FB’ers deserve an award
To The Editor:
Re “Facebook pages help Villagers connect across time” (notebook, by Patricia Fieldsteel, Oct. 27):
Bibbe and Chris Kitlan Burns and Ellen Williams deserve some kind of urban Pulitzer or medal for this work. The Village of the ’60s and ’70s was an indescribably exciting place, or experience, and I’m so grateful for what they are doing to keep it all from fading into the mist. For young people, especially, it changed us; it changed the whole city actually and beyond, as well.
We were so lucky to have come through there and then — that is, those of us who came through alive. That’s another story also sometimes touched on in these groups.
Brendan Sexton
Required reading
To The Editor:
Re “Facebook pages help Villagers connect across time” (notebook, by Patricia Fieldsteel, Oct. 27):
A must-read for anyone who loves the Village is “Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir,” by Anatole Broyard, written in 1933.
Minerva Durham
Two-tiered medical system?
To The Editor:
Re “Downsized Beth Israel could be done in 4 years” (news article, Oct. 27):
It will be pick and choose. If you got the big bucks, you live. And if you’re poor, you just die off. They don’t want to take care of the poor no more.
Stay out. My advice to you is to stay out of the hospital. Take care of yourself. You’ll be better off.
Helen Murphy
Allison in our thoughts
To The Editor:
Re “Allison Davis Greaker, 70, ad rep for Villager” (obituary, Oct. 27):
On behalf of all readers, commenters and other non-staff followers of NYC Community Media and The Villager, sincerest condolences, and thanks, to Allison and her family.
Your loss is most definitively our loss, and your family will be in our thoughts.
Patrick Shields
Triangle tricky business
To The Editor:
Re “Neighbors still trashing Triangle memorial design; ‘Would be major intrusion’” (news article, Oct. 20):
It’s a source of amazement to me that officers of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition continue to insist that they worked with the community on the Triangle memorial project. I can state categorically that the first time that members of the Washington Place Block Association heard about the project was at the end of last year, when we read press reports in The New York Times and The Villager about the $1.5 million grant for the memorial awarded to R.T.F.C. by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Our initial contacts with R.T.F.C. took place well after they had decided the memorial’s design and were the result of intervention by outside individuals and groups. For example, as a result of The Villager’s coverage, Community Board 2 convened a town hall in February where we as a group were first afforded an opportunity to discuss the reasons for our opposition to the proposed design with representatives of R.T.F.C.
I can only wonder what type of distorted idea the people in R.T.F.C. have of a “community” when they ignore residents living within a few feet of the Triangle fire site. Unlike the casual visitor, we on Washington Place will be faced daily with a memorial that for better or worse will permanently alter our immediate environment. Nevertheless, rather than reaching out to us and other community organizations in the area at the beginning, R.T.F.C. instead chose to lobby and hold meetings with elected officials and other well-placed individuals.
Howard Negrin
Negrin is president, Washington Place Block Association
Verdict: Great interview!
To The Editor:
Re “Bike attorney likes how the wheels are turning” (interview, Oct. 20):
What a scintillating interview! Steve Vaccaro comes across as informed, reasoned, dedicated and compassionate.
I hope that the two New Yorkers whose driver-caused injuries were described upfront in the article and whom Steve is representing have an eventual return to full health and mobility.
Steve chose not to mention that the statute enjoining motor vehicle users from “dooring” other road users is Section 1214 of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law.
Charles Komanoff
Nice photo spread
To The Editor:
Re “Pumpkins, cookies and critters at Harvest Fest” (photos, Oct. 13):
Thanks for the nice spread of Tequila Minsky’s photos on the Jefferson Market Garden Harvest Festival. It was truly a lovely Village affair.
Sugar Barry
‘Stick’ with St. John’s plan
To The Editor:
I’m 28, live in Murray Hill and I love playing field hockey. For the past six years, I have been playing with a volunteer-driven women’s field hockey club that practices at the fields at Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. Many of us have been playing the sport since high school. Our club continues to grow as other women discover our team — often by seeing us carrying our field hockey sticks on the subway.
I eagerly await our Sunday pickup games at Pier 40. It’s amazing to play in the heart of Downtown Manhattan with a clear view of the shining 1 World Trade Center, along with those playing baseball, rugby and more. It’s a wonderful, passionate network of athletes from all over the city.
I’ve read that our beloved playing fields have an uncertain future. Experts agree that the piles that keep Pier 40 from collapsing into the Hudson River need to be repaired, and soon.
I believe that the St. John’s Terminal proposal is the best way to save Pier 40. The proposed sale of the Hudson River Park Trust’s unused air rights from the pier would provide the funds necessary to repair the pier’s piles and preserve the fields. I hope that our community leaders will support this plan so that all of us can continue to enjoy this vibrant and valuable neighborhood resource.
Amy Chen
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.
