Op-Ed Letters s to the Ed
Editor
Former Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau prosecuted
East Village anarchists harshly after the 1990 May Day
riot in Tompkins Square Park, according to letter writer
Bill Weinberg. More than a dozen people were arrested
for disorderly conduct and assault on police.
‘Small Kitchen,’
big headache
To The Editor:
Re “Loud Soho restaurant
‘wrecked block’: Neighbors”
(news article, Aug. 1):
Sometimes a restaurant
moves into a neighborhood
and is oblivious to the residents
where it has situated itself. So
it is with Thompson St.’s Piccola
Cucina that attracts a very
fun-loving clientele. That’s fi ne,
but… .
There is no accommodation
— exposed brick that bounces
the music and yelling around
like a pinball machine — to the
fact this eatery is on a (formerly)
quiet residential street.
Come summer, it’s ultra-volume
music and happy chatter,
with voices at elevated pitch trying
to be heard above the music.
It can be heard one-quarter
the distance of the block to the
corner.
One building resident moved
out because of the racket, actually
relocating in the neighborhood
due to the noise.
It appears after a deluge of
complaints that the restaurant
has begun to adhere to its stipulation
and closes its glass windows/
doors by the designated
10 p.m. Or maybe they’re just
keeping the air conditioning
inside.
But noise isn’t the restaurant’s
only “ignoring the neighborhood”
modus operandi. Hordes
blocking the sidewalk — waiting
for tables or hanging out —
prevent people who are trying
to pass. The mass also includes
a cadre of smokers, mostly funloving
PHOTO BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL
Europeans, who can’t
smoke inside.
The restaurant generates so
much garbage that the trash
receptacles are tossed wily-nilly
on the sidewalk after the pickup,
blocking the sidewalk in the
morning. Asked about this, the
restaurant blames its sanitation
company, instead of having the
containers moved inside in a
timely fashion.
The restaurant’s owner has
two others in Soho. Noise is
similarly generated from the
Spring St. location, and one
neighbor who lives across the
street is kept up at night when
apartment windows are open.
The Spring St. restaurant
drilled into a tree to hang a
holder for its promotional material
and menus when the
restaurant is closed. Someone
must have complained, since
that was short-lived.
Even the outdoor seating on
Spring St. violates the required
8-foot clearance from the barrier
on the nearby tree pit.
Darlene Nation
Help, police!
To The Editor:
Re “Loud Soho restaurant
‘wrecked block’: Neighbors”
(news article, Aug. 1):
This scene is not any different
from what goes on at Felix,
at West Broadway and Grand
St., every Sunday.
I too have contacted the First
Precinct many times, as have
my neighbors, and been told
that police have sat down with
the owner and have his cooperation.
Nothing has changed.
I suggest that people show up
at the First Precinct on the last
Thursday of the month to voice
their complaints.
It’s disgusting how these bar/
restaurant owners get away
with this stuff and we are getting
no support from the police
or Community Board 2.
Kay Powell
Time to speak up
To The Editor:
Re “Loud Soho restaurant
‘wrecked block’: Neighbors”
(news article, Aug. 1):
This is a police matter. Register
the complaint with 311
and call the precinct. Go to the
monthly First Precinct Community
Council Meeting. Insist
they do their jobs. Also tell the
community board and the State
Liquor Authority.
Unless people show up at
community board hearings or
register complaints, the board
is unlikely to even know there
are problems with restaurants.
Lora Tenenbaum
‘Morgy’
memories
To The Editor:
Re “Robert Morgenthau, 99,
iconic D.A.” (obituary, Aug. 1):
The Central Park 5 later sued
the city and won a multimillion
dollar settlement — which
Donald Trump protested in a
Daily News opinion piece.
Given this is The Villager, it
would be good to recall Morgenthau’s
prosecution of the
Tompkins Square anarchists
after the 1990 May Day riot.
Kenny Toglia served a year in
Rikers on dubious “incitement”
charges thanks to Morgenthau’s
prosecutorial zeal.
Bill Weinberg
E-mail letters, not longer than
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.
Elizabeth Street
Garden’s roots
BY BARBARA CAPORALE
In the late 1800s to early 1900s my great-grandparents had
a dry-goods store on Elizabeth and Prince Sts., which they
lived above.
The Elizabeth St. Garden would have been such an amenity
for my grandfather to play in as a youth, and families to
picnic in.
I’m certain much playing was done in the streets since they
were safer then, and children could be watched from the windows.
I do not know what green space existed then other than
the St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral yard cemetery. The old public
school on the Elizabeth St. Garden site allegedly provided
some community space.
The statues and monuments that exist in the Elizabeth St.
Garden bring us back to rooted history, when buildings were
designed artistically, with sculptural detail — things that I
crave to cling to for perspective and connectivity.
Everything that’s built nowadays is box-like, too much glass,
or just plain ugly.
My grandfather became one of the fi rst homegrown Italian
architects to graduate from Pratt. He went on to build homes
in Brooklyn and other parts of the city and, I’m sure, lots of
the older brickwork buildings in Lower Manhattan with more
personality. The homes that I know of that he built in Brooklyn
all supplied green space, probably since his youth was
greatly lacking in that and he realized what families need.
When I look at the statues in the Elizabeth St. Garden, I am
transported back in time. I see my relatives, long skirts, straw
hats, knickers, and I hear “While Strolling Through the Park
One Day” in my head, and Italian mandolins and accordions.
Maybe some of the proponents of the Elizabeth St. Garden
are new gentrifi ers. However, they join those of us who have
struggled to remain in our neighborhoods. They understand
what is of value to families, and the needs for humans to interact
or just refl ect in urban spaces with nature, near their
mostly tiny apartments in tenement buildings.
We have learned from the recent history of new development
in the neighborhood, that you never get the community
benefi t that was promised — and it takes so long for any green
to be re-established.
Yes, we need housing. But the Haven Green affordable
housing project should be switched to the West Side site, approved
by Community Board 2, that is much more developable
and would provide more units — more units that would
be low income and ultra-low income, truly affordable.
And thank you — not! — Rudeness Giuliani for selling off
most of the city-owned land, making creating new affordable
housing development more diffi cult.
I actually recently went and found the storefront where my
great-grandparents had their dry-goods store that they and
their family lived above. I went inside and looked at the old
brick high ceilings and wood beams and touched everything.
LOL. And then I also went down Mulberry St. to fi nd where
they had a store in the 1890s.
I’m sure my Italian forebears would have supported saving
the beautiful Elizabeth St. Garden. I know they would be
deeply saddened to hear Mayor de Blasio wants to destroy it.
Caporale is a longtime activist in Downtown Manhattan.
Schneps Media TVG August 8, 2019 13
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