PUBLIC FORUM.

Something funny

Re "Grand project receives final OK" (Feb. 14):

The biggest laugh I got recently was when the Grand Avenue Committee people, headed by Eli Broad, swore they wouldn't need any public money to put up their private development downtown.

So it was no surprise to read that now they will need multimillions for their project. And, of course, our hands-out City Council voted unanimously to OK the deal, with the county board tagging along. The millions the Grand Avenue Gang will receive are all our dollars. Hey, you didn't think these billionaires are going to use their money, did you?

-- Frank Barron

Van Nuys

And nothing for us

Grand Avenue revitalization project -- $2.05 billion.

Los Angeles Unified School District teachers pay raise -- $200 million.

Foster-care home inspections -- $800,000 a month in penalties.

Happy monkeys exhibit (with feng shui) -- $7.4 million.

Taxpayer/homeowner satisfaction -- priceless.

-- Susan Mueller

Granada Hills

Wilshire subway

Re "Subway to Nowhere II" (Our Opinions, Feb. 9):

The Greater West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce agrees with you about the Wilshire subway. We have advocated for a study to create a monorail system along Wilshire that would cost $1.75 billion and be finished within four years.

We have also advocated making some major streets -- Pico and Olympic in West L.A. -- one-way each way, thereby saving funding of left-turn pockets and creating a reverse bus lane on each boulevard as well. In saving the $3.25 billion, we could explore a Sepulveda route connecting the Westside and the Valley, along with other transportation mitigations.

Bus lanes are good in certain circumstances, but tests like the Wilshire bus lane, in its 34th month of a one-mile stretch that is underfunded and not engineered, make no sense. It is a waste of transportation dollars to try to fake out the public that the elected officials actually have a plan.

-- Jay Handal

President

Greater West Los Angeles

Chamber of Commerce

Excessive barking

Re "All-night barking" (Your Opinions, Feb. 13):

On May 5, 2001, I wrote my first complaint letter to the Department of Animal Services about my neighbor's dog, allowed to bark outside at all hours. On April 24, 2004, the department finally issued a letter to my neighbors revoking their dog license and prohibiting them from owning another dog for one year.

My family could not enjoy peace and quiet in our own home for almost three years while the wheels of justice plowed through mediation, meetings, hearings and appeals. It is way past time for Los Angeles to initiate swifter action and enforce stricter penalties for excessively barking dogs.

-- Sunny Arford

Arleta

It's a dog's life 

Re "Fault not in dogs" (Your Opinions, Feb. 14):

This is so, so true. I've lived in Panorama City for 40 years, and dog owners have changed here in this town. They used to be so caring. Now you see dogs loose all the time -- sad dogs lost, looking for their home.

There is a dog in my neighborhood that is alone all day and into the night. The people work, and when they come home they don't touch, talk to or look at the poor fella. I think they want him just to protect their house. But for a dog to protect you, he has to bond with you and love you. He's not chained or beaten. It's just neglect -- almost abuse. People, listen up: Get a heart.

-- Paula Kerian

Panorama City

Odds against police

Re "50 extra officers to fight Valley gang violence" (Feb. 9):

The article on gang violence stated that the mayor and police chief are going to assign 50 police officers to combat approximately 11,000 gang members in the Valley. That does not take into account the criminal attorneys or civil-rights attorneys or the touchy-feely we-love-all people, and let's not forget those who are making money on all the incentive programs, plus the politicians who are going to desert the ship as soon as there is a little heat.

Can you see the odds the police officers are up against? Besides, the gangs are only going to move from Point A to Point B. My suggestion to the police officers is find a new profession, because you don't stand a chance in this job.

-- Ron Roth

Northridge

Joint relationship

Re "What's in it for us?" (Your Opinions, Feb. 13):

I have to respond to Ruth Thompson's comments. Why does she think that a man gets more out of a marriage than a woman? A real marriage is a joint relationship of common values for the betterment of both. Her question -- "What does the wife get in return?" -- misses the main object of marriage.

I never heard of "a woman has to be married" rule. Marriage is a personal decision. Not everyone has the temperament for marriage, which requires a give-and-take relationship. The old saying "there is smoke in every kitchen" is certainly true. After 58 years, and counting, I would not have it any other way.

-- Richard M. Gross

Woodland Hills

What love means

Re "What's in it for us?" (Your Opinions, Feb. 13):

Anybody who goes into marriage asking "What's in it for me?" has the whole thing backward. The point of marriage is caring unselfishly for each other and for your children. That's what love means.

If one party is using the other without caring -- and women do this, too; witness "trophy" wives -- this must be worked out by each couple, not put into some arbitrary list or legislation. On the surface "me-first" relationships look fairer and easier than selfless ones. But in the long run, only the latter truly satisfy.

-- Sylvia Alloway

Granada Hills

Gangsters no accident

Re "Gangs back in school" (Your Opinions, Feb. 11):

Where is the author's (Simi Valley) mind? Gangsters, regardless of age, are terrorists. Having them take up needed classroom space and an educated person's valuable time is not in the public's best interests or what they want, either. A 14-year-old from Texas can fly an airplane into a building just as easily as did the terrorists from Saudi Arabia on 9-11.

Gang members kill, injure, terrorize -- for enjoyment. Their actions are not accidental. Contract with a poor foreign government to keep these terrorists in their prisons or work farms.

-- Bill Noyes

Walnut

Anna Nicole Smith

Re "Portfolio" Cartoon, (Feb. 12):

I appreciated Mike Peters' political cartoon with its single tear falling from a camera lens. Perhaps if the leering eye of the media, and our collective guilt in feeding it, had instead intervened on her behalf, the tragedy of Anna Nicole Smith might have been averted.

She deserved better. We could have done better by her. May she rest in peace.

-- Jeanine D'Elia

Granada Hills

Global warming 

People try to discredit global warming by pointing to all the cold and snow. But can't they see the warming has broken loose all those ice shelves, which are now causing the blizzards?

-- Jerry Piro

Sun Valley

Political golf

The more I read of the shenanigans of elected officials, the more wisdom I see in former Gov. George Deukmejian's thoughts on golf. "The difference in golf and government is that in golf you can't improve your lie."

-- Bob Ginn

Arcadia