When do the African-American residents of the city of Pittsburgh get as much respect as other residents from our elected officials and public boards? The Penguins have received yet another favor -- development rights to the land above Mellon Arena, provided by the Urban Redevelopment Authority board -- over the objection of voices of the community ("Hill District Residents: No Deal, No Arena," Dec. 12).

The Sports & Exhibition Authority is spending nearly $900,000 to tear down the old St. Francis Hospital ("Hospital on Arena Site to Be Razed in New Year," Dec. 14), and I wonder how many African Americans will benefit. These favors to the Penguins come on top of $315 million in public welfare to build the team's new arena.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl have seemingly forgotten promises made to residents of Pittsburgh, including the clergy, last spring at Wesley Centre AME Zion Church. None of the commitments made in that meeting or those that preceded or followed have been honored.

Personally, I expected these two young men to be representatives of all the people, but I guess I expected too much. Are broken promises and disrespect our Christmas present?

It is time for African Americans who continue to pull the Democratic lever at election time to stand up and demand some respect and fair treatment from our elected officials and public boards. Should we not get the same treatment and respect as the Penguins and others? After all, ain't we taxpayers, too?

REV. DR. JOHNNIE MONROE
Hill District

The writer is pastor of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church.

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I grew up in the Homeville section of West Mifflin. Kennywood was literally my back yard. However, the sale of the park does not really cause either joy or sadness to me ("Kennywood Sold," Dec. 12).

You see, the Kennywood I grew up with has long gone the way of West View and White Swan parks. Back then, it was a place where you could just pick up and take your kids on a Sunday afternoon or just walk around on a summer night. That place died the first time they charged admission to get in the park -- and, yes, to all those under 40, there was a time that getting into Kennywood was free.

The Kennywood that exists today is a corporate place where you go once or maybe twice a year, for a school picnic, ethnic day or sometime when you want to drop more than $100 for a family of four just to get in. I understand the business aspects of the need for change, but this has long ago ceased being the Kennywood I grew up with.

JOSEPH LUCAS
Brighton Heights

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I really wonder what people are thinking when they do the things they do. At least by reading the letters to the editor, you find out what is important to them.

Early this year we found out that service cuts would be needed for the Port Authority to survive. Many people were up in arms to fight the cuts and pressure local and state governments to find funding to keep routes open and help save union jobs. Fast-forward and we get a drink tax to raise the funds needed for the same Port Authority that we had to save from service cuts.

Now, I am not in favor of this tax and I was not in favor of scaling back service earlier this year, but our leaders won the day back in the May primaries and now we must all pay. It is kind of like using a credit card. What did you expect, that the politicians were going to get out their personal checkbooks? (Or ban smoking in public places?)

It all makes sense because the most important thing in this region is the Steelers, so you need to smoke while drinking cheap in the bar watching the Steelers game, then have the bus take your smelly, intoxicated self home.

Keep up the good work, and remember to always vote for the incumbent at election time, no matter what he or she has done to you the year before. For, as much as we complain, we still must keep things the same.

DOUGLAS C. SICCHITANO
Glassport

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While I applaud the mayor's fight against blight in the city, attacking landlords the way he is should be dropped and applied to the state legislators who have passed numerous laws that have taken away the rights of landlords ("Landlords Bash Mayor's Plan to Fight City's Blight," Dec. 4). To evict a so-called tenant with disruptive behavior, or any tenant, costs landlords ridiculous amounts of time, effort and money.

Relieve us of the burdensome costs and pass laws that will give landlords relief and teeth in these matters. As a landlord, I'm not a policeman and I don't have the power to just throw out a disruptive tenant.

The mayor stated that this new legislation would give the laws some teeth. He stated, "We need to go after these individuals that are not good neighbors."

Then go after those who are not good neighbors in the same way that you go after those who "are not good neighbors" who own and live in their own properties. Don't just discriminate against landlords, Mr Ravenstahl.

When I interview a prospective tenant, I have them fill out a detailed application. I then pay to have a credit check and a mode-of-living check. I also try to get a police check, but often I am not even able to obtain one. Civil rights, you know.

When the applicant moves in and violates the lease, I have to pay large sums of money to hire a lawyer, pay filing fees that can amount to hundreds of dollars and invest time to evict a tenant. The tenant stops paying rent at this point, which increases the landlord's losses even more.

KERRY ROBERTS
Belle Vernon

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The United States is mobilized, holding its breath, taking off its shoes, giving up its civil liberties because terrorists might strike something in our country. We're scared to death, which is just what the Bush administration wants as it repudiates our understanding of the Constitution to aggrandize its unaccountable power.

But the real danger is not terrorism, though there certainly are nasty terrorists who would bomb and kill civilians. (The United States, waging what it calls a "war against terrorism" has joined the terrorists, incinerating innocent bystanders.)

The real danger is global warming, the damage we have done to our planet by greedily exploiting the world's natural resources. We have so upset the Earth's protective atmosphere that it is changing rapidly and will so alter sea levels, agriculture, species and climate that we humans will be beset with consequences that will greatly reduce our chances of survival.

These dangers have been proved: Those who dispute them are, in some way, dependent on profitable despoliation and power as the Earth flames out. They seem unable to imagine that what will happen to the least of us will happen to all of us.

We and those we call terrorists have a common interest, which is to buckle down to finding -- and finding quickly -- less destructive ways to live on our shared planet.

LIANE ELLISON NORMAN
Squirrel Hill

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If fighting to give middle-class, hard-working families a break is wrong, then I don't want to be right. Providing Pennsylvania residents with a $500 E-ZPass tax credit to help ease their toll burden is a solid proposal.

To suggest that it is "folly" shows a lack of understanding of how Act 44 will impact the rural areas of central Pennsylvania, where some folks are lucky to make $8 to $10 an hour ("Refund Folly: Plan to Take Sting Out of I-80 Tolling Is Flawed," Dec. 12 editorial). I voted against Act 44 because I represent many families who are struggling to make ends meet and do not have access to mass transit. They must commute to get to their place of employment.

The cost of my proposal would be negligible when you take into account two major factors. First, the proponents of tolling continue to tout that 75 percent of the traffic on I-80 is from out of state. That will be a new pool of revenue. Second, there will be no increased impact on local roads and bridges.

Without a tax credit, motorists needing to go only a few exits will pour on to secondary roads. If that happens, maintenance costs on those highways will increase.

Lawmakers in New York and Massachusetts took steps to ease the tolling burden on their residents. Pennsylvania should do the same.

The E-ZPass tax credit is a sound proposal that deserves consideration. It helps to shield our residents, and it places the lion's share of the toll burden on those who use our roads as a "pass through." Providing relief to working families is not "folly." It is the main reason I serve in state government.

STATE REP. SCOTT CONKLIN
Harrisburg

The writer, a Democrat from Centre County, represents the 77th Legislative District.