Way to go, Coler and V.I.D.!
To The Editor:
Re “Affordable housing fight is also focusing on recovering units” (news article, July 20):
Congratulations to President Erik Coler and the Village Independent Democrats Housing Committee for their incredible work in helping tenants to put destabilized apartments back under rent regulation, thus eliminating overcharged rents.
Annette Zaner
Pop-ups bad for business
To The Editor:
Re “Vlogger mayhem ‘worse than Supreme,’ locals say” (news article, July 20):
Last Thursday, rapper Kendrik Lamar opened a three-day pop-up shop just a block away from where the Logan Paul pop-up was. The police put up barricades for crowd control.
Although the crowd was considerably smaller, local stores were empty; business goes down, the people running the shops say, when these crowds gather. And, again, police had to be deployed here.
Lora Tenenbaum
Must stop pop-ups!
To The Editor:
Re “Vlogger mayhem ‘worse than Supreme,’ locals say” (news article, July 20):
This Kendrik Lamar pop-up event was a total nightmare for the neighborhood. I’ve never seen so much uncollected garbage, and the kids who came in for this were incredibly noisy and rude. An entire block was off limits to residents, and an area of about three blocks in every direction was trashed.
How dare New York City and the Fifth Precinct, in particular — with their constant semiofficial permitting of each and every quality-of-life assault on Little Italy — allow these horrors in our neighborhoods?
Sam Hurwitt
Don’t get your hopes up
To The Editor:
Re “Vlogger mayhem ‘worse than Supreme,’ locals say” (news article, July 20):
Oh, please. Anyone counting on community boards, politicians or the N.Y.P.D. to take the side of the public versus businesses will be sorely disappointed. Case in point is Spiegel Cafe, a bar on the corner of First Ave. and Second St. The owner has two passions: motorcycles and making money.
Every Tuesday night since August 2016 the bar — in violation of Community Board 3’s own regulations — has run a “Two-Wheel Tuesday” event. Fifty bikers block the street and sidewalk every Tuesday night, gunning their engines and racing around the block all night. Many of us have complained, but C.B. 3’s and the N.Y.P.D.’s position is just like “Hogan’s Heroes” ’ Sergeant Schultz: “I see nothing! I know nothing!”
Bill Barkum
Saving small businesses
To The Editor:
Re “Freeze shop evictions: Advocates and candidates” (news article, July 20):
I’m running for public advocate because the city I love is disappearing and I know that another four years of the same leadership and it will be gone. My campaign is all about connecting the dots between the small-business crisis.
David Eisenbach
The memory lane of signs
To The Editor:
Re “Windows into the past, ghost signs are faded memories of Village” (news article, July 20):
I am so delighted to walk down the memory lane of signs. I am devastated that we do not give such treasures their rightful place in history, culture and art.
Thank you also for the wonderful memories of Anaïs and Hugo, my next door neighbors in Washington Square Village. I will never forget her magical entrances into the elevator and his bon vivant beret and ascot.
Judith Chazen Walsh
Gate gratitude
To The Editor:
Re “Windows into the past, ghost signs are faded memories of Village” (news article, July 20):
Thanks for the memories and remembering the Village Gate. The sign is a landmark.
Bob Dylan did hang at the Village Gate but never actually performed there.
Sharon D’Lugoff
Starbucks isn’t hip!
To The Editor:
Re “Starbucks outrage boils over on Avenue A” (news article, July 20):
Starbucks is for the imagination-deprived, for a nation of lockstep sheep stuck in a rerun loop at the switch gate. Starbucks is a trough for trilobites dancing on the edge of existence as we melt in a forest of paper cups. I pity the fool who relies on chains for cool.
To those who are blind to culture, look out. On Avenue A, faux scarecrows will put a hex on fops who nonchalantly pay lip service to independence, while sipping corporate squid existence.
Keep history alive! Make more history! Be original. Don’t be a consumerbot.
After all, would you rather live at the mall or on the strip? Or in a real neighborhood that’s a real link to the really real hip?
Jeff Wright
Church was family
To The Editor:
Re “Last Mass looming for Christopher St.’s St. Veronica’s Church” (news article, July 6):
It is a very sad moment for my family, the Mullinses. My dad Ed was a longshoreman, as were several of his brothers. They all attended St. Veronica’s School, and were dedicated parishioners of the church for nearly 100 years.
St. Veronica’s parish was a refuge for many immigrants that arrived in New York. I will forever cherish the memories that I share with my cousins, uncles, aunts and my dad at this very special place of prayer, peace and refuge.
Marlene Mullins
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.
