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Saturday, March 03, 2001
The North Shore's new park can be a major draw for the city
I applaud the planners who have envisioned the North Shore Riverfront Park ("Riverfront Makeover," Feb. 27). This type of development can truly make the North Shore a destination that people will visit for many reasons. Anyone who has been to San Antonio, Texas, and seen that city's wonderful Riverwalk can appreciate what the proper planning can do for a downtown area.
If this makeover is done correctly by adding unique restaurants, artist kiosks and shops (and avoiding the trend of overemphasizing national vendors and restaurant chains), it can draw people who want to have a definitive Pittsburgh experience year-round.
The key also lies in making the North Shore "user friendly" and offering many things to do during both the daytime and evening (i.e., live music, dancing, dining). I travel 30-plus weeks a year and have seen many other cities that offer similar day/night "destinations." It is time Pittsburgh had one as well.
MICHAEL STAPLES
Happy customers
I read the Feb. 18 Business article "Shopping for Profits" and was disappointed that no reference was made to a terrific service here in Western Pennsylvania that plans to expand into other cities. Hours to You is not specifically an online grocer, although that's one of the ordering options available and the one our family uses most of the time.
It has solved a number of the problems that other delivery services have -- online or otherwise -- such as keeping cold food cold if the customer isn't home at the time of delivery and the willingness to search for out-of-the-ordinary items. Keeping us out of the grocery store has actually saved us money, not to mention time and aggravation.
We have no financial interest in the company, by the way; we're just happy customers who encourage others to give the service a try.
CHERYL TOWERS
PennDOT's mad plan
I am in shock and in total disbelief that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is being permitted to shut down Route 28 at the Etna interchange for six months. This is sheer madness, and if it isn't stopped, we will have traffic gridlock of biblical proportions! The rerouting might look good on paper, but it's just plain insanity!
PennDOT's grand poobah says there will be a 45-minute delay through the construction zone. Does PennDOT realize how this will impact our daily lives?
Who's going to pay for all the gas that will be wasted sitting in that mess? What about all the air pollution that will be generated by all that exhaust? What about our employers' reactions to our being an hour late every day for six months? Who's going to tell our families that we will now have less personal time? These are just a few questions that are important to us, the Pennsylvania driver/taxpayer.
This project must be re-examined. The current state of traffic through that area is bad enough, but at least it's tolerable. PennDOT has to come up with another way to do this while maintaining the current traffic flow. If it means working weekends, 24 hours a day, to build a new/temporary road or bridge -- so be it. It may take longer and cost more, but in the long run it's the most sensible thing to do.
DAVID L. SLOMAINY
An amazing gift
I am one of those lucky people who got a liver transplant almost five years ago ("The Gift of Life Opened Slowly Here," Feb. 24). It still amazes me that if this disease had struck me 20 years ago, I would probably be dead today. I know that each and every day is a gift and that I am one of the lucky ones.
This article was really uplifting, and I am glad to hear that some liver transplant patients are still alive after 20 and 30 years. It gives me hope.
PAM YEAGER
Unnecessary procedure
Thank you for the excellent article "Egyptian Women Fight Circumcision" (Feb. 25). This type of reporting is important for public education and the restoration of genital integrity rights.
Unfortunately, the article did not mention the phenomenon of male circumcision in North America. Nonreligious circumcision was initiated in the late 19th century in a misinformed attempt to curb masturbation, which was believed to cause a wide range of medical problems. After this theory was disproved, other rationalizations for the procedure were invented.
There is no medical justification for this painful and traumatic genital alteration. In recent policy statements, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association have acknowledged that neonatal circumcision is "not essential" and "nontherapeutic." The foreskin has important protective and sexual functions that are widely understood outside of North America.
We appreciate public exposure of the problem of female circumcision. But the related phenomenon of nonmedical male circumcision is present right here in our own backyard. Although female circumcision is often more physically severe than its male counterpart, nonmedical cutting of healthy, functional erogenous tissues robs any person of the right to genital integrity. Human rights depend on sovereignty, not severity.
GREG HARTLEY
Krauthammer mistaken
Charles Krauthammer's recent column about the California power shortage ("You Can Thank the Environmentalists for Our Current Energy Quandary," Feb. 17) makes two serious errors.
Mr. Krauthammer's first mistake is his claim that environmentalists prevented California from building new power plants. As a number of newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, have reported, California's utilities -- not the state's environmentalists -- did the blocking.
The Sierra Club supports building new power plants because they are cleaner and more efficient than older ones. Currently, we support a new power plant slated to be built outside of San Jose. Unfortunately, the project is being blocked by Cisco Systems, who hopes to build an office park nearby. In 1994, a coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, pushed for the construction of over a thousand megawatts of new generating capacity. Unfortunately, California's utilities, hoping to make a windfall off of deregulation, blocked the plan.
Mr. Krauthammer also is mistaken when he claims that high oil prices are due to a lack of domestic exploration. Since America has only 3 percent of the world's petroleum reserves, opening every wild place and coastline in the United States to unrestricted drilling would have no effect on world prices: they are set by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge also won't work. Since California gets less than 1 percent of its electricity from oil, drilling would do nothing for the state's power crunch. Drilling would, however, destroy the last 5 percent of Alaska's North Slope for a six-month supply of oil that would take a decade to bring online.
On the other hand, according to Environmental Protection Agency scientists, if cars, minivans and sport utility vehicles got just three miles more per gallon, it would save more oil within 10 years than would ever be produced from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And more to the point, there are far better and easier places to drill for oil.
Just as we would not dam the Grand Canyon for hydropower, we should not destroy the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for a six-month supply of oil.
CARL POPE
Mars
Shadyside
Arnold
McKeesport
Director
Pittsburgh Center
NOCIRC of Pennsylvania
Franklin Park
Executive Director
Sierra Club
San Francisco