Op-Ed Letters to the Editor
Greenwich Village housing activist and zoning specialist
Doris Diether, Manhattan’s longest-serving community
board member at 52 years, has been standing up to
power since 1960. She started her activism with a protest
against Robert Moses over a plan to scrap Shakespeare
in the Park.
Congrats, Doris!
To The Editor:
Re “Village’s Diether among
Lemlich honorees” (news article,
May 23):
Big, loud congrats to Doris
Diether who has served all
parts of her community with
brains, courage, wit, charm
and ageless beauty.
Martha Danziger
Spot-on op-ed
To The Editor:
Re “Foxes guard City Planning
henhouse” (op-ed, by
Lynn Ellsworth, May 23):
Another brilliant, well-researched
piece by Lynn Ellsworth.
Bad development is out
of control. We need electeds
and political appointees to do
the right thing. Fix the charter.
Stop the confl icts of interest.
Stop the bad development.
Alison Greenberg
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Earth-elujah
To The Editor:
Re “Rev. ratchets up Round-
Up attack” (news article, May
23):
If a man-made chemical is
strong enough to kill plants, it
cannot be good for the Earth.
Constant spraying affects
the soil and nearby plants. We
lie in the grass coated with glyphosates.
Wildlife can’t avoid
contact with glyphosates.
Goats are coming in to deal
with the weeds. I hope they
won’t be grazing near plant life
sprayed with RoundUp!
Barbara R. Lee
Cost was healthy
To The Editor:
Re “Village E.D. gets a community
checkup” (Health article,
May 9):
Thank you for your excellent
report on the Community
Board 2 Social Services Committee
forum on Lenox Health
Greenwich Village. Anna Allen
of Say Ah! was right in saying
people need to get educated
about healthcare’s costs.
As the resident cited who
incurred the big charges for
being in good health, I’d like
to educate your readers on
the charges: more than $750
for the ambulance ride, more
than $500 for lab work, and
in excess of $350 for the doctors.
So, between $1,600 and
$2,000 for feeling dizzy.
In the future, I’ll call my
doctor, not 911, unless I’m
sure it’s an emergency. Because
L.H.G.V. told my insurance
it wasn’t an emergency, I
got stuck with the bill. I’ll also
have a good conversation with
my doctor about how to recognize
an emergency situation.
Barry Drogin
Thrown to curb
To The Editor:
Re “Grand stops restored
to M14A route” (news article,
May 23):
West Village seniors seem to
have been thrown to the curb.
A hospital has been eliminated.
The Abingdon Square stop
is planned for elimination. Do
people just not care?
Carol A. Venticinque
Do the math
To The Editor:
Re “Grand stops restored
to M14A route” (news article,
May 23):
So the M14 is the city’s second
most-used bus route and
also the second slowest? Well,
duh! If more people are getting
on and getting off, of course it
takes the bus longer.
Rayna Skolnik
E-mail letters, not longer
than 250 words in length, to
news@thevillager.com or fax
to 212-229-2790 or mail to The
Villager, Letters to the Editor,
1 MetroTech North, 10th fl oor,
Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please
include phone number for
confi rmation purposes. The
Villager reserves the right to
edit letters for space, grammar,
clarity and libel. Anonymous
letters will not be published.
Mayoral control
saved our school
BY JONAH BENTON, BUXTON
AND LISA MIDYETTE AND ANSHAL PUROHIT
Toward the end of last year, the future of our Blue
Ribbon award-winning school, P.S. 150, the Tribeca
Learning Center, hung in the balance. That is when the
families and staff members learned that after 25 years in our
beloved home, our school would have to fi nd somewhere else
to exist after the 2018-19 school year.
The problem: We needed more time to fi nd a new home
for our hardworking students and staff. Anyone who has ever
hunted for an apartment in New York City knows that it can
be a long and frustrating process. Imagine trying to relocate
an entire school in mere months.
We tried to negotiate with our building’s leaseholder, explaining
that our situation was more than disruptive; it threatened
whether or not we could remain a school at all. All of us,
and all our children, were tremendously anxious. Curriculum
planning had to grind to a halt.
Our plight was about more than the survival of one New
York City school. Our students and staff members have been
supporting local businesses through our Taste of Tribeca
fundraiser for nearly 25 years. An eviction would put an entire
community at risk.
Sadly, our arguments fell on deaf ears, and in the end, we
could not reach an agreement that would allow us enough
time to plot our future. That is when we put out a cry for help
— and Mayor Bill de Blasio stepped in.
After learning about our situation, the mayor contacted our
leaseholder personally —yes, personally. He worked out a deal
that would allow us to continue focusing on our students’ academic
growth while a search for a new school site begins in
earnest. In fact, the new agreement allows P.S. 150 to stay at
our current location for several years longer than the landlord
had originally offered.
For us, this wasn’t a matter of politics; this was a matter
of doing what was right for our children and educators. It
sounds so simple and obvious. But it couldn’t have happened
if the mayor was not directly responsible for our schools.
Here’s what we mean. Before mayoral control, principals,
staff members and parents would have had to lose valuable
classroom time building a case for P.S. 150 across several
school boards and committees. We would have been lucky to
have received a decision before our lease expired. With mayoral
accountability, we just needed to enlist the one person
who is accountable for the success of our schools, and that is
the mayor.
We are grateful to Mayor de Blasio for his assistance. Likewise,
parents throughout the city need to know that when an
issue arises, our current — and future — mayors will do whatever
it takes to keep students in classrooms learning. This is
the promise we make to our students. This is the promise of
mayoral accountability.
Benton, the Midyettes and Purohit are P.S. 150 parent
leaders
Schneps Media TVG May 30, 2019 13
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