To the editor,
Juliana Bunim’s column last week (“The Euros are spending!” Brooklyn Heights/ Downtown Edition and online, Oct. 6) unfairly depicted the Fulton Mall as having “the scraps — cellular mega-stores, bargain clothiers, chain retailers and fast food.”
For the past year and a half, I have been working on a documentary about the effects of the 2004 rezoning on Downtown Brooklyn. So it is sad to me that many journalists rely more on stereotypes of the mall generated by those who do not frequent it, rather than firsthand investigation of the place. I frequently wonder whether or not such writers have ever even been to Fulton Mall and looked at what’s there.
If Bunim had taken the time to visit Fulton Mall and looked beyond the superficial (and, might I add, race- and class-driven) stereotypes, she might’ve noticed a wealth of small businesses struggling to survive in the face of hyper-gentrification.
For instance, Eric and Rawle Gift own A&B books, an independent bookstore specializing in African-American and Caribbean literature. Noni Soul of Africa, on Livingston Street, sells beautiful handmade fabrics and unique African designs that are as elegant as any upscale dress shop on Fifth Avenue.
Along Fulton Street itself, there are a number of small vendors and merchants that cater to the hip-hop community. Bunim may not like what they sell, but a lot of people do — as is evidenced by her acknowledgement of the 100,000 shoppers that frequent the mall daily.
Allison Lirish Dean, Williamsburg
The writer is producer of “Uprooted,” a documentary.
Editor’s note: We can assure all our readers that Juliana Bunim has visited the Fulton Mall — many times, in fact. It is also worth noting that none of the establishments cited by the letter writer is on the Fulton Mall itself.
Cat-napped fever
To the editor,
Thank you for the page 1 story on the St. Marks Avenue cat-trapper (“It’s a catfight! Prospect Heights kitties caught, left in Queens,” Sept. 29). Since early summer, Prospect Heights has known who the “anonymous” trapper-napper is. (Neighbors are surprised only that she agreed to talk to your reporter.)
She admitted to Anna Pond that she dispatched one kitten “to Queens,” and refused to say what had happened to it.
She denied anything to do with its missing siblings. Everyone believes she sent all three little kittens “to Queens” — i.e. to their deaths — and we suspect she is responsible for other cats never coming home.
The comments the cat-trappiste made to The Brooklyn Paper reveal a sociopathic personality, which has shocked us all. She calls her inhumanity “a service to the neighborhood.”
She says she talked to a lot of people about her “stray” cat problem.
Funny how she didn’t talk to any neighbor who has a cat. Instead, she was caught, checking her three baited traps, by normal (animal-loving) neighbors, who alerted the two blocks — St. Marks Avenue and Bergen Street — that all cats were in danger.
Who can believe her now when she says the cats “weren’t harmed”? Anna and Paul, heartbroken over their missing cat family, repeatedly asked where in Queens they could recover them.
No answer.
Patti Hagan, Prospect Heights
Save the Slave!
To the editor,
Thanks for your article about what has occurred and still occurring concerning the systematic destruction of Judge John Phillips, a great man in and out of the black community (“Slave theater could be sold to pay judge’s ‘debts,’” Oct. 6).
Thank you for permitting your reporter to write a honest view and continuing to expose the life of Judge Phillips, who has made it this far in spite of all who tried to bring about his demise for no other reason than greed and political corruption.
Deotha Woodburn, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Park funds OK
To the editor,
In your editorial last week, you complained about the control of Brooklyn Bridge Park that will be demanded by those who will buying apartments in its periphery (“Park’s slippery slope,” Oct. 6). But that’s a red herring. When the Park was approved eons ago, the city was in no position to pay for a new park. In fact, it couldn’t pay for the upkeep of the parks it had at that time. People seem to conveniently forget that.
So an innovative way to pay for the park was created where new housing would pay real-estate taxes earmarked for the upkeep of the park.
This truly isn’t “their” money. It’s money that otherwise would have been paid to the city treasury, but the city and the state said that as long as this was new housing on land that was not being taxed before (the Port Authority leased it), we will allow it to be earmarked for the park to assure its upkeep.
No one will allow the people who live in the housing to forget that it’s our money being used as the city has deemed appropriate to maintain the park. Surely no one will ever allow them to think of it as “their” park.
A dedicated fund for this purpose is not necessarily a bad thing.
Sidney Meyer, Boerum Hill
Keep it Carroll Gardens
To the editor,
Thank you for your recent series of articles diligently covering the proposed building at 360 Smith St. (“Carroll courtyard saved!” Sept. 15).
Clearly, the neighborhood is alarmed at the thought of a 43-unit building and the impact it will inevitably have.
Although we have had great media coverage, and some response from local elected officials, local politicians have been a little less than forthcoming with the following information: Where does the city plan to educate the many children who will inhabit the rash of new housing in the Carroll Gardens area?
Our beloved local elementary school, PS 58, is already at capacity, with a wait list for pre-K. Will we have to add it to the list of grossly overcrowded city schools? Who will be responsible for ensuring the safety of commuters and the children from the three neighboring schools who must cross Smith Street without a crosswalk, traffic light, or stop sign?
Why is there no procedure in place for an entire neighborhood to band together and fight the look, scale, and impact of giant developments? Why can’t we have our moratorium? Over 2,500 of us have signed a petition asking for it!
Mark Pellegrino, Carroll Gardens
