Congruity, Not Irony

To The Editor:

In last week’s Letters to the Editor, a writer stated that it was ironic that the person who started the St. Paul’s law suit did so on the basis that there could only be public use of the building and now advocates restoration as an apartment building like the NYC old Police Headquarters. This is in error. To prove that this is not revisionist history, I refer to a quote from a letter, written and published over 7 years ago, to the Garden City News dated October 23, 2002 regarding the origins of the law suit which preserved St. Paul’s up to this point:

“The genesis of the law suit in addition to the public trust doctrine was the fact that the Carematrix proposal was not restoration. The grafting of a 66,000 sq. ft. structure onto St. Paul’s with the destruction of the middle wing with the chapel therein and describing the project as restoration is ludicrous. The huge addition to the structure would have destroyed the context of the site in which St. Paul’s sits. Had a developer merely taken St. Paul’s and restored the structure, a building on the National Register of Historic Places, pursuant to the U.S. Department of Interior guidelines, and obtained the available 20% tax credit, there would have been no lawsuit . The Carematrix project did not qualify as restoration and could not obtain these lucrative benefits even though Carematrix through a consultant tried to get these tax credits. This fact establishes that the Carematrix project was not restoration.”

Rather than irony, congruity has been the byword for what should be done at St. Paul’s. The 20% tax credit is the economic engine for restoration of the property. It was before the lawsuit was started, and it still is.

While correcting Garden City “urban legends,” let’s put another one to rest. There was no asbestos used in the construction of St. Paul’s. Consequently, there is none in the building.

James M. Kenny

The Redistribution Of Wealth

To the Editor:

The high salaries and benefits packages which the public sector is now enjoying are having far reaching consequences upon our economy and upon our society. We are now witnessing a redistribution of wealth from the private sector to the public sector. These changes are unsustainable, for it is private sector from which public employees receive their benefits. If this trend continues, unabated and unchecked by our elected officials, it will lead to an increased resentment and hostility towards teachers, policemen, firemen and all other public employees by private sector taxpayers who must pay more and more of their dwindling incomes to support these more then generous salaries and benefits. There are only two sectors in today’s economy who are now hiring, healthcare and the government, while the rest of us are losing our jobs, our healthcare coverage, our retirement funds, our Social Security income and even our homes. We have been warned that do to the financial downward spiral of the markets, on which State retirement funds and local contributions hinge, it will be up to the local taxpayers to makeup the markets’ short falls in the coming years.

Should we be forced to give and to give some more in order to maintain someone else’s lifestyle or have we had enough? I use to think that public employees worked for us but the truth is that we work for them and we will have to continue to work long after they retire.

Bob Orosz

Another Solution

To the Editor:

NY Governor David Paterson proposes closing the State’s $3 billion budget gap by cutting funding for education, health care, seniors, etc.

There is another way to address our State deficit that has not been explored, and that is restoring State revenues to 1990’s levels by repealing Governor George Pataki’s tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers.

“Among his leading first-term accomplishments were his $3 billion, 25 percent income-tax cut and a substantial cut in the capital gains tax and inheritance tax,” according to a report on Pataki by the Cato Institute’s “Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors: 2006.”

It should be noted that Pataki’s tax cuts provided a 25 percent rate reduction for the wealthiest tax payers, but no tax cut for the poorest taxpayers. Since 1995, this has resulted in an enormous give back of hundreds of millions of dollars to wealthy taxpayers, with a resulting loss in State revenues. These cuts provided “the greatest benefit to those New Yorkers who need it the least.”

Thanks to Pataki, New York is now the most unequal state in the nation. New York relies heavily on local taxes, placing the biggest burden on communities with the greatest needs and least resources. This has led to ever-increasing property taxes, making New York’s tax system one of the most regressive.

Wealthy New Yorker’s benefited the most from these policies, were the culprits behind Wall Street’s greatest excesses, and helped cause our current economic meltdown. Is it not time for these greedy ones to help bail out the rest of us New Yorkers?

Governor Paterson, it’s a no-brainer. New Yorkers will support you, if you do the right thing. You want to close our $3 billion budget gap? Repeal Pataki’s $3 billion tax cut.

Robert F. Salant

Saint Paul’s - Here We Go Again!

To the Editor:

In response to the letter written by Mr. James M. Kenny entitled “GC’s DNA,” along with the lengthy article submitted by the Garden City Historical Society and why the “very old building” better known as Saint Paul’s should be reconsidered for historical value, etc. It’s another example of where the few want to determine the outcome over the many.

Let me first question Mr. Kenny’s remarks. In your first paragraph, you take the liberty to congratulate the Historical Society for successfully sponsoring Saint Paul’s as one of Long Island’s most endangered properties. You were almost right-it is the most dangerous piece of architecture here in Garden City for a variety of reasons. I ask you: When was the last time you were inside the building? Obviously, not for some time since you’re not aware that it’s a death trap waiting to happen. God forbid it ever catches fire, because the method to fight the fire at this stage is “SURROUND & DROWN.” It’s just not safe enough to enter for an interior attack. Now I don’t know about you, but I have the greatest respect for the firefighters here in our village, especially the volunteers who would be risking their lives for what benefit? The many young men and women would be doing just that because they are sworn to protect lives and PROPERTY to the best of their ability. Image if one of them should get injured or even die, can you and all the others who support “Saving Saint Paul’s” say it was worth it? I don’t think so! I’ll conclude my remarks by saying: What the heck does DNA have to do with an architectural relic? It’s old, very old and even very old buildings die. Let it go with dignity!

Let me address the Garden City Historical Society and the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (SPLIA). You indicate Saint Paul’s as one of the first five to be declared regionally endangered. Okay, let’s hear who or what the other four are and what their DNA is as Mr. Kenny so eloquently defined Saint Paul’s. Isn’t it ironic how back in 2003, Saint Paul’s was named as “One of Seven” to save by the Preservation League and now has become “One of Five.” It’s amazing that over the past six years of decay and deterioration, it has moved up two places in its preservation status. I would have thought otherwise. I ask you just as I asked Mr. Kenny, when was the last time you were inside and walked through the building? I could go on and on and yet I’m sure you would just come up with other excuses as to why it should be salvaged. Let’s face it folks, if you can come up with the money, you should buy it back from the Village along with the property and pay for its preservation, repairs to make it safe, pay the taxes that would apply, maintain security to prevent vandalism and hire a fire warden or two to insure safety for those who may assemble within the building. And, don’t forget, all the other requirements of a property owner, like all of us who have had enough, having to maintain a 123-year-old building. Our Village Trustees have better things to discuss during these economically stressed times than to start round 17 on what to do with Saint Paul’s. It’s time to draw this piece of history to a close. It’s too dangerous to enter and more so to allow it to stand. The mortar is breaking down to a point where collapse may occur at any time. If you feel so strongly about its status, let it be taken down, piece by piece with respect, rather than bicker for more years to come and it becomes even more of a hazard.

Thomas M. Covino

Hearing Noises?

To the Editor:

I live in the eastern section of GC. More specifically on Clinton Rd & Pine St. Over the last two months I have heard a low frequency humming noise. Actually I first noticed it in the Spring of 2009, but it went away... or I did not hear it.

The noise is a low frequency hum. It is most noticeable late at night or on the early morning hours when other ambient noises have decreased. I have spent many sleepless hours trying pinpoint the noise inside my house with no luck. I then asked some of my neighbors if they had heard anything; hoping that I was not alone. To my surprise my neighbor to directly to the south and directly to the west had also heard the noise and described it exactly how I described when I first heard it. It sounds like a bus or truck in idle outside in the close distance in the house with the noise being muffled slightly by windows and walls etc of the house. None of us have seen any truck or bus. The noise is not from electrical or plumbing inside my home as I have searched my house from top to bottom. My neighbors also hearing the hum would indicate the source is external. It could be water and sewer pipes, it could be street electrical, it could be compressors/generators/pumps/ventilation at the Hempstead water plant on Clinton (that is my guess), it could be a cell phone tower or LIPA equipment nearby or it could be something else. I don’t know. I do the noise is industrial/mechanical in nature. My neighbors agree it is very annoying.

Has anyone else in the area heard the hum?

Tim Ryan