Op-Ed Letters to the Editor
Police Blotter
and race
To The Editor:
As a resident of Chelsea, I
take exception to your “Black
Corner” a.k.a. Police Blotter/
Crime-Stoppers Hotline,
wherein you, courtesy of the
N.Y.P.D., routinely identify the
“race” of criminal suspects,
above and beyond the photos
you may run with the narratives
about the perps.
This either witting or casual
use of race in crime reporting
offends good journalistic practices.
Indeed, newspaper ethics
and journalist watchdogs
advise against this practice,
reminding newspapers that
their purpose is not to function
as mere stenographers for the
police or for government offi
cials in reporting violent and
other garden-variety crimes in
the community.
The watchdogs, including
the Associated Press, contend
that the refl exive and casual
identifi cation by race of suspects
is wrong. Such groups as
the Society of Professional Journalists
contend that the use of
race is especially suspect by the
press when such information is
not likely to advance the community’s
understanding of the
nature of the crime or likely to
aid in the actual suspect’s identifi
cation and capture. The AP
Stylebook also takes sharp exception
to identifying criminal
suspects’ supposed “race” when
race is neither pertinent to the
story nor a factor in the motivation
behind the crime
(such as the case
with “hate” incidents).
What do you advance other
than racialist or racist stirrings
when for instance you reported
(on April 18) that a robbery
was committed by two suspects
“described as black, between
age 20 and 30, and last seen
wearing all dark clothing” —
even if your report had added
that the perps were wearing a
T-shirt, jeans and sneakers?
I urge you to rethink your
policy on use of “race” in crime
reporting, and to use the suspect’s
race only where it is relevant
to the story, such as for a
race-related hate crime.
Michael Meyers
Meyers is president, New York
Civil Rights Coalition
Editor’s note: Thank you for
raising an important subject
about reporting on crime. Each
media outlet makes its own
considered decision on how to
handle this issue. Police provide
suspects’ descriptions in
order to help identify them and,
yes, to get people to call in tips
to the CrimeStoppers Hotline.
Printing suspects’ descriptions
in the newspaper can also help
residents’ safety.
Pier 40 passive
recreation space
To The Editor:
Re “Gansevoort playing-fi eld
need in play” (news article, may
16):
I have lived in the West Village
since the 1990s. My building,
on Barrow St., is a tenement
with 20 units. There are no
children living in the building.
There haven’t been, for years.
I’m just guessing, but families
with kids might make up 5 percent
or less of the West Village
demographic as a whole.
I feel confi dent that while
they aren’t vocal about it, my
neighbors would prefer spaces
to walk, sit, read and lie on
some grass, instead of active
recreation fi elds. A passive
recreation space like Central
Park’s Sheep Meadow serves
200 people at a time, while a
soccer fi eld taking up that space
serves 22.
Dave Stewart
Those were
the days
To The Editor:
Re “London Terrace: Charming
— and that pool!” (Real Estate,
May 16)
My mother had an apartment
there in the 1930s. It was so
expensive, she was afraid to tell
her parents the rent was $75.
Mike Conway
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and libel. Anonymous
letters will
not be published.
Foxes guard City
Planning henhouse
BY LYNN ELLSWORTH
Once upon a time, N.Y.U. sociologist Harvey Molotch
described a coalition of large property owners and
real estate developers whose interests aligned to create
a “growth machine.” Years later, economic historian Jason
Barr described a “skyscraper industrial complex” of real
estate developers and their allied advisers, fi nanciers, trade
unions, architects and construction fi rms, whose economic
self-interest demanded unlimited skyscraper construction.
These forces have crystallized into the most powerful lobby
our city has ever known, the Real Estate Board of New York.
Oligarchic families of immense wealth dominate REBNY.
Some are family dynasties with thousands of tenants paying
rent to them — something not seen since the feudal period.
Such power is a matter of public interest when the industry
ends up controlling the government institutions meant to
regulate that power for the broader public good. The Department
of City Planning is a case in point. There, the foxes have
seized the henhouse. Communities cannot have a fair hearing.
Any critique of a rezoning is patronizingly dismissed at City
Planning as “city NIMBYism.” Public hearings have become
kangaroo courts in which commissioners listen in boredom,
then majority vote along the lines indicated by REBNY.
Of the 13 members of the commission who control the Department
of City Planning, one (Douek) is a real estate investor
and donor to the mayor, managing a new $75 million
“opportunity fund” for Brooklyn. Another one (Capelli) is a
former real estate industry lobbyist.
Five (de la Uz, Knuckles, Eaddy, Knight and Marín) are
real estate developers of various types, ranging from a senior
employee of Bluestone Group to C.E.O.’s of development corporations
to the head of the Fifth Ave. Committee.
The commission’s current chairperson (Lago) ran the Empire
State Development Corporation (E.S.D.C.), a real estate
development monolith for the state; E.S.D.C. — now known
as just E.S.D. — is infamous for abusing eminent domain to
the detriment of black and low-income communities, with one
academic noting that E.S.D. acts as “Robin Hood in reverse,
taking from the poor to give to the rich.”
One commissioner (Levin) has long cheered on the Hudson
Yards project, yet is married to a senior partner at Davis, Polk
and Wardwell, the same law fi rm that advises major Hudson
Yards developer Extell.
Another Planning commissioner (Cerullo) is C.E.O. of the
Grand Central Partnership, a real estate-controlled business
improvement district (BID), whose secretary is John Banks,
the C.E.O. of REBNY. The partnership pushed for multiple
upzonings in Midtown that benefi tted their board members.
Only one (Ortiz) has a graduate degree in urban planning,
however runs a consultancy advising shopping mall owners
how to “optimize” their retail tenant mix. At least two members
have confl icts of interest with the Gowanus rezoning
project (Bluestone and Fifth Ave. Committee).
At least one (Knuckles) has a clear confl ict of interest with
the East Harlem rezoning. Two commissioners are architects
with high-rise projects under their belts in Long Island City
and Grammercy (Burney and Rampershad).
Any wonder that these people rule Planning as if upzoning
and profi t-making are the same as actual urban planning?
The City Charter must be edited to rule out fox-guardinghenhouse
appointments. The Charter Commission is deliberating
now, so citizens need to act fast. E-mail the Charter
Commission at www.charter2019.nyc/submit-your-ideas and
tell them to make fi xing this situation a top priority.
Ellsworth is president, Human-Scale NYC
Michael Meyers, of the New York Civil Rights Coalition, argues that the use of race to
describe suspects in the Police Blotter should be much more limited.
Schneps Media TVG May 23, 2019 13
/submit-your-ideas
/thevillager.com
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