With all due respect to Dan L's work on this issue, it seems to me that he is way off on the two core issues in his letter. In the first instance, the notion that building parking spaces will meaningfully incentivize car ownership, or that a bike rack would cause someone to give up their car is unrealistic. If anything, we should appalud the fact that the plan includes onsite parking for the new residents.

Second, discouraging competition among area retailers does not serve the interests of the neighborhood. In its current form, the plan calls for relatively small retailers to inhabit the bottom of the St. Francis development. Given the market that they will be catering to, we should expect to see high end retail and cafe life style emerge. If anything, having amenities on the park and within walking distance of almost any house in the neighborhood will increase foot and not car traffic. Without additional retail and restaurants in the neighborhood there would be a significant increase in car traffic down Jersey Avenue and around the park to Van Vorst, Paulus Hook, and Newark Avenue.

To paraphrase Adonis -- let's get on with it