Bill Moyers Does Not Care for Glass Phallic Symbols (or, Not Unreasonably, for Us)

A few weeks ago, Daily Intel’s “Neighborhood Watch” mentioned Bill Moyers’s involvement in neighborhood protests over a residential tower the New-York Historical Society wants to build on the Upper West Side. (Later, we got confused and suggested he was also opposed to a Chelsea development, a mistake we quickly corrected.) In a letter to the magazine, Moyers takes issue with our portrayal, takes another jab at the Historical Society, and concedes that we did at least spell his name correctly.

The text of his letter is after the jump, or you can read it here as a PDF. (See real Moyers letterhead!)

February 20, 2007

Editors
New York Magazine
444 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Dear Editor:

I credit you with spelling my name correctly but that’s the extent of your accuracy in New York Magazine’s recent mentions of me. I was pleased to see you corrected your mistake in claiming that I had “protested luxury condos at General Theological Seminary” — a battle I haven’t joined — but you did let stand your error stating I led “a pack of angry rich people against the New York Historical Society plans for a high-rise condo off Central Park West.” I led no one; indeed, I was merely the last person at the microphone at the end of a long evening and I engaged in a civil exchange with a representative of the Society, with no angry words expressed by either of us. I did not see a “pack of angry rich people” — only several hundred neighbors from the community who struck me as regular folks, many of them occupying small apartments in the area and concerned about the impact on their lives and their neighborhood of the high-rise tower that the Society wants to jut into the sky above everyone. I must also correct your headline above your story: “Don’t Mess with Bill Moyers’ View.” I do not have a view of the Society. My concern is with the erection of a glass phallic symbol that would permanently alter the skyline and space where Central Park and several historic landmarks converge in an environment that offers beauty and inspiration to all.

Sincerely,