Noise will be monstrous
To The Editor:
Re “Diller and DVF give huge gift to create park art pier” (news article, Nov. 20):
Diller’s proposed monument to himself is monstrous and nothing that the neighborhood needs. An amphitheater at its center? Do you have any idea how sound reverberates and travels upward?
Susan Brownmiller
Pier55 floats her boat
To The Editor:
Re “Diller and DVF give huge gift to create park art pier” (news article, Nov. 20):
What a great concept, as well as terrific, crystal-clear writing by Lincoln Anderson. This park would be quite a supplement to the High Line.
Diane Lebedeff
Pier is pretty, but practical?
To The Editor:
Re “Diller and DVF give huge gift to create park art pier” (news article, Nov. 20):
We are not living in a time when we can decide public parkland policy by the whim of the wealthy or the fond wishes of the rest of us. In this era of extreme climate change, we need innovative, scientifically verifiable land use proposals that will both protect our coasts and make our city resilient and ecologically sustainable. These must be our first priorities.
The Pier55 design is pretty, but when the next hurricane comes or the next unbearable heat wave, will this have been the very best use of public shoreland, the best use of scant park resources?
Even assuming the very best of intentions and even with any real benefits, this plan further encourages the drift toward the privatization of public parkland. “Desperate government is our best customer,” said the chairperson of a major finance company specializing in infrastructure privatization in the midst of the financial crisis in 2008.
Donations are wonderful. But funds allocated using the most democratic process available to us? Priceless.
K Webster
Diller must do more
To The Editor:
Re “Diller and DVF give huge gift to create park art pier” (news article, Nov. 20):
At the very least, there should be an endowment funded by Diller to cover the maintenance of this park in perpetuity, and not just for 20 to 30 years.
Leonie Haimson
Pier55’s big payoff
To The Editor:
Re “Diller and DVF give huge gift to create park art pier” (news article, Nov. 20):
The notion of this being a “gift” is questionable, if not laughable. Consider the same couples’ huge “gift” to the High Line park.
Their real estate holdings (buildings, homes and the Diane von Furstenberg store, all right near the High Line) realized an increase in value far above the sum they donated. In other words, it’s a very savvy investment, not a gift.
Their fellow billionaires who owned the nearby private properties likewise made a huge killing from the tax dollars invested in the High Line.
How many billions in profit will they realize from this latest real estate trickery posing as philanthropy?
Robert Lederman
Lederman is president, A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response to Illegal State Tactics)
Lease is too vague
To The Editor:
Re “Diller and DVF give huge gift to create park art pier” (news article, Nov. 20):
I am concerned about the “Open-Entry or Free or Low-Cost (OEFLC) Obligation” for Pier55. Luckily, within the 165-page lease agreement, it is completely described in paragraph 9.03 on page 25. Unfortunately, the term “low-cost” is not defined, and the only requirement is that OEFLC permitted events be “reasonably distributed across each Season.”
The phrase “reasonably distributed” is also not defined. So it is quite possible to offer no open-entry or free events and only “low-cost” events, and never to offer them on Friday and Saturday nights, or never on weekends, so that the ticketed and fundraising events completely dominate the times when the general (non-student/non-senior) public cannot attend.
I am not saying this will happen. I am saying that, to protect the public interest, this language needs to be improved. And, given the two bridge entry points in the Pier55 design, it is obvious that — no matter what the Hudson River Park Trust may be saying now — for reasons of health and safety, during ticketed events, there will be no access to the rest of the pier by the general public.
Barry Drogin
Loved and stood by him
To The Editor:
Re “Daniel Meltzer, 74, writer who saved the Beacon” (obituary, Nov. 20):
Dan and I were engaged in 2003 when he first became diagnosed with liver cancer. He had three-quarters of his liver removed and he recovered and was cancer-free for almost five years. Then he became diagnosed with prostate cancer. I have loved him and stood by him throughout many years. He is actually survived by more than eight cousins, who I am sure will be celebrating him from San Francisco, to Tel Aviv, to Los Angeles, and to Minneapolis and to Florida and Arizona. He died holding my hand and I loved him always.
Mary Foster
Give tofurky a try
To The Editor:
This week, President Obama will pardon two turkeys to promote the turkey industry. Every one of us can exercise that same pardon power by choosing a nonviolent Thanksgiving observance. It’s a most fitting way to give thanks for our own life, health and happiness.
The 240 million turkeys killed in the U.S. this year have nothing to give thanks for. They are raised in crowded sheds filled with toxic fumes. Their beaks and toes are severed. At the slaughterhouse, workers cut their throats and dump them into boiling water, sometimes while still alive.
Consumers too pay a heavy price. Turkey flesh is laced with cholesterol and saturated fats that elevate the risk of chronic killer diseases.
Labels warn of food poisoning potential.
This Thanksgiving, I won’t be calling the government’s Poultry Hotline, wondering how that turkey lived and died, or dozing through the football game. Our Thanksgiving dinner may include a “tofurky” (soy-based roast), mashed potatoes, stuffed squash, chestnut soup, candied yams, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and carrot cake. An Internet search on “vegan Thanksgiving” and a visit to my local supermarket will provide me more recipes and delicious turkey alternatives than I can possibly use.
Nico Young
The sky’s the limit!
To The Editor:
Re “University Place and Broadway in the crosshairs” (talking point, by Andrew Berman, Nov. 23):
Andrew Berman writes that a 23-story building planned for the site of the Bowlmor Lanes at University Place and 12th St. “will be one of the tallest, if not the tallest, structures ever erected in this historically low-rise neighborhood.”
There are already tall buildings on University Place. The Brevoort East, at Ninth St. and University, is 26 stories tall. One University Place, near Washington Square, is 22 stories tall. Way back in 1904, the middle building of the Hotel Albert, at 67 University Place, was completed. It is 12 stories tall, and was probably the tallest building on University Place at that time. It is a beautiful building and is landmarked.
What is the ugliest building on University Place? It is probably the old Bowlmor site.
George Jochnowitz
Cops of the world
To The Editor:
Everything that is happening in Iraq now is happening because the United States, without provocation and based entirely on assumption, decided to play cops of the world and invade a foreign country with a stable government. I agree that Saddam Hussein was a vainglorious and cruel dictator. He did not, however, have an army of zealots marching through the countryside. There were not untold numbers of refugees, orphans and widows. Almost one-quarter of a million people did not lose their lives to the ravages of war, and there were no beheadings of Americans.
Jerry The Peddler
Fall ball is really grand
To The Editor:
Re “Why playing fall ball is cool in so many ways” (sports article, Nov. 6):
Seeing my grandson and his friends play fall ball makes it all worthwhile. It keeps the enjoyment of the sport going until it begins again next spring.
Arlyn Saracino
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. The Villager does not publish anonymous letters.
