Sierra Club supports fix-it-first strategy
Regarding “If vote fails, is there a Plan B?” (News, July 15), much of the discussion about the July 31 T-SPLOST has been around whether it will impact Atlanta’s notorious traffic congestion.
Let me be clear: the Georgia Chapter, Sierra Club does not believe that traffic congestion is a problem that can be “solved.” Any urban area growing and attracting people and jobs is going to experience congestion. Look at New York, Chicago, and San Francisco — all of their major interstates make the Downtown Connector look like a picnic. The difference is that people in those cities have lots of choices about how to get from Point A to Point B.
The Georgia Chapter, Sierra Club supports a fix-it-first road strategy and a project list that emphasizes transit improvement and expansion.
COLLEEN KIERNAN, GEORGIA CHAPTER, SIERRA CLUB
Incorporation means loss of support
DeKalb County cannot sustain continued loss of financial, physical and spiritual support caused by communities that wish to incorporate as cities. Our family uses police, fire and ambulance, and public education services. Firefighters supported the paramedics who have transported our daughter to the hospital in the middle of the night.
Our daughter attended Redan Middle School in the community where we live. The principals and teachers were expected to do the work of parents, clergy, social workers and parole officers — and this coming school year, they are expected to so with less pay.
Although our temptation to flee such problems has occurred more than once in our 20 years here, it is our privilege and our responsibility to support our community and our public servants. We hope residents of Brookhaven — and other communities — will do the same.
RACHEL YODER BIRD, STONE MOUNTAIN
Art at airport needs some investigation
Regarding “Council OKs $4M airport art project” (Business, July 17), Atlanta must have everything it could possibly ask for in its airport: the world’s best runways, best air traffic control, best parking and pickup zones, best security and best access, so the only thing left is to pump money into an art project between concourses A and B.
Wow. Is it me, or can anyone else see the need for some investigation on this one?
I am all for supporting the arts, but with municipal budgets in deep trouble and talk of layoffs and cuts in service, I can find no logical explanation for building a forest in a restricted area that adds no functional benefit to the traveling public. Who got paid off to approve this boondoggle? LEONARD JACOBS, MARIETTA
Treating mentally ill as criminals is unjust
Thanks so much, AJC, for the section front story, “Decriminalizing mental illness” (Metro, July 15).
My hat is off to Brian Owens for his leadership in calling attention to the injustice of treating the mentally ill as criminals, and for following through with procedures to correct this problem.
DARLA GIVAN, JASPER
EVANDER HOLYFIELD
Response to “Fighter: ’I understand how it came to this’” News, July 15
This article, by the AJC’s Bill Torpy, is a very good read. Too many writers would have relied on tired clichés. This piece treated Evander Holyfield and your readers as real, intelligent people. In today’s Twitter/TMZ/Fox media environment, this writer deserves to be recognized for good journalism. Thanks to him for for a thoughtful, informative and sensitive article.
Doug Maio, Roswell
