PUBLIC FORUM.

Nicer to ride

Re ``MTA leaders bullish on Valley's busway'' (Sept. 13):

The MTA is finally starting to get the right idea. Providing viable alternatives to driving is the only way to decongest our roads, and the Orange Line is a step toward that. More needs to be done, though. It still takes most people hours to get to work on public transportation. Do what needs to be done. Put more buses on the road and extend the Metro.

As soon as the dots are connected, focus on making public transit an attractive option. In other words, make it nice to ride. Until then, I'll see you on the ``405 parking lot.''

-- Igor Kagan

North Hollywood

Valley busways

Re ``MTA leaders bullish on Valley's busway'' (Sept. 13):

Enjoyed the article about the Orange Line extension to Chatsworth. Upgrade the Chatsworth Transportation Center with a multilevel parking structure that exposes only two stories. Rapid buses (the 700 series) should be running on every longitudinal street where there is an Orange Line station.

Then run at least a bus lane during appropriate hours east from Chatsworth on Devonshire Street to Paxton Street to Foothill Boulevard, south to Osborne Street and then west to Nordhoff Street and back to Chatsworth Center. Develop this into a dedicated busway wherever and whenever needed because of new horizons as traffic patterns react and evolve.

-- Steve Carrizosa

Los Angeles 

Not only Chatsworth

Re ``MTA leaders bullish on Valley's busway'' (Sept. 13):

Besides the great new idea of having the Orange Line run to the Chatsworth bus station, why can't it go to the Fallbrook Mall? If you go to the corner of Victory Boulevard and Fallbrook Avenue, there are numerous stores -- such as Wal-Mart, Pep Boys, Ralphs supermarket, Orchard Supply Hardware and Mervyns -- that would attract riders to the area. Some of these stores are not available at the Westfield Topanga and Westfield Promenade locations and would attract Orange Line riders to them.

Forget about the regular street buses. Doesn't it make more sense to get on one bus via the Orange Line rather than two buses to get to the Fallbrook Mall?

-- Jack McMahon

Van Nuys

Not so new idea

Re ``Reform burst at LAUSD'' (Sept. 13):

I have been saying for years that all kids do not want to go to college. Yet, the LAUSD took away the path to the future for those who are not college-bound by eliminating vocational classes. Had the school board not taken this stupid approach years ago, perhaps the dropout rate would now be much less.

Now, they come up with the ``new'' idea of reinstituting vocational training. Their brilliance amazes me.

-- Richard Kinsman 

Chatsworth

Angelidesgate

Re ``Arnold's audio open to public, foe says'' (Sept. 13):

When the Republicans broke into the Democratic campaign headquarters in 1972, ultimately President Nixon resigned. Isn't hacking into the governor's computer system also a break-in? Perhaps Phil Angelides should just concede and withdraw from the governor's race.

-- Harry N. Hirschensohn

Sherman Oaks

Quack medicine

Re ``Not a pipe dream'' (Sept. 10):

Alexander Friedman's letter argues that an increase in mass-transit ridership justifies Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to build high-density high-rise housing on transportation corridors. However, that argument fails to show that people who live in that type of housing will use public transportation, and studies show they don't.

It is that type of muddled thinking that got the city into the mess it is in now. Los Angeles is like a 400-pound man dying of congestion of its arteries. To cure it, the mayor is prescribing that the patient take steroids to put on an additional 100 pounds. That is quack medicine, which will only make the patient suffer more and die sooner.

-- Jack Allen

Pacific Palisades 

What discussion?

Re ``Arnold's Latina slip must spark dialogue'' (Their Opinions, Sept. 12):

I realize that column writers don't write their own headlines, but in this case I question whether the headline writer even read the story.

Nowhere in the column do the writers suggest that dialogue is the proper response to Arnold's apparently unforgivable, evil remarks. Instead, they favor having people of color retreat into their communities to teach their children counterhistories, maintain their cultures and languages, and foster solidarity. Sounds just like the kind of society that the founding fathers had in mind. (Oops. I forgot it's not politically correct to mention them anymore.)

-- Bob Torseth

Sylmar

No excuse

Re ``No on Prop. 86'' (Your Opinions, Sept. 14):

My mom, dad, grandma and brother are all smokers, and I had to live with them. Our house was always clouded with smoke. The odor practically kicked any guest out the door.

If the health of others or their own health won't make people think twice about smoking, then maybe their wallet would. As for smokers' ``disease,'' my dad also had a methamphetamine addiction. I should have pleaded with the police not to arrest him: ``He can't help it; he's addicted.'' People are addicted to all sorts of things, but is that an excuse to stay on them?

-- Frederick Santos

Northridge

Authoritarian DONE

Re ``Ultimately failed'' (Your Opinions, Sept. 10):

Actually some, as in my neighborhood council, criticize the former general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, Greg Nelson, for being too lenient and granting too much latitude without enough oversight of neighborhood councils. Others see the current interim general manager of DONE as authoritarian and disrespectful of the councils, evident at public meetings. In fact, at the last meeting of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Congress, the delegates voted in favor of asking participating councils to formally request the mayor to remove the interim DONE general manager.

What these diverse opinions clearly show is that the neighborhood councils need to be able to select -- or to advise in a meaningful way on the selection process for -- the new general manager of DONE, expected (at last report) to be appointed by the mayor in December.

-- Michael N. Cohen 

Reseda

LAUSD class size

I am at wit's end and asking the Daily News for help. Someone has to find a human who works for the Los Angeles Unified School District who can explain to me, a classroom teacher, why it is acceptable to have 41 kids in a class. Who is going to explain why that is OK? Who is going to take responsibility for it? Whom can parents call and complain to? Where does this buck stop? Who is responsible for this crime, and when did we learn to accept this abuse?

If you are a parent in LAUSD and your kid is sitting in a class of 40 or more and you aren't raising hell, you are not doing your job. Find out who is responsible, and let's fire all of them.

-- Jay Gussin

Valencia

Break a sweat

Re ``Farm workers'' (Sept. 12):

Not to ``one-up'' John Gonzalez's great idea to solve the shortage of farmworkers, but in a related story, California stands to lose a huge federal grant if it does not immediately find work for many of its welfare recipients.

Would it be too simple to suggest we start sending those who collect welfare and those who complain there is no work to be found to these farms? Or is it too much to ask people to actually break a sweat and work, rather than watch TV while the rest of us sweat to support them?

-- Arno Clair

Saugus