PUBLIC FORUM.

Trash not welcome

Re ``Owner to close Bradley Landfill'' (Dec. 1):

We are disappointed in your one-sided coverage of the proposal to build a huge trash-transfer station in Sun Valley. Your article failed to quote a single person in opposition and is not representative of the community's views.

Waste Management's own analysis shows the proposed trash facility would cause severe and unavoidable air pollution, odors, traffic and visual blight. Yet company officials misleadingly claim that mitigation money can somehow redress these environmental harms and the resulting impacts on our health and safety.

Unlike Waste Management and certain Bradley Landfill Advisory Committee members, we don't believe we can put a price tag on our community's health.

-- Rev. Richard Zanotti

-- Cynthia Despres

-- Rev. Jim Fie

-- Josuhua Stehlik

One L.A.

Bigger's not better

Every time I see big SUVs or any other sort of vehicles in that size range, I can't help thinking that the people driving them are ignorant and stupid. Not only are they endangering other drivers who have smaller, economic vehicles, but they are endangering the whole city. The pollution in Los Angeles is already bad enough; now add all those big vehicles, and you will just add more problems.

Do these people choose to ignore the growing number of children with asthma and other respiratory problems, or do they just not care?

-- Daisy Nunez

South Gate

Public service

Re ``Head tax is next'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 1):

Richard Diradourian seems to wonder why there is no public outcry in response to Los Angeles leaders' passing a mandatory ``living wage'' for hotel workers near Los Angeles International Airport. He needs to realize that the majority of L.A. County's population benefits from just such legislation, being that most residents are low-income, lower-middle class, poverty-wage workers. Hotel polishing is exactly the job-skill level our county's majority is qualified for.

Serving the majority of the public -- that's the hallmark quality our esteemed Los Angeles leadership endeavors for. And some wonder why they keep getting re-elected.

-- Thomas Tassinari

Encino

Radio blasphemy 

Re ``What would Jesus say?'' (Dec. 3):

What does it say when the name of ``The Jesus Christ Show'' brings blasphemy into the Christian church?

It must send a red flag up to listeners. If Neil Saavedra is going to make money by using the words of the Bible and the teachings of Christ, he should at least learn to live by them first.

-- Kaylah Brosky

Bakersfield

Appalling implication

Re ``Black gets nod to head LAFD'' (Dec. 4):

Once again the media stir the racial pot. Why was it necessary for the Daily News to categorize the interim fire chief? If I were Douglas L. Barry, I would be appalled by the implication in the headline that I was selected not because I was the most qualified, but because I was black.

-- Gary E. Skogen

Littlerock

Different treatment

Re ``Firefighter payout up for vote today'' and ``Beaten man gets cash from city'' (Nov. 29):

The Nov. 29 Daily News ran a lengthy article detailing the Los Angeles City Council's $2.7 million racial discrimination payout for Firefighter Tennie Pierce, known around the fire station as "Big Dog" and fed dog food by fellow firefighting pranksters.

Tucked away on Page 8, a brief article detailed how the same City Council awarded $450,000 to Stanley Miller, a black man whose videotaped beating and arrest by police officers in June 2004 resulted in a change in how police subdue suspects.

Apparently Pierce deserves a simple apology, and City Council fat cats should be held accountable for trying to give away millions of taxpayer dollars on a frivolous lawsuit.

-- Tony Selco

West Hills