Dude, what are you doing?
To The Editor:
Re “No joke: Dude Perfect pledges ‘perfect court’ ” (news article, May 7):
Has the Department of Parks and Recreation decided that the Tompkins Square basketball courts need to be upgraded for future media-event tournaments that do not serve our community? I know of no complaints about the current state of the basketball courts.
The commerce in our neighborhood well serves young people with disposable income. But the basketball courts are one of the few amenities that serve all the local youth.
This renovation will take several weeks during what would normally be the peak time of court use. What’s the purpose of this decision? Was the community board consulted?
Rob Hollander
Robbing the local economy
To The Editor:
Re “Tax credit gets an ‘F’ on church-state separation” (talking point, Deborah Glick, May 7):
Religious organizations already receive more tax breaks than they deserve — doubly so for the mega-churches. Businesses giving tax-credited money to religious schools robs the local economy of taxable income. And to double the damage done, the religious organizations spend the money, and again taxes are not paid.
Rodney Hinds
Keep religion out of it
To The Editor:
Re “Tax credit gets an ‘F’ on church-state separation” (talking point, Deborah Glick, May 7):
“Tax benefits” are public funds — funds that are required to be paid by the taxpayer, for public services. The government handles taxation. Separation of church and state means that tax benefits cannot be — however they arrive there — granted to religious organizations.
You dress it up and dress it up, and call it this or call it that, but it remains the same — an end-around, accomplishing the same goal. You could have one middleman, or 20, but you are taking money from the state or federal treasury, and causing it to be used for religious purposes.
Patrick Shields
Needs wider exposure
To The Editor:
Re “Long-lost Hitchcock Holocaust film to show at Jewish museum” (news article, May 7):
Will this be available via PBS in the near future? Will this be available as a DVD?
Frank W. Towers
To heck with hierarchs
To The Editor:
Re “The long goodbye is over for old Lithuanian church in Hudson Square” (news article, April 30):
It is a crying shame that ethnic monuments are in the hands of hierarchs who are ready to sell them and destroy them for money. The federal, state and city statutes for monument preservation are defective.
The parishioners put up a valiant fight, but were abandoned by America’s and Lithuania’s hierarchs. They were supported by sedevacantists and their spiritual leaders.
This is a lesson for tomorrow to build ethnic Catholic churches free from Roman Catholic hierarchy.
Saulius Simoliunas
Disabled get screwed
To The Editor:
Able-bodied Westbeth artists leave the building through the main entrance at 55 Bethune St. and down four steps to the sidewalk. The mobility impaired who can’t maneuver the steps come and go through the entrance on 744 Washington St., designated by the Department of Transportation as the official place for pickup and drop-off by accessible vehicles. It also has an indoor waiting area with chairs.
Sometime ago, the board of directors, in violation of city law, narrowed the already narrow Washington St. sidewalk to an illegal 3-foot width — not wide enough for maneuvering a wheelchair — when scaffolding posts were placed directly on the sidewalk. In June 2014 the board’s executive director announced that the scaffolding was improper and would be replaced by October 2014 with a wider, legal one. In December, not only had it not been replaced, it was extended, and a violation was issued by D.O.T and the Department of Buildings.
Last week the board, with unthinkable arrogance, and the tacit approval of D.O.T. and D.O.B., had the Washington St. sidewalk lined with concrete barriers, banning assessable vehicles from the pickup zone, and instructed Access-a-Ride passengers to wait on the corner of Bethune St. or Bank St. instead. The mobility-impaired who cannot navigate the scaffolding posts or the stairs are now forced to take the following route: leave the elevator, go through the mailroom, up a ramp with no rail or platform, through a glassed-in foyer, into the inner courtyard, through the underpass, down a too-steep ramp, across the broken surface of the outer courtyard, turn left at Bank St., and go half a block to Washington St., and wait on the corner of Bank St. or Bethune St. for their ride — rain or shine.
Last week, a screwdriver fell eight floors from the scaffolding to the corner of Washington and Bethune Sts., nearly missing an artist in a wheelchair and another passerby. Nevertheless, this potentially dangerous situation, the board tells us, will continue until the end of the summer. To quote Clint Eastwood: “Are you feeling lucky?”
Margie Rubin
Rubin is a member, Disabled in Action
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