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Page 12/ SPHOENIX January 3,1974L o c a l E v e n t sJ u s t if y G o o dV ib e s fo r 7 4Ring out the old and ring in the new is the guiding phrase for this season of the year. We go to press this week filled with hope and anticipating the promises that 1973 offered, but denied. In spite of the advice offered by sages and other learned types, we are optimistic about the coming year. Why? Maybe because that%u2019s our job: to hope for and urge the best, but to be prepared for the reporting of the worst.We fall into the category of man who believes that the state of mind and body indicates the kind of future to be realized. Transferring this from our personal life into community life, it holds that we can scarcely hope for optimistic events if we don%u2019t expect them.Of course, this isn%u2019t the only reason for optimism. Events of the past few years across our neighborhoods have proven that in spite of the most dire predictions good things will happen. The renewal of our brownstone areas, the resurgence of downtown Brooklyn, and the re-emergence of a neighborhood consciousness that produces positive, human-related actions and activities all prove that good things happen where the experts least expect them.So what's ahead for 1974? Looking back over the news of 1973, we see a year that brought many issues and ideas out of the closet, trotted them around the civic cocktail-lecture circuit, and left a few major decisions about direction. For instance: The edges of Boerum Hill, Park Slope and Fort Greene will be changed in a major way by the decision to locate Baruch College at the Flatbush-Atlantic junction. The result should be good for all of us. The clean-up of the Gowanus Canal didn't get started during 1973, but then what's another year when you%u2019ve been dumping sewage into it for over 100. That's something ahead for 1974. A new South Brooklyn High School is an idea whose time has come, even if a site isn%u2019t clear. Block 207 in the Heights, the last remaining undeveloped land there, is going to find a purpose in life, and it's probably going to happen this year. Fulton Ferry and the Brooklyn Bridge were rediscovered last year, and so can development be far behind? The list could go on and on.We have devoted space in this issue to a summary of the major news stories of the year, and an analysis of the events of 1973 by senior staffer Corrine Coleman. We hope you will read them, and would be interested to hear your comments on what we have to say, as always.Beginning this new year, the third we have been in business we are compelled to remind our readers about why we are here and about the fact that newspaper publishing is a two-way street. The PHOENIX was born out of the same kind of need and urgency that spanned the redevelopment of our downtown Brooklyn neighborhoods. We were born out of a demand for a medium of community news, not available elsewhere, and we will continue to exist only so long as people read and respond to us. We are eternally grateful for letters to the editor (especially those that take exception to something we said or did), because they are the living proof that there is an audience out there, reading and thinking and responding.During the year ahead, we pledge to continue to report on what we see as the key local issues and make our own analysis of activities and events. Our goal is to produce the finest local newspaper for what we believe to be the finest place in town to live. We hope our pages will continue to reflect this goal in 1974.i o mThe PHOENIX is published T.9 times a year by Advocate Press, Inc., 130 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, NewV o r l f 1 1 7 ft 1 I %u201c P A p y n r i o o i c I ' e o n f c a n n u a l c i l k .scription by mail in New York State, effective July l, 1073 is $5; outside New York, $6.M ichael A. A rm strong, P ublisher1 30 C linton Street B rooklyn 11201t ^ i a o i n o n 1CI. U*tU- I \\J\\JJL:..- v - -s 1 1 1 | %u00ab%u2022;# %u2019f\||^ ||V %u2022 %u2022 , %u2018 %u25a0 %u2019 ; ' * ,.itIfkmm.m %u25a0 %u25a0 %u2022J 1 * *%u00a7%u25a0WAY BACK WHEN DEPARTMENT: This 1931 view of Fulton Street shows where Fulton oncecrossed in front of Borough Hall (out of sight to the left) to junction with Court Street Site is nowpart of Cadman Plaza Park. Statue of Henry Ward Beecher at left now stands some distance north ofBorough Hall.Programs Need ControlsTo the Editor:There was a slight error in your December 27th story (Community Forum) about the City Council investigation into Methadone Clinics. While the release from the Park Slope Civic Council correctly reported my statements on the immense problem methadone clinics present to our City; it incorrectly stated that I was a member of the Special City Council Committee chaired by Carter Burden who is studying the problem.The Committee just issued a 45- page interim report which calls for long needed legislative and administrative reforms governing the size and location of methadone clinics. In addition, the report calls for the unified control of all methadone clinics under the Commissioner of Health. I have assured Chairman Burden that I will support the recommendations contained in his report on the floor of the Council.The report, which is available for public inspection at my office, 147 Montague Street, makes a number of important findings that have been obvious to members of the Fort Greene and Park Slope communities for some time.First, methadone treatment has grown so fast that there is no longer an adequate standard of treatment. Government funds are being squandered because of inadequate financial controls over these programs. Third, there is no unified regulation over all methadone programs, and more than 25 per cent of all the City%u2019s methadone users are in private profit-making clinics which are the worst offenders of both patient treatment and community standards.These private clinics are almost entirely government funded through the medicaid program, yet are alm ost completely unregulated. The private clinics are one of the main targets of Councilman Burden's committee report.It is an outrage that these private clinics, funded almost exclusively by government funds operate beyond government control.Hopetuuy, the New Year will see strong Council and Executive action on a problem that is eating away at our City%u2019s drug rehabilitation program and the integrity of many of our neighborhoods.Yours sincerely,Fred RichmondCity CouncilmanSaucy ApproachDear Editor:President Nixon has claimed such success for the detente with Russia and his friendship with Premier Brezhnev which had the result of even averting was last month, that I think he should ask for a quid pro quo: the wheat deal.Russia should now subsidize oil shipments to us to supplement our %u201cshortage%u201d . And, if the price is too high, the president should have Congress subsidize the cost to consumers of gas and oil as was done for the farmers and wheat and grain dealers.Shouldn%u2019t the sauce for the gander also be sauce for us geese?Sincerely, Ken Boss 10 Sidney PlaceRestore HonorLetter to The editor Dear Friends:I am glad to see that an American citizens%u2019 organization to impeach the President has been formed in the Congressional district of Mr. Rooney, the incumbent Congressman here.This is as it should be. Wen the incumbent Congressman refuse to follow their clear Constitutional duty to impeach a man whose actions have brought him under a cloud of suspicion, then their failure to act brings the whole federal government system into danger %u2014 regardless of the party affiliation of these Congressmen. And the failure of the citizens themselves to act in this crisis then raises the question of whether they deserve any better government than they get.But what can they do? One man, a former speechw riter for President Kennedy, iias suggestedthat the only practical recourse for the citizen is to organize into such groups and to pledge to oppose the re-election of any incumbent Congressman. But, in practice, this means supporting the election of any rival candidate, no matter what stand he may have on any other issues confronting our country.And this is tantamount to sayingthat the single most important issue facing us is that of restoring our national honor that has been thus jeopardized by both the Congress and the national executive branch.I myself feel that this is indeed the single most important issue. But how many of my fellow citizens also feel this way? And how many of them feel the danger deeply enough to organize and to act to get the incumbent Congressman out of office in this legal and constitutional way that is provided to us %u2014 at the voting booth?It may be that Mr. Rooney is only waiting for our encouragement and support to move him. What a tragedy if he does not find this encouragement and support from us!Respectfully yours, John H. Davenport 231 Clinton St.Taxes SentAs GestureFollowing is a copy of a letter sent by The F irst Unitarian Church, Brooklyn Heights, to the Internal Revenue Service concerning its views on universal unconditional amnesty:Internal Revenue Service Brookhaven Service Center 1040 Waverly Avenue Holtsville, New York 11742 Dear Representative:This letter accompanies full payment of the direct assessment of September 24, 1973 for uncollected telephone excise taxes (balance: $60.09 plus interest $1.74) totaling $61.83. This full payment is a gesture of our support, now that official United States prosecution of the war in soumeasi Asia is enaea, tor an official and unconditional amnesty.Anne Hubbard, then President of the Board of Trustees of our church, informed the New York Telephone Company office on November 12, 1971, that the Board had determined not to pay the federal excise tax on its phone \Continued on Page 13