The Mail

GIMME BACK MY RICKENBACKER!

Thank God someone took the time and effort to recognize Richie and his meticulous care for those beloved gee-tars ("The Guitar Doctor," 8/3). As a longtime resident of the East Village with a penchant for vintage instruments, Richie is strictly old school, takes a professorial approach to each guitar, and does high quality work for reasonable rates. After a bad run-in with a local merchant who sold my 67 Rickenbacker 12-string when I brought it in for a repair and the ensuing drama of court appearances and less-than-friendly encounters, Richie is a breath of fresh air in our neighborhood.Ê

Christopher J. Maguire, Manhattan

WANTED: COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

It's interesting that Jay Strell, the communications director for Andrew Rasieg, chose to start his letter to the New York Press (Mail, 8/3) with the fact the his boss raised more campaign funds in two and a half months than Norm Siegel raised in four years.

Besides being more indebted to outside interests, what does that get you? A communications director who thinks that campaign wealth is the best selling point to reach the readers of the Press?

Christopher J. Ryan, Manhattan

YOU'RE WELCOME, CAROL

Thank you for "Inside Incarnation" (Feature, 7/27). More newspapers must have the courage to expose what's happening in our country in the name of health care. We would save a bunch of money and lives.

Carol Stronstorff Society for Prevention of Cruelty toPatients

RATNER RACE

Aaron Naparstek's article "Same as the Old Boss"Ê(8/3) is very insightful in its analysis of race,Êadvocacy and development.

My favorite part is his line about how the developer's henchmen called people "racist" during the meeting.ÊDevelopers really know how to divide and conquer.ÊThat is one of the reasons we need more people of colorÊin the urban planning profession.ÊAnd no, not "tokens." I mean, a diverse age and class group who are really trying to make communities and the city a better place. It's funny: No good white liberal wants to talk race, but big business and conservatives use race every chance they get.

Andre Blacknall, Manhattan

In the Bathroom at a Rangers Game

Clone Aaron Naparstek. A few more like him in NYC journalism and we might all be able to say we are fully informed.

Seriously, his "Same as the Old Boss" (8/3) was the clearest, most complete and most truthful version of what happened in that room, where the MTA board attempted to give away their valuable property to a well-connected developer.

He nailed it: Forest City Ratner Corp. as the new Robert Moses and Boss Tweed. And that caricature of Bruce as a cheerleader, clutching Benjamins to his breast is priceless!

But what's up with that cover headline, "Ratner Wins the Railyards?" Maybe "Ratner Tries to Steal the Railyards..." From what I can see, the majority of Brooklyn neighborhoods does not want this nightmare, and will go to court to stop it. It ain't over by a long shot.

Paul Sheridan, Brooklyn

CROC OF SHIT

I weep for you poor outnumbered Democrats, and for your fantasy that somehow the Republicans stole the Ohio vote, though you don't precisely know how they did it ("On the Ropes", 8/3). It's enough to maintain that "we have been in power for more than 60 years, and that is the proper order of things, so the Nazi-like Republicans must have stolen the election."

You describe Mr. Brown as having a "philosophical attitude toward his job and Congress in general." What in the hell is this philosophical attitude? As for the feeling that the Democratic Party "has been effectively marginalized," that is what elections are for, and my tears for the Party are truly of the crocodile variety. As for your claim that the dastardly Republicans are attempting to totally dominate the poor defenseless minority party by using methods that were practiced by the Democrats when they were in power for so many years, well, the crocodile tears are still flowing profusely, and may they do so for many years to come.

Keith Hoffman, via email

MMMM, Fresh lotus?

Thanks Kate, for letting us know about Veggie Heaven (Kate Crane, E&D, 8/3)!

My friends and I are definitely going to check it out, but we're leaving the Zipcar behind and taking the bus. A Spanish Bus Transportation Corporation bus, that is, which leaves every 10 minutes, around the clock, from the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal-which sits directly above the 175th Street A-train stop.

SBTC is THE gateway to the west called Bergen County. A one-way trip will cost about $2. The driver will usually be playing some great Spanish music.

Tom Kudla, Manhattan

ORGANIC BUSSING

As a defiantly car-free New Jerseyan-no, Kate, we don't ALL have cars! (E&D, 8/3)-I can happily report that the wonderful Veggie Heaven is entirely accessible to car-free New Yorkers (and New Jerseyans!). The 175 bus from the George Washington Bridge and the 168 bus from the Port Authority Bus Terminal will drop you off in front of the place seven days a week.

Adam Weissman, Hackensack, NJ

UNMANNED-VILLE

Six weeks ago you imported a sniveling, conformist grad student called Michael Manville to review James Howard Kunstler's latest book, The Long Emergency (6/6). For six weeks, evidently not one Press reader has expressed any outrage.

Take his answer to the Tom Friedman-esque question he proposes: How to "tilt the [energy] odds in our favor?"ÊManville writes, "This makes the car an obvious target for public policy."

The car is an obvious target?ÊOf American public policy? Only a blinkered Californian doctoral candidate in transportation studies could write something like that without wincing.Ê

Fortunately, that's exactly what Manville is. If Manville were to laud Kunstler's work, how many people would be left to read Manville's thrilling research on parking-space-to-curb ratios, exhaustive proposals for expanded automobile access to workers, or bold defenses of Los Angeles's public image? (Quick, choose one: "Geography of Nowhere," or "California Transportation Needs Assessment: The Transportation Barriers and Needs of Welfare Recipients and Low-Wage Workers?")

Kunstler publishes book and after book that diagnoses everything the academics miss.ÊWhile theyÊcount the parking spots in theÊSam's Clubs of Southern California, JHK does the heavy lifting. He chronicles how and why our society is atrophying in its Sam's Club lifestyle.ÊHe writes in approachable prose.ÊHe confronts us with desperate honesty.

Without him, we'd be left with Manville's don'tÊworry,Êeverything's peachy, the hydrogen economy will save us approach.

Justin Henderson, Norfolk, VA