William unsafe at any speed
To The Editor:
Re “Pace students find traffic problems on William St.” (News article, July 17 – July 30):
Hooray and thanks to the Pace students for pointing out to D.O.T. and the powers that be the serious traffic and pedestrian problems on William St. They have saved me the trouble of writing to the D.O.T. and Councilmember Margaret Chin, who lives as I do on Hanover Square.
I walk up William St. from my home to the Wall St. subway or further for shopping at 40 Wall St. and John St. The white lines indicating pedestrian crosswalks are almost obliterated, the stop signs in large white letters barely visible. Confusion reigns.
Cars either don’t know or don’t want to stop at the various intersections on William St. When a pedestrian steps out it is their turn to cross, not the cars’. The many tourists who increasingly visit this area often do not know whose turn it is and so the cars and taxis and trucks and bikes keep rolling along.
William St. is too narrow for truck traffic or parking. This should be forbidden. And while we are at it, how about cleaning up and repairing the sidewalks? Broken cement slabs and missing tiles at the edge of pedestrian crossings are cracked and missing. They are dangerous!
I hope that Community Board 1 and Councilmember Chin will join me and the students from Pace University in the urgent repairs that are needed on William St.
Diane Fabrizio
Predictable memorial problems
To The Editor:
In May of ‘08 in a letter (June 6 – June 12, 2008) to the Downtown Express I wrote that the World Trade Center memorial voids would require a fence around them to keep some kid from tumbling in.
In public forums held in December of ‘03 (many participants were Downtown residents) all eight final memorial designs were rejected in part due to “maintenance” issues.
Now Community Board 1, elected officials and Downtown residents protest the memorial shutting down eight acres of Downtown starting 9 p.m. every evening. A time that will only get earlier as the days get shorter.
This is in addition for the memorial being most famous for inspiring visitors to sit and clean on the names and pose for happy selfies.
The memorial had two main tasks: commemorate September 11 and merge seamlessly into the neighborhood.
It’s failed on both.
Michael Burke
Hot issue, hot papers
Re: “Southbridge Towers: Should we privatize? Yes or No” (Talking Points, June 19 – July 2):
To The Editor:
We have an unprecedented situation at Southbridge Towers. There are many who want the co-op to leave the Mitchell-Lama program and become a private co-op. The problem is the regulations on asbestos for buyers of privatized stock states that it is an impediment to buyers getting a mortgage (co-op buyer loan).
The board has not shown in the reconstitution plan “Black Book” that our shares of stock will be acceptable by lending institutions as collateral. This means little or no flip tax income which is the heart of the whole problem.
The entire reconstitution is dependent on much additional income which will be needed to cover the high property tax, which will occur when or if the co-op becomes private. Several trial attempts to get a buyer loan “mortgage,” giving all necessary facts and figures about S.B.T., have been rejected.
In addition there is the problem of the “Real Property Transfer Tax.” This will depend on the decision of the city’s appeal on the Trump 3&4 co-op case. If Southbridge privatizes before a decision at Trump, S.B.T. will have to pay the $28 million tax. If the decision is in favor of the city, the $28 million is gone. If the decision is made in favor of Trump 3&4 after a possible privatization, the $28 million will be returned.
The privatization pundits call the above “fear mongering.” What do you think? If this column gets printed, many copies of the Downtown Express will be stolen from the buildings. I wonder why.
Steve Seifer
