Here's hoping the mayor's plans include Homewood

From Homewood, I -- and I am certain many others who live here and who have worked hard to maintain and beautify their properties -- wish Mayor Bob O'Connor great success! At last, this community can feel a sense of hope that we will be included in planned "safer/cleaner communities." Such plans have eluded us for 12 years!

Much, however, will depend on how directors of the relevant city departments view us -- as part of the city or the part to be overlooked, as has been the case, too often, in neighborhood maintenance (streets paved, weeds cut, old cars removed and homeowners forced to adequately maintain their properties, etc.).

Always remember, Mayor O'Connor: "... what you do for the least of Mine..." -- find it all in the Book of Matthew.

ELAINE F. LEE
Homewood

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Worth the effort

I believe that Pittsburgh is on the verge of another renaissance. Suddenly, things seem to be coming together -- without total dependency on taxpayers' money. This is a great turn of events!

I also believe that Pittsburghers as a whole do not realize the beauty and potential that our region has to offer. There's a general low self-esteem that pervades us, which is totally unproductive and unwarranted (except for the Steelers, of course).

Luckily, there seem now to be people out there taking great risks to regenerate this city, and all their efforts should be supported. Pittsburgh is worth it!

Let the Third Renaissance commence ...

EVAN JAMES
North Side

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City complainers

This is in regard to the Dec. 31 letter "On Thin Ice." I read this and realized it is people in this city like this writer who make younger, forward-thinking people like myself want to bang their heads against the nearest wall in complete and utter frustration.

It is obvious that this writer cannot think outside of her little Westwood neighborhood and her frozen sidewalk. First, "better jobs and benefits" do not just happen. She provides no suggestion or solutions to improve the situations of the citizens of Pittsburgh.

Second, the new arena will be used by more than just the Penguins (i.e., monster truck shows, concerts, wrestling, NCAA hoops, circuses, etc.). Each of these respective events brings money and jobs into the city. How was this ignored?

Finally, in regard to unshoveled sidewalks that are frozen solid: Next time it snows, pick up a shovel yourself or, if you can't, have a neighbor remove the snow and put some salt down. You should not depend on the city to take care of it. Take some initiative. It's much better than complaining.

DAVID C. KUTSCHBACH
Kennedy

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Suppress Dowd?

I'm growing increasingly weary of the tendency of right-wingers to suppress opinions with which they don't agree. The most recent case in point is reader Dave Stroud's call for the removal of Maureen Dowd's column ("Dump Dowd," Dec. 31 letters).

Hey, if the rest of us are forced to put up with PG columnist Jack Kelly, who believes that President Bush can do absolutely no wrong, then Mr. Stroud and his ilk can tolerate Maureen Dowd (she and columnist Paul Krugman are both terrific, by the way). If not, then I encourage him to stick with the carefully controlled outlets of right-wing orthodoxy, including the entire radio spectrum, Fox News and myriad conservative newspapers and magazines.

There Mr. Stroud can find the hate-filled "wit and wisdom" of Ann Coulter. Then perhaps he will not spend his time trying to tell the rest of us what we can and cannot read.

WILLIAM E. SPANGLER
Mt. Lebanon

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A need for all views

You, Dave Stroud ("Dump Dowd," Dec. 31 letters), sound exactly like that odious Ann Coulter. Ann Coulter attacks anyone who disagrees with her. She rarely states facts, just spews venom.

Maureen Dowd states facts to back up what she writes, which are interesting columns that my entire family, friends and acquaintances enjoy.

As for Paul Krugman, he also has facts to back up what he writes. The man knows exactly what is going on in this administration and tells it like it is.

As much as I abhor Ann Coulter, if people want to read her columns, why not print them? The same goes for those with opposing views, such as Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman, both with a following of loyal readers.

Without opposing thoughts and views in the media, books and magazines, you might as well give up your thinking and reasoning process and let the would-be dictators of this world tell you what to do and when to do it.

DEBRA ISTVANIK-STROTMAN
Monongahela

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Teachers' parking

In reference to the Dec. 31 letter by Jim Miller of Brookline ("Parking Savings"): I have been a Pittsburgh schoolteacher for more than 30 years and have taught in more than six different schools. Over the years I have parked on the streets around a school and had my car hit several times for which I did not get reimbursed for the total amount of money I put out to have it fixed. I have double-parked in parking lots made to handle far fewer cars than the number of teachers, staff, etc., who work in the building.

In the days when traffic tickets were hand-written and the writing was sometimes illegible, I had to go to traffic court numerous times to fight parking tickets that students removed from their cars and placed on mine. And I've even had my license plate stolen.

The parking lot at Connelley Technical Institute is not even paved; it was and still is a gravel lot where cars get dinged with gravel all the time.

If teachers were reimbursed for all the times we've had to pay for parking or to fix damage from having to park on the street, I would unplug my coffee pot from which I drink my one cup of coffee five days a week.

COOKIE ELBLING
Squirrel Hill

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Ohio's chaos

The plans presented by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to adjust property taxes will disrupt school boards' systems to properly fund the operations of their public schools. Since 1976 Ohio has had utter chaos in funding public schools as a result of referendums.

Four times the Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled that schools in Ohio are funded improperly. Last election year close to 60 percent of schools that had levy issues on the ballot failed to win approval. As a retired educator, I know that the levy system has created educational turmoil in Ohio. It has divided communities and has disrupted the educational progression most schools look for.

I would suggest that the General Assembly contact school board directors in Ohio before making any decisions. Pennsylvania has always had a stable educational funding system. If you adopt the Ohio system, you will see two states in educational financial crisis.

DAN MARIOTTI
Berea, Ohio
Editor's note: The writer is a native of Republic, Fayette County.

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The 'leaker' is the true patriot

The Justice Department is now pursuing the "leaker" who let The New York Times know about illegal wiretaps of U.S. citizens ("Probe Begins on NSA Leaks: Criminal Inquiry Over Eavesdropping," Dec. 31). The president had a legal way to install the wiretaps, through the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

What is wrong with this picture? We are attempting to punish the messenger for the message. When the president took his oath of office, he swore to uphold the laws. Now it is clear that this secretive president really meant he would uphold the laws that were visible. If the effects were invisible, it is OK to violate the law because no one knows. If someone discovers the secret, then, by the rules of "spin," that person is the criminal.

I would call the "leaker" the true American patriot. Our president, no matter how exalted or worried about security, is the law-breaker.

"National security" is the president's alleged defense, and it is important. But there is a legal way to go about it. Once we breach these legal barriers, we begin to lose our moral sense and to become less and less distinguished from our foes.

Aren't we starting to slide toward McCarthyism again?

MARTIN J. RESICK
Emlenton, Venango County
Editor's note: The writer is formerly from Squirrel Hill.

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Deserves a medal

I do hope the Justice Department can identify the person or persons who have leaked the information regarding the illegal spying program by this administration. President Bush can then bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on someone who actually deserves it.

JEFF TISCHLER
Baldwin Borough