Ignored hilltop neighborhoods need a rescue plan

While the hilltop communities appreciate the added police protection ("Extra City Police Patrols Try to Calm the Hilltops," June 28), we worry that it is a show for the media and not a long-term solution for the problems in the communities.

We have seen Band-Aids used before by the city, and the problems are just getting worse by the day. Mount Washington is now experiencing the realities that the other hilltop neighborhoods have been living with for the last 10 years. There needs to be long-term solutions for the hilltop neighborhoods, as city Councilman Bruce Kraus stated in the article.

We have been ignored by Grant Street long enough. We need the city to rescue the communities so that we have the same quality of life others have in the city of Pittsburgh. We need a hilltop organization with paid, dedicated staff to work on the issues of the neighbors of Allentown, Arlington, Beltzhoover and Knoxville. I believe that community volunteers can no longer remedy our problem.

The successful neighborhoods in the city have paid staff. There is not one paid staff member in all of the hilltop communities and fewer committed volunteers than ever. Give us someone to work on the hilltop every day, and you will see improvement.

JUDY HACKEL
Allentown
The writer is president of the Allentown Community Development Corp.

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Not on the job

In most sectors of the private economy, an employee wishing to pursue a personal project that kept him away from the office 90-plus percent of the time would be required to take an unpaid leave of absence or not be paid for the time missed.

Do politicians running for an office they do not currently hold give back their salaries? I am thinking primarily of Sens. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

ROBERT J. NISS
Sewickley

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Give them room

This doesn't pertain to any ongoing news story, but rather serves as a reminder to all drivers out there. Every day there are 16-year-old kids being taught by their parents to drive. They are nervous, anxious and overwhelmed with all the rules involved in proper driving.

I'm one of those parents teaching my son to drive. Those of us with experience know that many people, not all, disregard the rules of the road. We know the speed limit says 35, but what's another 10 or so miles faster? We know a stop sign is not a pause sign, but, oh well. We know we should use our turn signals. And the list could go on and on.

I'm not writing to criticize drivers who don't necessarily obey the rules. But my only child is learning to drive. Yes, he goes the posted speed limit. Yes, he comes to a complete stop and looks all ways before proceeding through a stop sign. Yes, he turns the headlights on in road work areas, whether active or not. And, yes, he's a little slow on some sharper bends and turns.

Think while you're driving, and remember the person in front of you may be a new driver. Back off and give them some room. They'll be safer, and so will you.

KATHY SMITH-DOWD
Penn Hills

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Wicked columnist

I hesitate to brand anyone in this way, but after reading his columns for years in the PG, I've come to the conclusion that Paul Krugman is evil. In column after column, he misstates the positions of Republicans, distorts facts and well-known economic principles and parrots the Democratic Party line, all the while trading on the false premise that he is an objective academician, not just a common political flack.

His column on June 21 again misstates and manipulates the Bush/Republican position on energy development ("Driller Instinct: McCain Adopts the Same Energy Policies as Bush"). It is not, as he claims, that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will solve any immediate problems, or that "drilling" anywhere is a total solution to anything, or that the only obstacle to a sane energy policy is environmentalist obstruction. The Republican position is that we could have been making great strides toward energy independence for decades, but that shortsighted, alarmist, environmentalism has kept us from doing even the most obvious and painless things, such as drilling in the uninhabitable tundra/swamp we call ANWR.

ANWR is not the "solution"; it is merely the most conspicuous example of Democrats' vacuous environmentalism.

In his role as a Democratic shill, he repeats the inane Democratic point that there is no point in drilling offshore or in now-restricted federal lands because the main benefits won't come for many years. (I wonder if Mr. Krugman makes the same argument when discussing retirement planning with the Gen-Y students in his seminars.) And, of course, he makes the obligatory association of John McCain with George W. Bush, as though that had any relevance whatsoever to the substance of Mr. McCain's positions.

DAVE STROUD
Franklin Park

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Proud of Irish vote

Regarding "Irish Vote No on Modernized EU" (June 14): Never have I been more proud of my ancestry and my colleagues in the pro-life movement in Ireland.

The "Celtic Tiger" roared at the imposition of rules and regulations from the European Union that would have infringed on Irish independence. Teams of citizens walked the streets; they knocked on doors; they distributed leaflets and explained the effect of the Lisbon Treaty. The people of Ireland defeated it soundly!

The competency of the European Union is not supposed to extend to the area of family law, yet the Charter of Rights attached to the Lisbon Treaty is legally binding across all members of the EU and covers marriage, family and right-to-life issues.

The Irish Constitution gave the people the right to say "yes" or "no" to this treaty, something people in other EU countries were not able to do, even when they saw its errors. Today the people of other European countries are thanking Ireland.

Of course, we will hear only whining from the governments, from the anti-family, anti-life forces and from the cadre in Brussels. The folks whose sweat and prayers turned this vote from "yes" to "no" will not be surprised if the gang imposing this removal of rights finds a loophole, maybe in the penumbra of the Irish Constitution.

HELEN CINDRICH
North Versailles
The writer is executive director of People Concerned for the Unborn Child.

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