ONLY!” It’s a pizza parlor. It’s rarely open. So, how does it serve the neighborhood? They seem to open at about one or two in the afternoon and close at 10 or 11 in the evening. Is it the free-enterprise right of the owner to open and close when he opts to? Of course.
John Stanley
Feels N.Y.U. is making an effort
To The Editor:
Re “Pei block tops list at Sexton town hall” (April 7):
I would like to respond to the recent article regarding the N.Y.U. president’s community forum.
We appreciate that he has initiated a dialogue between the university and the community. This is a positive sign and one we encourage if we are to have a constructive town-gown relationship.
We would like this process to continue.
Anne-Marie Sumner
Sumner is president, Washington Square Association
