PUBLIC FORUM.

More is less

Re "$50 million for home projects" (March 14):

The public needs to look no further than the March 14 Daily News for evidence of the city of Los Angeles' fiscal mismanagement. Out of the city's $100 million (hoped for annually by officials) Affordable Housing Trust Fund the city's 16 (mayor and 15 City Council members) residential landlords have succeeded in preventing the real apartment owners from affording the cost of proper maintenance, causing the apartments to deteriorate and be demolished. Naturally, the created shortage pushes rents higher.

For each project embellished from the above fund, the property tax base is further eroded by such projects' inherent property tax exemptions. As a result, the taxpayers lose more of the services they have paid for.

- Victor N. Viereck

Valley Village

Floor sleepers

Re "Judge siding with inmates" (March 15):

Stephen Yagman, the "lawyer" who's built his nest on suing the city, has found some "judge" to agree with him that having inmates sleep on the floor is harsh. The sad outcome is that Yagman and this horde of flotsam may be rewarded with millions of taxpayer dollars.

Last year I ran the L.A. Marathon. I am currently in triathlon and scuba training. I am 55 years old and I spent many nights sleeping on floors both in college and in 10 years of playing with rock bands all over the country. My back feels great. The city should fight these guys and before a penny is given they should have to prove damages, and I don't mean hurt feelings.

- Chuck Heinold

West Hills

And rate increase

Re "Pet project" (Editorial, March 14):

Through the Daily News, we have discovered that millions of dollars have been moved from the DWP account into the city account to help balance the budget, and that the DWP spends money every year to advertise when there is no need. Now we find that the department is in the loan business, probably to the extent of losing a great deal of money on a bad loan to a scooter company.

All of this is happening while the DWP has asked for a very large rate increase of about 18 percent. Will the City Council even dare to grant that request with all of the evidence of misuse of taxpayer money by the DWP? Let's hope not.

- Arline George

Reseda

Smoking ban

Re "Come Friday, cigarettes in Calabasas go up in smoke" (March 14):

Who said that Gestapo is dead and gone? Gestapo is alive and well and living in Calabasas. What will be next? A ban on brown eggs? A ban on people over 6 feet tall? A ban on yellow cars? How about a permanent ban on electing more members of the Bush family to any position in this country?

- Dante F. Rochetti

West Hills

Candy is dandy

Re "Come Friday, cigarettes in Calabasas go up in smoke" (March 14):

For years smokers have been polluting the air we breathe with their foul fumes. They continually litter our sidewalks with cigarette butts. Has anyone ever seen a smoker pick up a butt after stepping on it?

Since smokers crave the rush they obtain, I propose a solution: Nicotine should be sold in pill or hard candy form. Thus it can be totally absorbed and have no effect on others. Imagine a ring of adults sucking on lollipops.

- Harry Nieves

Sylmar

Busway's better

Re "MTA trying purple prose" (March 13):

It's premature to start selecting a color for the Wilshire Boulevard subway. There is no funding and there are no agreements with homeowners groups, businesses or the cities of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.

MTA management should focus on their success with the Orange Line. They should consider building a busway, below grade, from Mid-City L.A. to West L.A. along San Vicente and Santa Monica boulevards. It could be built for a fraction of the cost of subway, and be opened in months rather than years. That is a dream that we might actually see come true.

- Sean McCarthy

West Hills

Not massive raises

Re "Rewarding mediocrity" (Editorials, March 10):

This "massive raise" that the DWP workers received last year is really an increase based on the cost of living. The "lucrative" 16.8 percent to 28 percent increase over five years will follow the Consumer Price Index. Cumulatively, a 16.8 percent increase over five years comes out to a 3.15 percent increase per year, while a 28 percent increase over five years comes out to about 5.1 percent increase per year. Last year, the urban CPI was 4.0 percent.

So, the truth is, the contract's 5-year range is turning out to be quite accurate, and at the minimum, a 3.15 percent CPI annual increase is not unrealistic. Workers and their unions do not deserve to be rebuked for agitating to protect the purchasing power of their wages.

- Glenn Haugen

Los Angeles 

Darn that Clinton

Re "Self-satisfied Hollywood blind to the truth" (March 12):

George Clooney's point obviously sailed over Julia Goren's head. "Good Night, and Good Luck" draws clear parallels between McCarthy's fascism and the current power-mad reactionaries in charge of all three branches of federal government, along with the Bushite artists on King George II's tacit cable organ, Fox News.

Goren implicates those pesky news reporters instead of the Republican Cabal of Corruption and its incompetent regime, which has somehow managed to do everything wrong since Clinton left office. She denies the Yugoslavian genocide while ironically championing Jewish causes, although her politics seem to have more in common with the "Go with Christ or go to hell" crowd. Oh, but still, darn that Clinton with his sweet Southern style.

- Bob Deluca

Calabasas

It's their problem

As a Valleyite, what we really need is secession from the cesspool of corruption, a city manager, manageable departments and the neighborhood councils.

Let the Angelenos solve their own problems. We are very near 2 million people, not a lily-white suburbia any longer.

- Theodora Howell

West Hills

Conclusions

Re "Explain the record" (Your Opinions, March 13):

David Holland's response to my earlier letter about the "ability to adapt" reflects the common reasoning of those who follow evolution. The inability to adapt doesn't provide proof against a Designer. Having the ability to adapt is not a guarantee for survival. A cockroach can adapt, but it won't survive being stepped on.

As far as having "no viable explanation for the fossil record", the Genesis flood is a perfectly viable explanation. The fossil record shows evidence of rapid burial on a global scale. Evolutionists and intelligent design advocates see the same evidence (the fossil record) but come to different conclusions.

- Howard Doll

Palmdale

Good night, George

Re "Clooney blasts Democrats in blog" (March 14):

George Clooney has criticized Democrats for being timid and fearful of being branded unpatriotic about the war in Iraq. He wonders, "Where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9-11?" If Clooney were around 65 years ago, do you think he would have criticized a Democratic president and Congress because he saw no link between Hitler and Hirohito and he couldn't understand what Germany had to do with Pearl Harbor?

A wiser George, Santayana, forewarned that "Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it." Would someone please tell Clooney that the Academy Award speeches and his 15 minutes of fame are over? Good night, and good luck.

- Robert L. Rosebrock

Brentwood