Op-Ed Letters to the Editor
Sewing link
To The Editor:
Re “Threads of connection
to Triangle tragedy” (news article,
April 11):
It was an inspiring weekend.
Children also participated in
sewing onto the ribbon.
It is appropriate that sewing,
as a contribution by the public
to the permanent memorial,
has been incorporated into
the fi nal design. Sewing for a
living is how the 146 who perished
made their living at the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
Dianna Maeurer
Tribeca clock
To The Editor:
Re “Singing praises of Tin
Pan Alley” (op-ed, by Corey
Johnson and Sarah Carroll,
April 11):
Preserve Tin Pan Alley.
What of New York’s own “Big
Ben” — the clock atop 346
Broadway? A Rolex watch
with a Swatch interior does not
a Rolex make. Preserving the
exterior without its mechanical
interior is not really preserving
that wonderful clock.
Katherine O’Sullivan
History or hotels
To The Editor:
Re “Singing praises of Tin
Pan Alley” (op-ed, by Corey
Johnson and Sarah Carroll,
April 11):
The fi ve Tin Pan Alley buildings
proposed for landmark
designation, like many buildings
in New York City designated
historic districts, are full
of affordable, rent-regulated
apartments that would be lost
if they weren’t protected.
W. 28th St. between Broadway
and Seventh Ave. currently
has about 15 hotels. Tin Pan
Alley is the cradle of American
popular culture in New York
City, the nation and the world.
It should not be lost for another
crappy chain hotel that even
YIMBY detests.
Affordable housing is not
being forsaken when our built
heritage is protected. Profi -
teering developers are only interested
in luxury apartments
and hotel rooms, which benefi t
no one while taxing our infrastructure.
George Calderaro
Fight facadism
To The Editor:
Re “Singing praises of Tin
Pan Alley” (op-ed, by Corey
Johnson and Sarah Carroll,
April 11):
The clocktower example is
the perfect symbol of a broader
problem at the Landmarks
Preservation Commission
that affects the entire city.
Buildings in historic districts
are now spoken of as having
“landmarked facades.”
The commission protects
only street fronts of buildings
in these districts, and underlying
land values are so high
that developers will leave
money on the table if they
don’t demolish everything
else and build a larger, modern
luxury building behind a
false front. It’s a “Potemkinlike
sop to the landmarks
law,” as The New York Times
recently called facadism.
What good to designate Tin
Pan Alley with only its veneer
preserved? It’ll be a vintage
watch with a quartz movement,
like 346 Broadway.
L.P.C. needs to exercise its
purview over the entire shell
of buildings in historic districts,
rather than letting the
street facades simply screen
bigger replacement buildings
It’s great that Council
Speaker Corey Johnson supports
designation of Tin Pan
Alley. It would be even greater
if he presented a vision for
an improved L.P.C. and made
it part of a run for mayor!
David Holowka
Congrats!
To The Editor:
Re “The Villager wins 7
NYPA contest awards” (news
article, April 11):
Congrats to Villager folks
for keeping the prize-winning
tradition alive! Keep up the
great work.
Michael Armstrong
Armstrong was editor of The
Villager, 1977-’91
Way to go!
To The Editor:
Re “The Villager wins 7
NYPA contest awards” (news
article, April 11):
Fantastic, you guys deserve
it. Keep up the good work!
Jose Quiles a.k.a. Cochise
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.
What community
planning looks like
BY LYNN ELLSWORTH
The phrase “We The People” in the Constitution still has
the power to wake the sleeping idealist within us. It’s
a clarion call to our better nature, to get off our asses
and bend the arc of history toward something better, to come
together to make decisions for the general welfare. It evokes
raised hands at town halls, voting booths, Athenian debating
assemblies of 5,000 people, and ancient fi elds where men assembled
and banged their shields to indicate their assent — or
not — to a call to war.
“We The People” conveys
fairness: a political community
with the right
Our
to gather and fi gure
things out. It is why
we are so enraged
that the Electoral
democracy
College renders
our vote pointless,
is too
why newcomers to
New York City are
representative.
shocked to learn
they cannot elect
community board
members, why women
gathered in Washington,
and why disenfranchised
groups throughout history took
to the streets demanding to be part of “We The People.”
It is also why many New Yorkers are contemptuous of the
use of the fake participatory community-planning “processes”
that have become popular among city politicians. There are
many types of such processes, ranging from the participatorybudgeting
sideshow that even Brian Lehrer on WNYC has
made fun of, to the tightly curated and controlled “working
groups” set up to create the illusion of community approval for
rezonings. Such groups were used for the South St. Seaport,
Midtown and East Harlem, and a new one has been set up for
the unneeded Soho rezoning. Now there are also micromanaged
“neighborhood advisory groups” that the mayor created
to thwart opponents of the expensive new tower-jails.
Representative and indirect forms of democracy make
sense when the geography is vast and communication diffi -
cult. Scholars think that is why our founding fathers created
the Electoral College in the fi rst place. How else to manage
voting in a vast country with rough roads and no Internet?
That also means that representative, indirect democracy
makes little sense when the geography is as small as a neighborhood.
Athens at the peak of its democracy only had 30,000
people! Even Los Angeles manages to have elected neighborhood
councils, so why don’t we? Of course, city politicians
will resist local democracy.
We might give neighborhoods more power over managing
public spaces — sidewalks, street parking, stoplights, placement
of crossing guards, organization of trash pickup, street
trees, bike racks, parks, public-private plazas. We could also
give residents power to veto egregiously out-of-context buildings,
to say no to buildings that require spot rezoning or excessive
air-rights transfers. Use your imagination!
Our city democracy has become too representative, taking
power away from “We The People.” Community planning
must begin with every resident having the right to raise their
hand or bang their shield on local issues that matter.
Ellsworth is chairperson, Tribeca Trust, and president,
Human-Scale NYC
The New York State Court
of Appeals recently ruled
that the developers of 346
Broadway (“The Clock
Tower Building”) can turn
the historic clock tower
into a residential penthouse.
6sqft reported that,
“According to the judge,
the Landmarks Preservation
Commission does
not have the authority to
give access to the building
and the agency’s plan
to make the 19th-century
clock run electronically is
reasonable.”
Schneps Media TVG April 18, 2019 15
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