To the editor,
Your recent front-page article [“Gym-nauseam! Neighbors sat St. Joe’s b-ball arena is ugly” April 23] had some inaccuracies.
For one, your reporter stated that the college would not make its rendering available to The Brooklyn Paper.
Unfortunately, your reporter, Mike McLaughlin, never spoke to anyone at the college to request the rendering or seek information about the project.
As loyal Brooklyn residents for almost 100 years, through the good times and the bad, the faculty, students and staff of St. Joseph’s remain committed to maintaining the beauty and charm of Clinton Avenue.
As St. Joseph’s College strives to provide a well-rounded collegiate experience for our students, we recognize that athletics play an integral part in achieving that goal. Today, the college offers 11 varsity sports and boasts of conference championships in both women’s and men’s athletics, all accomplished without the benefit of an intercollegiate gymnasium.
The college looks forward to working closely with all of our neighbors in Clinton Hill on the gymnasium project. Together, we can achieve our goal of enhancing both the college campus and its beautiful surroundings.
Sister Elizabeth Hill,
Clinton Hill
The writer is president of
St. Joseph’s College.
Editor’s note: Reporter Mike McLaughlin called the college repeatedly before, and after, his story was published, but received no response.
Crime no joke
To the editor,
I find your subheads in the Police Blotter section reprehensible [Police Blotters, every week]. Since when does a journal make light of serious criminal activity with puns and other attempts at humor? If one of your loved ones was held up at gunpoint or injured during a strong-arm robbery, how would you feel if someone made a joke about it?
Shame on you!
Ed Silver, Manhattan
Canal murky
To the editor,
Developers and their paid-for politicians would like “facts and hearsay” to be “as murky as the waterway itself,” [“Superfund Showdown on the Gowanus,” May 1], but a few things are clear.
Whole Foods was supposed to build a franchise alongside the Gowanus several years ago, but it is virtually impossible to clean up the site enough. Now, the project looks dead.
The city is in the process of developing a site along the canal, though it admits that it will take years and millions of dollars to clean.
Toll Brothers doesn’t care a thing about the neighborhood or about the Gowanus Canal. All that company cares about is getting in there, making a killing, and leaving, cleanups and cancer be damned.
As for the cost, the city will have to pay one way or another. If the Superfund isn’t used, the city will have to clean up the canal by itself. It’s been over 30 years that I’ve heard about the city cleaning up the Gowanus, but it hasn’t happened yet.
The current economic debacle on Wall Street and beyond should have taught citizens that they need to be proactive regarding government, instead of hoping that politicians and titans of industry know what they’re doing. Just as in the case of Atlantic Yards, people aren’t against development, per se. It has to do with scale, with integrity, with consideration for, and with the will of human beings.
Herman Kolender,
Carroll Gardens
Rezone now!
To the editor,
As a 20-year artist/resident of DUMBO, I am at a complete loss to understanding Community Board 2’s rejection for the mixed-use rezoning proposal in DUMBO [“CB2: Rezoning is the elephant in the room in DUMBO,” April 8]. This plan has been a long time coming, 13 years to be exact. I was there when concerned residents sought to replace the outdated heavy industrial zoning with one that reflected the actual uses of the neighborhood, which was then already a healthy mix of residential, artistic, and commercial activity.
At the time, DUMBO was drowning in deleterious and thoughtless piecemeal development based on the whim of individual developers. We were heard; people requested something, and the city responded affirmatively.
The mixed-use proposal before us is the first non-developer-driven rezoning plan for the neighborhood. It is also the most comprehensive one to date. Countless hours and city resources and environmental studies have gone into developing this sound plan, which is thoughtfully consistent with the historic context of existing building stock. And this plan includes the meritorious and critical component of affordable housing.
It provides opportunity for economic and job growth for the eastern portion of the neighborhood, which is struggling to survive as numerous mom-and-pop businesses are closing.
It is most important to note that the choice is not between this plan or another plan. The choice is between this plan or nothing. And no action will to lead to more disintegration of the neighborhood through another bout of piecemeal development and out-of-scale towers that are sure to overshadow the gritty historical beauty of DUMBO.
Let’s not waste the efforts that have gone into this plan, and pass it without further delay.
Marcia Hillis, DUMBO
Laugh bus
To the editor,
I am writing to thank The Brooklyn Paper for the great laugh you provided me and a half-dozen other people at my local haunt when we saw the photo accompanying your recent article about supposed bus noise [“Bad vibrations in Bay Ridge” April 28].
The sight of a grown man covering his ears as a bus “roared” by was too good to be true. And as the paper got passed around, the reactions ranged from giggles to full-blown hysterics.
But then, while reading the article, it just got funnier. For residents of 78th Street to NIMBY-ly suggest re-routing a bus so that car alarms on their street would stop going off is so inane, so preposterous, well, I’ll leave it there.
Keep up the good work. At this rate, I expect the “Colbert Report” to show up in Bay Ridge.
Clarence Eckerson Jr.,
Red Hook
Gaian warrior
To the editor,
All the articles about my dispute with the Brooklyn Philharmonic leave out something central — the piece’s topic [“Losing his composure,” April 14]. I risked my personal savings on “Gaian Variations” because Gaia Theory is one of the most important ideas for human survival.
While I was writing it, more than 1,000 scientists signed a declaration giving weight to the central tenet of Lovelock’s Gaia Theory — that our planet self-regulates.
That’s vital, because it’s bound up with the climate.
Starting in 2012, the biotic “negative feedback loops” that Lovelock first saw — and effects of their loss — will become part of accepted climate models. Unfortunately, one expert on arctic ice now predicts an ice-free arctic summer by then — only three years from now — with potentially staggering effects for us all.
Nathan Currier,
Greenwood, Va.
The writer is the composer of “Gaian Variations.”
