Volume 17 • Issue 22 | October 22 – 28, 2004
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Columbus Park delays
To The Editor:
There is a graveyard pall on Mulberry St. in Chinatown, emanating from the cyclone fence enclosing Columbus Park — closed for renovations, according to the signs.
Columbus Park is the only park in Chinatown, and it is used year-round by a multitude of people from the neighborhood for a multiplicity of life-enhancing activities. It is not a glitzy tourist center; it does not generate income; it was about the honest endeavor of serving the community with maximum simplicity at minimal cost.
If local officials and bureaucrats from the Parks Department had a modicum of respect for the neighborhood, the park could have been renovated in stages, so sections of it remained open. By the time the combo of artificial turf and rubber based painted asphalt have been installed, global warming will have ended all activity, except on the moon (news article, Oct. 8 – 14, “Chinatown park battle nears compromise”).
Politicians want our votes, but they show no regard for the community’s real needs, as embodied in their contempt for people of all ages who depended on Columbus Park for recreation.
Shelly Estrin Tennis move
To The Editor:
Your report, “L.M.D.C. leader says more Hudson Park money is likely” (news article, Oct. 15 – Oct. 21), is a clear indication that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation needs to take more care in allocating 9/11 funding.
The article concentrates on new tennis courts funded by 9/11 funds. The New York State press release of the same week states that these funds were spent to “replace the courts in Battery Park City that closed after 9/11” with courts further Uptown.
If the area near ground zero lost facilities on 9/11, those facilities should be replaced near ground zero, not on Canal St., out of the reach of most ground zero families.
Our local residents in Battery Park City and Tribeca should not be pleased when hearing that their rebuilding monies are going to other neighborhoods, regardless of any prior agreements that your article points out.
This is something that the governor, who was a part of the ceremonial groundbreaking of this facility away from ground zero should be made aware of.
Thomas S. Goodkind
WWW Downtown Express
