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Letters, Week of Aug. 21, 2014

Letters to The Editor, Week of Jan. 3, 2018

Viennese model

To The Editor:
Re “Village restaurants chew the fat on their survival” (news article, Aug. 14):

I believe that Vienna also provides tax incentives to coffeehouses to keep them open for tourists, “charm” and old Vienna.
Alan Flacks 

Boulevard of death

To The Editor:
Re “Speed on Houston St., Bowery, Sixth Ave. will be slowed to 25 m.p.h.” (news article, Aug. 7):

While there may have only been one fatality on Houston St. in the four years ending in 2012, I can remember at least five fatalities in the past nine years along this stretch.

Cyclists Brandie Bailey and Andrew Ross Morgan were killed in 2005, and Derek Lake in 2006. Pedestrian Jessie Dworkin was killed only about a year ago at Houston St. and Sixth Ave., and there was a fatal motorcycle collision last summer at Houston and West Broadway.

Of these, all except the motorcycle collision happened at minimal speeds. So it’s highly questionable as to whether lowering the speed limit on this dangerous street will make any real difference.
Stacey Walsh Rosenstock

A monstrous scheme

To The Editor:
Re “Fear that a developer could plow under little farmhouse” (news article, Aug. 7):

Isn’t this the ultimate in cruel ironies. Here is a slapdash but cute little house, brought down from the Upper East when threatened with demolition, and placed up against the wall on a double lot purchased for $20,000.

Little Suri Bieler pined over it, and eventually bought it with her husband in 1988. And now — listing it for $20 million? Is the cost of single-family housing so high now?

Here is the irony: Now that Bieler and her husband have sat on this nest egg for 25 years — during which time many of us have pined similarly for this cute little house (and their two dogs who come out to greet us) — they will not retire to a modest home outside the city as the previous owners did, leaving it to her dream’s satisfaction.

No! Rodan has hatched! They will deny us this romantic prospect. No one will ever again live in this house! Such a little house…and such a big deal.
William Goodhart

Retail rent regulation

To The Editor:
Re “Village restaurants chew the fat on their survival” (news article, Aug. 14):

Without some sort of regulation of rent increases for small commercial spaces, especially in this City Council and Assembly district, neighborhood character and business diversity are literally financially impossible.

Throughout the Village, you see large chains that pay exorbitant rent as a write-off. There is no way all the stores on Bleecker St. are fiscally justifying their rent. They are there simply to have a neighborhood masthead, and the corporate national is taking the hit.

Large chain pharmacies and banks of course have the profit margins to actually be able to afford it, whereas a small business or restaurant is forced out by quadrupled rents.

Our candidates and elected officials need to start putting storefront rent regulation on the table. It is justifiable — and necessary for a vibrant and diverse small-business community. Right now, the number of empty storefronts in the South Village grows. All up and down Carmine and Bedford Sts. are empty storefronts. 

We have an election for Assembly this November. Where do the candidates stand on the issue? I’ve decided to support Alexander Meadows for Assembly, as he has begun to openly confront it, in defiance of the current Assembly regime in Albany.

Deborah Glick continues to support development-rights sales from the Hudson River Park. She has to go.

We have the most important election in November in a generation. It is time for a change — 24 years should have led to more power and some independence. It has not. The rent laws in New York will be coming up for renewal in June 2015, and we need an assemblymember with independence from Sheldon Silver advocating on our behalf, especially in Greenwich Village. Someone who will leverage community power, and force leadership to do so, as well.

Glick has yet to learn what Christine Quinn learned the hard way. You cannot defy your community. You cannot take its votes for granted. 

One new school in 24 years — in a drive, truthfully, led by outrageously hard-working and dedicated community members — does not a successful assemblymember make.

We need a leader, not a “majority leader in waiting.” It’s time for a change. 

Alexander Meadows for Assembly, 66th District, on Nov. 4.
Patrick Shields

Clayton calls it

To The Editor:
Re “Dameht punks up the Pyramid club Friday nights” (Clayton, Aug. 7):

Again, Clayton gets it right. The Pyramid is one of the last original venues from when the East Village was the destination of the tired, huddled hipsters fleeing the conformity and crap of dead American middlebrow culture.

I’d like to add the Sidewalk Cafe and the Parkside Lounge to that list. Please support all of them!

Thanks, Clayton.
Ron Kolm

E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 Metrotech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. The Villager does not publish anonymous letters.