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To the Editor:
Re “Preservation Has Become the Enemy of Evolution,” by Binyamin Appelbaum (Opinion, Jan. 7):
We should destroy New York so as to put it aside? And discard our historical past and heritage for expediency’s sake?
New York Metropolis wants extra, not much less, historic reminiscence. What we don’t want is a return to the housing insurance policies of Robert Moses.
Mr. Appelbaum writes that a lot of Brooklyn Heights has been fossilized. Would he say that Paris has been “fossilized” as a result of its metropolis leaders protect its buildings? There’s no different place like Brooklyn Heights in the USA. However there are numerous different cities across the globe with soulless, interchangeable skyscrapers. We mustn’t sacrifice what makes New York distinctive and exquisite merely for brand new buildings and for uncreative options to urgent housing issues.
We now have numerous unused business and industrial buildings within the metropolis that may be transformed to housing. We now have tens of millions of sq. ft of workplace house that can by no means be used once more, regardless of the wishes of rich builders. The answer isn’t to destroy the houses which can be already constructed and have been preserved.
The unique Penn Station was demolished and changed with a monstrosity of a practice station and a nondescript workplace tower — and we’re poorer for it.
I hope that we’ve discovered one thing, and that our metropolis’s leaders will heed the teachings of historical past — and never the proposals put ahead on this essay.
Daniel Dolgicer
New York
To the Editor:
In pitting preservation towards housing, Binyamin Appelbaum presents a false selection: Both New York can defend the historic buildings that contribute to its distinctive historical past and tradition or it might construct extra housing.
His premise was straight contradicted by an Opinion visitor essay the identical day, “New York Has Room for Housing,” by Vishaan Chakrabarti, exhibiting that greater than one million new New Yorkers could possibly be housed with out “altering its historic districts.”
However simply because New York might develop with out touching its historic buildings doesn’t imply it ought to. Most preservationists acknowledge that rehabilitating and reusing historic buildings for housing is essential to addressing the nation’s housing scarcity.
Final month, the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation formalized this view. It adopted a policy statement that can streamline its personal evaluate processes, which have an effect on hundreds of federally funded housing items yearly. The coverage assertion additionally identifies tax, zoning, constructing code and different coverage reforms essential to fast-track office-to-housing conversions, enhance residential density in historic districts and enhance accessibility.
The Advisory Council stands able to work with cities like New York to implement, take a look at and refine progressive preservation methods that permit extra individuals to reside in and profit from the inspiring locations that join us to our previous.
Sara C. Bronin
Washington
The author is chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
To the Editor:
Re “Preservation Has Become the Enemy of Evolution” and “New York Has Room for Housing”:
As a former New Yorker and metropolis planner, I learn these articles with curiosity. No cheap particular person might argue that New York Metropolis doesn’t want extra housing. Vishaan Chakrabarti’s article gives an intriguing path for this improvement, one that may respect New York’s wealthy city cloth.
But it’s myopic to deal with the town alone. New York Metropolis is surrounded by suburban areas with extra inhabitants than the town itself. A lot of this space is properly served by rail and bus transit. Whereas some communities have constructed housing round these stations, there are lots of others that haven’t. Low-rise and mid-rise housing could possibly be inbuilt these communities whereas respecting their character.
New York suburbs have been among the many immune to wanted housing within the nation. The New York metropolitan space has the second most restrictive zoning of 48 giant American metropolitan areas, in keeping with the National Zoning and Land Use Database. New York suburbs have been preventing furiously towards Gov. Kathy Hochul’s wise reforms to spur suburban housing, reforms with objectives like these in California and Massachusetts. New York has a regional housing scarcity that needs to be addressed all through the area.
Nathan Landau
Berkeley, Calif.
Transferring the Needle on Trump
To the Editor:
The editorial writers and columnists at The New York Occasions have repeatedly, and convincingly, supplied reasoned arguments to an voters that should reject a return of Donald Trump as president. There is no such thing as a doubt that he’s harmful for our nation, and certain for the world basically.
Sure, many people Occasions readers possible agree with these sentiments, as will be seen within the day by day letters part. However that is an echo chamber that will make us really feel robust and dedicated to the trigger. I think about that it does nothing to sway the opinions of those that help Mr. Trump and don’t learn The Occasions.
Because the “paper of file,” what can The Occasions do to get the message out to those that rely on Fox or Breitbart for his or her information? Is there a inventive manner to supply a transparent and convincing message that will transfer the needle simply sufficient to sidestep this impending catastrophe?
I look to you, the leaders in informing the general public, to determine a manner ahead.
Jonathan D. Glass
Atlanta
To the Editor:
Re “In Russia, Even the Smallest Dissent Is Silenced” (entrance web page, Jan. 13):
Totalitarianism, Putin model, shouldn’t shock us. One expects no much less from a former Okay.G.B. officer with a good grip on the reins of political energy.
What’s disturbing, because the article describes it, is that “individuals more and more inform on their fellow residents.” In Stalinist instances, neighbors typically snitched on neighbors for purely egocentric causes: grabbing the victims’ residences or their communal areas.
Up to date causes for snitching are apparently much less private however extra insidious and harmful; they mirror a type of the aggressive nationalism promoted by Vladimir Putin’s regime. Anybody seen as maligning “the particular navy operation” in Ukraine, regardless of how trivially or privately, is someway rendered an enemy of Russia.
Louis Menashe
Brooklyn
The author is professor emeritus of Russian historical past, Polytechnic Institute of N.Y.U.
To the Editor:
Re “Turning to an Old Model to Cut My Screen Time,” by Kashmir Hill (Sunday Enterprise, Jan. 7), by which she described switching to a flip cellphone for a month:
I’ve completed a lot the identical factor, just by eradicating myself from social media. I’m not on Fb, LinkedIn, Instagram, something. If it’s social media, I’m not on it. I additionally activate a cellphone function that accepts no calls between 10 at night time and eight within the morning, besides from choose individuals.
As you might be studying this message from my iPhone, I clearly use a smartphone. However along with the above-mentioned steps, I’ll set it down on the counter and stroll away for an hour or extra with out remorse.
Susan Hinton
Santa Clara, Calif.
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