An absurd attack To The Editor: Re “A power broker’s legacy; Schwartz pulls a Moses” (op-ed, by Quinn Raymond, Aug. 22): I find it hard to fathom how, as a lawyer for the Transport Workers Union for almost 20 years, someone can call me an opponent of mass transit. I am not fighting to keep cars on 14th St. I am fighting to keep them off residential side streets, the very street Jane Jacobs helped preserve. Jane, like me, would say, “Get rid of the cars, don’t just shift them around.” The statistics from the first month of the busway, with cars on 14th St., show bus speed increasing by 25 percent during rush hour, which was the target! Local people are far more astute than the distant bureaucrats in City Hall. By the way, I not only fought for the M8 (Eighth St. crosstown), I was in court seeking to stop the closure of that line and a dozen others back in 2010, trying to save the jobs of the largely black and Hispanic bus drivers and keep them from being laid off. I didn’t win, but that same lawsuit succeeded in stopping the closure of more than 100 token booths and the laying off of 500 station agents. I am proud of my legacy. Arthur Schwartz
Yes to car ban To The Editor: Re “A power broker’s legacy; Schwartz pulls a Moses” (op-ed, by Quinn Raymond, Aug. 22): Fourteenth St. is one of the busiest, densest corridors in the entire world, with unparalleled levels of transit and huge amounts of people who traverse it every day. Banning private cars there isn’t socialism; it’s geometry. You aren’t entitled to take up more than your fair share of space, just because you happened to spend five figures on a deadly machine that spews local and global pollution. Dan Miller Safer without lanes To The Editor: Re “A power broker’s legacy; Schwartz pulls a Moses” (op-ed, by Quinn Raymond, Aug. 22): New York City officials are misrepresenting the most basic verifiable facts about the supposed safety of bike lanes. What is the reality? Studies from numerous European cities — the very cities that the mayor and the Department of Transportation are using as examples of the benefits of bike lanes — demonstrate that bike lanes increase accidents, injuries and deaths. Urban planner Lawrence Solomon, in his article “Rip out the bike lanes — before more innocent people get hurt” in the Financial Post, details a number of these studies, which are based on real data rather than the nonsense propaganda issued by bike-lane advocates. As D.O.T. adds more bike lanes, more undecipherable signage painted all over the streets, more traffic officers and traffic cameras trapping drivers at intersections, timed to generate as many summonses as possible — and, worst of all, with more tourists and inexperienced bike riders getting on rental bikes and taking off into New York City traffic, as if it were a bike park —we will see a continued increase in accidents and deaths. Instead of blaming drivers, blame the mayor, D.O.T. and the bike fanatics at Transportation Alternatives for the carnage. They are redesigning New York City streets to be a killing field. Robert Lederman Lederman is president, A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response to Illegal State Tactics) End car favoritism To The Editor: Re “A power broker’s legacy; Schwartz pulls a Moses” (op-ed, by Quinn Raymond, Aug. 22): Seventy-seven percent of Manhattan households are car-free, and households that own cars have a median income nearly double those who don’t, according to 2015 U.S. Census data). It’s insane how much of our public streets are given over to private car users. The M14 average speed in 2019 is 4.3 mph, slowest in the city. Here in Brooklyn, Fulton St. has been bus-only for many years and the buses move much faster. The majority of New Yorkers suffer slower transit, increased pollution and increased risk of injury every day because of the dominance of infrastructure for cars. It’s past time we had a more equitable transit system throughout New York City. Tony Melone Put back M14 stops To The Editor: Re “Wheely mad: TransAlt rages at attorney” (news article, Aug. 15): Regarding your article, I am writing in support of Arthur Schwartz’s suit on behalf of Disabled in Action about changes in the 14th St. bus routes. I have been a volunteer for Visiting Neighbors, escorting many frail senior citizens who live at home to doctors and dentists appointments, physical therapy and other services. These seniors depend on readily available bus service, not routes where they must walk several blocks to reach a stop. Buses are the only public transportation available to Lower East Side residents living on Avenues A, B or D or south. As a resident of E. 10th St. between Second and Third Aves., I am a regular rider on the M14 bus and am well aware of the traffic delays. But it seems to me that priority of such service should be given to elderly and disabled residents, most of whom are not wealthy and rely on this bus route. I hope the M.T.A. reconsiders its decision to remove bus stops on these routes. Katharine Wolpe E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 MetroTech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.
