Developing an arena neighborhood is not realistic

Mayor Sophie Masloff ("Ideas for Reusing the Arena Aren't Realistic," Aug. 26 letter) nailed it when she said, "Let's get real!" While she doesn't think much about the ideas set forth for the preservation of the Civic Arena, does she really think the pie-in-the-sky plans for housing developments are realistic?

Consider, it is now August and the city has been unable to repair all of the potholes from this past winter. Are Pittsburghers gullible enough to believe that as soon as the arena is destroyed that a brand new development will pop up? What will happen is that the Penguins management will have a full complement of parking lots, parking lots, parking lots. After all, their business is to operate a successful and profitable hockey team. So, do they really have the time on their hands, not to mention the know-how, to develop and execute a new neighborhood?

Fifty years ago, the residents of this area moved to Penn Hills and the South Hills and those still living in those areas are not clamoring to relocate to a new development in Uptown, nor is anyone else. Pittsburgh is barely able to maintain its current population, so why all this talk, and I do mean talk, about building a new neighborhood?

Rome has the Coliseum; Athens, the Parthenon; and Paris, the Eiffel Tower. These places earn their keep by merely being there. If Pittsburgh wants to be a travel destination city and even though we no longer produce steel, steel does define us, there is no better example than the arena.

FILOMENA CONTI
Uptown

Pork Authority

Reading Jon Schmitz's article "Riders Decry Transit Cuts" (Aug. 20) brought me to this conclusion: What a depressed state our transit system has come to due to a bungling and inept "Pork" Authority. I watched the TV coverage of the public hearing showing the authority board members along with their executive director sitting so sanctimoniously at the head table all in tonsorial splendor looking over their audience (their subjects) who provide the major portion of the authority's income, the same ones who pay those exorbitant fares to ride their dirty, dilapidated buses.

Riders wanting to be heard filed to the microphone and gave various descriptions of the hardships they face while pleading their cases should the proposed cuts in service and fare increases be implemented. Cutting transit service further would be catastrophic for the Pittsburgh region and the Downtown area. It's sad to say, however, the requests and pleadings to the board will fall on deaf ears.

If the board were really serious about becoming cost efficient, it would first pack up and vacate those palatial offices the authority currently occupies in the Downtown Heinz building and move back to Beaver Avenue, where it belongs. Question: Where will the $10 million a year come from to maintain the tunnel fiasco being built under the Allegheny River?

It's unfortunate our county executive doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to eject this entire board for getting us in this mess. The Pork Authority's administration and management isn't just appalling -- it's pathetic!

RALPH J. SANTARCANGELO
Point Breeze

Senseless sweeping

Regarding street sweeping: I enjoyed the points made about the waste of money, fuel, personnel and machinery in the letter "Already Clean Sweep" (Aug. 25). It has always been mind-boggling as to what purpose it serves for our city to employ large machines to brush around in circles the grime along the sides of our streets. It just becomes loose dirt and is not really being fully removed. Perhaps the filth gets washed into the gutters and sewers when it eventually rains. More likely water is just being splashed around to what appears to be little effect.

In a similar vein, many times gardeners/landscapers with loud, noise-polluting leaf blowers just spread their customers' excess leaves/dirt/soil/twigs into the middle of the street on which they are working. That cannot be improving the situation. It only creates more of a need for genuine street cleaning, which doesn't exist.

Instead of throwing away city money that we do not have, let's encourage everyone not to use the middle of the street for discarding excess debris. Rather, use trash cans to keep our city clean and spend our precious tax dollars replenishing the city's pension coffers instead of paying for ineffective sweeping.

JEFF POLLOCK
Shadyside

Spending crisis?

With the upcoming midterm elections around the corner, the right-wing propaganda machine is in full effect. A common theme among these broadcasts and publications is that we are in some kind of spending crisis that will rain hell on this country for many generations to come.

In reality the current administration should be commended on what it has accomplished so far. The stimulus bill prevented the inherited economy from slipping from a recession into a great depression. Also critical rebuilding blocks were laid such as health care, credit card and Wall Street reform. Anyone who knows little about economics can tell you that a struggling economy absolutely requires this type of spending and legislation to rebound.

Let's hope voters will take the facts to the polls in November, not the usual GOP special-interest spin. After all, wasn't this reckless way of thinking (or lack of) what got us in this mess in the first place?

DANIEL L. DANNENMUELLER
McCandless

Re: wasted food

It didn't sit well with me seeing the photo in the Aug. 25 paper of good food being thrown out ("Nutritious School Meals Feed the Fight Against Obesity," Health and Science). I'd like to know who's paying for that food. (We know it's not the students.)

I wonder why we Americans think that we can continue to pollute the environment and waste food without any consequences. We do know that there are people in other countries who have hardly enough food to sustain themselves.

Is it any wonder that our young people are confused with the messages of entitlement we are sending to them?

ELAINE O'NEILL
Stanton Heights

Dr. Laura's offense

Eva Rodriguez of The Washington Post argues, in defense of Dr. Laura Schlessinger ("As Others See It," Aug. 24 Perspectives), that uttering the N-word when quoting or describing someone else's speech is not, in and of itself, racist. I agree, but I don't think that's the core issue here.

Whatever may be said about black use of the word, it is racist to say that because some black people use the word, no black person can complain about its use.

NORMA CHASE
Mount Washington

Sto-Rox has taken an important step that the PIAA should follow

Regarding "Raising Standards: Sto-Rox Gets Tough on Athletes" (Aug. 21): Sto-Rox school board member Luanne Schipani's remark, "In my opinion, we're not going to have a football team" -- in reference to the 7-1 vote to "raise" standards for athletes by requiring a "C" or better in all core classes (Ms. Schipani was the lone dissenter) -- belies her position as someone whose purpose should be to better education, not sports.

Kudos to coach Ron Butschle for his support. I'm sure he would not have his players shoot for a .600 season.

I ranted in the PG some years ago when city schools lowered the same requirement to "D" or better and feel that many of the reports of substandard proficiency in math and reading reflect that decision.

If the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association were also interested in producing good scholars as well as good athletes, it would follow suit.

The question remains, what is a "C"? In 1963, at Charleroi Area High School (which also held to the "C" requirement), it was 85 to 89 percent, and we had some of the best football teams in the Monongahela Valley.

Now, if city schools could realize that test scores start at 0 percent (not 50 percent before a pencil is raised), we might just turn the corner on improving the institutions that have dubbed themselves educational.

BARRY GOVENOR
Brentwood

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