It’s crazy not to love Lenore
To The Editor:
Re: “Rhymes With Crazy” (weekly column by Lenore Skenazy):
Crazy, but not lazy or hazy. Nope. Your columns are sharp and well written — a pleasure to read. I’ve been enjoying them since Chelsea Now started delivering to our lobby at Penn South.
As someone who used to do a similar work (many years ago, in the last century actually, working for Newsday as a reporter and then as a columnist), I know it’s satisfying to get fan mail. So I just wanted to let you know you have a fan on 24th Street. Keep writing.
Marilyn Goldstein
Private investment at the public’s expense
To The Editor:
In her Talking Point (“Private Investment, Public Enjoyment,” Aug. 20, 2015), Madelyn Wils fails to mention that a great percentage of those flocking into New York’s parks, eateries and cultural riches, are tourists.
What Wils further neglects to mention is that local residents, now sharing their neighborhoods and open space, are often shut out of the public/private equation — having, even as taxpayers, little voice in what is happening in their own communities.
Done deals are progressively becoming the norm. The Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) now seems to excel at this practice, all in the name of generating much-needed revenue.
Legislation allowing the transfer of over six million square feet of development rights from commercial piers one block inland — from Chambers to 59th Sts. — was included in a 2013 amendment of the 1998 Hudson River Park Act. Details of this legislation became public only following the bill’s passage by both State Senate and Assembly. Prior to the vote, there was NO opportunity for public input. Then, there was the 2014 discovery of a secret $100 million deal brokered in 2013 by the state to sell Pier 40 air rights for a massive development across the highway at St. John’s Terminal. This Memorandum of Understanding was between the HRPT, the Empire State Development Corporation and Atlas Capital Group, an owner of the Terminal. Lack of transparency surrounding Barry Diller’s plan for Pier 55, which also raises environmental concerns, motivated a lawsuit by the Manhattan City Club of NY in 2014.
Robert Moses famously opined that regular citizens were neither qualified nor smart enough to have any say in public works projects, parks or highways. Sadly, it appears that his methods are making a big comeback. Fortunately, after years of study in the school of political hard knocks, the “regular citizens” of today are far more savvy and prepared.
Save Chelsea (savechelseany.org)
Fund LPC, banish #775
To The Editor:
The Mayor and the City Council wrestle every day with such heavy problems as how to deal with crime, homelessness and affordable housing. But how can this city fund any of these things without a healthy, intact historic community, which brings record numbers of tourists (and their money) here from all corners of the world?
These tourists don’t come here to see white-brick apartment houses or banal office buildings on our streets. They go on walking tours in our fabulous historic districts, eat in the many fine restaurants in these districts, and shop in chic district stores as well. When adventure films want to alarm people to the max, they don’t flood or bomb those banal apartment houses or office buildings, remember — they destroy our landmarks, particularly the Chrysler Building.
We are totally alarmed that two city councilmembers, probably under the aegis of barbarian developers, are trying to enact Local Law #775, which would put undue pressure on the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). This is like punishing someone who is starving with no food, for looking too thin!
The LPC is hardly doing a good job these days, using 1940 tax photos for restoration permits on buildings built 100 to 200 years previously. It’s pitiful. But this is a sign that they need more funding, more staffing — not to be put in handcuffs or starved. Historic designations have increased manifold over the past decade — but LPC’s funding hasn’t. It is the smallest agency in the City.
Who will be the heroes of our economic health who amply fund LPC and banish #775?
Carolynn Meinhardt, Chelsea Historic District Council
Boo to the buffet!
To The Editor:
Bed Bath & Beyond has changed their policy about allowing dogs in their store. Why? Because they now have a food department! Do we really need another food outlet in NYC?
BBB…what are you thinking? One of the joys of the many dog owners of Chelsea was combining a shopping outing with walking our dogs. We could get a cart, place our pooch in it, and add our many purchases. Happy Dog/Happy Buyer/Happy Seller!
BBB, you are a one-of-a-kind in Manhattan. Do you really need to compete with the many food outlets? Let our canine companions back in the store.
Sharon Goodman
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