Hey — we told you so!
To The Editor:
Re “Pier 40 air rights appraised at $75 million; St. John’s ULURP process set to start” (news article, May 5):
There is no reason the Pier 40 ball fields cannot co-exist with commercial development on the pier. If the Hudson River Park Trust and Tobi Bergman had allowed the Korman/Durst plan to proceed, that would exist today.
Douglas Durst
Durst is chairperson, The Durst Organization, and former chairperson, Friends of Hudson River Park
Should be St. Vincent’s Park
To The Editor:
Re “We still owe Sisters of Charity and St. Vincent’s” (talking point, by Arthur Schwartz and Martin Tessler, May 5) and “St. Vincent’s and AIDS: What’s in a (park) name?” (news article, May 12):
Truly, it is said, “Let no good deed go unpunished.”
For more than 160 years, the Sisters of Charity at St. Vincent’s Hospital unselfishly served our community and our city.
From the cholera epidemic of 1849 to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the nuns were there for us. Indeed, in the 1980s, St. Vincent’s provided more AIDS beds than any other institution in New York City. St. Vincent’s also cared for survivors of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and 9/11, as well as countless others in its world-class emergency room.
Yet now we have a small but well-heeled group of arrivistes joining with three local politicians to deny the sisters and St. Vincent’s their rightful due.
Where were these “activists” and officials when the nuns needed a hand changing the soiled diapers of an incontinent AIDS victim?
Where were they to assist the good sisters when a dying person needed a glass of water in the middle of the night?
Where were they when an expiring patient needed a caring hand to hold?
Yet now they secretly — behind our backs — seek to remove any serious mention of the good works and service that St. Vincent’s and its nuns delivered to our community and our city since 1849.
The good that the sisters provided our community needs to be recognized. The nuns did not seek glory, but were glorious nevertheless.
Naming a park for their more than 160 years of good deeds is the least we can do to honor them. Let’s do it!
Sean Sweeney
St. Vincent’s snub payback
To The Editor:
Re “St. Vincent’s and AIDS: What’s in a (park) name?” (news article, May 12):
Thanks to the position Councilmember Corey Johnson, Borough President Gale Brewer and state Senator Brad Hoylman have taken, they can be sure of not getting my vote when it’s time for re-election.
And Corey’s backpedaling won’t change my mind.
Mike Conway
Straight out of Kafka
To The Editor:
Re “Elections chief defends botched N.Y. primary; Challenges loom” (news article, May 12):
Well, this is a ridiculous procedure, akin to a circular firing line:
“Most of those affidavits weren’t counted because the way that they validate affidavits is by checking them against the same voter database that those people weren’t in, which caused them to have to vote by affidavit in the first place,” Fader charged.
That is a fun premise for a Kafka short story, but shouldn’t some level of intellectual rigor be a baseline requirement for a seat at the New York City Board of Elections?
Mike Hitchcock
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, 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.
