Op-Ed Letters to the Editor
Resiliency plan
has holes
To The Editor:
Re “City fl oats post-Sandy
zoning changes” (news article,
thevillager.com, June 26):
Improved zoning to address
the enormous threats and challenges
of climate change, Sandy
scale extreme storm surges
and slowly rising sea levels is
of urgency and necessary.
However, behind these
proposed changes to existing
building codes and regulations
is a sleight of hand approach
— where the city is slowly but
surely shifting the burden of
economic responsibility for
resilience from the public to
the private sector — whether
it be for commerce, industry,
hospitals, public housing or
private dwellings. The mayor’s
plan is neither a solution to existential
fl ooding either in New
York City nor, indeed, for all
of metropolitan New York and
coastal New Jersey.
Seven years after Superstorm
Sandy, the region is almost
as vulnerable as it ever
was. What the city needs to
embrace going forward is a
layered, hybrid approach to
coastal resilience.
We need large storm-surge
barriers, built as far away from
densely developed infrastructure
as possible, built strong
enough to hold back the worst
storm surges nature can hurl
at us, plus modest 3-foot-to-6-
foot-tall perimeter walls, where
necessary, to protect local
communities against sea-level
rise over coming decades.
Only in this way can we save
the city in its present form for
at least the next 100 years.
A one-size-fi ts-all solution of
building high coastal seawalls
along the 1,000-mile perimeter
of New York Harbor, plus
along the lower Hudson and
East rivers, in order to protect
the coastal zone, while expecting
most at-risk infrastructure
to be suitably elevated, is simply
unattainable, unaffordable
and won’t work.
Malcolm Bowman, Ph.D.
Bowman is chairperson, NYNJ
LI Storm Surge Working
Group
Gloria Sukenick, after a 2015 ceremony, with the flower
that accompanied her Clara Lemlich Award.
Wait a few years
To The Editor:
Re “Put mayor in charge of
subways and buses” (opinion,
by Corey Johnson, June 28):
Sure, but let’s wait until the
next mayor. We can’t allow the
worst mayor since Dinkins to
have control over something
this important.
Anton Leong
You can’t be
serious
To The Editor:
Re “Baldwin gets serious
at Judson” (news article, June
13):
Ironic and rather unseemly
that a Judson minister would
use former bad-boy actor Alec
Baldwin (known for slugging
reporters and photographers)
to hype this event — especially
since he lives in a fancy pad off
University Place, and is himself
an example of gentrifi cation in
the Village.
Mary Reinholz
How N.Y.U. could
help out
To The Editor:
Re “Baldwin & Co. mull Village’s
outlook” (news article
June 27):
An idea that would diversify
the population and make New
York University more green
would be for the university to
provide affordable housing for
staff — custodians, cafeteria
workers, etc. — who could
then work and live locally, including
sending their kids to
Village schools.
Bob Harvey
Sukenick was
a role model
To The Editor:
Re “Gloria Sukenick, 94,
Chelsea housing and political
activist” (obituary, thevillager.
com, June 19):
Gloria had a profound infl uence
on my life. She introduced
me to real activism.
She was a stunning woman,
inside and out. She had wonderful
humor and a zest for
life that inspired others to take
stock and make what they did
count and also be enjoyable.
Gloria was a role model and
a mentor. She was a leader with
vision and a friend with heart.
She was one of the brightest
and best people I have known.
Chelsea is a better place because
of Gloria.
Kathy Kinsella
E-mail letters, not longer
than 250 words in length, to
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Villager, Letters to the Editor,
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Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please
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confi rmation purposes. The
Villager reserves the right to
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clarity and libel. Anonymous
letters will not be published.
How The Villager covered the upscaling of Soho.
Was city’s promise
to artists fake news?
BY HARRY PINCUS
As the only certifi ed artist in residence (A.I.R.) still living
in a co-op that some artists founded in 1975, I am currently
in the process of being deported from the small
loft that my family and I own, and have spent decades sanding,
scraping, painting and, most importantly, legalizing.
An original stock certifi cate, an original lease, stamped and
completed permits, and even a passed audit and a “letter of
completion” from the New York City Department of Buildings,
mean nothing to the wealthy new residents of my building, who
are hell-bent on turning an obscene profi t, and feel entitled to
fl atten anyone who stands in their way.
I have no misconceptions about what “Soho” has become,
and no particular objection to removing restrictions against
nonartists, the only people who can afford to come here today.
That said, many of these new arrivals are clearly here to
throw out those of us who pioneered a harsh and forgotten old
stretch of factory buildings, way back in the 20th century. The
protections that the City of New York promised us with the
original Loft Laws for Joint Living-Work Quarters for Artists
(J.L.W.Q.A.) must stand. We created “Soho” and now we need
to be protected against the beast that we inadvertently created.
I was living in a ’58 Chevy purchased for 100 bucks from a
bereft horseplayer when I moved into a deserted harpsichord
factory. It was cold, and the oily factory pallets and fl apping
doors provided more comfort than the Chevy, which had been
broken into on Avenue C.
A life as an artist was taken as a calling, and an artist had
no assurance of ever earning a living. After all, it was a gang of
crazy artists who rescued these “Soho lofts” from Robert Moses’
postwar highway oblivion.
The City of New York created a covenant with artists, by
passing the Loft Laws and the A.I.R. requirements, which also
greatly benefi tted the city by enabling the rehabilitation of a derelict
section of Lower Manhattan. We assumed that our homes
and families would be protected by the A.I.R. requirement, and
couldn’t possibly imagine that these protections would be rescinded
just as we greet the dawn of our old age.
Today, the rule of law is apparently fake news, and mega-real
estate interests announce the doom of anything that is not money
through the fl apping tongues of our elected offi cials!
Pincus is an award-winning illustrator and fi ne artist
Schneps Media TVG July 4, 2019 11
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