‘Massad Wins Promotion’

The article on “Massad Wins Promotion At Columbia” shows how little the administration of Columbia University has learned during the past two years [Alec Magnet, Page 1, February 7, 2006].

That it has allowed the Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures Department to be staffed by the likes of Professor Joseph Massad means that the administration, in general, and President Lee Bollinger, in particular, are either unwilling to resolve or incapable of resolving this unfortunate departmental situation.

It is certainly time for the trustees to save Columbia from itself by relieving Mr. Bollinger of his responsibilities. We, loyal alumni, are becoming increasingly impatient.

The board should immediately seek a new president capable of returning this great university to its roots and fostering noble Western values, rather than denigrating them.

KENNETH S. ABRAMOWITZ
Manhattan
This letter was also signed by Mark Mizel, M.D., of Key Biscayne, Fla.

‘New Yankee Stadium’

Janel Patterson of the Economic Development Corporation only tells part of the story when she says that, “While the old stadium cost the City over $30 million to maintain in the past five years alone, the new stadium will result in thousands of new jobs and play a major role in the revitalization of the South Bronx” [David Lombino, “Watchdog Group Gives Proposed Yankee Stadium a Bronx Cheer,” February 8, 2006].

While it is true that the Yankees deduct maintenance costs from their rent payments, the city also netted more than $26 million from rent payments during the last five years and no one has indicated why this would not continue to occur.

At the same time, while trumpeting the job creation capacities of the project, the city states that it would result in less than 1,000 permanent jobs, most with an annual salary of $18,000. Furthermore, as the renovation of Fenway Park in Boston requires 5,500 laborers, more than the total number of jobs need to develop the proposed Yankee Stadium (3,600) and the proposed parking structures (1,800) combined, if the goal of this project were the creation of temporary construction jobs alone, the city would seek to renovate the building instead of build anew.

Economic conditions have been improving in the Bronx for the last 15 years independent of a proposed Yankee Stadium. The Yankee Stadium Neighborhood has a supply of vacant land and excellent access to the region’s highway system. This is what makes it attractive to developers, not, as Yankee President Randy Levine claims, a new Yankee Stadium.

Half-truths surround this proposal. But repeating them over and over will not make them any more true, or the reality any less so.

DAVID GRATT
The Bronx
Mr. Gratt is the director of Friends of Yankee Stadium

‘America’s Railroads’

In response to The New York Sun’s editorial “Off Track,” Western European countries pour billions of Euros into maintaining their passenger rail service to provide exceptional service that has often supplanted air service within their own countries [February 10, 2006]. In a time of an energy crisis, rail travel is one of the most energy efficient forms of transportation. We should have the resources to also provide outstanding rail passenger service in our own country. No passenger railroad system in the world makes a profit, any more than subways or water systems or public education, yet no one recommends getting rid of these essential infrastructure projects. In the U.S. we provide air and highway subsidies in the billions of dollars.

Selling the Northeast Corridor would be a disaster. Safety requires an integrated rail network. In Britain’s privatization scheme, splitting of the system into many parts has lead to numerous accidents and death.

MELVYN A. SACKS
Silver Spring, Md.

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