Letters to the editor

Hybrid buses

In lean economic times, Metro shouldn't be looking at pricey models

Editor, The Times:

Metro's math seems a little funny ("Metro impressed by hybrid buses," Bumper to Bumper, News, Feb. 2). They say potential new hybrid buses cost lots less than new replacement buses ($400,000 less), yet these buses cost far more ($200,000) than diesel buses.

Why not replace the tunnel buses with diesel buses? New diesel engines burn relatively cleanly and are fuel-efficient. Let's see, if Metro purchased 200 new diesel buses instead of 200 hybrids, the county would save $35 million.

Now what might it do with $35 million? Reopen some parks? Aid low-income housing? Improve existing roads and bridges? Help fund light rail?

Hybrids are the latest rage, but are they practical at a time when budgets are so lean?

For that matter, why buy new buses at all? Are the 1990 Breda buses which cost half-a-million dollars each really that old? Last time I rode one it seemed like a pretty nice bus.
Richard Wells, Seattle

College tuition

Why should taxpayers pay tab for illegal immigrants?

Your Jan. 31 editorial supporting the University of Washington's decision to tighten state residency requirements for out-of-state students makes sense to me.

I am confused, however. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell openly support Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch's proposal to let illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition.

Do our senators support making U.S. citizens pay in-state tuition but support Washington taxpayers picking up the tab for illegal immigrants? Help me understand this.
Linda H. Thom, Coupeville

Career centers

High-school program offers crucial help to teens

I am writing to respond to your article about cutbacks in the Seattle high-school career centers ("Career-center cuts especially daunting for minority teens," News, Feb. 3).

I'm a sophomore at Franklin High, 16, and Ethiopian. I've been in the United States for only four years and I know that I have to create a future for myself. Like me, there are a lot of kids in the Seattle School District whose parents don't speak English.

The career center helped me find my first job at Seattle Youth Employment Program, which helped me find my current job at YouthForce. Now, I'm proud to help other kids learn about and find educational jobs because I know it's important.

And next year, when I'm a junior, I really want a career-center person at my school because I know I'll need help learning about different schools and getting my applications ready. If the Seattle School District cuts the career centers, it will hurt kids like me because we don't have family to help us find good jobs and information about college.

If I did not have help from my career center, I would probably be broke and without any career goals.

Instead, I help my family, send money home to relatives, and I have a dream of being in business or medicine, thanks to my career-center specialist, SYEP and YouthForce.
Frehiwot Tenagne, Peer Employment Counselor, TeenJobs.org/YouthForce, Seattle

A question of commitment

Applause and gratitude to the Seattle Schools career specialists who are giving 110 percent of their caring and creative solutions to our high-school students and the shortage of financial, college and employment counseling they face as a result of the district's mismanagement of public funds.

As I read about the five counselors lost to our students most in need, in order to save $120,000, I could not help thinking of the $640,000 the School Board voted to spend on cost-of-living increases for its nonunion employees. A decision on spending that indeed "belies the dire (financial) circumstances the district is in," to quote your Nov. 11, 2002, editorial "What was Seattle's School Board thinking?" Your editorial posed the question: "Is it more fair to have your wage frozen or to lose your job?"

But as the School Board's funding decisions go into effect, the question that begs to be asked is: How real is the district's commitment to its maxims of "kids first" and "bridging the gap"?
Katherine Triandafilou, Seattle

Off-leash dog parks

Maybe council should expand its jurisdiction

I find it ironic that my dog cannot run off-leash on the new trails at Westcrest Park, but that some moron in a snowmobile can go off-road at Yellowstone ("City Council: No off-leash dogs allowed on forest trail," News, Feb. 4).

Granted, two different jurisdictions are responsible for these two parks, but given the Seattle City Council's actions, I kind of wish it was in charge of the National Park Service as well.
Karen Therese, Seattle

Habitat ruined

As an owner of a very vivacious dog that likes to play Frisbee, I have quite a lot to say about the off-leash areas I've encountered.

They put one in at Northacres Park at 130th and Interstate 5 near my home. What a mess! It used to be this very pristine forest area that was enjoyed by walkers, joggers and dogs on and off leashes. They put in this fenced monstrosity within the forest that is nothing but a glorified dog run in a big circle. There are all these fences around "environmentally sensitive" areas. To put in the fences they had to clear bunches of habitat.

I can't imagine how many natural habitatters were upset by this. I don't think the squirrels and birds were able to read the "coming soon" signs and were able to plan their move accordingly.

Once all the fences were in, you really could not throw a Frisbee for a dog as it would easily go over a fence into one of the sensitive areas. Then in all their wonderful wisdom the off-leash stewards laid down sharp pea gravel on the main run areas. I carried my small dog home several times as his paws were bloodied and torn from sliding out on the sharp gravel.

I finally have given up going there. The dogs had been roaming that area for years without it looking like it does now. The environmentalists should be livid and dog owners should be disgusted. I am.
Carl Wilson, Seattle

Jury selection

Not-so-smart proposal

Re: "Bill would narrow list for jury pools," News, Jan. 31.

Succinctly put, this bill, sponsored by Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, is one of the dumbest legislative endeavors I have ever witnessed. Why not revert to the days when voting rights were restricted to white, male property owners?
Edward Darden, Seattle

Mercury

Disposal turns tricky

While I find the idea of exchanging mercury-filled thermometers for digital ones to be an environmentally correct action (Here & Now, News, Jan. 31), I was a bit chagrined to find a message on my new digital thermometer.

The message states that I should not dispose of the digital thermometer battery in the trash because it contains mercury.
Robert Adler, Seattle