PUBLIC FORUM NOT FORGOTTEN.

Re ``Council tightens spending'' (Oct. 23):

Have I got this right? The City Council will stop tree trimming and leave 84 miles of road unpaved? What is that down from? Eighty-five? If you count the potholes? How about the two double-dippers, Bernard Parks and Dennis Zine, deferring their pensions until they retire from the council and then accepting only one at that time?

How about selling off the multitudinous fleet of city-owned cars? If I, on my meager income, can maintain and drive a vehicle to and from my job, so can these overpaid hood ornaments. The time has long since come to kick these useless deadbeats out, from the mayor on down. You listening, James Hahn? Your time is running out - the Valley has not forgotten you.

- Daniel F. Taylor

Tujunga

Looking for boys

Re ``Boy, mom was right: A good man is hard to find'' (Oct. 21):

Your article began by lamenting the shortage of bachelors, but then took an interesting turn. Women complained not only about the shortage, but of other things: ``Men, when their mommies kick them out, they want new mommies to take care of them''; while others described men as ``needy'' or ``a lot of boys but not a lot of men.''

Ironically, your article also cites examples of females combing the sports bars for men, looking for a ``good boy with a bad streak'' and wanting a ``strong, controlling type, that's one who can set me in my place.'' Sounds like emotionally needy girls - not women - looking for a daddy to take care of them to me. As long as girls continue to look for boys, that's exactly what they're going to get. It cuts both ways, you know.

- Ken Lee

Lake Balboa

Just for votes

Los Angeles is becoming a Third World slum and our schools are overcrowded because of illegal immigrants. Emergency rooms and trauma centers close because illegal aliens use them as their primary health care but don't pay for the services. Health care costs and insurance are skyrocketing because someone has to pay for these services.

The City Council's response to this is to endorse a pending federal law that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants if they have worked in this country 100 days in the last couple of years - guaranteeing even more illegal immigrants. If child molesters and drug dealers represented the same potential for votes as illegal aliens, our City Council would probably endorse blanket amnesty for them too.

- John R. Schlank

Granada Hills

Stopping big boxes

This may be an oversimplification and I probably do not have the whole picture, but here goes:

If it is true that because of Wal-Mart's plans to invade Southern California with superstores, causing the Big 3 to be unable to compete because of the benefits and higher wages of union employees, then I can see why the supermarkets are removing previous benefits.

Could Wal-Mart be stopped from coming to Southern California under the old monopoly law of 1913 because they could cause damage to our old institutions? If the main cause of concern, which is competition from Wal-Mart, is removed, then maybe an acceptable contract between the supermarkets and the union employees could be established.

- Robert J. Rivera

Canoga Park

Start their own

If the grocery checkers union feels that the grocery store chains are making such a huge profit and only simple greed is their motive for not giving in to their demands, may I suggest that they take their strike fund money and start their own grocery chain.

That way they will be able to see firsthand how much profit is in that business. It's so easy to spend other people's money - just ask Gray Davis.

- Clovis Kerr

Castaic

Plague on both

I'll tell you what bus riders are thinking. They think a plague on both your houses. They don't like the MTA because they are going to cave in anyway and why make us suffer in the meantime?

They don't like the unions because they are plain downright greedy. The time between strikes is getting less and less. This is getting just plain downright inconvenient.

- Rikio Matsunami

Los Angeles

Good health care

Re ``Unhealthy problem'' (Editorial, Oct. 20):

The people of this country deserve better than what they are getting. America spends more on medical care than any other country in the world, but it is in 30th place. Why? The focus of the medical industry is on patching people up ... not prevention. What good does it do us if the medical field treats symptoms and refuses to acknowledge the cause of about 95 percent of all illness: the wrong foods.

The medical field doesn't even require that its doctors study nutrition in 77 percent of its medical schools. Unfortunately, prevention doesn't make the kind of money that treatment does ... so we have a very sick nation. Wise people don't rely on the medical field for health; they do all the things, which aren't costly, but will bring them the rewards of good health.

- Barbara Charis

North Hollywood

Heads in the sand

Those who try to rationalize that because unions have brought about improvements in working conditions in the past, they must therefore be more trustworthy, are only hiding their heads in the sand. In recent times, most union bosses have become corrupted by too much power, and many businesses have learned that if they want to keep loyal and trustworthy employees they must treat them fairly, some even granting their employees shared ownership in the company.

Don't fall for the myth that unions are more concerned for the welfare of the working class than their employers, who take a lot more risks in establishing businesses and remaining competitive than the union bosses do.

- Carol Mayes

Chatsworth

Never mind guilty

There is no question about whether there is going to be a trial with Kobe Bryant. The paparazzi and the media will have it no other way. The outcome will be that Kobe will go free. He and the best lawyers money can buy will not let it go any other way.

There is too much money involved and this is all about money. Never mind guilty or innocent, rape or consensual, it does not matter.

- John J. Piccola

Sylmar

Wasting energy

The Oct. 19 article ``Deeper in debt'' (Business) shows how energy wasteful a typical small family is. With no special needs, electric bills in the hundreds of dollars are ridiculous. In an always-occupied medium-size home, with all the biggest home appliances, (our) electricity bill is always $35 to $39. That's not solar or wind-assisted, it isn't coastal, it's near Mojave.

I only use evaporative cooling a few hours on 95-plus-degree days and all the tricks in the book. Why throw away hard-earned cash?

- Ken Garrison

Rosamond

Moral high horse

Re ``Our moral decay'' (Your Opinions, Oct. 9):

Shallowness shown by voters in support of celebrity? What makes you think that a celebrity cannot function as governor of California? Do you forget a former celebrity, Ronald Reagan, has already been in office as the governor of California and then went on to be elected to the highest political office of the United States, where he functioned quite well?

Get off your moral high horse. Have you not done anything in your life that you've regretted? Arnold Schwarzenegger can't do any worse than Gray Davis and he is the person that the majority of people in California want.

- Angie Felshaw

Mission Hills