Readers write
Trails connecting north metro are in the works
The letter “Atlanta needs a second Beltline near Buckhead,” Sept. 8, is a bold call for non-motorized infrastructure in the Buckhead-Sandy Springs area.
To balance our car-oriented infrastructure and connect our neighborhoods to parks and open space, most calls for trails are certainly welcome. The Beltline was established for several different reasons over many years with the central premise of utilizing underused rail corridors. Every community has a unique geography, and some afford really incredible, often hidden opportunities.
In Buckhead and Sandy Springs, robust efforts are underway using the land features that are in place there. Trail advocates can and should start with strong support for PATH 400 — the greenway trail running along the spine of Georgia 400 between Peachtree Creek at Piedmont Road and Sandy Springs.
This Livable Buckhead initiative, once completed, will be a 5.25-mile greenway that will join the Atlanta Beltline to the south, Peachtree Creek Greenway to the east, and the emerging Springway Trail System in Sandy Springs to the north, providing a key link in PATH’s regional trail network.
JOHN MAXIMUK, SANDY SPRINGS
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SANDY SPRINGS CONSERVANCY
Prices rise on life necessities, but not on Irish whiskey
He has added massive tariffs on many products Americans buy. He started a war of choice with no end in sight. This war has caused a huge increase in the price of the fuel needed to get Americans the products we all use every day. These moves have had a predictable result: More and more Americans are having trouble affording life’s necessities.
After almost two years of disastrous decisions, President Donald Trump blames everything on his predecessors Joe Biden and even Barack Obama. His smart move is to remove tariffs on Irish whiskey — apparently hoping that we will drink enough to swallow his story.
LARRY AUERBACH, ATLANTA
When being deceived feels better than the truth
I read a recent study on Gen Z’s response to social media designed to contain no content. The designers at Reels and TikTok have realized that people know they are being deceived by nonsense, and like it. The deceivers see that media with actual content, i.e., reportage on real-world happenings, sends many Gen Zers running to watch nonsense in a bizarre form of self-defense.
This phenomenon goes hand-in-hand with the way Trump deceives the public, many millions of whom know they are being deceived and choose deception, i.e., conspiracy theories and proven lies, over facts, a dirty word. Truth is not entertaining; simple-minded and empty nonsense is. Call the process cynical. Call it pernicious. Call it anything but healthy.
It’s a kind of dance into political, cultural and societal degeneration akin to the end of the Roman Empire.
RICKS CARSON, ATLANTA