Op-Ed Letters to the Editor
D.O.T.: The new
Robert Moses
To The Editor:
Re “Judge blocks 14th St.
busway” (news article, July 4):
We are absolutely delighted
with Judge Rackower’s fair
and reasonable decision to
grant our request for a temporary
restraining order and
to compel Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg and her Department
of Transportation to support
their claims of essential
need for vehicular restrictions
on 14th St. by providing the
required hard data prescribed
under the law. We are also
deeply appreciative of Attorney
Arthur Schwartz’s tireless
efforts on our behalf.
For those that thought mere
dialogue with Trottenberg and
D.O.T. would produce a reasonable
result, we hope that
the lesson was learned. It is
indeed unfortunate that it
takes a lawsuit to compel the
city and D.O.T. to balance the
needs of tens of thousands of
local residents and businesses
with those of a limited number
of transient commuters in the
name of unsubstantiated minimal
improvement to crosstown
bus service.
Anyone who would suggest
that to demand an equitable
balance of accommodation
between locals and commuters
is elitist, hypocritical and uncaring
is clearly continuing the
disingenuous agenda of dictating
to our neighborhoods and
communities how we should
live in our homes.
It is quite evident that the
14th St. busway is Trottenberg’s
Robert Moses-type assault
on our neighborhood in the
name of questionable improvement
improve
ice. When
utdown
uickly
to bus service.the L-train shutdown
was averted, she quickly
changed gears
w ith
substitute reasons for continuing
with the 14th St. plan;
something she publicly advocated
at each and every alleged
community outreach.
It is also clearly apparent
that the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority could
care less about the busway,
otherwise it would have submitted
a legal brief objecting
to the T.R.O. and/or appeared
in court to make its case. The
fact that the M.T.A. is remaining
silent speaks volumes
about D.O.T.’s misrepresentations
that this would disrupt
the M.T.A.’s careful Select
Bus Service route planning.
This is Mayor de Blasio’s and
Commissioner Trottenberg’s
agenda 100 percent, as Andy
Byford, president of the New
York City Transit Authority,
clearly could care less about
banning certain vehicles from
14th St.
Julianne Bond and David R.
Marcus
Bond and Marcus are plaintiffs
in the lawsuit against the
14th St. busway and founding
members, 14th St. Coalition;
Bond is the coalition’s former
co-chairperson; Marcus is a
former steering committee
member.
Hands off
University Place
To The Editor:
Re “Baldwin gets serious
at Judson” (news article, June
27):
I have lived on University
Place for 40 years. No, Reverend
Donna Schaper, closing
all of University Place to cars
would not be “fun and different.”
ferent. It
would be
hor
horrendous.
The residents of University
Place have been opposed
to this troublesome idea for
many, many years and yet New
York University keeps pushing
it. The local businesses want to
take over our beloved University
Place by putting their cafe
tables in the street. We already
have enough noise issues from
N.Y.U. students now.
If Community Board 2 wants
to make University Place better,
bring back the M1 bus!
Deb Friedman
Right on, Richard!
To The Editor:
Contrary to a letter in your
June 27 issue (“Vax vote outrage,”
by Carolynn R. Meinhardt),
I applaud Assemblyman
Richard Gottfried’s principled
stand against the unconstitutional
repeal of the religious
exemption for vaccinations.
I know many people who
have sought a religious exemption
because their children
experienced serious reactions
following a vaccination series.
These parents initially tried to
obtain a medical exemption,
but that’s nearly impossible
because of the intimidation of
doctors, who fear losing their
licenses if they don’t adhere to
the idea that vaccines are “safe
and effective,” as we are constantly
told by pharmaceutical
manufacturers and the Centers
for Disease and Control.
These parents now face either
risking further harm to
their kids by resuming the
vaccines (50 shots by age 6,
roughly 72 by age 18 — something
my generation never had
to contend with) — or losing
the right to attend school.
Gottfried is on the right side
of democracy.
Consuelo Reyes
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Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please
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letters will not be published.
Just say No to East
Side fl ood plan; I did
BY PAUL DERIENZO
On Tues., June 25, Community Board 3 voted 33 to 3
with 1 abstention to approve, with conditions, the
East Side Coastal Resiliency Project.
An “October surprise” dropped on the community last autumn,
the E.S.C.R.P. would close East River Park for at least
three-and-a-half years. It would raise the 57-acre park by 8
to 9 feet above its current level and place the lip of the park
nearly 17 feet above the East River.
The result would be, for many, a riverside park in name
only.
Those are some reasons I decided to vote No on the project.
A few days earlier, though, I had voted for it at a C.B. 3 Parks
Committee meeting, at which board members did a phenomenal
job of crafting a last-minute alternative. But, in the end,
I could not approve a city project that made a mockery of
transparency and community involvement.
E.S.C.R.P. includes moveable metal walls, supposedly to
block water from fl anking the project and fl ooding the park
from the west. Gouverneur Gardens would have to cede land
along Montgomery St. for a wall that the Mitchell-Lama coop
building would then apparently have to care for and insure.
The wall’s ability to protect the E.S.C.R.P. from nature’s
fl anking maneuver isn’t a sure thing.
Questionable fi xes and the complete closing of a popular
park for many years are not my only concerns. One glaring
omission from the E.S.C.R.P. is the chance to separate combined
sanitary- and storm-water sewers that allow sewage to
spill into the river during heavy rains. That missed opportunity
is evidence that the city was more concerned with costs
than environment.
I attended many public hearings on the new plan and saw
resistance everywhere. Even New York City Housing Authority
residents, who felt they had the most to lose from another
fl ood, harbored doubts about the city’s true intentions. After
the breathtaking shift by the Department of Design and Construction
— suddenly scrapping the previous, community-approved
resiliency plan — why wouldn’t the public have doubts
about the city’s long-term commitments?
The community plan envisioned the park as a wetland
absorbing the rising sea, while using the F.D.R. Drive as a
backstop for a fl ood wall that would have been created. It’s
basically an approach that is being successfully implemented
around the world. On the other hand, the city’s project uses
tons of dirt from who knows where, which, during the construction
phase, will raise dust clouds and pollute the air in
a neighborhood with some of the highest asthma rates in the
country.
E.S.C.R.P. continues the traditions of Robert Moses, who
built the highway 80 years ago. Moses’ vision of a car-centric
city still haunts New York. Consider the death of a young bike
messenger hit by a truck two weeks ago, only to be followed
by a young artist fatally struck by a cement truck as she was
cycling just last week.
City representatives admit one more big storm might take
down the elevated portions of the F.D.R. Why wait for another
disaster? Removing the current structure and replacing
it with an engineered buffer to protect against rising seas is
a small price to pay to save New York from human-caused
climate change.
DeRienzo, besides being a member of C.B. 3, is news director
at listener-sponsored radio station WBAI in New York
City.
Robert Moses, the city’s former Planning czar, saw several
of his highway and redevelopment megaprojects
defeated by determined Village residents. Now, plaintiffs
in a lawsuit against the 14th St. busway plan are
calling the current Department of Transportation’s actions
heavy-handed, dismissive of the local community
and, well, Moses-like.
Schneps Media TVG July 11, 2019 13
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