It is unfortunate that Don Barden is belittling the efforts of the Riverlife Task Force to tackle significant design issues connected to his casino and garage, which will be located on waterfront at the heart of Pittsburgh ("Barden Breaks Ground for City Casino," Dec. 12).

It's a shame Mr. Barden doesn't understand the positive role Riverlife has played in Pittsburgh. It is clear from his public statements that he doesn't know all that the organization has done to make Pittsburgh's future brighter by working in good faith with developers of riverfront property and others to make the rivers and riverfront property more attractive and more accessible to the public.

We at The Heinz Endowments hope that Mr. Barden will stop to think about the long-term benefits of good urban planning. Riverlife, through a committed staff and a board representing every facet of the community, has, in the last eight years, done more to make Pittsburgh America's most livable city than any other institution in town.

The organization has taken long stretches of our waterfront and led a strong community planning process to create one of the greatest urban amenities in the nation. And it has worked constructively with all of the region's top leaders, including private developers.

Mr. Barden needs to understand that protecting and beautifying our rivers and waterfront is what Pittsburghers want, and he needs to respect that by working with the Riverlife Task Force.

MAXWELL KING
President
The Heinz Endowments
Downtown

The writer is a board member of the Riverlife Task Force.

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Don Barden is correct -- his pockets are being picked without reason ("Casino Owner Won't Heed 'Ridiculous' Design Request," Dec. 11).

Why are our leaders and large businesses asking Mr. Barden to pay for the city's/county's lack of planning? It has been one year since the state approved Mr. Barden's casino and the man has not been allowed to build for one reason or another. Let the man build the casino and the communities reap the financial benefits -- as was the reason for allowing gaming in Pennsylvania in the first place.

Why is this process becoming so mired in stupid, unnecessary arguments -- when other venues across the state have been able to open and are proving to be worth the effort?

No wonder Pittsburgh is becoming a barren town -- why would anyone want to bring business here if all they do is get an argument from leaders, not the majority of the residents, concerning the appearance of a parking garage?

NANCY SCIALABBA
Shaler

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Here is the deal. If you own something, it is yours to do whatever you legally want to do with it. So it is with Kennywood Park ("Kennywood Sold to Spanish Company," Dec. 12).

Instead of whining about why something owned by somebody else was sold, the people who criticize the sale ought to look into the matter more deeply.

Kennywood Park is transportation challenged in an aging city because political leaders don't have the tenacity to allow interstate highway access to the park via the Mon-Fayette Expressway.

Almost two years ago, I wrote to this paper and asked whether the people who opposed the Mon-Fayette Expressway and an extension of it into the city of Pittsburgh would locate their business in the Mon Valley without the benefit of reliable and safe transportation. I haven't noticed a whole lot of takers.

Kennywood is in a competitive business, folks, and if you don't have the resources to compete, you will lose. No whining, no wishing, no hoping is ever going to change that reality.

Faced by miserable access, the vulture known as "property taxes" and a region that has shown it has no clue how to generate sustainable growth, the only choice open to the owners of Kennywood was to sell. Frankly, I'm surprised they found a buyer.

Here is a clue, folks: Unless the Mon-Fayette Expressway is extended into the city of Pittsburgh, the entire area is doomed. It may be 1960 in your minds, but reality suggests otherwise.

STEVE FRANCKHAUSER
Leet

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As a teacher in the Pittsburgh Public Schools I am always dumbfounded when people make faulty assumptions about what deductions are taken from my paycheck.

Keith Egyed of Avalon declared in his Dec. 9 letter ("UPMC's Grant Comes at the Expense of Others") that "maybe the city of Pittsburgh schoolteachers who do not pay for their insurance should consider paying ... ." I better call payroll tomorrow because it is taking money from my paycheck and for some reason giving it to Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Two things come to mind. One, he obviously doesn't know what he's talking about, and two, UPMC doesn't have to pay anything to Pittsburgh but has chosen to give something to its citizens as an act of good faith in the Pittsburgh Promise.

Mr. Egyed should stay in Avalon and really worry about his taxes there and not my health-care costs. It's none of his business.

RUSSELL A. KUEHNER
Ben Avon

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This is in response to the letter from Keith Egyed of Avalon. Mr Egyed, before writing and including inaccurate statements about what city schoolteachers do not pay, you should get your facts straight. We have been paying toward, and continue to pay toward, our health-care cost. We have also received double-digit percentage increases. So in the future please check your facts for accuracy and don't just assume you know.

LEAH LIPNER
Squirrel Hill

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For the U.S. attorney's office to characterize Dr. Cyril Wecht's three-year-long personal letter exchange with a private individual, which began before the charges were filed against Dr. Wecht, to be intimidation of a witness in his case borders on the laughable ("Prosecutors: Wecht Threatening Witnesses," Dec. 12).

If the prosecutors in that office aren't aware of Dr. Wecht's propensity to fire off creative, colorful and well-written letters to individuals whom he engages in debate on a plethora of issues, personal and public, then they are derelict in their duty to understand their defendant.

To attempt to make a connection of this matter to their prosecution and assign some malevolent motive to Dr. Wecht, instead of merely understanding that it is "Cyril being Cyril," is nothing more than an unnecessary sideshow to further malign Dr. Wecht and his reputation in the press and the jury pool prior to his trial.

CHARLES A. PASCAL JR.
Leechburg

The writer is a lawyer.

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In Max Boot's Dec. 9 Forum article "Immigration Exaggeration," he quite aptly pointed out that immigration, legal and illegal, is a key factor in making the United States one of the world's fastest-growing economies, with high productivity, low unemployment and the third-highest per capita income in the world.

Anti-immigrant groups blame our liberal immigration policies for job loss and unemployment. Quite frankly, in the current global economy, only those businesses that utilize the most cost-effective means of production will thrive. Those unable or unwilling to do so will lose out to their competitors in other parts of the world. This has already happened in the garment industry, where practically 90 percent of garments sold in the United States are manufactured in Asia or Africa. Thousands of jobs were lost, not to immigrants but to workers in other countries. Immigrants, by their willingness to work for lower wages, keep costs down and permit American businesses to remain in business here in the United States.

However, as a person who waited patiently to immigrate legally to the United States (twice), I believe the best way for us to "have our cake and eat it too" is to expand immigration opportunities for honest, hard-working and qualified workers who wish to come here legally, while imposing sanctions on employers who knowingly or negligently hire illegal immigrants. If we do so, we will have a sufficient pool of skilled and unskilled talent to keep our businesses and our economy thriving.

The immigration issue is particularly significant in the Pittsburgh context. With the highest "senior citizen" concentration in the United States after Florida, if Pittsburgh is to attract young, talented workers and new businesses, it must attract immigrants as well as American workers.

KAMANA MATHUR
Collier

The writer is a former Foreign Service officer with the State Department and an immigration attorney.

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