Readers: Don’t ruin our garden!
COURIER LIFE, FEBRUARY 14-20, 2020 25
Mayor Bill de Blasio undermined
the expert opinion of professional
green thumbs, architects,
and executives at Brooklyn Botanic
Garden during an appearance on
the Brian Lehrer show on Feb. 7,
when he suggested that building
a massive residential complex a
stones throw away from the beloved
horticultural museum would cause
no serious injury to its collection of
rare and exotic plants.
“I don’t think it ruins the garden
forever, I just don’t,” Hizzoner
said.
Grden stewards have maintained
a fi rm opposition to the
proposed megadevelopment at 960
Franklin Ave. — a mixed-use complex
containing 1,578 residential
units, half of which would be offered
at so-called “affordable”
rates — since the project was unveiled
in 2018, with executives fearing
the destruction of plant life as a
result of shadows cast by the development’s
39-story towers.
Their concerns are supported by
shadow studies conducted by two
architectural fi rms at the behest
of local anti-gentrifi cation advocates,
which demonstrated that the
towers would subject critical areas
within the garden — including the
Steinhardt Conservatory, home to
18,500 plants — to hours of additional
gloom per day.
Readers had a lot to say online:
The mayor said “I don’t think it ruins
the garden forever, I just don’t,”
Well if you don’t know then don’t do
it until someone who does know can
tell you that this will have a devastating
effect on the Gardens. It seems
that the mayor does not care about the
gardens or the beauty and pleasure
it gives the people who go there. He
seems to only care about the developers
making money. The mayor does
not appreciate what he is helping to
destroy. Then what does he care he
can’t run again but maybe the developers
can help him fi nd a job.
HE DOES NOT KNOW? He forgot
plants need sunlight and some need
full sun.
Joseph Vitacco Jr.
Thank you Mayor De Blasio. The
BBG was created for working men
and women and their families to enjoy,
but the leadership at the BBG has
turned their backs on those people.
When most independent young people
under 35 years old spend more than
50 percent of their income on housing
in order to live in Brooklyn, we have
reached a crisis. While “experts” at
the BBG have previously claimed that
the developments would wipe out half
of the plants in their collection (!), the
more recent estimates show a very
modest impact. Thwarting reasonable
development near transit would be terrible
for Brooklyn, and holding up the
light requirements of exotic plants at
the BBG as a reason to oppose it is a despicable
form of “greenwashing.”
Judith Nemzer
What is with this mayor?!? He’s liberal,
he’s destructive, self centered,
sneaky (Amazon deal), pro-real estate
piranhas???? LEAVE BBG ALONE.
Why do developers have to build there?
Oh yes, prime area, park, garden, library,
BIG MONEY – disgusting! Leave
a little something for us taxpayers!!
Q Qing Liang
We do not need any more luxury
buildings. I like how you put so call
“affordable housing”. Its true there is
nothing affordable about it. They take
half your pay. The guide lines are ridiculous
as well. If I am correct they
base these apartments on your income
before taxes. Not what you come home
with. That being said they are over developing
Brooklyn.
John Capone
There’s nothing “affordable” about
this development and it’s irreparably
harming the very city amenity the developers
are using to sell these housing
units. Build a regular height complex
of buildings, make just gobs of money
instead of gobs and gobs of money. And
let millions of the rest of us keep our
city.
Tyler Burbank
This is the mayor preferring developer
dollars over quality of life.
Mitchell Rentzler
We wanted a statue!
Congress passed a bill on Feb.
5 that would rename the Dyker
Heights Post Offi ce after the New
York-based saint Mother Cabrini,
infuriating some locals, who love
Cabrini — and hate the postal service!
“The post offi ces in NYC are
pieces of f–– sh–. Why the hell would
someone want to be named after
one?” said Nick, a Dyker Heights
resident, who did not give his last
name.
The dubious tribute comes after
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane
McCray, snubbed the saint in
her She Built NYC statue-building
initiative in August, when the
Cabrini won a public nomination
process by a landslide, only for the
city’s fi rst lady to build a statue for
seven other historic women.
The move sparked a massive controversy,
and Congressman Max
Rose introduced his bill to rename
the Dyker Heights Post Offi ce after
the beloved saint a few weeks later
— pleasing many local Catholics
and the Brooklyn Diocese.
Readers spoke up online:
Improving the Dyker Heights Post
Offi ce would be the fi fth, and most diffi
cult:
Four miracles had been credited
to Mother Cabrini since her death on
Dec. 22, 1917, at age of 67. The fi rst two
miracles essential to beatifi cation,
Nov. 13, 1938, were Sister Delfi na, miraculously
cured of intestinal fever
after doctors had given up hope, and
the saving of the sight of Peter Smith,
a child, in Columbia Hospital in New
York after he had been accidentally
given a blinding solution of nitrate of
silver. Both miracles occurred after
prayers requesting intercession of the
dead Mother Cabrini.
The two additional miracles needed
to make a total of four essential to becoming
a saint, both occurred in Lombard,
Italy, near where Mother Cabrini
was born. The fi rst was the curing of
Paulo Pezini, a chauffeur, of a chronic
disease after doctors had given up
hope. The other was the recovery of Ettore
Paggetti, a locomotive engineer,
from burns after medical assistance
had been declared futile. Prayers for
Mother Cabrini’s intercession were offered
in both instances.
As Father Guido Sarducci once said
in reference to miracles required for
sainthood: ‘pick a card, any card.’
Jerry Krase
The post offi ce in New York sucks...
Sid Meyer
1. The US Post offi ce is an honor
imo. The mail gets precedence to any
vehicle or pedestrian. Time we remembered
that.
2. Most people do not know who
Mother Cabrini was; that’s the reason
she didn’t get a fi rst round statue. Yes
she did great things, no we didn’t grow
up knowing anything about her.
Marie Roberts
Another Cabrini controversy?!
Dang, Catholics are so obsessed with
their idolatry.
Jihan Kim
Charge everyone the same
A new play is taking a unique
approach to its ticketing prices, offering
discounted rates to people of
color in an effort to attract a more
diverse audience.
Jack, a theatre in Bedford-
Stuyvesant is rolling out the twotiered
ticket price for the run of
“TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever,” a play that
deals with the historic association
between Thomas Jefferson and his
slave, Sally Hemmings, set in a modern
day university.
“This is a play that focuses on
black voices and it’s our goal to have
as diverse an audience as possible,”
said director Jordana De La Cruz.
The theater is asking the standard
price of $22 a ticket for theatergoers
who identify as white, and the
discounted rate of $15 for those who
identify as a person of color.
Readers made themselves heard
online:
Discrimination worded correctly,
that’s what it is. Honestly, they could’ve
done it much better if it was about paying
less for those with low income.
Serge Kass
Imagine if it was they other way
around.. FORGETABOUTIT
Margaret Ann
If the situation was reversed racially
in this case I can imagine the
outrage.
Mitchell Rentzler
Voluntary or not, it is a ridiculous
approach considering the director
states she wants a diverse audience.
Thomas Latham
Reminiscent of the Mid- ‘90’s when
“celebrated” fi lmmaker Spike Lee
came to teach a class to “Blacks only”
at NYU. Bigotry goes in multiple direction.
I’ll take a pass on this one thank
you.
Tamar Gru
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