Resiliency plan has holes
To The Editor:
Re “City floats post-Sandy zoning changes” (news article, thevillager.com, June 26):
Improved zoning to address the enormous threats and challenges of climate change, Sandy-scale extreme storm surges and slowly rising sea levels is of course urgent and necessary.
However, behind these proposed changes to existing building codes and regulations is a sleight of hand approach — where the city is slowly but surely shifting the burden of economic responsibility for resilience from the public to the private sector — whether it be for commerce, industry, hospitals, public housing or private dwellings. The mayor’s plan is neither a solution to existential flooding either in New York City nor, indeed, for all of metropolitan New York and coastal New Jersey.
Seven years after Superstorm Sandy, the region is almost as vulnerable as it ever was. What the city needs to embrace going forward is a layered, hybrid approach to coastal resilience. We need large storm-surge barriers, built as far away from densely developed infrastructure as possible, built strong enough to hold back the worst storm surges nature can hurl at us, plus modest 3-foot-to-6-foot-tall perimeter walls, built where necessary, to protect local communities against the slow but ominous rise in sea level over the decades ahead.
Only in this way can we save the city in its present form for at least the next 100 years. A one-size-fits-all solution of building high coastal seawalls along the 1,000-mile perimeter of New York Harbor, plus along the lower Hudson and East rivers, in order to protect the coastal zone, while expecting most at-risk infrastructure to be suitably elevated, is simply unattainable, unaffordable and, in a practical sense, won’t work.
Malcolm Bowman, Ph.D.
Bowman is chairperson, NY-NJ-LI Storm Surge Working Group
Umm…wait a few years
To The Editor:
Re “Put mayor in charge of subways and buses” (opinion, by Corey Johnson, June 28):
Sure, but let’s wait until the next mayor. We can’t allow the worst mayor since Dinkins to have control over something this important.
We need to return to a focus on quality of life, especially for the taxpaying law abiders.
Anton Leong
You can’t be serious
To The Editor:
Re “Baldwin gets serious at Judson” (news article, June 13):
Ironic and rather unseemly that a Judson minister would use former bad-boy actor Alec Baldwin (known for slugging reporters and photographers) to hype this event — especially since he lives in a fancy pad off University Place, and is himself an example of gentrification in the Village.
Mary Reinholz
How N.Y.U. could help
To The Editor:
Re “Baldwin & Co. mull Village’s outlook” (news article June 27):
An idea that would diversify the population and make New York University more green would be for the university to provide affordable housing for staff — custodians, cafeteria workers, etc. — who could then work and live locally, including sending their kids to Village schools.
Bob Harvey
Sukenick a role model
To The Editor:
Re “Gloria Sukenick, 94, Chelsea housing and political activist” (obituary, thevillager.com, June 19):
Gloria had a profound influence on my life. She introduced me to real activism.
She was a stunning woman, inside and out. She had wonderful humor and a zest for life that inspired others to take stock and make what they did count and be enjoyable at the same time.
Gloria was a role model and a mentor. She was a leader with vision and a friend with heart. She was one of the brightest and best people I have known.
Thank you, Gloria, for all your gifts that you have shared. Chelsea is a better place because of Gloria.
Kathy Kinsella
Farewell, comrade
To The Editor:
Re “Gloria Sukenick, 94, Chelsea housing and political activist” (obituary, thevillager.com, June 19):
Gloria was a great housing activist! We in the housing movement will all miss you! Your memorial was the same night as the Rent Guidelines Board final vote, so some of us were remembering you as we were fighting for lower rents!
Jeanie Dubnau
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