Just say no to Nublu
To The Editor:
Re “Nublu is cool” (letter, by Mac McGill, April 10):
Let me start off by saying that Mac McGill and I have been good friends for many years.
Next, let me point out that I am not particularly for, or against, the new bars. Because Community Board 3 sold out the neighborhood years ago, the new bars are here and I don’t believe there is a whole lot that we can do about it.
Will all of that said, I would remind Mac that he and his family live on what is basically a quiet, residential side street. He does not have a late-night al fresco sports bar almost directly across the street. His building is not sandwiched between a late-night bar/garden restaurant and a cheap pizza parlor that caters to the late-night bar crowd, which is also right next door to the Nublu site, which just happens to be two doors up from a late-night al fresco restaurant/bar.
One last thing (that I can think of) that Mac does not have to deal with is dozens of people hailing cabs every morning between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. (after 4 a.m. on weekends). If Mac and his family find Nublu to be such a good neighbor, perhaps they can go up and down their block with a petition and bring Nublu… . No, wait a minute, Nublu tried that, and while they obviously made good money as a semi-neighborhood bar, they have decided to go for the big money and cater to — guess who? — the late-night bar crowd a.k.a. the aging frat boys.
Jerry The Peddler
Protect this gem
To The Editor:
Re “Museum fears plaster disaster from next-door hotel project” (news article, April 17):
When something new threatens something old, deeper considerations must be taken to preserve the integrity of our past. The Merchant’s House museum is a treasure that has kept her petticoats and plasterwork demurely intact these 182 years, and is now threatened with a new structure that, if it finally wins its go-ahead, will shake her very foundation, literally.
The Merchant’s House museum is an old and cherished house, kept alive by its devoted conservators and docents, retaining and adding to its historical value in this city.
I live on the West Coast but was privileged to be introduced to this little gem on a recent visit to New York City. A new eight-story hotel only feet from the museum’s western wall would physically threaten this fragile piece of history.
In a society that seems to only value youth and disposability, can we not learn to respect what came before? Major construction next door may well cause this lovely bit of history to crumble. Landmarks Preservation Commission, please…stand firm.
Thea Bernstein
Roberto had it right
To The Editor:
Re “Museum fears plaster disaster from next-door hotel project” (news article, April 17):
This makes me cry!
I had the privilege of being able to talk with Joe Roberto all the time when he was staff architect at New York University and I worked at N.Y.U. as well, and we got to talk about “space,” in general.
Joe was a visionary who stood on the foundation of historic preservation. He was a gentleman and a scholar and took flights of fancy that he morphed into workable renderings.
Joe was so meticulous and caring that when N.Y.U. renovated the space that became Stern dorm and now Paulette Goddard Hall he calculated what a student would need — how many shirts, underwear, shoes, suit, slacks — and built in space for it.
And all the beautiful Christmases at Merchant’s House. I wish I had been more vocal during midlife about preservation, so I would not have to read a story like this.
Judith Chazen Walsh
Contextual coverage
To The Editor:
Re “Inventions, Jell-O and fun gel at Cooper’s block party” (news article, April 17):
Thank you for your wonderful and contextual coverage of the Cooper Union Founder’s Day block party. It was indeed “interesting” to see the alumni association president, the board of trustees president and the college president and his bodyguards out in public together, especially since the president has gone into a sort of self-imposed quarantine from the campus for a year.
Two minor corrections. First, Peter Cooper was born 223 years ago in 1791 on Feb. 12 and died 131 years ago in 1883 on April 4. Neither date is connected to the time or location of the Founder’s Day celebration. The event was, for the first time, “open and free to all,” to quote Mr. Cooper, and was, like many other recent alumni events, held at no cost to the college, thanks to many generous alumni donors and volunteers.
Second, it’s true that several of the awards — including the Alumnus of the Year award, given to Sean Cusack of the Cooper Union Task Force, and the Young Alumnus of the Year awards, given to Henry Chapman, of Friends of Cooper Union, and Victoria Sobel, of Free Cooper Union — are given annually. But the awards given to Mike Borkowsky, Jeffrey Gural and myself were special awards not given annually.
I’ll be sponsoring another event “as free as air and water” on Sun., April 27, at 1 p.m., the First Annual Visit to Green-Wood Cemetery to watch Peter Cooper spin in his grave. It will be a solemn gathering to mourn the trustee decisions on Sundays in April (in 2012 and 2013) to kill the full-tuition scholarship for graduates and undergraduates.
Barry Drogin
Disturbing arrests
To The Editor:
I moved to the East Village 40 years ago, on April 1, 1974. The area was mostly Italian, Sicilian. Mary Help of Christians Church was still standing. The priests and the Mass were Italian. People would sit outside, speaking Italian. I got my little apartment because I spoke Italian.
There were bakeries, butcher shops, fish stores and at least four fruit and vegetable stores in the same area. E. 11th St. was all Italian, from Second Ave. to Avenue B. There was a Catholic school on E. 11th behind the church.
Slowly, things changed. In the ’80s, “artists” moved in and, one by one, the stores disappeared and bars moved in — together with restaurants that one cannot afford anymore. Then the church disappeared, too.
But when there still was a church, they ran a flea market in its backyard. How happy I was to go there. Even if I didn’t buy anything, there I would see people from the past who have moved out. Priced out.
When Mary Help of Christians was sold, the flea market moved to the church on E. 14th St. between Avenue A and First Ave.
On Saturdays and Sundays, people would sell stuff outside where the flea market used to be. They were mostly homeless from the neighborhood. I know most of them. It was tolerated, mostly. From time to time, a police cruiser would come by and the cops would tell them to move on.
On Sun., March 9, around 1 p.m. I was walking the dog. I thought to say hello to the guys. A big black man was saying to a small Hispanic man, “Stop screaming at me.”
I didn’t realize he was a cop.
“He is not screaming,” I said. “He talks like this.”
I walked to the end of the block where I knew somebody. He was about to say hello to me. Suddenly, out of nowhere, another black man came, giving him a bear hug, pushing him against a car and slapping handcuffs on one of his hands. The cop used brutal force on him to cuff the other hand.
Another man was also being arrested.
So I went to the big black man and told him, “Stop harassing these men. The cops are here.”
“I am the cop,” he tells me.
Then another cop came out, arresting someone else. These undercovers looked like homeless themselves. What a disguise.
A man selling books was arrested, too. What about the First Amendment?
I screamed, “A black man to a black man, a Hispanic to a Hispanic. Bunch of Uncle Toms, motherf——. I am a honky. I would never treat someone, white or black, that way. You are worse than us white people. You are like the KKK with a black face.”
How I do remember years back, when I was assaulted and left for dead. When I recognized one of the attackers and cops wouldn’t budge to arrest him. Or when I was burglarized and 11 years of my research gone, how they were laughing.
P.S., I have a master’s in criminal justice from John Jay. I am 77 years old and hope to make it until I am 80.
Ginette Schenk
Developers vs. parks
To The Editor:
Re “Squadron touts ‘20 percent solution’ for needy parks” (news article, April 3):
As someone who has had a strong interest in public space and the New York City Parks Department, I applaud state Senator Daniel Squadron’s efforts to address city park inequity.
If “taxing” the affluent conservancies doesn’t work, another form of tax — say, perhaps on plastic bags — could be dedicated to the upkeep and maintenance of the city parks system. The income from concessions often goes to the city’s general fund.
As Assemblymember Glick pointed out, the city’s budget has been radically slashed over the last 60 years. And we know why. By keeping the Parks Department impoverished, it makes it easier to alienate parkland for developers who perceive parkland as undeveloped real estate. It also makes the city less liveable for the less well-off, encouraging spatial deconcentration — the push of low-income residents out of the inner city.
Jack Brown
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