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Brooklyn Daily
To the editor,
I must comment on the suggestion for a bike-walk path on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (“Cyclists push for Verrazano bike lane,” online April 4).
There were requests for a bike-walk path, back in the day before the bridge was built. This was brushed away with comments like, “It would be too windy, too long a span, etc.”
I guess this should be considered, along with the myth that the toll would be eradicated as soon as costs for the bridge were met. We know what happened there!
As a long-time resident of the area who lives across the street from the entrance to the bridge, I will probably be complaining about the crowd of bike riders that will be coming to the bridge. I am none too happy with the take-over of the streets by bike riders.
But I wanted to set the record straight — just because a bike path was not in the original plans does not mean it was not wanted by people who would be using the bridge.Carole Busby
Bay Ridge
April fools?
To the editor,
Are you kidding? If this is an April fool’s joke, I’m not amused (“Labor pain — Residents should get rebuilding jobs, says activist,” online Mar. 28).
And if it’s not meant to be funny, then South Brooklyn is going even more wayward than I thought!
How ironic that former gang members should be being employed to rebuild Coney Island. Have we forgotten that many innocent victims have lost their lives to gang-related violence, or been maimed for life because of it?
I’m certainly not keen on local ex-cons being hired to restore neighborhoods where criminals are often in disguise at illegal and legal places throughout the area.
We’re already awash with various pirates, and former drug dealers should not be permitted to perform labor in Coney Island because eventually they will restart their evil ways.
We need to exercise some common sense and reason and reconsider where the lines of empathy and compassion should be drawn.
My family never sought illegal employment, or collected disability payments, even though we were entitled to them.
A. Kaye
Sheepshead Bay
Hynes’s reality check
To the editor,
I just wanted to say I wish more voters could see through the mystique of District Attorney Charles Hynes as Shavana Abruzzo does (“Snooki, Honey Boo-Boo, and DA Hynes,” A Britisher’s View, April 5).
Really great article!Abe George
The writer is a candidate for the office of Kings County District Attorney.
Godly man
To the editor,
I find it a bit disturbing that articles are written in your paper without being first checked for corrections.
The reporter who covered Msgr. Brady’s funeral mass had no idea where he was (“Priest laid to rest under cloud,” online April 5).
Good Shepherd Parish has never been located in Brighton Beach on Seabreeze Avenue. Since the 1920s Good Shepherd has always been a part of Marine Park on Avenue S.
The thing I find that troubles me the most is that your reporter chose to make sure that Msgr. Brady will be remembered for an unfounded allegation. All the good this man did for 50 years as a priest and mentor are never once mentioned.
As a parishioner and parent of four Good Shepherd School alumni, I was honored to have known him as my pastor. He was a blessing to the children of Good Shepherd, my own adored him, as he would be there every afternoon as school was released.
He inspired me enough that I converted to Catholicism. This was a man who, as FDNY chaplain, prayed with us as our son recovered after a terrible accident.
These are the incidences that this man should be remembered for, not what your reporter chose to write about.
Louise Sullivan
Marine Park
School wars
To the editor,
I’m still trying to figure out Elliot Abosh’s response to my letter (“Hard lessons,” Sound off to the editor,” April 5).
Mr. Abosh, the alleged incident happened on a platform, not in a school. The conductor had to be taken to the hospital.
As a retired city teacher, I can state that no principal ever asked a teacher to lower a child’s grade. The opposite has always been true.
For years teachers have been coerced to give higher or passing grades with the following threat attached: “Do you want him or her again next year in your class?”
Mr. Abosh, it is the liberal thinking of you and others who have gone a long way in destroying city schools. You can’t teach without discipline, and there are schools out there where the students are in complete control.
Come visit some of them. I can give you a first-hand list.Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Hollygood!
To the editor,
I saw the movie “Renior” at Lincoln Center. It was in French with English subtitles.
Hollywood should produce these types of movies — it would improve the culture of our communities, and of our country.
Elliott Abosh
Brighton Beach
Field of dreams
To the editor,
Your article — “Bums’ home, Flatbush stadium remembered in Coney” (online April 3) — reminded me that if it had not been for mega-builder Robert Moses, along with both the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers leaving the Big Apple in 1957 for California, there may have been no Barclays Center or Brooklyn Nets.
Did you know that the first game to be played at the Brooklyn Dodgers Ebbets Field was an inter-league exhibition game against the New York Yankees on April 5, 1913? Ebbets Field officially opened on April 9, 1913 against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The golden era of baseball in New York City took place in the 1950s with a three-way rivalry between the American League New York Yankees, the National League New York Giants, and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
All three teams claimed to have the best center fielder in baseball. On street corners all over town, citizens would argue whether the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle, Giants’ Willie Mays or Dodgers’ Duke Snider was champ.
Ordinary Brooklyn natives could ride the bus, trolley, or subway to Ebbets Field to see their beloved Dodgers. Men and woman of all ages, classes, and races mingled in the stands. Everyone could afford a bleacher, general admission, reserve, or box seat. Hot dogs, beer, other refreshments, and souvenirs were reasonably priced.
Team owners would raise or reduce a player’s salary based on their performance in the past season. Salaries were so low that virtually all Dodger players worked at another job off season. Most Dodger players were actually neighbors who lived and worked in various communities in Brooklyn.
Residents of the era sat outside on the neighborhood stoop, shopped at the local butcher, baker, fruit, and vegetable stand. Television was a relatively new technology and the local movie theater was still king for entertainment. Brooklyn still had its very own daily newspaper — the Brooklyn Eagle — which ended publication some time in the mid-1950s.
During the 1950s, Dodgers’ owner Walter O’Malley tried to find various locations for construction of a new baseball stadium which he pledged to finance using his own funds. With limited seating capacity at Ebbets Field, he needed a new modern stadium to remain financially viable.
New York City master mega-builder Robert Moses refused to allow him access to the current day Atlantic Yards project site. This location was easily accessible to thousands of baseball fans from all around the Big Apple via numerous subway lines.
Thousands of fans who moved to other neighborhoods in eastern Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties would have had direct access via the Long Island Rail Road. Imagine how different Brooklyn would have been if elected officials had stood up to Robert Moses and allowed construction of a new Dodgers stadium in downtown Brooklyn.
Without the departure of both the Brooklyn Dodgers (becoming the Los Angeles Dodgers) and New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants), there may have been no National League expansion in 1962. There would have been no Colt 45s (original name of the Houston Astros), or our beloved New York Mets, or the Barclays Center hosting the Brooklyn Nets basketball team.Larry Penner
Great Neck, N.Y.
Shav’s ‘eye-opener’
To the editor,
Elena Gadd’s response to Shavana Abruzzo’s column, “Rioting disgraces Kiki’s death” (A Britisher’s View, Mar. 22) is that more blacks are incarcerated because there are no post-school activities (“No thanks, Shavana,” Letters to the editor, April 5).
How about the out-of-wedlock teen births, no father figure, and no parental guidance?
If Shavana Abruzzo focused on rabbis and priests who molested young children, as Gadd suggests, it would not change anything in the black community, and is irrelevant to the situation.
Gadd talks about respect for the black community — well, it’s a two-way street.
Open you eyes, the truth shall set you free.Ruth Weiner
Sheepshead Bay
Reach reporter Shavana Abruzzo at sabruzzo@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2529. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/BritShavana