PUBLIC FORUM.

Which streets paved 

Re ``Councilmen push for street funding'' (Their Opinions, May 4):

I questioned the priorities for slurrying and repaving a nearby affluent neighborhood's streets, which were in fine condition, when many other main tributaries were in greater need, and I received this reply in an e-mail from Sandy Clydesdale, District Director: ``Generally speaking the City has very little, if any, say in which main streets get repaved, i.e. Corbin. The gas tax money you pay at the pump pays for repaving of residential streets, however, main or secondary highways are funded by federal and state money, which means they pick the streets to be done.''

So if you think the potholes you hit on your drive down these main roads on your way to work are going to be fixed, forget it. And if you live in a lower-middle-class neighborhood, you'll be the last to get a dollar back on your investment. As if throwing over a billion dollars toward street repair was going to get it done any faster, anyway.

-- George J. Kramer

Northridge

This is the best?

Re ``Councilmen push for street funding'' (Their Opinions, May 4):

The city is currently repaving our streets at a rate of one mile per week (4,000 miles will take 80 years).

``We have cut the fat, and now we are down to the muscle and bone.'' What do we have to show for it? That pace is absolutely ridiculous! They need to explain why so little is the best that can be done.

How come we can drive in San Fernando, Burbank or Pasadena and travel over well-maintained streets? The same amount of people travel in and out of Los Angeles using the same streets into those cities. Why do we need a new bond? Simply fire the workers we now have working at a snail's pace and hire the workers from those cities.

-- Christopher Morgan 

Encino

Voters are skeptical

Our streets need to be fixed, but the trash fee proposal is both uncalled for and unfair. The city has not done all it can do to raise revenues and cut costs. City employee salaries continue to rise. The Grand Avenue project will waive millions in taxes. And city-owned parking lots in Hollywood are still leased at below-market rates.

Trash fee proponents say that ``pointing fingers will not fix our streets.'' But the lack of accountability in city government is what got us here. Imposing more fees on homeowners is a quick fix when what is needed is a fundamental change in how the city does business. While the council has made strides, voters remain skeptical that everything that can be done to reduce the cost of city government has been done.

-- Sean McCarthy

West Hills

Think before writing

I was disappointed in most of the opinions I read on Wednesday; it seems that people don't think before they talk. First of all, traffic was light, but it was because most of downtown L.A. was shut down. That means that business owners, employees, deliveries and shoppers were not driving.

Next, the national anthem was not ``rewritten,'' it was translated, which is a big difference. A country without immigrants ... read your history books. Yes, I agree we have made it what it is today with the sweat and labor of immigrants. May 1 is Labor Day in most Latin American countries.

-- Jeannie Billings

Reseda

Coming to America

Oh my gosh, I loved the Your Opinions letters Wednesday. Especially the one about protesting in Mexico to change the conditions there. But Mexico is not America and they probably could not protest there. But that is where they need to start and make their country a place they do not want to leave.

And what is with this new drug thing in Mexico? That is going to affect us big-time. I don't drive. I ride the bus and Monday my buses were on time and pretty empty. I have no problem with people coming to America to build a better life for themselves, but do it the right way and that is to do it legally.

-- Patricia Meiner

Canoga Park

Not our enemies

I have been dismayed by the mean-spirited tone of most letters about the undocumented immigrants' May 1 demonstrations and boycott. I, for one, am proud of their courage in standing up for themselves on May Day, many of them losing a day's pay to do so. Their actions are in the wholly American tradition of the Montgomery Bus boycott and the first May Day, in which the unwanted immigrant ancestors of many of today's anti-immigrant whites took part.

The women who clean our kitchens and the men who cut our lawns, documented or not, are not our enemies. They are working people like we are, our brothers and sisters, and, in my opinion, simple human decency requires us to treat them accordingly.

-- Myrna Hill

Sylmar

Dog and pony shows 

It's that time of year again, when we are forced to hear how the new and old candidates are going to change government. They bring out their records as if they're something to be proud of.

Most of the problems we have here in California and the rest of the nation are because these politicians do not do the job they were sent to do. Instead they broker deals with special-interest groups and put too much pork into bills that make it to the floor. For once, I would like to see our government work the way it's supposed to -- without a dog and pony show.

-- Paul Straughn

North Hollywood

No-pain colonoscopy 

Re ``Dread of pain gains relief'' (May 5):

This headline sends the wrong message re a colonoscopy. There is no pain because the patient is put to sleep. I had this procedure about 6 years ago. I'm sure most doctors use the same anesthesia. There was no pain before and no pain after.

-- Emy Lenoir Blackwell

Granada Hills

Register, then vote

If you can walk and chew gum at the same time (intelligence test), and you don't vote (civic test), be advised that some who can't pass either the intelligence test or the citizenship test (citizen) will be voting. If that doesn't bother you enough to get registered and vote, then do us all a favor and don't increase your part of the gene pool by reproducing.

And for the Registrar of Voters who doesn't see any evidence of noncitizens voting, of course if you don't look for evidence you won't find it. When a huge percent of our population are new immigrants, a certain percent of them will be voting if only by mistake. We put cameras at red lights, but continue to register voters on the honor system.

-- Barbara Vickroy

Escondido

Bush's fault

There appears to be a new storm brewing on the planet Jupiter. This storm could signal a global change that might alter temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The storm is being called ``Red Spot Jr.'' after several older storms merged together around the year 2000. Democrats and the liberal media will no doubt blame George W. Bush for this condition. It's his fault that I stubbed my toe the other day, too.

-- Daryl DeCrow

Simi Valley 

Subject was smoking

Beat me and spit upon me and scourge me at the pillar, might as well crucify me. I am a smoker and it is my pleasure to smoke when I want and hopefully where I want. But I am told the city of Calabasas has new laws prohibiting this. Not that I go to Calabasas. But how long is society going to claim smoking is to blame?

Think of all the people relaxed from smoking and perhaps those who would have otherwise done serious danger to this society. Think for a minute of the profits some poor liquor store owner has made to raise his otherwise poor family. Go ahead, think that I will probably get cancer or lung disease -- might as well lay me in the grave ... who was I anyway ....

-- James Francis Doyle

Canoga Park