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MAILBAG
Writer had it wrong on ‘Day of Silence’
Linda Sheffield is absolutely wrong (“‘Silence’ event promotes lifestyle,” Mailbag, April 30). The purpose of the Day of Silence was not to promote what she inaccurately calls a “lifestyle.”
The purpose was to help protect students who identify themselves as gay, lesbian and transsexual from harassment, assault and worse.
There’s more. Sheffield seems very confused about the term “lifestyle.” I suspect she thinks there is some specific way members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community live.
She doesn’t understand that this community is probably more diverse than any other community and includes people of all ethnicities, religions and classes, who live in as wide a range of ways as members of any other community in this country.
There is no one word that could describe how the members of this community live.
Sheffield is also very confused about why some people are gay and most others are not. Like so many poor thinkers, she generalizes from one anecdote to a community comprising millions in the U.S. alone.
But it doesn’t really matter why some people are gay. Increasingly, people in this country are coming to join the people in Canada, Spain, Britain, the Netherlands and elsewhere in realizing there is nothing wrong in being gay, any more than there is anything wrong in being Presbyterian, Armenian, Asian or even heterosexual.
As long as people have sex without hurting themselves or others, the type of sex they prefer is no one’s business but their own, as Bessie Smith sang many years ago.
So lighten up, Sheffield. Read some accurate books or articles about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Go to a seminar at the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School. Get to know some gay people and find out what they think about life.
And unless your life has been one of unblemished perfection and totally without sin, stop judging other people and throwing stones.
STANTON J. PRICE
Glendale
Don’t forget to include ‘inconvenient’ facts
Jeff Kurtti seems put off by a little reality check (“Critic’s assessment was way off,” Wednesday).
Swayed by the emotional tide of a proud resident ready to show off that Glendale is not the butt of jokes, his tender appreciation for all things redevelopment may have left out some very essential truths — inconvenient as they may seem.
The Galleria issue was not brought up in Herbert Molano’s essay (“Not hard to oppose the Americana,” Mailbag, April 14). My guess is that his observation on the corrupting influences of subsidies would also apply to General Growth. Kurtti’s approach is a typical straw-man argument long used by debaters in belittling an issue that the presenter never brought.
Redevelopment has, at its core, a beneficial objective to restore economic vibrancy to a decaying urban center. But ignoring the justification with which the financing of the Americana at Brand was made palatable to the public is a disservice to the readers of the Glendale News-Press.
Many of us who studied carefully the financial justification prepared by the city staff members saw the apparent sleight of hand that was perpetrated on an unaware public.
I invite Kurtti to look up on the Web the auditor’s report of the Town Center and see if he spots the missing costs, in the millions, not calculated in the net financial return to the city. You can love the Americana at Brand, but you should not check your brain with the valet attendant when you drive in.
PHILIP SCHNEIDER
Glendale
Taxi driver took the wrong moral route
I have been a frequent customer of Glendale’s People’s Taxi since 2003, before my son was born.
I take a taxi if I am late for work, maybe once or twice a month. I always take the same route, from my home on Elk Avenue and Louise Street, to my son’s school on Colorado Street just past Pacific Avenue, and to work, in the hills above Kenneth Road.
The usual amount is somewhere between $12 and $15, depending on traffic.
This morning was another late morning. I was picked up by a nice gentleman, and we went the usual route.
When we arrived at my work, I was horrified that the total fare was more than $27. I questioned this, and the driver said that the cost of gas had gone up, and with it the rate. I paid, but there was a nagging idea that I had been overcharged.
As luck would have it, I needed to take a cab again when I left work. This time, I got another driver, and I asked him if the rates had gone up. He said nothing had changed in more than a year.
Additionally, he had the rates posted on the glove compartment (the other driver did not). My total fare, from work, to the school to pick up my son, to my front door, was $15, well within the usual amount.
I am a single mother, and I do not have a lot of money to throw around. Regardless of that, an overcharge is an overcharge, whether I am Donald Trump or a poor old widow.
I am writing this because I want to make other people who might take a taxi to be aware of what appears to be meter fraud, and to not get caught like I did. I also want the city, the other drivers, to know that the jig is up. I am on to you.
According to the Glendale Taxicabs and Non-Emergency Transportation paper available, taxis are required to have an annual safety and compliance inspection. Perhaps this would be a good time for the city to check for meter tampering as well.
Please understand that not all drivers tamper with their meters. I have been taking cabs in this city for five years, and this is the first time this has happened to me.
However, once burned, twice shy.
ADRIENNE BOSWELL
Glendale
Linda Sheffield is absolutely wrong (“‘Silence’ event promotes lifestyle,” Mailbag, April 30). The purpose of the Day of Silence was not to promote what she inaccurately calls a “lifestyle.”
The purpose was to help protect students who identify themselves as gay, lesbian and transsexual from harassment, assault and worse.
There’s more. Sheffield seems very confused about the term “lifestyle.” I suspect she thinks there is some specific way members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community live.
She doesn’t understand that this community is probably more diverse than any other community and includes people of all ethnicities, religions and classes, who live in as wide a range of ways as members of any other community in this country.
There is no one word that could describe how the members of this community live.
Sheffield is also very confused about why some people are gay and most others are not. Like so many poor thinkers, she generalizes from one anecdote to a community comprising millions in the U.S. alone.
But it doesn’t really matter why some people are gay. Increasingly, people in this country are coming to join the people in Canada, Spain, Britain, the Netherlands and elsewhere in realizing there is nothing wrong in being gay, any more than there is anything wrong in being Presbyterian, Armenian, Asian or even heterosexual.
As long as people have sex without hurting themselves or others, the type of sex they prefer is no one’s business but their own, as Bessie Smith sang many years ago.
So lighten up, Sheffield. Read some accurate books or articles about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Go to a seminar at the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School. Get to know some gay people and find out what they think about life.
And unless your life has been one of unblemished perfection and totally without sin, stop judging other people and throwing stones.
STANTON J. PRICE
Glendale
Don’t forget to include ‘inconvenient’ facts
Jeff Kurtti seems put off by a little reality check (“Critic’s assessment was way off,” Wednesday).
Swayed by the emotional tide of a proud resident ready to show off that Glendale is not the butt of jokes, his tender appreciation for all things redevelopment may have left out some very essential truths — inconvenient as they may seem.
The Galleria issue was not brought up in Herbert Molano’s essay (“Not hard to oppose the Americana,” Mailbag, April 14). My guess is that his observation on the corrupting influences of subsidies would also apply to General Growth. Kurtti’s approach is a typical straw-man argument long used by debaters in belittling an issue that the presenter never brought.
Redevelopment has, at its core, a beneficial objective to restore economic vibrancy to a decaying urban center. But ignoring the justification with which the financing of the Americana at Brand was made palatable to the public is a disservice to the readers of the Glendale News-Press.
Many of us who studied carefully the financial justification prepared by the city staff members saw the apparent sleight of hand that was perpetrated on an unaware public.
I invite Kurtti to look up on the Web the auditor’s report of the Town Center and see if he spots the missing costs, in the millions, not calculated in the net financial return to the city. You can love the Americana at Brand, but you should not check your brain with the valet attendant when you drive in.
PHILIP SCHNEIDER
Glendale
Taxi driver took the wrong moral route
I have been a frequent customer of Glendale’s People’s Taxi since 2003, before my son was born.
I take a taxi if I am late for work, maybe once or twice a month. I always take the same route, from my home on Elk Avenue and Louise Street, to my son’s school on Colorado Street just past Pacific Avenue, and to work, in the hills above Kenneth Road.
The usual amount is somewhere between $12 and $15, depending on traffic.
This morning was another late morning. I was picked up by a nice gentleman, and we went the usual route.
When we arrived at my work, I was horrified that the total fare was more than $27. I questioned this, and the driver said that the cost of gas had gone up, and with it the rate. I paid, but there was a nagging idea that I had been overcharged.
As luck would have it, I needed to take a cab again when I left work. This time, I got another driver, and I asked him if the rates had gone up. He said nothing had changed in more than a year.
Additionally, he had the rates posted on the glove compartment (the other driver did not). My total fare, from work, to the school to pick up my son, to my front door, was $15, well within the usual amount.
I am a single mother, and I do not have a lot of money to throw around. Regardless of that, an overcharge is an overcharge, whether I am Donald Trump or a poor old widow.
I am writing this because I want to make other people who might take a taxi to be aware of what appears to be meter fraud, and to not get caught like I did. I also want the city, the other drivers, to know that the jig is up. I am on to you.
According to the Glendale Taxicabs and Non-Emergency Transportation paper available, taxis are required to have an annual safety and compliance inspection. Perhaps this would be a good time for the city to check for meter tampering as well.
Please understand that not all drivers tamper with their meters. I have been taking cabs in this city for five years, and this is the first time this has happened to me.
However, once burned, twice shy.
ADRIENNE BOSWELL
Glendale
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