New U.N. Real Estate Unnecessary

In an effort to justify building a new United Nations building on Robert Moses Park, the U.N. Secretariat building has been described as outmoded, dangerous, and badly in need of costly repairs [” ‘Sweetheart’ Office Space Deal Called a Waste of Taxpayer Money,” Page One, Meghan Clyne, December 29, 2004].

As a former U.N. staff member, I can assure you that this is not the case. The elevator system in the Secretariat building was recently overhauled and a modern computer-controlled system installed. The building has been undergoing a floor-by-floor rehab to make better use of available space.

Moreover, the U.N. has frequently tested the air quality and found it to be safe, with no traces of asbestos. The air meets federal air-quality standards.

It is not necessary to deprive the community of Robert Moses Park because the foundation of the Dag Hammarskjold Library, at 42nd Street and First Avenue, was designed for a 20-story building to allow for future expansion of the U.N. on its own site. The space needs of the U.N. can be met by putting its new building there.

If the U.N. needs an even larger building, it can construct it at the north end of its own property and not confiscate a badly needed community park.

RAYMOND KNOWLES
Manhattan

NEA Still Funds Shady ‘Art’

As reported in “NEA Increases Funding for New York Groups” [Kolby Yarnell, Arts & Letters, December 3, 2004], Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, proclaims that next year’s NEA grants support projects that will bring “arts of the highest quality” to the nation. That’s easy for Mr. Gioia to say regarding a U.S. tour of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, or a Metropolitan Opera premiere of “Cyrano de Bergerac.”

Nor does the chairman have to think twice about approving grants to other nonprofit arts organizations in the city that, like the Ailey and the Met, regularly present estimable work – among them, the New York City Ballet and the Vivian Beaumont Theater. All were included in the list of more than 60 organizations receiving major grants that accompanied the article (none of the projects was described).

But what of works sponsored by lesser-known, avant-garde organizations? Surely, the NEA chairman must know that most are not what the ordinary person would recognize as art of high quality, much less “art” at all.

There is, for example, the scheme that will consist of a squadron of airplanes flying in succession along the Hudson River, while pulling banners bearing such inane slogans as “abuse of power comes as no surprise” (CreativeTime, $45,000). In another example, a small cottage was installed in the plaza of the Brooklyn Public Library. Inside, the “artist” baked fresh apple pies, often engaging curious onlookers in conversation. Pies were set on the windowsill to cool, as well as to tempt theft (the Public Art Fund, $30,000).

These are not the sorts of things the NEA mentions in its publicity, or that Mr. Gioia has in mind when he alludes to “arts of the highest quality” in testimony before Congress or in interviews. In truth, such projects are shams, not art. They don’t make sense and cannot be explained.

LOUIS TORRES
Manhattan
Mr. Torres is co-editor of Aristos, an online review of the arts (www.aristos.org).

Medical Litigation Important

Nothing could be more telling, in The New York Sun’s editorial “The Wrong Reform” [December 20, 2004], than your equation of the prescription drug industry with tobacco and asbestos. Tobacco is a product that is lethal when used as directed. Asbestos manufacturers knew that their products were lethal for decades before the knowledge leaked out. Of course, drug companies don’t intend their products to be lethal, but it turns out sometimes they are.

Merck knew Vioxx was dangerous but left it on the market any way. How many lives would have been saved if Merck had done the right thing when the problem first became known?

Unfortunately our jury system remains the strongest bulwark against corporate greed trumping corporate responsibility. The system that holds companies legally accountable for actions that harm consumers, workers, and the public corrects a huge market deficiency: Harm done by products is not included in the price or the returns to shareholders. That is until our legal system adds the financial cost of bad decisions to the corporate bottom line.

Your editorial seems to suggests that any interference in the public sector by government oversight is a threat to the wealth of the industry and investors and, if someone is injured or killed by a defective drug, they should have no right to hold the wrongdoer accountable in a court of law.

You claim that “America has it basically right” because the industry has created “wealth for so many.” Your position needs to be turned on its head: Gambling with people’s lives for profit is not an American value or the American way.

RICHARD KIRSCH
Executive Director
Citizen Action of New York
Albany

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