I am writing about the recently announced development known as Forward Square ("$50 Million Poli Project Will Reshape Squirrel Hill," July 19) to be located at the corner of Murray and Foward avenues.

Although this development may provide benefits to the Squirrel Hill community, it also detracts from the community. I am referring to the loss of several small businesses in that area. Among these are the Squirrel Hill Theater and the Tango Cafe. The theater has a larger corporation to defend and perhaps relocate it. The Tango Cafe, on the other hand, is a typical small business that may well be destroyed if this development goes through without properly considering its impact on the neighborhood.

The cafe is a highly unusual restaurant and cultural center that provides a place where people from the United States and Latin America can meet and learn about each other. The cafe also provides lessons in Spanish attended by dozens of nearby residents and others. I have been attending classes at the cafe for three years and found the atmosphere unique and highly educational. Finally, the cafe is part of the mix of ethnic flavors that makes Squirrel Hill the pleasure it is. Modern developments tend toward sameness, but with the right planning, we can have variety as well.

The Forward Square development should be planned in such a way as to preserve the Tango Cafe. Is it possible to incorporate the cafe into the new structure without raising its rent significantly beyond the current level?

We need to ask questions about harm as well as benefit when development projects are planned. With a little forethought, we may all come out ahead.

JAMES DeHULLU
Regent Square

Include the Tango

The proposed construction of a hotel/restaurant/condo complex at the corner of Forward and Murray in Squirrel Hill ("$50 Million Poli Project Will Reshape Squirrel Hill," July 19) puts at risk the Tango Cafe, the invaluable Latino cultural center located on Forward Avenue.

Liliana Petruy, an Argentine native and owner of the cafe, provides Spanish classes to the community at a very reasonable price as well as Spanish conversation groups, which are completely free. Her cafe also serves as an art gallery, displaying the work of local artists, and a vital music center, which has created musical groups that play throughout Western Pennsylvania.

So that the Tango Cafe can continue to provide the community with these services, why doesn't the city and R.E. Crawford and Cambridge Venture Partners, the construction company, provide a space for the Tango Cafe in the newly created building at the price that Ms. Petruy currently pays for rent? Without such a reduction in price, the only outlet that could afford to be there would be a Starbucks.

Enabling Ms. Petruy to continue to provide her services to the community through a reduction in rent would not only make the new complex more interesting but also demonstrate the city's and the company's commitment to Pittsburgh's quality of life.

PATRICIA HARRINGTON WYSOR
McCandless

Working for solution

The July 25 article "Schenley Farms Resists Islamic Playground" with Hader Mansour's reported assertion that "they refuse us to have the playground for the kids" is a gross misrepresentation of the attitude of Schenley Farms and the Schenley Farms Civic Association.

The facts: Schenley Farms and, foremost, the Islamic Center's immediate neighbors fully share the center's concerns about the safety of their children. In response to an offer from Schenley Farms in March to search for a mutually acceptable solution, a meeting was finally held at the center on July 20. Five members of the Islamic Center, including Mr. Mansour, and four members of Schenley Farms were in attendance.

The meeting seemed quite constructive and there seemed to be joint agreement on the broad parameters of a solution. The center claimed to have no specific project plans to present so it was apparent that a number of details needed ironing out. A joint delegation visited the zoning office on July 21. The clarification of building code issues and pursuit of a continuance was the agreed objective.

Mr. Mansour e-mailed July 23 that the Islamic Center board had decided to go ahead with the zoning variance hearing and forgo the suggested continuance necessary to develop a mutually acceptable plan for the project.

This left Schenley Farms with no alternatives to opposing the project in the form presented at the hearing. The concluding suggestion by the zoning board that the two parties ought to work together toward a mutually acceptable solution is completely consistent with the expressed intentions of Schenley Farms and ultimately improved safety for the Islamic Center children.

JEAN-FRANCOIS RICHARD
Schenley Farms

Retail overlap

Regarding the article by LaMont Jones about the luxury stores that are coming to Ross Park Mall ("High Expectations," July 28): I had no idea that this many upscale shops were in the mix. I knew Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co. and Louis Vuitton had signed on, but I wasn't aware that the other seven businesses highlighted in this story were to be a part of this influx of new stores. Maybe it's me, but I think they're biting off more than they can chew.

Do we really need all of these specialty (read: expensive) businesses concentrated in one place? Hopefully, this will work. But I found it a bit disconcerting that the merchandise from five of the new shops also will be sold at the Nordstrom's in the same mall! Is there something wrong with this picture? Possibly we do not have the whole story, or I am really dense. Well, with any luck, the taxpayers will not get stuck footing yet another enormous tab.

MARI TOTIN
Bloomfield

Why the vitriol?

I was saddened to read the anger in Gary Topolosky's July 31 letter about Al Gore ("Mr. Carbon Credits"). Don't we have enough hate and anger being spewed over the airwaves every day that we have to read it over breakfast?

It is too bad that he had to resort to insults and name calling in his letter. I was surprised that the PG would even waste the ink and recyclable paper to print his harangue.

I will admit that you, Mr. Topolosky, could possibly be right, but then again, at the risk of spoiling your day, Al Gore could also be right on the money. I happen to believe that he is. Scientists have learned, during many years of research, that the speed with which the earth and oceans are warming seems to indicate that we need to pay attention.

BARBARA WATSON
Scott

Yearly vehicle tax

There are people who do not want the drink tax. There is another way.

My sister lives in Raleigh, N.C. They have a yearly tax on their cars. Why not tax cars? This would bring in money statewide; it could be kept in the county where the tax was paid to be used for road repairs, schools or public transportation.

JOAN CHUNKO
McKeesport

Sticking with rotary

"If you are calling from a rotary phone, hang up and call back from a touch-tone phone." This is what I was told by a woman's voice on a machine, as if we all have the responsibility to abandon rotary phones and buy a touch-tone phone.

Our responsibility is to switch our business to a place where this heinous policy is not being practiced. It's been 24 years since Big Brother -- I think it's all coming true.

May God help us.

EUGENE PATRICK BARRY
West View

Nick Malato's Aug. 1 letter ("Kelly, Part 1") would have been quite humorous had he not been serious. Unfortunately, it goes to show the economic illiteracy that is quite prevalent among most Americans from the average Joe to presidential candidates.

Mr. Malato mentions the oil companies' increased profits and then the words "price gouging." What he fails to mention is anything about profit margins. According to Thomson Baseline, the average net profit margin for the Standard & Poor's energy sector is 9.7 percent. The entire S&P is 8.5 percent. So, yes, oil companies are more profitable, but not by much. And, most important, they have stayed level. Google's profit margin is around 25 percent, for context.

Here's a simple example of the concept: A waiter at a small local restaurant has a table of two that spends $50 for dinner. They tip the usual amount and leave $7.50. Across town at Morton's, the same table of two spends $100 and tips the same rate. With no increase in service, that waiter will get $15 -- double the profit with the same margin based on the underlying costs of goods sold.

And as far as having the government run the oil industry, we need just look at the U.S. Postal Service for a glimpse at the future that would lie ahead.

ED HALLER
South Side

I just finished reading the blurb about the Seward Volunteer Fire Company's Texas Hold 'em fund-raisers -- how our illustrious Pennsylvania officials have decided that those fund-raisers are unlawful and that they are now attempting to rob this fire company of more than $40,000 in "illegal" profits ("Can't Hold 'Em: Pa. Says Fire Company's Poker Games Illegal," July 29 Web). To say that I am outraged would be a gross understatement.

How dare those hypocritical bureaucratic pigs! May the day come when they themselves suffer when a struggling volunteer fire company is unable to respond to a call for help because of lack of funds. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, it will be the elderly, the poor and the average Joe who suffer.

To our government officials: Before you go robbing this fire company of the money it so desperately needs to remain functioning, why don't you spend your energy going after things that really matter -- our failing schools, violent crime, illegal drug activity, soaring energy and food costs and unemployment, to name a few?

Or, better yet, look at yourselves and fix the disgusting system we call our "government" first, before you go picking on volunteer firefighters, who truly have the people's best interests at heart.

SANDY MULLER
Apollo

While I have no strong feelings regarding the current 10 percent Allegheny County drink tax, I do indeed have strong feelings when it comes to taxpayer support of services that benefit users far greater than the actual fee paid. Has sufficient consideration been given to possibly having only those who use these services pay the bill? A simple review of the statistics published by the Port Authority indicates that it has average daily ridership as follows:

Weekday: 219,667

Saturday: 95,331

Sunday/holiday: 54,245

If you do the math, this indicates that it has an annual passenger ridership of almost 65 million. It should not require an excess of mathematical skills to see that the riders themselves could finance the annual $30 million shortfall by a fare increase of 50 cents per ride. Given the current cost of gasoline, parking, vehicle maintenance, vehicle insurance, etc., I still believe that even with the increased cost, the bus ride is a deal!

GEORGE BOWER
Baldwin Borough

Letter writer Sarah Kerin ("To Help or Not," July 22) is absolutely right on the free-market system and the Port Authority. The question that should be posed by Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato is "Should we continue to support the inept running of the Port Authority or not?"

He thinks our only choice is to pay a drink tax or a property tax. Another politician with no business sense! If there is a need for transportation -- and I believe there is -- it can be provided by the private sector. It will be run as a business and it will find a way to make a profit without the political intervention that is too common in our area.

There is no way that anyone can do worse than what we currently have -- high fares and low service.

GEORGE ANN BOWER
Mt. Lebanon

When Hillary Clinton and John McCain suggested a summer moratorium on federal gas taxes, Barack Obama complained that was a temporary Band-Aid.

Now he suggests removing oil from the federal emergency reserve. And that is ... ?

BILL YORK
Upper St. Clair

Jack Kelly's column "Placing Blame for Gas Prices" (July 20) is preposterous neo-con disinformation. The primary reason for the astronomical increase in the price of oil and gasoline since 2003 is because of Bush/Cheney's phony pre-emptive war in Iraq and their recent threats for another pre-emptive fiasco against Iran.

President Bush's announcement of lifting the executive moratorium on offshore drilling had nothing to do with the $15 per barrel decline in oil last Thursday and Friday. The drop was precipitated by Mr. Bush's unprecedented decision last Thursday to send Undersecretary of State William Burns to sit down and talk to Iran. The oil speculators who were betting on an imminent U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran sold their oil futures contracts on fears that peace may break out in the vast Middle Eastern oil reservoir countries.

We will soon see what is really driving the price of oil if Mr. Bush and the neo-cons once again ratchet up their bellicose rhetoric since Iran snubbed Mr. Burns' preconditions to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

GERALD SCHILLER
Penn Hills

I read with horror the July 20 letter by David Grover about the Fairness Doctrine ("Why Fear Fairness?"). He states that we conservatives would be terror stricken if the Fairness Doctrine came back with a Democratic administration. I guess he and they would just ignore the First Amendment.

He also ignores the fact that liberal radio doesn't work. Look at Air America -- it filed for bankruptcy. The owners of radio stations put on what the listeners want to hear, otherwise there would be no sponsors.

This is typical left-wing slant: If you don't like it, remove it. Forget the Constitution, take it off the air. Put some liberal show on that no one listens to.

ART MASSIMIANI
Ross

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