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To The Editor:
I live on E. Sixth St. and walk to Astor Place. I could
not understand why so many stores were vacant on the
uptown, East Side corner of Third Ave. and St Mark’s. It
seems that demolition is to take place. The Continental
Bar is now closed, too.
The old apartment building where many of these
stores were located, along with some “taxpayers,” has
been vacated. The building has to have been there more
than 125 years, and is a lovely remnant of the 19th century.
In my boyhood, long ago, it was a dump apartment
building, many junkies were in there.
My father and I went inside to see a client of his, as
he was a lawyer.
Will this lovely building be demolished, or is it landmarked?
Bert Zackim
Editor’s note: At last notice, that property was all slated
for redevelopment as a new offi ce building.
City can run the M.T.A.
To The Editor:
There is a simple legal solution to City Council Speaker
Corey Johnson’s call for City Hall to regain control of
the New York City bus and subway system.
In 1953, the old New York city Board of Transportation
passed on control of the municipal subway system,
including all its assets, under a master lease and
operating agreement to the newly created New York
City Transit Authority. Under the late Governor Nelson
Rockefeller in the ’60s, the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority was created.
Buried within the 1953 master agreement between
New York City and NYC Transit is an escape clause. The
city has the legal right at any time to take back control of
its assets. This includes the subway and bus system.
Actions speak louder than words. If Council Speaker
Johnson or anyone else feels City Hall could do a better
job managing the M.T.A. — including running the nation’s
largest subway and bus system — they have the
legal option to do so and regain control.
It should also be pointed out that Mayor Bill de Blasio
appoints four of the M.T.A. board members and one of
the four members of the M.T.A. Capital Program Review
Board. A second member of the C.P.R.B. is appointed
by Assembly Speaker Carl Hastie, who hails from the
Bronx. This second member, just like the mayor’s appointee,
is an advocate for New York City interests.
REPORTER
SYDNEY PEREIRA
CONTRIBUTORS
MICHELE HERMAN
MILO HESS
BOB KRASNER
TEQUILA MINSKY
MARY REINHOLZ
PAUL SCHINDLER
KATE WALTER
ART DIRECTORS
JOHN NAPOLI
MARCOS RAMOS
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CIRCULATION SALES MNGR.
MARVIN ROCK
All fi ve-year M.T.A. capital plans and any amendments
require unanimous consent of all four C.P.R.B.
members
Albany manages the M.T.A. on behalf of City Hall,
which is the actual original legal owner of record. New
York City has the legal right to change the authority’s
management team, if it so wishes.
Larry Penner
Penner is a transportation historian and advocate who
worked 31 years for the U.S. Department of Transportation,
Federal Transit Administration, Region 2 New
Global-warming warning
To The Editor:
Re “Gov. Cuomo scraps 15-month full L-shutdown
plan” (thevillager.com, news article, Jan. 3):
How can there be all this angst about our L-train tunnel
nightmare with only bare mentions of what caused
it and the near certainty it’ll hit us again? Sad to say,
spending a half-billion dollars on repairs, bringing two
years of nonstop commuter misery, doesn’t at all solve
the problem.
Those about to fi ght their way every day getting across
the East River should never forget that this horror is a dire
injury from subway fl ooding infl icted by global warming
in the here and now — and not comfortably coming in
a far-off future. Doing this tunnel project without constructing
vast protections for the entire subway system is
more than mere folly. It’s pathological denial.
Another Sandy hitting us again is not just a possibility
but a looming certainty. Read the recent United Nations
report on climate change and weep. It’s one of the
scariest documents in all of history — no exaggeration.
Yes, the subway will be whacked again and maybe even
worse.
Yet the city and state are spending hundreds of millions
of tax dollars subsidizing the construction of huge
glass towers New Yorkers don’t want anymore — except
for the real estate billionaires (REBNY), luxuriating in
their profi ts. That at least should stop, and the money
should be spent instead to protect us all.
Bennett Kremen
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
Member of the
letters will not be published.
New York Press Association
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York offi ce
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JIM STEELE
JULIO TUMBACO
ELIZABETH POLLY
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EDITOR IN CHIEF
LINCOLN ANDERSON
12 January 10, 2019 TVG Schneps Media
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