Letters to the Editor

Adjudicating medicine

Kudos to state's team of experts for doing a tough job

Editor, The Times:

A last, some common sense regarding health care ["Medical team decides which treatments state can cover," Times, page one, July 7]. The use of evidence-based medicine will help to avoid the drug and technology companies' competitive race to see who can come out with the latest, but not the best, new item to feature to consumers.

As health-care costs continue to rise due to direct advertising to consumers and drug companies' sponsored "trials" of new medication — with glowing reports of benefits and hidden reports of risk — someone has to hold the reins and say "no." I applaud the courage of these experts stepping up to take responsibility.

— Kathy Kimball, Seattle

The trouble with transit

Freeing the waterfront of its freeway

Seattle's traffic woes are not going to be solved by replacing one freeway with another ["State proposes 8 Alaskan Way Viaduct alternatives," Local News, June 27].

They will only be alleviated if people give up the idea that fast, single-occupancy transportation makes sense in the heart of a big, congested city.

The viaduct gave Seattle its first freeway, and drivers got a hurried view of the waterfront, but at the same time it destroyed Seattle's link to its own best asset. It created a nightmare tunnel beneath it, and caused developers to overbuild so their clients could see over it. It threw a giant concrete barrier between downtown and Elliott Bay.

It's time for us to slow down. Seattle needs a grand waterfront boulevard with no freeway rushing above or below it. As Roger Sale said in "Seattle: Past to Present," such a project could really put Seattle on the map as one of the world's great cities.

Without it, and without the will to make it happen or the vision to see that this is more than simply solving a transportation problem, Seattle, which abandoned a commuter train years ago in favor of buses, will once again settle for second best.

— Alan Moen, Entiat

Reality retreats, again

Here we go again. Reality is leaving the Washington State Department of Transportation and Alaskan Way Viaduct decision makers. Their plans have two fatal assumptions.

The first is that there will be no growth in population in the region in the foreseeable future, or that the next million people moving here in the very near future are just going to walk and have no demands on services. This eliminates calculations of extra cars on the road and more people moving from place to place.

The second assumption is that people using the viaduct want to go to and from and not through downtown. Washington's annual growth in 2007 was only 99,600 people. More than half the population of the state lives within an hour of Seattle.

Any project that does not substantially increase the volume of vehicles through the core is a waste of taxpayer money and increases congestion across the entire region. The state has wasted how much time and money to come up with this piece of cow dung?

— Patrick Petersen, Seattle

Bus fare hike dumb

There is an adage in politics: If you want to encourage something, subsidize it. If you want to discourage something, tax it.

If we are serious about discouraging the use of gasoline, we must give serious consideration to encouraging people to get out of their cars.

Thus, we should attract new bus riders by such means as lowering fares. Raising bus fares will only contribute to the worsening of our already serious transit woes.

— Arlene Heath, Seattle

Guard service disrespected

Professor's editorial lacks perspective

As a U.S. Air Force veteran, I thought University of Washington political science professor Christopher Parker was doing fairly well in his column on possible veteran swing voting ["Veterans could be the swing vote," guest commentary, July 7], especially noting the administration's less-than-commendable veterans' care efforts. However, I was sadly disappointed by what I hope was Parker's unintended slur against President George Bush and our National Guard active-duty service members and veterans when he wrote "Many vets thus feel the military is being misused in Iraq, broken by a man [Bush] who never served."

Pretty sloppy for a UW professor: If this were in a term paper or test, I would give him a "D-".

Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard and flew Convair F-102 Delta Dagger interceptors, as were stationed at Washington state's McChord Air Force Base and Paine Field in past years — and flown for several hours by this nonrated writer in the TF-102A two-seat trainer model with a test pilot friend, showing me how much smarts and guts were required to qualify.

Parker might check his facts as well his journalistic tongue. An apology to all Guard members, many of whom are serving on active duty away from home and family, seems appropriate.

— Don Gulliford, Mercer Island

Sonics loss: a week later

Don't despair; Seattle's still a great city

The loss of the Sonics is regrettable, but hardly likely to result in civic despair ["Deal sends Sonics to Oklahoma City: 'A Sad Day,' " page one, July 3].

Witness the giddy souvenir buyer on your online front page last week. It has been forever since a regular Sonics game was affordable for the average family.

Better that we focus on the things that truly make a city great, such as world-class public transportation and our top-shelf library, and let all these sports teams run by and for millionaires move to the backwater wannabe towns that want and need them on their way up.

— Martha Rickey, Yakima

Time to move on

Mayor Greg Nickels, with the Seattle City Council's endorsement, sold out the businesses and citizens who relied upon two more years of continued Sonics trade for their livelihood: restaurants, cab drivers and others.

In return for helping our tenants break their word, we get the faint, feeble lure of a bit more money five years in the future.

Hope vanishes that the NBA would consider Seattle ahead of other deserving markets. I won't support the state granting Seattle hundred-million dollar taxing authority to build a stadium, with no commitment that a team will come.

Who from Seattle would now believe a team owner or the NBA commissioner would live up to such a promise?

What a poor decision.

Forget rolling over for special interests and calling it the cost of a world-class city. Let's make Seattle the best in its class.

I can hardly wait until the next election.

— Kerry Peterson, Seattle