PUBLIC FORUM WHEN YOU'VE GOT TIME.

Hey, Wendy Greuel, let us know when you've finished lapping up to those voters over there in Studio City with that ``hot-button item'' over your planned city takeover of the Studio City Golf and Tennis Center property. Then please poke your council neighbor Tom LeBonge in the ribs and direct him over to his Third World eyesore at the ex-North Hollywood police station property at Lankershim and Tiara.

This 6-year-long, city-sponsored dump - originally planned to become part of the Senior Citizen Multipurpose Center program - has been abandoned, just like most of the city property in our mainly Hispanic neighborhood. Oh, that's right, almost forgot. This area's residents and ethnic demographics didn't pour any hard-earned income into LeBonge's election-campaign coffer. Cityhood.

- Robert Loveridge

North Hollywood

Who you gonna blame?

In his Dec. 1 Your Opinions letter discussing the Los Angeles City Council's current debate on a resolution urging the California Legislature to pass a moratorium on executions, John R. Schlank states, ``There is no reason to subordinate the multitude of problems our city has, to deal with the death penalty.''

Well, there is a reason: There are too many jackrabbits in City Hall who cannot, because of their nature, discern priorities and focus on what their elected responsibilities are.

However, we, the electorate, are at fault. Simply looking at the menagerie in City Hall, any intelligent person can discern they must have been put there by someone who must have had more sense in discriminating between a jackrabbit and an intelligent human being: the electorate.

- Michael Campos

West Hills

Not cost-effective

Saving the old oak tree would be nice - but spending $250,000 to move it is crazy. Environmentalists, where is your cost/benefit analysis? Wouldn't it be far better for the environment to use this money for planting 10,000 new trees?

- Ernst F. Ghermann

Winnetka

Hit and run

We wanted to thank a few special folks for their kindness Thanksgiving evening: The motorist who stopped and called the Highway Patrol to report the injury of two of our family members, the Highway Patrol officer who called us, and the two officers who stayed at the scene until we could arrive and take our loved ones to get medical attention. I neglected to get their names, but I am very grateful for their help and concern.

Yes, the injured family members were pets. They'd got out of a locked yard and wandered. Were they loved? Yep. Were they part of the family? They were family.

And to the moron so lacking in control of his car that he could not see two large (90- and 110-pound) dogs, thanks for nothing. You hit both animals, jumped a curb, nearly got stuck in the foliage of the northbound Hollywood Freeway on-ramp, then fled the scene. A special thanks to the staff at McClave Veterinary Hospital. They did their very best. I know that our losses are theirs as well.

- The Yates Family

North Hollywood

Not a democracy

Despite what George Bryjak says in ``Shut out, laity won't support church forever'' (Viewpoint, Dec. 1), the Catholic Church is not a democracy. It hasn't been for 2,000 years and will not be 2,000 years in the future. There are 65 million Catholics in the United States, or 2 percent of Catholics worldwide. The church is not going to change even in the unlikely event all Catholics in this country left the church.

- George Noonan

Sylmar

Hydrogen fuel

In ``City gets 'clean' car'' (Dec. 3), the article on the hydrogen-driven Honda car given to Mayor Hahn, the writer mistakenly attributes the Hindenburg disaster to the hydrogen fuel. The substance that initially caught on fire was actually the rocket-fuel-type chemical coating on the blimp that was used to reflect sunlight, not the hydrogen. This is what burned so ferociously.

Hydrogen will burn, but in seconds the flame is out as it dissipates into the air. Unfortunately, since the Hindenburg, hydrogen has been given a bad rap. People should know that when used properly, hydrogen is indeed very safe.

- John Lynch

Studio City

Bad decision

I was amazed to see that the Daily News put an article about Wolfgang Puck and his wife splitting up (``Wolfgang Puck, wife to split, carve food empire,'' Dec. 2) on the front page, above the fold. Who's making your editorial decisions?

We get your paper because we live in the Valley and the Daily News covers it better than the L.A. Times. By placing the Puck article on the front page, you've dumped whatever credibility you've developed over the past year (good articles and reporting on Valley succession) into the dumper. Why not feature the groundswell to save the 400-year-old oak tree or the weapons inspections in Iraq (those stories were on the front page but below the fold)?

- Jon Leonoudakis

Northridge

Cruel hoax

The new Homeland Security defense idea is a cruel hoax to me. The government is putting billions of dollars into security, checking airports, and will probably trample everyone's privacy in the name of security.

Meanwhile, thousands of illegal aliens, terrorists, and everyone else are pouring through our unguarded borders. Ironically, we have 38,000 troops guarding the borders of South Korea. Why not here?

- Jerry Hays

Studio City

Mojo math

The Bush administration has recently announced that it wants to let private industry compete for up to one half of the existing 1.8 million federal jobs. The Bush administration estimates that private industry pays its workers approximately 18.6 percent more than federal government workers are paid.

Now, let me see. Bush wants to save money by contracting out to private industry about 900,000 jobs at 18.6 percent higher wages than currently being paid federal employees. Am I the only one who sees anything peculiar about this?

- David M. Galfond

Palmdale

Nuclear threat

Mohammad Nassiri states in his Dec. 1 Your Opinions letter that he has never heard of countries possessing nuclear weapons as posing a threat. Astonishing. Nikita Khruschev of the Soviet Union explicitly threatened the United States: ``We will bury you.'' The Soviet Union continued to threaten the West for 40 years. Pakistan and India presently live under a very real threat. China, North Korea, the list grows.

As for his assertion that Saddam has not threatened to use nuclear weapons, that is a distinction without a difference. Saddam has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel and threatens the U.S. at every opportunity. He has repeatedly attacked his neighbors, resulting in over a million dead.

- Stewart Deats

Woodland Hills

Give her help

In regard to your Nov. 9 article concerning the Wildlife Waystation and how Martine Colette is breaking so many rules:

In 1968, when I was involved with Los Angeles' East Valley Animal Shelter, helping people find their lost pets and fighting against the cruelty, injustice and mistreatment of animals that was going on there, Martine was dreaming of a place where she could rescue and keep wildlife animals that were abused and no longer wanted.

Her Wildlife Waystation has been a reality for the past 33 years. She has saved thousands of animals from further abuse and death. Instead of knocking her and giving her trouble, the city of Los Angeles should get behind her and help. Martine deserves a badge of credit for what she has done for animals. Give her help - instead of more problems.

- Winnie Lee

Castaic