PUBLIC FORUM.

Pricey for low cost

Re "Low-cost housing work is begun" (Briefly, April 26): Math may not be my strongest subject, but $20.2 million for 47 units of low-cost affordable housing equals $429,780 per unit. Does low-cost mean that the targeted renters will pay less rent than middle- and upper-class taxpayers will subsidize?

Just another reason why L.A. is losing some of its best and brightest who don't qualify for subsidized rent and can't afford housing. We're rushing into an hourglass society - room for the rich and room for the poor, but squeezing out the middle class.

- Adrienne Kirschner

Sherman Oaks

Up on charges

Re "Welfare to kids of illegals at $276 million" (April 26):

After reading an article by Troy Anderson titled "Welfare to kids of illegals at $276 million" and reading that the California university system is proud of the fact that there are 100 illegals attending classes, one must assume that the California taxpayers have either lost their minds for putting up with these criminal actions or have just thrown in the towel.

I for one would like to see those who aid and abet these activities brought up on charges of willfully aiding and abetting a criminal activity.

- Lawrence A. Calabro

Northridge

Gas rip-off

Re "Why are gasoline prices so high?" (April 26):

I understand the answer to the second question relating the rise of crude oil to the rise in gasoline prices, but somehow, I still feel we are being ripped off. Perhaps, the oil companies could answer the following additional questions:

Why do the gasoline prices rise immediately in response to a rise in "future" prices of crude oil bought in June and beyond? Why do the gasoline prices come down when the future prices drop, but only many weeks later, when the "future" crude oil costs start to benefit the refiners? I always thought that revenue minus actual costs equals profit. What really makes their banks happy is that the seller of crude and the refiner are usually the same entity so, ka-ching, ka-ching twice.

- Gus L. Keolanui

Woodland Hills

It's all relative

Re "Why are gas prices so high? Federal rules helped" (April 26):

I ask why are homes so expensive, why do cars cost so much, on and on. Realtors have been telling us for years, "God ain't making any more land." Well, God ain't making any more oil either. Einstein theorized that all is relative, so how about this: In 1941, I was making 40 cents an hour and doing just fine; gas was 20 cents a gallon, a new Chevrolet cost $500 and many houses were selling for $1,200.

Now a new Chevy sells for $20,000 and the median-priced home in the Valley is about $600,000. If all things are relative, then gas should be selling for something more than $8 a gallon. Hey, maybe gas is a bargain at $3.

- Philip Wilt

Van Nuys

Money-makers

Re "Not making cents" (April 22):

After reading the article about the rising price of copper making a penny. Seriously, the Federal Reserve is in no crisis here. Don't let them make you think they're in trouble. I'll tell you why. When they print paper money, it only costs pennies to print a $1 bill.

The dollar bill is sold to the bank for $1. A $100 bill is the same; the bank pays $100 for a hundred. So they may be losing pennies on the pennies but surely making it up on the dollars. Does this make any cents?

- Roger Holmes

Canoga Park

Crossing instructions

Re "Beating the Light" (Your Opinions, April 24):

As an LAPD motor traffic officer, I have followed the Mayvis Coyle letters with amusement, but I cannot sit idle when there is so much confusion on how to cross a street. The Vehicle Code states that a pedestrian facing a "Walk" or "Walking person" symbol may proceed in the direction of the signal, but yield to vehicles lawfully within the intersection. (In other words, look before you leap.)

No pedestrian may enter the roadway in the direction of the signal if it is a flashing or steady "Don't walk." So if you step off the curb on a flashing or steady "Don't walk," you are in violation of the law. If you stepped off the curb when the signal was "Walk" and it changes while you are in the roadway, it's OK. Be alert and be careful.

- Steve Egan

Van Nuys

Sleight of hand

Re "Villaraigosa offers $6.7 billion budget" (April 21):

Hiding police funding under "trash collection" fees is not what I consider a legitimate use of taxation. It's too bad there wasn't anything in the budget to install TV cameras in the mayor's office. That might be the only way we could get him to stay in his office long enough to do the job he was elected to do.

- Bob Pulley

North hills

Postal Service replies

Re "Care packages to Iraq" (Your Opinions, April 18):

The United States Postal Service and the U.S. military are not "run by the same group." The USPS is not funded by taxpayer dollars. The sale of postal services and products is what covers the costs of processing, transporting and delivering our nation's mail.

Mail to overseas members of the armed services is charged a domestic rate of postage by the USPS based on the APO/FPO ZIP code address. This postage covers the USPS cost to deliver the mail to the Military Postal Service Agency, which provides mail service for the armed forces.

- Richard Maher

Public affairs

U.S. Postal Service

Genius of Christian PR

Re "Happy Easter" (Editorial, April 16):

How soon we forget. The Daily News notes that symbols associated with Easter (baby animals) have little to do with the "actual holiday," which the Daily News attributes to Christianity. On the contrary, such symbols were associated with spring religious celebrations thousands of years before Christ.

Similarly, midwinter holy days honoring birth, hope and renewal (symbolized by an evergreen tree) were celebrated for thousands of years before Christ. As Christian armies invaded and conquered other nations, the genius of the Christian P.R. machine was in co-opting holy days which non-Christian people were already celebrating.

- Deb Baumann

Sun Valley

Military unintelligence

I remember writing to the Department of Defense about the soldiers getting penalized for getting body armor from home, how their death benefits would be revoked. I never got a response from the DOD. Nor did I get it from the president of the United States, Joint Chiefs, nor from Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.

But at least I know Sen. Dianne Feinstein was on the ball, and still is looking for answers to it. It sucks about the Pentagon punishing the troops for not using the "U.S. military-issued" (armor), especially when they never had it to begin with.

- John C. Weaver

Reseda

Firm separation

Currently, nine states - including Arkansas, Florida, Colorado, Maine and South Dakota - have laws allowing pharmacists, physicians and other medical professionals to refuse to dispense contraception based on moral or religious objections. Similar bills are pending in about 20 other states. In addition to Michigan, broader legislation extending refusal clauses to health care providers, institutions and payers is pending in Alabama, Missouri, Washington and West Virginia.

Sounds like Big Brother to me. I respect my church and I respect the religion of others, but we need a firm separation of church and state.

- Emy Lenoir Blackwell

Granada Hills

Shock and awe

Bill Clinton reaped the benefits of "It's the economy, stupid." Now, a decade later, George W. Bush gets an "It's an (overconsumption), stupid" hangover. My advice: Ride a bike and eat less. Imagine the "shock and awe" this would create in the Arab world.

- Bob Ginn

Arcadia