Save the Plaza

Re: “Save the Plaza,” Peter Ward, Opinion, February 28, 2005.My wife and I have been going to the Plaza hotel for more than 18 years since our wedding, which was based at the Plaza. We have returned every year, and for special occasions taken our children to the Palm Court for tea. There is no other great public restaurant in New York where one can go and be made to feel like royalty, from the service to the grand spaces. Aside from any sentimental attachments (which many, many people share), the interior public spaces of the Plaza are great examples of historical architecture from a very specific time in New York history.

Such great architecture, and the ambiance of the environment in all of those splendid public rooms, is testament to just how the built environment can have a positive effect on us. These rooms are worthy of preservation and like so many other great interior spaces in New York City, deserve an interior landmark status.

I am an architect practicing in New York and am surprised that the designation has not previously been assigned to the main Lobby, the Palm Court, the Oak Room, or the Grand Ballroom. They are a fantastic time capsule to a gracious, grander New York.

Where is the Landmark Preservation Commission? The National Trust Preservation? The New York Society of Architects? The New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects? The Municipal Art Society?

FRANK TOMASELLI
Huntington Station, N.Y.

‘Cross Harbor Rail’ Unwise

The New York Sun is to be praised for covering an issue that can have major consequences for New York City but has been neglected by the other media. I refer to your article dealing with the Cross Harbor Freight Rail Program [“Rep. Nadler May Be Reaching End of Tunnel,” Jill Gardiner, New York, March 2, 2005].

This program calls for very expensive tunneling under New York Harbor, shipping freight from Jersey City to 65th St. in Brooklyn, and then moving it along through Brooklyn by train to Queens.

The defenders of the program push the idea that it will lessen truck traffic throughout the City, and also reduce automotive pollution. All unproven. This scheme will not only be very expensive for tunneling, but will have to upgrade two directional train tracks cutting across Brooklyn.

Does anyone remember what happened to the Bronx when the Cross Bronx Expressway was built? Noise will not only accompany construction, but will continue indefinitely at the completion of this program, with as many as 32 trains moving across the borough. And of course we face the dangers of hazardous materials, garbage shipments, and collisions.

Added to all this we can expect disruptions of established neighborhoods – Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Borough Park, Midwood, with threats to the structural integrity of homes, schools, and businesses adjacent to the tracks.

CHARLES EVANS
Brooklyn

‘Uncle Sam Wants Tu’

In “Uncle Sam Wants Tu,” Max Boot reminds us that the Pentagon can easily meet any foreseeable recruitment quotas by trading American citizenships for X-amount of military service with foreigners who are eager to become Americans [Opinion, February 25, 2005].

If exercised, the effectiveness of this option will mask the crucial message America’s youth is sending by not signing-up to take part in the crisis that will, in all likelihood, define their generation, their United States of America, their world: If we would fight the War On Terror as we’ve fought wars in the past, America’s youth would answer the call for the same reasons they always have – it’s in their interest.

If we continue on our current path, it won’t be long before even those most desperate to become Americans question our understanding of the situation and our determination to prevail.

JOHN HARALABOPOULOS
Bayside, N.Y.

Why Compare Occupations?

I failed to see what gain there was in The New York Sun’s Rashid Khalidi editorial Friday [“‘Balance’ and Khalidi,” February 25, 2005], in contrasting the 37-year duration of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, with longer occupations by China of Tibet (54 years) and by the Soviet Union of Lithuania (46 years).

I suppose you could also have noted that Israel’s occupation is still shorter than Japan’s of Formosa and Korea, or England’s of Ireland and India. However, then you might have to agree that it is already longer than the Soviet Union’s of Afghanistan, or Vietnam’s of Cambodia, or even (ironically) England’s of Palestine. All the same, an occupation’s an occupation, as Gertrude Stein might say.

J. PETER FLEMMING
Brooklyn

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