Op-Ed Letters to the Editor
IBM Watson is a tenant at
51 Astor Place, nicknamed
the “Death Star” and a
southern outpost of the
“tech spread” currently
spanning from Union
Square to Chelsea, Greenwich
Village, the East Village
and Hudson Square.
Build anew for
tech
To The Editor:
Re “Tech check” (editorial,
Feb. 28):
I feel like the approach to
zoning in this editorial unfortunately
privileges neighborhood
aesthetics over what goes on in
our neighborhoods. We need to
recognize that the tech companies
are already here, and that
they are wealthy. They will do
business where they want to,
which is near other established
tech fi rms south of Midtown,
from Flatiron to Astor Place.
As such, the real question
we face is whether these fi rms
should build their own offi ces
or displace existing businesses
from spaces that already exist.
You can see this happening
in real time, as Google
has slowly taken over more of
Chelsea Market, and Facebook
buys up space from Kmart. Say
what you will about the “Death
Star” on Astor Place, but it
means that IBM isn’t engaging
in a zero-sum battle for offi ce
space with local therapists and
newspapers.
Personally, I would rather
the zoning from University
Place to Third Ave. allow for
taller buildings — in a very literal
sense, it would mean more
room for everyone.
Will Thomas
Thomas is a board member,
Open New York, a pro-housing
advocacy group
Amazon shall
return
To The Editor:
As a New Yorker, I believe
that living here in the greatest
city in the world attracts
the best and brightest folks
along with madmen, criminals,
bums and the mentally ill
by the score. Except for London,
I cannot imagine living
anywhere else.
Hey, we are going to give
Amazon $3 billion and they
are coming to Queens, promising
25,000 jobs with salaries
of about $150,000 a year.
But, some stupid lefties went
nuts. It was not “giving” those
bucks, but tax abatements,
which would be returned in the
years to come.
I still think Amazon will
come to New York, since it
wants the best and brightest.
Why would the best want to
live in mediocre cities with all
those bucks to spend? Where
would they go, the mall, Dairy
Queen, McDreck?
Bert Zackim
Happy with
Hoppe
To The Editor:
Re “V.I.D. votes” (Scoopy’s
Notebook, Feb. 21):
I worry that readers might
be misled by your brief report
on the Village Independent
Democrats’ endorsement for
female district leader.
The implication is that I am
not happy with the result. That
is so wrong — I am proud of
the process and thrilled with
Jen Hoppe. She will be a fi ne
district leader.
I want everyone to know
how she was chosen. Jen was
one of the half-dozen women I
spoke with personally, encouraging
them to become district
leader. When I announced
three months ago that I was
resigning, I said I planned to
fi nd several good candidates,
and then let V.I.D. endorse one
while the others would support
that one. I personally and privately
encouraged six potential
candidates, and then four of
them decided to run. If someone
else had also wanted to
run, I would have encouraged
her, too.
By endorsement night, we
had two great candidates, Jen
Hoppe and Elissa Stein. I said
at that meeting that they were
both wonderful, and that I
would be happy with V.I.D.’s
choice. That is how democracy
is supposed to work — a
leader is NOT supposed to quietly
pick a successor, but the
leader should make sure that
good successors are ready for
the job.
I am very proud of many aspects
of my tenure as district
leader: The 75 Morton middle
school and cookies to poll
workers are among the best accomplishments
of my life! Recruiting
good successors, and
then trusting V.I.D. to choose,
is another accomplishment!
Kathleen (“Keen”) Berger
Berger is district co-leader,
66th Assembly District, Part A
Not an ‘offi ce
park’
To The Editor:
Re “Local pols put heads
together on Pier 40” (news article,
Feb. 28):
An offi ce building in Hudson
River Park is not an offi ce
park — it is a park. Pier 57 is
already an offi ce.
There are greater possibilities
to provide revenue for the
park within the true nature of
Hudson River Park’s original
mission. I hope politicians and
park leadership have imagination
and vision and don’t fall
prey to what may be short-term
easy but long-term hard.
David Polakoff
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
Impeach Nadler!
BY CARL ROSENSTEIN
A.K.A. THE ANGRY BUDDHIST
Articles of impeachment
against Jerrold Nadler, Congressman
from New York’s 10th District
A. Undemocratically elected to Congress in “collusion”
with The New York Democratic machine in 1992 after incumbent
Ted Weiss dies days before the primary election.
B. Personal war in the 1990s with Developer Donald J.
Trump, leading to the continued existing elevated West Side
Highway, preventing additional, unimpeded Hudson River
parkland at Trump’s Riverside South Development, formerly
Penn Rail Yards.
C. Lying to the Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Tribeca
communities for 26 years on the one-way toll on the Verrazano
Bridge, the greatest air-pollution crisis in New York City,
and costing the M.T.A. hundreds of millions of lost revenue.
D. Failure to rescind toll when the Democratic Party had
total control of Congress and Executive branch, 2009-11.
E. Failure of the now-powerful congressman to include legislation
to rescind the toll in the latest 2019 “Wall” Spending
Bill, with the Democratic Party in control of the House of
Representatives.
F. Failure as Democratic Judiciary chairperson to investigate
Big Tech censorship.
G. Making false statements, Dec. 11, 2018, before the
House Judiciary Committee, claiming that Google “does not
censor content.”
H. Failure to retract false and dangerous statements regarding
“Russian infl uence” after Google C.E.O. Sundar Pichai
testifi ed on Dec. 11, 2018, in response to Nadler’s questioning,
that “ad accounts linked to Russia” spent in total “about
$4,700 in advertising” to politically infl uence Americans.
I. Making disrespectful, false and dangerous statement,
Feb. 19, 2018, on MSNBC claiming Russian trolling was an
“act of war...equivalent to Pearl Harbor.”
J. Failure to oppose U.S. wars in the Middle East that have
killed millions and cost trillions but to oppose Trump’s peace
initiatives in Syria, Afghanistan and North Korea.
K. Failure to open an investigation into the rigging of the
2016 Democratic primary by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic
National Committee, including the disenfranchisement
of 240,000 New York city voters in the primary.
Summary
It’s time for Nadler to go — above all because he has failed
miserably to serve his constituents. His personal obsession
with Trump, who bested him repeatedly in real estate turf
wars and taunted him, makes him unfi t to represent us. Nadler’s
entire raison d’être is revenge.
We the people ultimately will suffer Trump’s vindictiveness
directed at Nadler. We need a representative to win funding
for security, our crumbling infrastructure and mass transit.
But most of all, Nadler must go for his pathetic inability for
26 years to rescind the one-way toll on the Verrazano Bridge.
Even when toll collection was recently abandoned in favor of
electronic tolling, he was unable to strike a deal with Republican
Staten Island — or maybe he didn’t even bother. The
toll has been the true assault on his Downtown Manhattan
constituents for decades — not the goddamned Ruskies.
Ommmmmmm… .All of the above articles of impeachment
can be verifi ed via Google (for now).
Schneps Media TVG March 7, 2019 13
link