Op-Ed Letters to the Editor
Johnson sends
a signal?
To The Editor:
Re “New biz bills
don’t fi x closings’
cause” (op-ed, by
Sharon Woolums,
March 28):
Thank you for your
fi ne opinion piece on
the Small Business
Jobs Survival Act,
Sharon. I wonder why
Speaker Corey Johnson
took his name off the bill.
Your writing on this important
subject is always informative
and important.
Maura Tobias
Editor’s note: According to City
Council sources, bills are reintroduced
every session of the
Council. When the S.B.J.S.A.
was reintroduced, Johnson did
not sign on as a sponsor, as he
had done before. As Council
speaker, he signs onto fewer
bills than he did when he was
just a councilmember.
Storefronts
ghost town
To The Editor:
Re “New biz bills don’t fi x
closings’ cause” (op-ed, by
Sharon Woolums, March 28):
It’s been six months since
the City Council fi rst began debating
the passing of a bill, the
Small Business Jobs Survival
Act, to rescue our small businesses
from rent gouging and
death at lease-renewal time.
Since then, I’ve seen my favorite
stationery store close, a little
pastry shop I love shuttered,
my favorite bodega abandoned,
the Cornelia St. Cafe destroyed.
And along Sixth Ave.
from Eighth St. down, a virtual
ghost town of empty stores has
emerged like an urban cancer.
Ignoring cancer is not advisable.
Nor is taking snake
oil to save our struggling little
businesses, which Councilman
Mark Gjonaj’s touted “nine
bills” surely is.
Please! Pass the S.B.J.S.A.
intact immediately. We can’t
take much more of this death
by a thousand cuts, slashing
away the cherished uniqueness
of our city.
Bennett Kremen
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
The Native Leather shop
was on Bleecker St. for
nearly 50 years, but closed
after the landlord would
not renew its lease. The
landlord wanted to double
the rent.
Property taxes
killing ’em, too
To The Editor:
Re “New biz bills don’t fi x
closings’ cause” (op-ed, by
Sharon Woolums, March 28):
High property taxes are also
to blame for high commercial
rents. New York City is characterized
by overspending and
overtaxation. High rents are a
symptom, not the root cause.
Anthony Pappas
Congestion
exemption
To The Editor:
Re “Traffi c pricing a great
idea, if done right” (editorial,
March 28):
I live in the Village and visit
my family in Brooklyn via the
bridge. I believe anyone who
lives below 60th St. should be
exempt from congestion pricing.
The congestion is often
from trucks from Jersey and
other states. There are also
too many out-of-state cars that
clutter our streets and pollute
the air. Bleecker St. used to be
little used. Now it’s continually
backed up by traffi c from people
wanting to “visit” or who
think of our area as a “tourist”
destination. Stop the congesters
— not the residents.
Sylvia Rackow
System
upgrade
needed
To The Editor:
Re “Cheers and
fears at traffi c pricing
forum” (news article,
March 28):
Let’s understand that
those private car services
— Uber, Lyft, Via, black
cabs, etc. — and yellow and
green taxicabs are for-hire
public transportation, which
make it unnecessary for people
to own and use their own cars.
They also provide an alternative
to the currently ineffi cient
and “never-on-time” buses and
subway. Bikes, too, are a boon,
providing economical, environmental
and exercise benefi ts.
If congestion charging has
the goal of pushing more of us
to use public transportation,
the charge should not be implemented
until the governor’s
Metropolitan Transportation
Authority increases the number
of bus and subway runs.
Alan Flacks
Taking taxis
is taxing
To The Editor:
Re “Traffi c pricing a great
idea, if done right” (editorial,
March 28):
The congestion fee has been
in effect for weeks for taxis
($2.50 per ride) and car services
($2.75 per ride). With
the initial charge and other surcharges,
it now costs $6 just to
open a taxi door. Have we seen
fewer “blocked boxes”? Less
congestion? It doesn’t work in
London. It won’t work here.
Jan Hashey
E-mail letters, maximum 250
words, to news@thevillager.
com or fax to 212-229-2790 or
mail to The Villager, Letters to
the Editor, 1 MetroTech North,
10th fl oor, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Please include phone number
for confi rmation. The Villager
reserves the right to edit letters
for space, grammar, clarity and
libel. Anonymous letters will
not be published.
The Angry Buddhist:
L-pocalypse now redux
BY CARL ROSENSTEIN
Bangkok and New York can serve as metaphors for the
opposite natures of Eastern and Western mind. As are
its klongs (canals), and famed go-go dancers, Bangkok’s
streets are all sinews and curves that fl ow and return
like all things, at 4 in the morning, anyway.
Otherwise the city is choked in interminable traffi c. But the
Thai, who have seen their GDP explode over the past 30 years,
have the laissez-faire wisdom to know affordable automobiles
have helped lift millions out of subsistence-level poverty. Do
you want to bend over in a rice paddy your entire life?
“Progress” is attended by
other social ills, but that’s another
matter. This screed is
about traffi c and government.
Back in the antithetical West
on 14th St., the Department
of Transportation’s proposed
street closure, dedicated bus
lane and already emplaced
and hated Village bike lanes
are back like a bad case of herpes.
The viral carrier in this
case are Brooklyn’s Bicycle
Bolsheviks, i.e. Transportation
Alternatives.
TransAlt’s didactic manifesto induces its followers to “save
the planet,” and that requires “reclaiming New York City’s
streets for people” from the bad karma of the elitist motorist.
“Vision Zero” will “save us” and possibly cure cancer. Like
the small clique of apparatchiks who engineered all aspects of
Soviet society, this fevered cell of Brooklyn Bolsheviks have
been transforming Manhattan’s gritty grid into a cow pasture
for dumb, grazing tourists and a thruway for the piggish,
36-speed lycra junta from Park Slope.
The social experiments promoted by TransAlt — dedicated
bike and bus lanes and pedestrian plazas, forcing traffi c-lane
closures — fi rst instituted by an aloof and above-it-all Michael
Bloomberg and now by an aloof and beneath-it-all Bill de Blasio,
have been catastrophically sclerotic, adding danger to pedestrians
and stress to the lives of everyone who drives.
A D.O.T. 2017 study counted only 10,000 bike commuters
from the outer boroughs daily over the East River bridges,
and a maximum total of 27,000 when combined with Manhattan
only riders. Manhattan accommodates 1.6 million
commuters daily. Outer-borough bike commuters constitute
0.00625 percent.
The proposed closing of 14th St., a central artery, to automobiles
and the entire “L-pocalyose” plan that was thrust upon
the Village, Chelsea and adjacent communities is a nightmare.
It was promoted by a TransAlt study by Brooklyn-based BRT
Planning International, whose only projects apparently were
in Kirkland, Washington, and sub-Saharan Africa. I guess
they took AOC’s subway to Kenya.
De Blasio and Council Speaker Corey Johnson recently
backed away from the 14th St. “busway.” The mayor was using
it as a social experiment for liberal causes — because it
would look good on his résumé as he pathetically beats the
bushes around the country before tiny bored audiences.
Johnson, like Bloomberg and de Blasio, is a Bostonian. He
never cheered for Reggie, Jeter, Doc, Clyde, L.T. He probably
worships Tom Brady. Like de Blasio, he seeks higher offi ce.
The self-annointed transportation gurus want to shut down
14th St.: Do it for them, without a permit. It will make international
news. Do the same in Nolita outside the Elizabeth St.
Garden. Ommmmmm.
Schneps Media TVG April 4, 2019 13
link