Local resident letter in The Villager
To The Editor:
New York City is now a global apple in the 21st century. Why can’t we act that way?
Americans pride ourselves on our country being a place of inclusiveness, drawing people from all over the world to visit and live here. A melting pot of generations of immigrant cultures and regional food is responsible for giving so many New York City neighborhoods their character and flavor.
I am shocked and disappointed that the few people on Community Board 2 have decided for all of us that some of those who come from faraway places to make New York City their home are not allowed to celebrate their heritage. These people have voted against co-naming a portion of Greenwich Ave. in the West Village “Little Britain.”
As a former West Village resident on Leroy St. and, more recently, Jane St., I have been a customer of Tea & Sympathy (one of the businesses advocating for the designation) for more than seven years. It is the sole reason I have to visit this small block, which often seemed like the Bermuda Triangle with its crisscrossed streets and lack of signs. A home away from home, I have always enjoyed visiting this establishment and have marveled at how dedicated the owners have been in serving their community, especially given the high costs of operating such businesses in such a high-rent market.
Why not acknowledge these businesses by allowing them their own designation as a round of thanks for their commitment to invest in our city and to recognize their contribution in making both tourists and neighbors feel at home? The appointed — not elected, mind you — members of C.B. 2 have nothing to lose by allowing this street designation. Not allowing it, however, is reverting to a sort of monarchy that doesn’t serve the 21st-century mentality of globalization.
Now, this decision rests in the hands of the full community board. There is still a chance to make things right.
Let’s go have some tea in “Little Britain”!
Colleen M. Delaney
Delaney is a real estate broker with Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy
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Comment by ma993zda — December 12, 2007 @ 11:15 pm
England, once the only beacon of civilisation, has been committing national suicide since Attlee. Can it then be a matter for remark, that other nations should have followed suit? Since the end of the war, i.e. World War Two, the western Europe and the United States, have entered into an age of institutionalised mediocrity, from which there is no turning back.
For too long, the world has emptied its sewers into the United States. Rather than stem and reverse the tide, which would be to reclaim its proud Anglo-Saxon heritage, the country has turned its back on it, nay what is more, has in effect apologised for something fine,, and embraced a jettisoning of standards in its national life.
There will be no: ‘Little Britain’.
Would that Enoch Powell had become prime minister. He might have set an example to this benighted nation.
Comment by Carl-Edward Endicott — April 21, 2008 @ 7:57 pm