To the editor,
The Brooklyn Paper’s recent editorial calling for the use of precious federal stimulus dollars for the arena at Atlantic Yards underlies a desperation (“Paper: Use fed $ for arena,” Feb. 7).
As the crisis deepens, the fear creates confusion that may lead to poor decision-making about how best to utilize these funds. Despite the very real fear generated by this downturn, we need to remember what the stimulus is for and how best to use it to Brooklyn’s long-term benefit.
Yes, we need immediate job creation from shovel-ready projects, but why should Atlantic Yards — a privately owned venture — be the primary beneficiary of these costly federal dollars?
Does The Brooklyn Paper really believe (like our borough president, Mayor Bloomberg and numerous other elected hangers-on) that there are there no crumbing schools, old water mains, no public housing projects with uninhabitable apartments or broken or faulty elevators and security cameras that should be rebuilt or replaced?
Are all of Brooklyn’s libraries, playgrounds or parks in such great shape that none need to be refurbished?
The passage of the stimulus presents us with a once in a generation opportunity to make a large number of improvements to our bridges, roads, schools, subways and public buildings — all of which have been victims of long-term public neglect.
The use of stimulus funds for any component of the Atlantic Yard project would represent a betrayal by our elected officials.
How can they protest overcrowded schools, crumbling bridges, an impending subway fare hike and/or East River tolls, and still call for diverting precious stimulus funds to a privately owned basketball arena?
Francis Byrd, Prospect Heights
The writer is a former
57th Assembly District leader.
Go, Steve, go!
To the editor,
I was pleased to read in the Feb. 7 edition of The Brooklyn Paper that former councilman Steven DiBrienza is running again to make “our neighborhoods livable” — something that has been sadly lacking in Cobble Hill since he and our former mayor left office (“DiBrienza seeks second helping”).
For the last eight years, Cobble Hill has been the orphan of the council district. Street garbage overflowing from the high-rise movie theater and fast food restaurants north of Atlantic Avenue flows south with no effort by the city to clean it up.
The so-called “meter maids” have no problem ticketing cars on our streets on Sunday, but where are the sanitary police? Those of us who work hard and pay the taxes get a weekend of filth from overflowing garbage baskets, dozens of junk publications stands, graffiti and potholed streets.
Meanwhile, Park Slope and other neighborhoods in the council, Assembly and state Senate districts receive publicly funded private services courtesy of member items.
You would think the Community Board 6 staff, located just off Court Street in Cobble Hill would have been all over the issue but no. We’re looking forward to supporting a candidate who will help clean up Cobble Hill — literally.
So if you’re the one to make it livable Mr. DiBrienza, you have our vote! And we will work to get other votes for you.
Robert Sherman, Cobble Hill
Dock this plan
To the editor,
I was just reading about the dust up concerning Dock Street DUMBO, Two Trees’ project at the Brooklyn Bridge (“Mixed message on Dock Street plan,” Jan. 28). It seems to me that everyone’s interests could be addressed by making the tallest part of the building, which is now parallel to Main Street, into a short tower mirroring the existing building at the corner of Main and Water Streets.
Doing so would move the mass of the building away from the bridge, increasing the views from the other buildings in the neighborhood as well as to and from the bridge and its approaches, while giving the Walentases about the same number of saleable square feet as they would get with their contested plan.
Charles Boxenbaum, DUMBO
The writer is an architect.
A place for Abe
To the editor,
As you reported two weeks ago, the Lincoln Statue cannot be returned to its original location (“Honest — Abe heading home,” Feb. 7). Instead, it should be placed between the arch in Grand Army Plaza and the Bailey Fountain, facing north so that it overlooks the fountain. Here’s why:
• From the John F. Kennedy Memorial, you would see Lincoln framed by the Arch through the fountain.
• From Prospect Park, looking through the Arch, you would see Lincoln standing in front of the Empire State Building which is floating above the waters of the fountain.
This respects and conforms to the reasons Olmsted planned this “line of vision” through our Civil War Memorial Plaza in 1865.
Richard Kessler, Park Slope
Metal urge
To the editor,
Even though I live in New Jersey, I do enjoy an occasional day of metal detecting in beautiful Prospect Park (“Gold-diggers fight back; banned from Prospect Park, ‘detectionists’ want in,” Feb. 7). The trip is longer than most areas where I hunt, but once I get settled in for a few hours of detecting, I feel so relaxed that it was certainly worth the trip (tolls and gas, too!).
I have been much saddened by having Prospect Park taken out of the city Parks Department permit program. Detecting there has always been rewarding, not just for retrieving coins from the ground, but in removing trash of all kinds as I went along.
I cannot understand how my hobby, metal detecting, rubs against the political grain.
There are no waves of detectionists that fall upon the park at any given time, no way! I’ll see few, if any, others detecting when I go there.
Once in a while, I will come across a hole, whether it was made by another detectionist, a dog or another animal, I would simply patch it up and make it undetectable, and then move on.
I make a good effort to leave the park in a much better condition than when I first arrived. It’s the least I can do to help keep it clean and beautiful for others who will soon come after me.
Can I make a complaint about the shoes used by those playing ball on the fields in this park? Picking on those that use a metal detector in a park as a way to pound one’s inflated chest is a poor excuse for showing off power and authority.
Parks are for everyone’s use and enjoyment. Amen.
Ernest Zimmerman,
Bergen County, NJ
