The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust should be applauded for its decision to postpone its RiverParc project ("Cloudy Vision: Trust Pulls Back on Prime Project," May 30 editorial). For many decades, the trust has upheld high development standards that have transformed a seedy red-light zone into today's thriving and world-class Cultural District.

It has been the very clarity of the trust's vision over that time that has turned the district into Downtown's most successful and dynamic neighborhood. The economic turnaround now taking hold in other parts of Downtown began and still revolves around the presence of the district's arts organizations, cultural venues, parks, restaurants and quality development.

What has set the Cultural Trust apart from conventional "developers" is its willingness to be patient. After working diligently for 25 years to amass the land for its riverfront development, the trust has an obligation to proceed with a deal only if it is economically feasible and maintains the same high standards of design and functionality that have guided the trust since Jack Heinz imagined the Cultural District into being a generation ago.

To compromise those standards, which were clearly communicated from the outset, would be unacceptable. A project like this must be done right from the start, or the opportunity it represents will be squandered.

There is a saying in the real estate business: "Sometimes the best deal is the one that you don't do." The riverfront development will happen and -- along with already successful trust projects, such as the restoration of the Benedum Center, the construction of the Theater Square complex and O'Reilly Theater, the Riverfront Park and many others -- it will make the community proud.

But only because the trust is willing to make the tough calls and remain true to the integrity of its mission. That is what I call clarity -- and courage.

GRANT OLIPHANT
President and CEO
The Pittsburgh Foundation
Downtown

The writer is a member of the board of the Cultural Trust.

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Like entertainer Dean Martin used to say in mimicking Ricky Ricardo, "This needs a whole lot of 'splainin'." The Republicans in Congress are being constantly vilified by the media and even mainstream conservative Republicans -- and rightly so. And what is their crime? They are guilty of excessive spending, pork-barrel projects, moral lapses and backing away from conservative principles. In other words, they are acting like Democrats.

So what is the remedy as evidenced by recent special elections? That's right: vote for more Democrats who will give us an even bigger increase in government spending, pork-barrel projects, moral lapses, etc., etc., etc.

GILBERT DADOWSKI
Moon

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Regarding "Where Did She Go Wrong?" (May 25 news story), where all of the reasons were listed for why Sen. Hillary Clinton has failed in her bid for the Democratic nomination: The listed reasons were correct. But left out was that, early on, Sen. Clinton ran as if she were the presumptive or, if you will, anointed candidate. At least this is my view.

I was as surprised as everyone else about Sen. Barack Obama's wins. Sen. Clinton's touted and supposed knock-out punch of Super Tuesday turned me off from her; it was an attitude of "I'm the winner, no others need apply." It was this insistence that I didn't like.

I voted for Sen. Obama in the Pennsylvania primary. In my view he will be elected in November and will be a fine president, and maybe a great one. He reminds me of FDR and John Kennedy. FDR had his personal battle with polio and understood what it was like to be one day full of life and the next day handicapped -- this, I think, made FDR a better person and a compassionate person. John Kennedy was a listener. Sen. Obama being poor and biracial had a personal battle, like FDR, and came out of it a better man. Sen. Obama is a listener like JFK.

The nation will once again face a dilemma similar to that of the 1930s. The nation needs someone who understands what it is like to be down; Sen. Obama would be the best man to deal with the coming crises.

FREDERICK J. ROKASKY
Banksville

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I am now officially declaring my disgust with rising fuel prices and the effect they appear to have on public services. The May 22 front page exhibited the headline "Fuel Tax Revenues Declining in State." The subheadline -- "High Gasoline Prices Lead to Less Driving" -- should have been enough for me not to read the article. My 4-year-old could make the same observation.

Unfortunately for my nerves, the desire to be an informed consumer overcame me and I read the article. Fuel taxes help pay for state road and bridge repairs, and declining revenues foreshadow issues in maintaining these repairs. The first question on my mind is: How long has road repair depended on fuel taxes? Drivers can shell out only so much before saying, "I cannot pay this."

PennDOT should have foreseen this and set up an alternative means for revenue. Instead it will wait "to see how steep this drop-off will be and exactly what it means." I can tell you what it means: PennDOT is not prepared to maintain the roadways, and for a region that has a pothole season, the outcome is not going to be pretty.

JESSICA PEREZ
Plum

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I've noticed that the Post-Gazette has printed letters about Rob Rogers' May 20 cartoon. I am dismayed to see, however, that no letters have been printed about Mr. Rogers' May 21 "Brewed on Grant."

In that cartoon, Mr. Rogers depicts an overweight man wearing a West Virginia University hat. He is distraught because of the perception problems West Virginia faces because of things like the M.B.A. scandal. He says, "There's only one thing that can ease the pain of this national humiliation. Knowing we can still look down on Mississippi."

This cartoon is offensive because it relies so heavily on regional stereotyping. And while the M.B.A. scandal is embarrassing and I applaud the Post-Gazette reporters who exposed it, this shameful incident shouldn't be an excuse for anyone -- including a Pittsburgh cartoonist -- to look down on West Virginians.

In general, WVU's programs are underrated. The education that I am receiving as a graduate student here is just as good as, if not better than, the education that I received as an undergraduate at Northwestern University. And, yet, when I tell people that I am going to WVU, many still make the same tasteless jokes about bad teeth and inbreeding. My professors are world-class scholars, researchers and teachers who have won many local and national awards.

All people should be judged by the integrity of their actions. That is why WVU President Mike Garrison should resign, and Mr. Rogers should refrain from engaging in tasteless stereotyping like this in the future.

LORI D'ANGELO
Graduate Student
West Virginia University
Morgantown, W.Va.

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In response to a May 18 article on H-1B visas, letter writer Brad Burke called our current immigration policy destructive because we force many talented foreign students out of the country upon graduation ("We Become Stronger With Skilled Foreign Workers," May 27). However, it is our policy toward foreign students that is destructive.

History will show that our post-World War II free-trade policy has fostered the creation of numerous industrial nations that can now out-compete us economically. In part, this is because we have exported the capital of industrial, scientific and computer know-how to these competitors.

Just as the import/export playing field is asymmetrical, so is the playing field of higher education. Because of host country laws, it is nearly impossible to get any sort of financial assistance as an American graduate student abroad, while no such restrictions apply to foreign students here. Free-market enthusiasts make facile arguments about efficiencies, but pragmatically we get billions spent on low-cost Chinese goods at Wal-Mart. Similarly, universities simplistically argue that they should select students based only on their academic credentials, without concern for the ramifications.

As Mr. Burke points out, most of the students whose educational opportunities we taxpayers have been funding do not stay in the United States, but return home to strengthen their own countries. Meanwhile the hopes and dreams of qualified American students are crushed. The solution is not to retain the foreign students, but to keep them out by instituting the same protective laws used by our closest competitors. If we did that, the H-1B visa restrictions would be a moot issue.

CHRISTIAN PREUS
Carrick

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