To the editor,
I have always appreciated and enjoyed The Brooklyn Paper, so I was dismayed to read your unfair and inaccurate article about the Brooklyn Friends School’s plans for a new facility on State Street (“Quaker Values tested,” Oct. 9).
As a longtime resident of State Street between Smith and Hoyt streets, I am deeply familiar with the site, its history and the current dispute.
There is no petition in support of the school that has been signed by 200 residents of “the block” as was stated. There was a petition, but many of its signers were not residents of either block of State Street adjacent to the proposed site and many or most were unaware of all the specifics and issues concerning the site.
Even the headmaster, Michael Nill, acknowledged that the traffic issues and problems have not been properly thought through.
The meeting was made up of concerned residents not just of the adjacent blocks, but neighbors of the larger community who came to hear both sides, ask questions and consider the issues.
To portray the opponents as “angry” and “enraged” is just not a true portrait of went on.
Kate Perry, Boerum Hill
She’s not gay
To the editor,
After reading your online story about Borough President Markowitz’s decision to fund a gay community center (“Marty is king of queens as Beep secures big bucks for gay center,” online, Oct. 9), I felt that this is a very bizarre system for the allocation of capital funding and resources.
It appears strange at best that an “organization” such as this would be allocated $2 million in capital resources with no track record of success or accomplishment and they don’t even have a space.
All of the capital request paperwork that I have been presented with require you to have all three in place. It is amazing how in Brooklyn, organizations can pop up from nowhere and be granted attention, support and resources. There appears to be no formal process about how organizations are selected to receive capital funding.
Laurie Cumbo, Fort Greene
The writer is founder and executive director of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Fort Greene.
Christ all mighty?
To the editor,
In your recent coverage of the Westboro Baptist Church protesters (“Kansas homophobes, anti-Semites fall flat,” Oct. 2) you referred to these protesters as Christians. But this does a disservice to the many peace-loving Christians in the world who follow precepts of tolerance, love and giving.
Perhaps we can just refer to them as fundamentalists, a religious sect, so-called Christian, fringe group, or some other adjective-noun combination which does not debase Christ.
Michael King, Gowanus
Editor’s note: The Westboro protesters said they were rallying in defense of Christ and Christian values debased by Jews, gays and other Brooklynites. As such, the shoe fits.
Yard work
To the editor,
The fans of the Atlantic Yards project have obviously never tried to drive or bus up Flatbush Avenue on any given afternoon.
Creeping up to, through and beyond Atlantic Avenue is a 25-minute production.
Imagine when we have apartment buildings and a stadium to contend with.
It would truly be faster to walk!
Sue Yellin, Fort Greene
Vito power
To the editor,
I couldn’t help but be disgusted by your article about Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman Vito Lopez and Borough President Markowitz’s betrayal of their party to back non-party candidates in the upcoming election (“Dems betrayed! Boro’s top donkeys are Party poopers,” Oct. 9).
Of course, Markowitz has endorsed Bloomberg before — and I do appreciate that politicians think independently and don’t always follow the party line.
But in Lopez’s case, the chairman simply has no excuse. In the primary, he was well within his right to back Maritza Davila over incumbent Diana Reyna, but when Democratic voters chose Reyna, Lopez decided to bolt his own party and back Davila on the Working Families Party line.
That’s where I draw the line: If someone is lead our county party organization, he needs to command the respect of Democratic voters in this most Democratic of counties. And that means respecting the will of the majority of voters who picked Reyna over Davila.
It’s bad enough that Lopez backed Davila only because his former lackey Reyna had the nerve to question his sweetheart Broadway Triangle deal, but providing aide and comfort to another party is just plain wrong.
Mort Tefler, Bay Ridge
