Re: Lousy bus system punishes poor and limits the elderly, letter, Jan. 11, and Retirees need to stay out of rush-hour traffic, letter by Ward Kalmbach, Jan. 11.
I am retired and moved here five years ago because of the fine bus service. Yes, it could use some schedule tweaking. The most important thing it needs is public promotion and lots of it. Get the people involved and riding the bus and it will become the service it needs to be.
Letter writer Ward Kalmbach, who decided he was the guru of the roads, is a lost soul, and I feel sorry for him. Ward, if you are being held up on the road by good, safe drivers, leave a little earlier. When I was still working, I gave myself one hour more than I needed to get to work. I ate lunch from a brown bag; I didn't rush around town looking for a three-martini lunch.
It is the younger drivers who cause all the problems. Ward, slow down, take time to smell the roses and learn how to respect people older and wiser than you.
-- Paul Langer, Largo
Pedestrian ramp makes Clearwater look foolish
Re: Makings of a connection, story, Jan. 3.
I enjoyed reading staff writer Jennifer Farrell's article on the new Memorial Causeway Bridge in Clearwater, but one of the information items given to her by the city of Clearwater is either a mistake or an insult. That circular pedestrian ramp being built near the Pierce 100 condominiums on the southwest side of the bridge cannot, in any way, connect to the Pinellas Trail.
The Pinellas Trail runs along East Avenue in downtown Clearwater, several blocks east of the new bridge. Any cyclist or pedestrian who mistakes that ramp for a connector to the Pinellas Trail will find that they have to immediately regain the elevation they've just lost to climb right back up the bluff overlooking Clearwater Harbor to make their way east to the Pinellas Trail. While that's not a problem if you are in a car, it is a real annoyance if you're on a bicycle or on foot. What were they thinking?
Why put in an expensive ramp that close to the end of the bridge anyway? Was it supposed to connect to Coachman Park? If so, it's too far south, forcing anyone using it to have to make their way back across Pierce Street once they reach the bottom. Whose bright idea was that? Once again, Clearwater looks a bit foolish when it tries to make traffic go in circles.
If you want to get to the Pinellas Trail from the new Memorial Causeway Bridge after it opens, simply stay eastbound on the bridge to join Chestnut Street and you'll meet the trail at East Avenue. No expensive (annoying) off-ramp required. Too bad the bridge designers don't ride bicycles. It might have saved Clearwater some money on that bridge.
-- Chip Haynes, Clearwater
Pete Rose's career isn't worthy of Hall of Fame
Should Pete Rose be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame? I think not.
Putting aside for a moment his gambling and betting on the team he was managing, let us take a look at his record on the field.
His only claim to fame is that he broke Ty Cobb's record for most hits in a lifetime of playing. He only broke Cobb's record by 66 hits. In order to do this, he played in 529 more games than Cobb. That is about 31/2 more years of playing time.
He also was at bat 2,627 more times than Cobb. Despite this advantage, he only managed to drive in 1,314 runs to Cobb's 1,959. It seems "Charlie Hustle" wasn't there in the clutch.
Then there is that dismal lifetime batting average of .305. Can you imagine visiting the Hall of Fame and viewing the plaques and pictures of the great batters of baseball: Ty Cobb, .367; Roger Hornsby, .358; Ted Williams, .344; Babe Ruth, .342, and more. To see Pete Rose among these immortals is absolutely repugnant.
None of the players involved in the 1919 Black Sox scandal ever played Major League baseball again despite being found not guilty in a court of law.
Rose's record of most hits in a lifetime stands, but his entry into the Hall of Fame is a resounding "no."
-- Howard Groth, Clearwater
Thanks for offering more options to letter writers
Re: Times' decision to stop accepting letters to the editor via e-mail, and new system for submitting letters through the Times' Web site.
I thank both the editorial page and the Times for providing readers with another alternative, allowing us to express our opinions.
It only takes a rotten few to spoil it for the rest of us. In the midst of deleting all of my unsolicited junk e-mail, I never imagined that the newspapers were also inundated with much of the same.
As the saying goes, "There is more than one way to skin a cat." And so it goes for writing letters to the editor, as well.
-- JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater
[Last modified January 16, 2004, 01:33:00]
