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What%u2019s Really At Stake ?With the deliberate shift in economic development and, investment towardthe Sun Belt, culture has emerged as New York%u2019s number one commodity. It isnow evident that it is New York%u2019s number one export.A report published by the Cultural Assistance Center, Inc., a non-profitfoundation set up to help our city%u2019s cultural institutions, shows that NewYork%u2019s cultural organizations provided %u201c direct services%u201d last year to groupsand individuals in 860 American cities in all 50 states, and to another 320 in 87foreign countries.The report, %u201c America%u2019s Stake in New York City Arts and Culture,%u201d cites%u201c loans of everything from art works and dance and opera productions toscientific specimens...touring groups, various programs of advice andconsultation and technical aid.%u201dThe activities of organizations like The American Museum of NaturalHistory, the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Opera, The WhitneyMuseum, The Paul Taylor Dance Company and The Acting Company provideevidence of how this city%u2019s cultural activity generates a national constituency.New York City last week received word from Washington that it was onceagain being spared the executioner%u2019s ax. The hair-trigger tension and lastminute dramatics that accompanied that message, it now is obvious, wereneedless. The Cultural Assistance report shows that the city has been sendingout its own message throughout the country week after week. And if thatmessage is silenced, the country will become a silent, arid wasteland.Congressmen and Senators can live with the assurance that they did the rightthing in voting a measure of confidence for New York City. A right thing fortheir constituents.Sovnd Off ,kThank YouOn leaving the Long Island Historical Society, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your staff for all the fine support and coverage you have given over the last five years. Your always lively and insightful reporting has certainly helped the Society achieve a wider public image than it had had; even when that reporting was somewhat critical, as during the trade union dispute.It has also been a great pleasure personally to see a Brooklyn paper blossom like yours%u2014or should I say rise like a phoenix (though I%u2019ve never been quite sure whose ashes you%u2019re rising from: your old Borough Hall or South Brooklyn papers or one of the old Brooklyn greats also named after a bird?). In any case it has been a great pleasure reading it and finding the myriad things going on in Brooklyn. I only wish it was available in my own neighborhood (Bedford-Crown Heights). Good luck in accumulating more prizes and hope that someday you%u2019ll be Brooklynwide.%u2014James Harley, Executive DirectorNo ConfusionRe: .Summer in the City issue, %u201c Don%u2019t Cook in%u2014Order Out!%u2019%u2019 by Lucette Lagnado, (June 29). Residents of Fort Greene/ Clinton Hill are not saddened and not confused. Joe%u2019s Place is a very good restaurant we trek out to. John%u2019s Pizzeria is the take out that delivers the most superior pizza. Actually, since we like pizza, John%u2019s is the only %u201corder out%u201d we will ever need. Winter in the City, they even deliver up icy brownstone stoops.%u2014David A. Raibie, Lafayette Avenue.Calling FoulLast year our House of Representatives voted a $12,9000 increase for its 435 members, raising their salary level to $57,500. This added approximately $5,000,000 to America%u2019s tax bill The public, media and public interest groups generally acquiesced to this increase only because Congress agreed to tie to it a long-sought Code of Conduct package that permitted members of Congress to earn unlimited income in outside earnings. These %u201coutside earnings%u201d had long served as a source by which self-serving individuals, corporations and other groups, commonly paid out exorbitant fees and salaries to Congresspersons, more in the expectation of gaining favored treatment in Congress than for any services rendered. Under this practice legislators in key spots commonly received outside earnings totalling $50,000 and more per year. The new law, placing a limit 6f $8,625 on such earnings, w as approved by a vote of four to one. Thus both Congress and the public vjemed *,i f *1But right now Common Cause and other public interest groups are calling %u201cfoul%u201d because there has been for some time a move in Congress to repeal not only the provision for a full-time Congress but the %u201c heart and soul of the ethics package%u201d as Hi use Speaker Tip O%u2019Neill called the outside earnings reform. The real threat to this legislation came last month when the House Rules Committee made in order legislation in the form of an amendment torepeal the outside earnings limit. This could become part of HRI, the financial disclosure bill.The public is largely unaware that such recently passed legislation could or would be repealed. Yet it is precisely this unaw'areness that strengthens those who seek the repeal. If, while %u201c the cat%u2019s away%u201d one part of the new Congressional integrity laws can be eliminated, why not more?The answer to this lies in continuing pubic awareness and in that public taking time to write or speak to their individual Congresspersons letting them know what legislation they want, or do not want, on the books.%u2014Evelyn Weiss, member, Brooklyn Common Cause, Executive Committee.WRITE U S A T OUR NEW HOME\THE PHOgNIX EPITO R:395 Atla n tic ave.b k u y n . , M .y,11217Efficient and SpeedyThe New York State Legislature has been called into special session this week to consider the matter of crime legislation. In the past three weeks, even the most casual of newspaper readers can%u2019t help but know that there is a crime problem. Our State Legislators, if they are the least bit sensitive to the needs of their constituents, must know that results are wanted in the way of sensible and effective crime legislation. In bro^ what cppms tobe needed is an efficient and speedy judicial system, penalties that fit the crime and incarceration without parole. Many long established civil libertarians have come around to the belief that the ideal criminal justice system is one that provides for speedy trials, certainty of a penalty and severity of punishment. Even the concept of rehabilitation is now being discarded and as a result, a bond issue to provide more prisons (correctional facilities is nowout) would very' likely be approved by the voters. Liberals, Conservatives as well as the vast middle groups all want results, so there can be no excuse on the part of our legislators for not producing.%u2014Henry Catevra, president, 84th Precinct Community CouncilImpressed But...I am very much impressed by your article on the wine steward department at N.Y.C.C. in the %u201cOur Town%u201d section of the June 8th PHOENIX. However, I would like to bring to your attention the fact that I am not a graduate of New York City Community %u00a3ollege; rather, I am a graduate of Heidelberg and Cornell.%u2014Herbert Rademacher, Director of Food and Beverage OperationsA Real ServiceWendy Grabel%u2019s article about the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens (PHOENIX, June 29) is informative and inspiring. You did Brooklyn a real service in publishing it. The garden is certainly one of our most indispensable amenities. Keep up the good work!%u2014Bernard P. Brennan, Columbia HeightsHappy, HappyI wanted to let you know how happy I am about the %u201c Focus%u201d write-up you gave our restaurant, Delices de Saigon (PHOENIX, June 15). It was the greatest, and I%u2019m also very happy about the response we%u2019re getting from our ads. I hope we can look forward to lots more good work with you and your staff. Thank you once again. %u2014John Hamilton De Grussa, Delices de Saigon, Atlantic AvenuePuzzledI applaud your encouragement of spray caps for fire hydrants (PHOENIX focus, June 29). The Park Place 5/6 Block Association has had one for several years and it certainly saves water as well as making it easier to drive up the block when the hydrant is open. Indeed it is easy to put a cap on a hydrant.I have always been puzzled, however, as to why the fire department or the police department doesn%u2019t just go around and put spray caps on every hydrant. It would certainly help the water pressure and make walking and driving much easier. Sometimes on hot days I feel as though I live in Venice instead of Brooklyn.%u2014Nancy S. Harrington, Park PlaceWe DeploreThe Executive Committee of Brooklyn Heights SANE deplores the abandonment by the Heights-based West Brooklyn Independent Democrats of its longstanding commitment to neace issues and opposition to the military-industrial complex by its recent endorsement of Dr. Bernard R. Gifford for the Democratic Congressional nomination in the 14th C.D. In the 1976 U.S. Senate race in New York, Dr. Gifford was a staunch supporter of Daniel P. Moynihan, a %u201c cold war%u201d and military spending advocate, as well as a Nixon and Ford aide. Moynihan%u2019s victory deprived New York of the effective voice for peace that either Ramsey Clark or BellaAbzug would have provided, and Dr. Gifford must bear some of that responsibility. Incidentally, Sen. Moynihan has already volunteered to help raise funds for the Gifford candidacy.On the other hand, we praise the Independent Neighborhood Democrats of South Brooklyn for its re-endorsement of Cong. Fred Richmond, for whom we strongly reiterate our support. Mr. Richmond, a member of our Executive committee and a National SANE Board Member, has had an outstanding record on peace, disarmament and nuclear energy issues and clearly deserves re-election. %u2014Bob Side, President, Brooklyn Heights SANEUs TooThe leaves on the London Plane trees on Pacific St. in Boerum Hill are also affected by some sort of blight. If you can advise I. F. Feingold of Cobble Hill (%u201c Sound Off,%u201d June 22) about his plane tree fungus, please advise us. If one is willing to pay for spraying, why won%u2019t a tree specialist come, even if it is a %u201c street%u201d tree? How best to fertilize %u201c Street%u201d trees when the opening around the tree is small? Thanks.%u2014Jeanne Miles, Pacific StreetWhat%u2019s Happening?Anna Christian is a 90 year old Irish Catholic who lives in Fort Greene. She is a veritable storage of knowledge about the history of Brooklyn. Her stories about her days as a maid at the Grenada Hotel are priceless.I found out about Anna just a couple of weeks ago%u2014about how she lives alone in a small apartment (not unlike many others of her age); how she scrapes by on her social security check; how she has collected stacks of scrapbooks over the years about life in Brooklyn. Immediately I thought what a wonderful human interest story for The PHOENIX if a good interviewer who would be patient with the lapses of memory due to age could pull together her stories about life across from BAM, the artists and guests of the hotel in its greater days and the memories of a Brooklyn in times past. But I didn%u2019t call you soon enough.Today, Anna Christian is in Cumberland Hospital%u2014the victim of rape, beatings and who knows what other atrocities to her person. She was found on Saturday at noon%u2014her small 85 lb. body piled in a corner on top of her scrapbooks and memorabilia. There is no way of knowing how long she had been held captive and assaulted as no one had checked on her for at least a week. Mentally and physically, she has been wounded and, even though she is a strong lady, may never be able to relate her wonderful stories to anyone again.Will somebody tell me what is happening to us as a people...how many other forgotten and lonely people are we allowing to be victims...just where is this city headed? I have lived in Ft. Greene for 8 years and have seen long-time residents, newcomers, tenants and home-owners alike work patiently to give our part of Brooklyn a real feel of community. Without going into the problems of poverty, unemployment, sanitation, crime, etc., I have felt that to a degree it has been slowly working. But maybe ft is time for an end to Mr. Nice Guy and war needs to be declared.%u2014Barbara A. Wingate, Clermont AvenuePage 4, PHOENIX, July 13,1978