A Unique New York Happening

I am glad Witold Rybczynski’s “Olmsted vs. Christo,” [Opinion, February 16, 2005] mentioned the 20 solid stone gates around the perimeter of Central Park. However he errs in stating these gates are all named after professions. “The Woman’s Gate,” “The Boys Gate,” “The Girl’s Gate,” “The Stranger’s Gate,” “The Vanderbilt Gate” are hardly professions. I think park designer Olmsted would have enjoyed Christo’s performance-art project, but Olmsted would have called them wickets instead of Gates.

In June 1999, I visited Christo and Jeanne-Claude at their studio on Howard Street to discuss my proposal for ‘Festooning Manhattan’s Rim.’ At the time Christo had no hope of erecting his “Gates” because of the opposition of Rudolf Giuliani and others to drilling 22,000 holes in Central Park. He gave me a copy of his book on “The Gates.”

But “The Gates” is a unique New York happening, which enlightened an otherwise dreary February. Let’s give Christo and Jeanne-Claude credit for pulling it off, for raising $20 million to do it, and for bringing millions of tourists to New York to experience their wavy wickets.

CY A. ADLER
Mr. Adler is president of Shorewalkers Inc., and the author of “Walking Manhattan’s Rim – The Great Saunter.”
Manhattan

‘Dean and the Tax Eaters’

Re: “Dean and the Tax Eaters,” Amity Shlaes, Opinion, February 15, 2005: Older and younger Americans are not pitted against each other on Social Security. In fact, a majority of Americans, young and old, want to see few changes to Social Security and most oppose private accounts. More importantly, however, AARP opposes private accounts carved out of Social Security not at the expense of members’ grandchildren, but rather to protect future generations.

Social Security can pay every penny of promised benefits until the year 2042 and more than 70% of benefits after that. That is hardly a crisis by any means. By making sensible changes now, the system can continue to pay 100% of benefits well past 2042. Private accounts carved out of Social Security are not the answer. The only guarantee you can count on with private accounts is that they can lose money just as fast as they can make it. In addition, private accounts carved out of Social Security will worsen Social Security’s long-term financial health, draining revenues out of Social Security at the very time the boomers begin to retire. Just switching to this new system will require as much as $2 trillion – leading to benefit cuts, new taxes, or more debt.

It is wrong to saddle our children with that kind of debt. Most of us would have to pay twice to gamble on this new plan – first to keep our commitments to current retirees and again to pay into these private accounts. Right now, 97% of children under 18 can count on monthly benefits if a working parent dies, and 90% of workers and their families have protection in the case of a long-term disability. Six out of 10 of today’s beneficiaries derive more than half of their income from Social Security. In most low-income households of retirement age, Social Security represents 80% or more of their retirement income. Low-income retirees cannot afford to gamble with their future. We have an obligation to current and future generations to make sure that the benefits will be there when they are needed. That is why it is our responsibility to advocate for Social Security reform, not to dismantle it. Let’s not make the solution worse than the problem.

LOIS ARONSTEIN
State Director, AARP New York
Manhattan

‘Olmsted vs. Christo’

Re: “Olmsted vs. Christo,” Witold Rybczynski, Opinion, February 16, 2005. Art isn’t whatever any self-proclaimed artist produces – else you and I could all be creating art while watching “CSI.” Art isn’t whatever a museum curator or gallery owner decrees to be art – otherwise the ancient Greeks and the Renaissance Italians wouldn’t have had any art at all, poor dears. What separates visual art from other forms of human endeavors is that its creator, by his choice of subject and his emphasis in presenting it, conveys a message to viewers. He says, in an image, “Pay attention: this is important about man or the world.” Michelangelo’s 500-year-old David makes a statement about what man can and ought to be that we can still grasp and react to. “The Gates” says nothing. It’s as “artistic” as my bedroom curtains.

I don’t normally get wrought up about curtains (indoors or out), and I wouldn’t even bother to discuss “The Gates,” if it wasn’t erected in a magnificently designed public space where many of us can’t avoid it without serious inconvenience.

DIANNE DURANTE
Brooklyn

---

Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.