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Page 14, , * i -i' %u25a0< %u2022* May 17, 1973. PHOENIXTwo Birthdays This weekendThe recently growing habit of celebrating the birthday of theBrooklyn Bridge seems to have many parallels with thecelebrations that took place when the Bridge was first opened in1883.Then, the opening meant the difference between a 15-minuteferry ride across to Manhattan for those souls who labored thereand a few minute%u2019s train ride. But it also meant an opening up ofBrooklyn to the larger, outside world. The nostalgia of the era hasbeen well re-created in the recent book, %u2018%u2018The Great Bridge%u201dwhich will be reviewed in these pages in coming weeks. AuthorMcCollough weaves a picture of a Brooklyn that before the Bridgewas very much alone, isolated %u2014 and independent.The intervening years have not been altogether kind toBrooklyn, and it is almost ironic that this year the anniversary ofthe consolidation of New York City should be celebrated on theanniversary of the Bridge opening, because there are still manyBrooklynites around who see consolidation as a %u2018%u2018dirty trick%u201dplayed on our home town.Now, the new movement to celebrate the anniversary of theopening of the Bridge (a habit which we are proud to have had ahand in starting a few years back) seems to be saying that onceagain Brooklyn is reaching out to the rest of the world. We don'thave so much to lose now. Things are happening in Brooklyn andfor Brooklyn, and there is good reason to let the rest of the worldknow.So, happy birthday venerable Bridge. May you and we havemany more.Watergate CommentWhen Al, the owner of our local neighborhood candy storenewsstand last week asked us why the PHOENIX had \to comment on Watergate, we knew the time had come for action,lest it be suspected among our local audience that we harboredany sympathy for Richard Nixon in his present %u201c crisis.%u201dWe have tried in these columns to limit our comment to issuesthat most directly relate to our Brooklyn neighborhoods on thetheory that this is the reason people read the PHOENIX. So, wewill let the Times handle the heavy action on the merits of thecase, and will direct our comment to a hearty congratulations toour colleagues on the Washington Post who have just earned thePulitzer Prize for their work in uncovering the case and keeping itin print day after day until the magnitude of the fraud was finallyexposed.This is the kind of job a newspaper exists for, and we like tothink that the PHOENIX serves some of the same function righthere in Brooklyn by our continuing interest in such issues as theGowanus Canal, a new Gowanus High School, and a restoration ofthe Fulton Ferry area. We hope we can be as effective in the yearsahead.Do you have something to say?W e w elcom e your contributions tothe PHOENIX Community Forum P a g ePrefer 500-750 word length.Send Your Material to: Editor,PHOENIX, 132 Clinton St., Brooklyn.Michael A. Armstrong, Publish132 CLINTON ST.,BROOKLYN 11201V&. 643-1032Fulton Ferry Area Once ViableIt%u2019ll never be again like it once was, but does it have to be as bad as it is now? This scene from anold engraving recalls the days when Fulton Ferry was a busy viable area for people and activity. Thisweekend is a good time to explore the historic Fulton Ferry area and see the results of one attemptto bring people and life back to the Brooklyn waterfront, festivities marking the 90th Birthday of theBrooklyn Bridge (the event which marked the beginning of the downfall of this area).OPINION:Teacher Attitudes Sabotage Philharmonia School ProjectBY CORRINE COLEMANThe year long in-school music program brought as a pilot project to five schools in District 23 %u2014 the Ocean Hill Brownsville area %u2014 and led by David Amram, Youth Conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonia, wound up last week with a series of concerts performed in the schools%u2019 auditoriums by the Philharmonia and Amram%u2019s Jazz Quartet.Though the project, (off to a successful start this year with its monthly musician-student inschool workshops coordinated by the district%u2019s music department) is slated for expansion into other Brooklyn schools via. a $15,000. National Endowment for the Arts matching fund grant, the Amram vision of music as a shared, enlivening experience, seems to remain unshared by many members of the district%u2019s teaching staff.For instance, the teacher attitude during the culminating event at P. S. 273, (an elementary school on Jerome St. on the Borough's outer edge), undoubtedly sabotaged the Amram attempt, and reinforced an old view of a music gathering as a draggy, down, depressing experience.Planned as a gala with performances of works by Charles Ives, Antonio Vivaldi, Duke Ellington and Amram, the concert became from the start a platform for mass expression of teacher anxiety. Lined up like commandants along the two auditorium aisles, the %u2018eachers, hearing the slightestof audience buzzes (which the musicians laterReduced FareCards ReadyReduced fare cards for senior citizens on public buses and subways in New York City are available locally at the Mayor%u2019s Urban Action '1 ask Force (Jftice, 40 Fourth Ave., says Sam Azadian, chairman.New yellow cards have already been mailed to all holders of the old organ cards, which will expire on June 1. Anyone who had already registered for the card and has not received the new one should call 349-6660 for assistance.said did not bother them at all pointed admonishing fingers, ominously dangled the chains of their little silver whistles, yanked kids to a lonely row to the back of the hall or pushed them out of the room.The kids soon slumped, turned off, came to at the end of each piece to mix applause with howls and stomps - moved by the opportunity for release rather than by appreciation. However, the resilient fourth, fifth and sixth graders, believing that the jazz finale warranted arm waving and foot tapping without fear of official condemnation, were once more cut down, when the teacher guards acting out a parodist%u2019s fantasy, demanded that the arms and feet be stilled.WantsAssociationTo the Editor:I am thinking of forming a Sidney Place Association. Dogs from miles around come to do their do on our street. I have nothing against small dogs %u2014 10 lbs. or less (I am a small dog owner myself) %u2014 but the big dogs have got to go! They are a menace to our small, close-knit society %u2014 most of them are not even residents. They have no passports; they are probably all on welfare and living on Alpo food stamps; they may even be breeding other large menaces.Many of them are black. Some of them bark with a Spanish accent. Many of them don't bark at all. During the long, hot summer they will be unbearable!1 ask all Sidney Place residents to join with me in this cause. Smalldog or no-dog owners of Sidney Place unite! You have nothing but their chains to gain.Eleanor McGregor Sidney PlaceLater, when Philharmonia Asst. Conductor David Aurelius made complaints to Principal Rebecca Cohen about the staff behavior and post-concert bullhorn bullying by one of her teachers, he was met by such responses as our parents want it this way%u201d, and %u201cmusical groups in the past demanded absolute quiet%u201d, the need to incorporate teacher education within school programs attempting breakthrough became most obvious.With the possibility of the inschool series expansion to other areas to schools in nearby districts 13 and 15 perhaps, it behooves the community school boards in the places selected, to see that school personnel share in the program%u2019s intent.P.S. A prize will be awarded for the best acronym for this association. The only one I can think of is Sidney Place Association Against Menaces (SPAM).PostalProblemTo the Editor:I want to add my complaint to the many others that you have doubtless received about the postal service.At the last meeting of Planning Board Six, it was discovered that three letters, mailed far in advance of the meeting, had never been received. All three letters contained requests for the PlanD n o * %u00ab f l f Tr.1/1 L a o n iv trt f n n T L a**%u201c *fc> ^ ^ i . d v * ..V ..1^,0 * %u00bbAV,Long Island College Hospital's expansion plans.(Come to think of it, maybe the problem isn%u2019t with the postal service after all).Thornton W. Willett Kane Street