To the editor,
I liked your telling of my story (“Cat man’s crazy case,” Dec. 4) except for that quote that suggested I am suing Long Island College Hospital because I need the money. I did say that, but this is not about money. It is about justice and about changing medical procedures forever.
Doctors should be more than drug pushers for the pharmaceutical industry, and they should listen and confirm a story before diagnosing someone — in this case, me — with a mental illness that will become a lifelong tag and a pre-existing condition that will jack up a patient’s insurance rates.
I now have the burden of proving that I am not “bipolar with psychosis in partial remission,” which was the prognosis of a doctor who told me, “You will never get better without the meds.”
An impartial and more scientific observer might have concluded that I had never been sick to begin with.
Three docs and the head of the department refused to admit any error or offer any apology. Instead, they sent me a handwritten certified letter stating that they would always be there for me, and would refill my prescriptions as needed.
Is that thoughtful and kind — or is it ironic and thoughtless?
Chris Muth,
neighborhood withheld
The writer is also known as “the Cat Man,” for his heroic effort to save a trapped cat last year.
Letter bomb
To the editor,
I saw last week’s article about the return of Santos Caraballos, the beloved mailman of Cadman Towers (“Returned to senders!” Dec. 11) and felt happy for those customers.
But Santos was also our mailman at Concord Village for about 20 years until our building was taken out of his route. We felt he was one of us, pleasant, devoted.
Some residents have their mail forwarded to their vacation addresses and there never was a hitch when Santos was our mailman — except when he was on vacation himself; the replacement always got it wrong.
Perhaps this letter will play a small role in getting postal officials to give us back Santos? We, too, want him back so much.
Blanche Krakowski,
Concord Village
Green team
To the editor,
Despite the removal of the Bedford Avenue bike lane (“City erases Bedford Avenue bike lane,” Dec. 4), the city has done a great job of making bike use easy, with the installation of many other lanes, bike racks, and bike awareness signs.
In order to make the efforts by the city useful and to benefit the environment, we need to take advantage of them. If we all contribute, even a small amount, to helping our environment, we will make a difference and could possibly begin to reverse the negative effects that we are currently experiencing.
Play your part: Go green, ride a bike!Jenna Grandner,
Williamsburg
Dollar Bill?
To the editor,
I find it despicable that Councilman Bill DeBlasio would curry favor with the monied and “powerful” in Carroll Gardens by considering inserting language into the city code that would have opened the door to the eventual destruction of the neighborhood as we know it (“DeBlasio bails on secret favor for school,” Dec. 11).
But what is more puzzling is why anyone would be surprised that a politician would do what he does best — side with the money. DeBlasio is not the only one guilty of this, of course, but he should have remembered that the Hannah Senesh School — and all other entities for that matter — must live within the parameters of the spaces it inhabits. Carroll Gardens is an existing neighborhood, not a wide open prairie frontier.
City living is sometimes difficult with space at such a premium. Despite that, those who live in the surrounding brownstones have been able to abide by this fact for the most part. That said, the parking area of the school has been so since the building was inhabited by Board of Education’s District 15 offices.
Also, development is not the enemy in and of itself, but it becomes so when it is done without regard for the impact it has on the surrounding area. Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood with narrow streets and very limited parking. This is an unchangeable fact — unless, of course, someone wants to dismantle the area.
But by then, it’ll cease to be a community.Edward Green,
Carroll Gardens
• • •
To the editor,
Unlike the state legislature, the Council never passes a local law without a public hearing. Also, the sequence described in your article — that the local law would be amended before the Hannah Senesh plan went through the city’s land-use review procedure — was proposed by the Department of Transportation initially, not by Councilman DeBlasio.
Tom Grey in DeBlasio’s office can confirm that — it was stated at the public meeting.
Incoming Councilman Brad Lander asked the department to reconsider and they agreed, which is why the two pieces will be considered together next year.
Ken Fisher,
Brooklyn Heights
The writer is a former city councilman who is representing the Hannah Senesh school in its efforts to expand.
Parking mad
To the editor,
After reading your recent coverage of the mayor’s hope to take over Brooklyn Bridge Park (“Bloomy: City $ for more ‘park,’ ” Dec. 11), I wrote this letter to the mayor.
Dear Mayor Bloomberg,
The statement that New York City would take a determining hand in this heretofore failed project was heartening news. But we have damned good reason to be disheartened: we keep getting lied to.
At state Sen. Daniel Squadron’s town hall meeting last week, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe read the prepared script. Unfortunately, it was the script prepared by the ESDC in December of 2004. Nothing has changed.
I have maintained — for years — that the design is the problem. This design is for a fancy housing project with some shrubbery and a discrete playground for the very few children that might live in the proposed deluxe buildings. Until and unless this design is changed, that is what it remains.
Then again, until housing might once again become the powerhouse it was, this site will be a bedraggled, costly-to-maintain eyesore. But the bottom line is that this housing project design is not a park. Continuing to build this place-holder for housing that may never happen is both expensive and counterproductive.
Stop it and build a real park.
Barbara Charton,
Brooklyn Heights