EMPTY PLANNING
Regarding Sujata Gupta’s
“Emptied Out” (May 17 and 24): In my opinion, there are many more
dimensions to this issue. One of those is the current level of planning
throughout the county.
Why, for example, are permits still being issued to builders
for erecting new, speculative housing tracts on virgin land? Why not require
builders to focus on tracts of vacant housing, thus rebuilding the existing
infrastructure rather than accelerating the abandonment of existing
neighborhoods? Yes, it would cost the taxpayers a little more up front, but
this kind of refocusing creates opportunity rather than blight. Perhaps a
concerted effort to change the culture from “ugh” the city to
“chic” the city?
According to your article, we have 10,000 vacant housing
units in Rochester. We have
declining population. We have a seriously weakened economy, with many formerly
working people now without jobs and stripped of their hard-earned pensions. Who
is buying all these new, expensive houses for which the various townships keep
issuing permits? At what rate does the purchase of a new house cause the
abandonment of an existing house and some part of a retail space?
You cite 300 miles of new roads having been built in the
county, while the average price of a new car approaches $28,000. What percent
of the average annual salary in MonroeCounty does it cost to buy and
operate that new car? Wouldn’t restored city or town neighborhoods and decent
public transportation be a better plan than the current growing
“doughnut?”
It seems apparent that, for whatever reasons, we no longer
have appropriate land-use planning. The planning processes that we do have
evolved years ago when the underlying assumptions and expectations were very
different. And now our politicians are as invested in the way it was as are the
executives of formerly strong regional businesses.
In all situations like this, someone makes out well at the
expense of the public. Who gets the benefits from the current situation? Given the rampant corruption and incompetence
in this country, no quarter should be exempt from scrutiny in dealing with
large problems like this.
Please consider continuing your investigations. The
discoveries are not likely to be pretty, but the problems can’t be fixed until
they’re clearly identified and described.
Bill Crocca, Penfield
IT’S NOT JUST COMICS
In response to Edward P. Curtis Jr.’s
letter regarding the reduction in the comic section of the Democrat and
Chronicle, I should like to call his attention to the missing editorial page in
this Sunday publication.
Talk about missing comics!
As I recall, this gentleman was once an outstanding
Republican.
Perhaps he still is.
But there aren’t many left.
Vincent A. Palmer, Lake Road, Pultneyville
DECLINE AND FALL
Edward P. Curtis urges us to contact several relevant people
at the Democrat and Chronicle about the page reduction for its Sunday comics
(The Mail, May 24). Yet as you note, Mr. Curtis himself first wrote to the
D&C, and they rejected his letter.
I have written about the comics to various D&C editors
over the years, and what comes back (not always) is a thank you. The unwritten
message seems to be that they have far more important things to do at Gannett
than give attention to the comics.
Daily newspapers are right in line with such institutions as
passenger trains, which decades ago began taking away such features as quality
dining-car service and then wondered what happened to the customers.
Comics, especially in color on Sunday, made newspapers
special, for readers of all ages. The cost cutters, I imagine, have wanted to
kill them for decades.
Martin Fass, Linden Street, Rochester(Fass owns a copy of a 1942 D&C comics section, which he says
contains 16 pages.)
THE WRONG CHOICES
In response to Thomas Janowski’s letter “Courage to
Choose” (The Mail, May 17):
While I agree with the overall call to some sort of action
by our fellow citizens, I think Mr. Janowski is looking in the wrong place.
Part of our high-school education in this country is a class
called “civics” where the point seems to be to make you feel guilty
that you aren’t excited about caucuses and the inner workings of our gigantic
American bureaucracy.
The elevation of voting to some sort of homage to our
founding fathers covers over the more important issue: the content of who is being elected.
As a local activist, I talk to many people each week, and
the most common response to questions about politicians is: “They are all
crooks. What’s the point?” And you know what, they’re right!
Let’s stop pretending that there actually is a choice
between candidates. A choice between whether to use napalm or nuclear weapons
on the people of Iraq
is not a choice for a population where over 60 percent think the war is a
mistake. It is a rational decision to conclude you have no horse in that race.
And what are we voting for? How big a tax cut we want to
give to the rich? How big a cut we want in our Medicaid or college financial
aid? The real issues in our life are never up for a vote: whether we should
help the children of our inner city instead of imposing a curfew to criminalize
them. Whether we should let corporations pack up and move over the border for
cheaper labor.
Ask people what pisses them off, and you will find the
issues people want to get active around and then build a community group to
help solve those grievances. History shows that what ordinary people want, they
have to fight for themselves. Let’s stop beating people up for the sins of
those who actually have the power: the CEO’s, politicians, and silver-spoon
trust-fund babies who run this country.
Brian Lenzo, Monroe Avenue, Rochester
WHICH ROLE MODEL?
To the pro-lifers on University
Avenue:
I want to make a few remarks about your strategy. Those huge
pictures of aborted fetuses on your signs are hideous, which I suppose is the
point. More importantly, they are violent. Every time I walk by, I feel angry.
At you. Your position is that all life deserves respect. But what about the
psychological trauma you cause children who happen to stumble across your
protest? Do you think this tactic will change anyone’s mind? And do you believe
your role model, Jesus, would approve? Isn’t he the one who said “He who is
without sin, cast the first stone”? Jesus was the model of humility and
compassion, not shame and indignation.
Which brings me to my second complaint: your constant
screaming out of biblical verses and damnations. You claim that only God has
the right to decide matters of life and death. So people are not allowed to
“play God,'” which extends to not speaking for Him, and most importantly, not
judging on His behalf. Jesus said, “Judge not, let ye be judged”?
Lastly, get some more women in your protest if you want to
be taken seriously. There seem to be about half a dozen regulars in your group,
and only one woman. The nature of men’s role in conception leaves them with
significantly fewer direct consequences should a pregnancy result. Women
experience pregnancy.
I will accept the 5 to 1 ratio if each of those men wears a
scarlet “V” (for vasectomy) to demonstrate that he has done everything possible
to prevent accidental pregnancies.
Cynthia Boaz, Rochester (Boaz is assistant professor of
political science and international studies at SUNY Brockport and is the
Rochester-area coordinator of CODEPINK: Women for Peace.)
WRITING TO CITY
We welcome and encourage readers’ letters for publication.
Send them to: themail@rochester-citynews.com or The Mail, City Newspaper, 250
North Goodman Street, Rochester14607.
Our guidelines: We don’t publish anonymous letters — and
we ask that you include your street name and city/town/village. We don’t
publish letters that have been sent to other media — and we don’t publish form letters generated by activist groups. While
we don’t restrict length, letters of under 350 words
have a greater chance of being published. We do edit letters for clarity and
brevity. And in general we don’t publish letters (or longer “op-ed” pieces)
from the same writer more often than about once every two months.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2006.
