How Fortunate We Are!

In 1979 I was able to negotiate a 'non-eviction' co-op for our building, 440 Riverside Drive at W. 116th St., where my wife and I have done public service including battle with Columbia -- from which we both hold degrees -- for its greedy conversion of our neighborhood to 'millionaires only need apply' (our 6 windows overlooking Riverside Drive and the Hudson River cost only about $20,000 then). We had sellers to us who had been had by Columbia which really wanted our prize building big time. They honored the public interest and even offered mortgages to those who could not afford them.

As I type this I look out on the beauty of the snow covered trees. My three children and 4 grands are a variously scattered from Manhattan to Florida for spring break and Presidents' Day. I feel so fortunate having chosen teaching in the City University of NY as my career rather than one of the big money things where I was more than welcomed -- wrote for Time Inc. pubs during my junior/senior summer at Yale where I had turned down Skull and Bone's illegal early invitation as News Chair and where I dropped out of our 'liberal' one for violating the privacy of student records when selecting our successors.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]