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Addendum 2 From Stuart Pertz
Addendum 2 From Stuart Pertz
Addendum 2 From Stuart Pertz
February 28, 2012 Public Design Commission of the City of New York Page 2
water so that it will be icy in winter and subjecting it to expanding ice between the sleepers that would push the boards up and down, loosening the screws and endangering pedestrians (vehicles now safely on the runway) with the resulting maintenance headache. Wood or not. I am not an expert on wood, but I've been told that other communities use black locust and that its availability is a matter of planning. I do not have the numbers, but conversations with other communities suggest that the cost over the project life is much the same, and worth it. There are real financial advantages, in fact, for the City to preserve the character of the Boardwalk - it is not just nostalgia. Maintaining the quality and character of its historic heritage could (and in time most likely will) increase the taxable real estate values along one of the most remarkable city beaches in the world. The new zoning for the area was designed for just that. Perhaps the synthetic wood will look good and feel good. Perhaps the concrete runway will (like wood) not crack, chip, spall or discolor with tire tracks, garbage bin rust and gum. Perhaps Parks will consider and solve the problems of the entrapped sand gone foul, and even the blown sand from the beach. And hopefully, we will not be left with wood at the amusements, exposed concrete, wood and synthetic wood inconsistently from place to place to place from Brighton to Seagate. At this point, my sense, as I said, is that the height of the sand, too speedy research and a single option experiment built Parks into a corner that only the Commission's "No" could get them to think their way out of.