Quality of Life Issue in BPC

To the editor:

What happened to Ms. Galluzzi is both shocking and AVOIDABLE. It was just a matter of time before an accident such as hers happened.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been startled numerous times by Parks vehicles moving far too quickly and far too close to me and other pedestrians (often while bantering with each other and not paying attention while driving). I find this behavior particularly threatening due to my age and lessened agility after spinal surgery. These carts can do serious damage and do NOT ever belong on sidewalks, much less with all the scaffolding in our neighborhood narrowing the sidewalks further than usual.

Let’s act immediately to get these vehicles off our sidewalks before someone is fatally injured.

Another critical issue requiring immediate action, although I know not what the solution might be, is the fact that emergency services continue to have trouble finding people in Battery Park City who desperately need their help-for example the man who drowned recently in the Hudson because rescuers could not locate him in time to save him!

-Beverly Hegmann

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To the editor:

We all know that nothing stays the same and things change, but there seems to be a trend in Battery Park City. Let’s call it :”Is anyone thinking?”

The article on Dominique Galluzzi being hit by a Parks vehicle caused me to pause and think about the evolution of Battery Park City over the past decade.

Between folk not curbing their dogs and streams of dog urine running across the sidewalk while the person walking the dog taps on their mobile phone clueless to their surroundings, to staff of Gateway Plaza trying to hose down the sidewalk, (think it has anything to do with the dog urine streams?) without spray nozzles (thumb over water outlet by the way), at 8:30 to 9:30 am, when pedestrian traffic is pretty high, to the Parks trucks bouncing along full throttle on sidewalks or the Esplanade, to the Citi Bike riders trying to navigate the sidewalk or trying to ride, vs, walking the bike to the street.

Let’s not forget the suited Brookfield security zipping along on their three-wheeled stand up scooters in an areas where no biker is allowed to ride and must dismount-really?

Then there is the sad realization, which seems to indicate that the Battery Park City Authority must not do appropriate background checks on employees when the driver ended up arrested for an outstanding warrant.

Its almost like the area is lacking any sort of adult leadership and or no one, including the managers of these folk are thinking.

-Jack Miles