The Port Authority must invest in retooling the system

As the Port Authority struggles through its fiscal challenges, it is essential that it emerges as a sustainable regional asset with a viable business plan for providing transit service to the people of southwestern Pennsylvania. The Port Authority's current effectiveness, however, is a major concern. An analysis by the Pennsylvania Economy League of Southwestern Pennsylvania found that the Port Authority does not perform well when compared with other big-city transit systems around the country, attracting far fewer customers for each hour of bus service offered.

One of the major reasons is that there has not been a comprehensive re-evaluation of the Port Authority's route structure and service pattern since the agency was formed in the 1960s. In the past 40 years, daily life, work schedules and regional development patterns have changed tremendously, yet the Port Authority has not retooled its system. The Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission ("Ideas Flow for Road Funding," Sept. 13) should recommend that the Port Authority undertake such a reassessment with the community to design the best transit system for 21st-century life.

To pay for the expertise needed for this undertaking would require about $800,000 -- or one-quarter of 1 percent of the Port Authority's annual operating budget of $347 million. That's a small investment to make in an agency that's so critical to the region's economy and quality of life.

KEN ZAPINSKI
Senior Vice President
Transportation and Infrastructure
Allegheny Conference on Community Development
Downtown

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A family values low

I returned from a short out-of-state trip to be greeted by Sen. Rick Santorum's latest "family values" commercial. Exhibiting one's children on television for personal aggrandizement (and what else is a political advertisement?) is certainly not illegal, but in my view is certainly a low in parenting.

For Sen. Santorum, who uses "cyber schools" to shield his children from possible contagion by the children of the likes of his constituents, it is also a high in hypocrisy.

BERNARD WOLFSON
Mt. Lebanon

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Exploiting his kids

Who but Rick Santorum would exploit his own children on television to win a senatorial race that hopefully, because of his policies, he won't win anyway?

For a man supposedly with "Christian family values" to use his own children for political gain is despicable -- as is forcing Pennsylvania taxpayers to pay for their education when they reside in Virginia.

MARGARET FOSTER
Scott

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For the children

I am impressed by those marvelous Santorum youngsters. They're speaking their minds in full support of their dad. He may be a great dad. I hope that's true.

But he's not a good senator. His rubber-stamp approach to the very bad policies of this administration does not serve Pennsylvanians well. His belief in trickle-down theories, his lack of understanding of Social Security and his willingness to trade off civil rights for meager improvements in national security are negative clouds on the future of our commonwealth and all of its children.

I could never forgive myself if I did not do right by those dedicated young residents of Virginia and by my own grandchildren and all the children of Pennsylvania and the United States of America.

Putting the cute and emotional stuff aside and looking at the issues, we all deserve a better future than Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Santorum offer.

I'll vote for Bob Casey, and, if the final tallies are honest and real on Election Day, we can all look forward to better handling of government business. The kids can thank me later.

JOHN MACHADO
North Versailles

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Make him full-time

I just saw the Rick Santorum ad featuring his wonderful children. I was touched by one Santorum child's comment: "... being our Dad is the most important job he'll ever have."

Let's do Sen. Santorum and his children a favor and allow him to spend more time at home with the family -- maybe as a full-time dad. Vote for Bob Casey in November; give Rick back to his family.

DAN MARTIN
Highland Park

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People sharing roads

It should be considered exciting by car and bike drivers alike that our city is installing a bike lane in the East End ("Bicycle Lanes Gain Support on Long Stretch of Liberty Ave.," Aug. 28).

In and on our vehicles, have we forgotten that everyone on the road is a human being?

My solution to cars finding me an in-the-way annoyance: attach a Steelers flag to the back of my bike. Suddenly, drivers remember that I'm a part of the city, too.

CAITLIN LENAHAN
Greenfield

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Live his legacy

As I watched the events of the past month with Mayor Bob O'Connor's illness, treatment and subsequent death, I felt unparalleled sadness for a man I'd never met but had come to respect.

It struck me that he accomplished so much for our wonderful city in such a short time. He brought energy, enthusiasm and hope to our collective imaginations. But it was his and his family's courage and faith in the face of suffering that taught me so much more. To live a life of service, to suffer bravely and to die with dignity were the real lessons here.

His legacy will be fully realized if we, as the city of Pittsburgh, rally together and forge the dream he had for us all.

CONNIE VASKOV
Forest Hills

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My inspiration

Recently the Post-Gazette included me in a piece about "unofficial mayors" of local neighborhoods ("The People Turn to These Leaders, Young or Old, to Get Things Done," Aug. 21). I would like to tell everyone who the No. 1 inspiration in my work is: Bob O'Connor.

I was 16 years old when I decided to take a drive out to the campaign office on Forward Avenue in Squirrel Hill. I went in and was met by a staffer and we sat down and talked about Bob's vision for the city. After hearing Bob and meeting him I was hooked. I stayed on and went through the agony of defeat and the high of victory with Bob. The people surrounding him and his family are the best people I have ever met and were truly an inspiration for me and helped mold me into the man I am today.

During the ups and downs of the campaigns, Bob's vision never changed. He was in it for the common folk and for the neighborhoods. Helping people was his life, and I have decided to make it mine. Bob is truly a role model for all of us in the city and surrounding areas.

When Bob died it made me wonder if this thing called life was truly worth it and if there was a God. No person like Bob should have to be hospitalized with a cancer like what he had or suffer the pain that he suffered. During these trying times I realized that there is a God, and Bob would have wanted me to continue with his plan to go forward and to make Pittsburgh the best Pittsburgh it can be.

Bob O'Connor truly was and still is "Everybody's Mayor."

MATT HOGUE
Elliott

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The complex Mideast situation requires skill that our leaders lack

Was it just me, or did anyone else have the feeling Monday night, listening to President Bush, that he lives in a comic book world ("Bush Ties Nation's Safety to Iraq," Sept 12)?

"This struggle has been called a clash of civilizations. In truth, it is a struggle for civilization." All that was missing was the cape and tights.

"The war ... will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious." If only it were that simple. The president is terrifying in his naivete.

The situation in the Middle East is far more complex than an "us vs. them" scenario or a comic book version of "good vs. evil." There are the Sunnis battling the Shiites; Hamas has its own agenda as does Hezbollah. Some historians even feel that Saddam Hussein's hatred of al-Qaida in Iraq and Iran and its hatred of the Taliban in Afghanistan are what gingerly held hostilities at bay. Mr. Bush's toppling of Saddam's regime could be likened to stepping on a hornet's nest.

Peace, or at least a lack of armed conflict in the Middle East, will be achieved only through wisdom and careful diplomacy. We cannot shoot our way out of this. Unfortunately, our current leadership -- U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, Sen. Rick Santorum and our president -- all seem to lack such wisdom.

BETH NEWMAN
Murrysville

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