PUBLIC FORUM.

No time left

Re ``Delivering on promises'' (Editorial, Oct. 7):

Your editorial this morning regarding the mayor's first 100 days in office qualifies the Daily News as Villaraigosa's official shill. Assume the mayor spent six days a week on the road; he traveled about 280 miles a day. At an average speed (surface streets and freeway) of 45 mph the mayor spent about six hours a day on the road.

This doesn't leave the mayor much time to conduct city business. Perhaps the cynics are correct; this is all just show, political glad-handing, and baby-kissing. As for his support of using nonunion engineer to design the 405 HOV lanes, Caltrans engineers do not contribute to local campaigns, but local construction workers do.

- Gus Smyrnos

Newbury Park

In circles

Re ``Should mayor run schools?'' (Oct. 7):

Mayor Villaraigosa says ``Since I took office, I have put more than 24,000 miles on my car going to 350 different communities.'' Big deal; so have his photographers.

- Lavina Suarez

Sylmar

Close it down

Re ``Should mayor run schools?'' (Oct. 7):

I am totally against this action, or even the thought of it. For years, I have been against the LAUSD system altogether. I continue my suggestion that the LAUSD should be declared ineffective and closed down, eliminated, scrapped. Villaraigosa is right about the LAUSD, but not the solution.

Solution: Declare all of L.A. city schools as charters and do away with the LAUSD. Charter schools have been more effective than the LAUSD, at a lesser cost, and generally higher scholastic grades. Building new charter schools is less expensive, more practical, and under the control of the principle, taxpayers and the California budget people. Forget the unions - think children. Billions will be saved, and our children will have a better education.

- Charles Dusheck

Chatsworth

To what end?

Re ``Road to Splitsville'' (Business, Oct. 10):

You have to admire the multitasking abilities of Americans. Planning their divorce while planning their wedding - what a timesaving concept. Now all we need to be able to multitask is showering while dressing, completing work assignments while sleeping and arriving at travel destinations while cleaning our houses. What will we do with all our free time?

- Marilyn Dalrymple

Lancaster

Perfect emissary 

Re ``Leap of faith right over the cliff'' (Their Opinions, Oct. 7):

If Maureen Dowd knew anything about militant Islam's history of aggression, repression and genocide, she'd know that Bush ``crony'' Karen Hughes is the perfect emissary to radical Islam precisely because ``she doesn't understand the first thing'' about it. If she did, she wouldn't be able to stomach the job.

- Charles Sergis

Calabasas

Call it compromise

Re ``Longer, costlier'' (Your Opinions, Oct. 6):

In today's world, faster and faster is the mode of everything. Sharon Kedar, I think, fails to understand that life is a series of compromises. Yes, it might take a bit longer on the bus and it may cost a bit more, depending where gasoline prices settle. But, what about the amount of cars taken off the roads?

If you as a business person can now leave your car at home, work on your laptop or cell, and sit comfortably while being taken to work, you are helping disperse a fraction of the gridlock, and are helping reduce emissions and the use of fossil fuel. Think of the ramifications if we could all embrace a change of behavior, even if it put us out just a tiny bit. Compromise is something we all need to think about.

- Joan Kofsky

Studio City

A great pity

Re ``Defend this'' (Your Opinions, Oct. 7):

Claire Magid is indignant that as a non-Catholic she must deal with the unfortunate choice of names the founders of California chose for various areas, which make reference to the Catholic Church. It is, indeed, a great pity that so many non-Catholics must cope with these city and street names. What a misery their lives must be.

Since California became a state there has been no confusion about any specific church being the official church of the U.S. or California. The area's names - like the small cross on the real county seal - are symbols of the founders who happened to be Spaniards and Catholic. There has never been and never will be an official church of the U.S. or California.

- Terri Andrews

Castaic

Unnecessary proposition

Proposition 75 purports to ``protect paychecks'' from public-employee unions, but it is really a Trojan-horse attack on unions. Employees who do not wish to fund union political activities can already opt out.

By contrast, business interests do not need the permission of customers or investors who fund them to do their lobbying, and we can not even opt out of having our money that goes to these interests being used for political purposes. Of course, those special interests are supported by the governor, so he will do nothing about that unequal situation.

- David Holland

Northridge

Learned nothing

Given the circumstances (and despite his poll numbers), Governor Schwarzenegger is doing a good job. The circumstances are twofold. First is the fact that our Legislature is still controlled by the same politicians (or their like thinking replacements) who bankrupted California in the first place. They have learned nothing.

Second are the special-interest groups who care only about themselves and not about California. They are bent on destroying Governor Schwarzenegger and defeating ballot propositions in November. Propositions 73 through 77 are excellent and deserve strong yes votes on November 8.

- Robert S. Kennedy Jr.

Camarillo

Not an assembly line

Many jobs in private industry are production-orientated. For example, a worker must meet a quota for completion of a product within a specific time frame. An educator, on the other hand, has a more diverse job. Proposition 74 would allow administrators to terminate teachers based on the number of students that pass their class, personal bias against the instructor and his/her teaching style, and many other factors that should not be included within the evaluation of a teacher.

Our simpleminded governor is categorizing teachers with factory workers. The classroom is simply not an assembly line where the products are exactly the same.

- David Shulman 

Lake View Terrace

Where's our money?

The U.S. national debt is almost $8 trillion. What happened to the money needed for other things? Overpricing: Eight cents for a three-cent candy is only five cents; $8 billion for $3 billion worth is $5 billion. Paper research projects: They charge millions, it costs them thousands, it's worth zero.

Overruns: Prearranged payments if the project is more expensive than estimated. Without overpricing, they could do it five times. Contingency contracts: If the worst doesn't happen, they get paid anyway. And other gimmicks. All this many times over in billions.

- Michael Aron Weinberg

Reseda

It's fantastic

The schools are still failing our children, the hospitals are still closing or cutting back services, public employees are up in arms, the new special interests have replaced the old special interests, we are spending millions of dollars to hold a referendum election that few really understand or care about, but, thank goodness, the beautiful people are now protected from the paparazzi. In the words of Arnold, ``it's fantastic.''

- Marshall Barth

Encino