Charlotte can’t justify spending money on SouthPark improvements | Charlotte Observer

Charlotte’s funding priorities need work

It is a sad day when the front page of the Observer has two headlines that are so very different. One says “Police chief urges city to raise pay for officers,” (April 13). The second says “$10 million project for SouthPark includes a 3-mile ‘Cultural Loop’ ,” (April 13).

I understand the value of culture, but imagine what $10 million could do for our officers!

For a progressive city, this shows city planning is still in the dark ages.

SIGN UP

I’m not buying the lack of funds

We can’t find the funds for adequate affordable housing, but we can spend millions making the SouthPark area more walkable? What about using those funds to create a more livable west side of town? I live in the SouthPark area and would benefit from such a plan, but this smacks of Marie Antoinette saying, “Let them eat cake.”

All the construction is too much hassle

Forum writer Cara Siliakus is correct in stating there is endless construction in and around Charlotte.

I live in SouthPark, where not only is new construction happening, but constant repairing of apartment and retail buildings that were poorly constructed. Now I read in the Observer of a $10 million project for SouthPark that includes a 3-mile “Cultural Loop.”

I didn’t see evidence of “culture” in the plans, just road and sidewalk improvements. Here comes another headache with traffic delays and noise. Where is my Excedrin?

James Comey is speaking hard truth

For a year Donald Trump has maligned and impugned the reputation of James Comey due to his rationale that if Comey didn’t offer him fealty, Comey wasn’t a “team Trump player” who would protect him from the Russia investigation.

You can’t reason with men like Trump. You bide your time and then you crush them by means of intelligent discourse from which there is no escape.

Comey is doing what no one has had the cojones to do thus far – tell the truth about Trump’s corrupt and glaringly iniquitous moral turpitude.

Paul Ryan’s legacy isn’t that great

Megan McArdle’s assertion that Paul Ryan is a beloved figure who sacrificed his own interest for the sake of party and country is laughable. Beloved? By whom?

Not by true conservatives – his tax cut law added trillions to the national debt. Not by the American people – giving huge tax cuts to the rich and corporations is not popular. Not by the voters in Wisconsin – polling indicated he could have lost his seat to the Democratic challenger, Randy Bryce. Ryan saw all of this, which is the real reason he decided to retire. And no, Ryan’s replacement will not be worse. It would be hard to imagine anyone who could outdo the mess he helped create.

It’s fair for grocers to be profit-driven

Sure, great idea. Let’s pressure grocers to wipe out food deserts. While we’re at it, let’s pressure teachers to wipe out child neglect and bank tellers to wipe out fraud.

Food deserts exist because of high crime areas. Grocery stores are in the business to make money. Who, with any business acumen, would open a store in a location where they are certain to become victims of shoplifting, robbery or assault?

If you want to wipe out food deserts, pressure neighborhoods to become crime deserts.

We shouldn’t want any poison in the air

Vice President Mike Pence, in a speech about the missile attack on Syria said “the U.S. will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against men, women, and children.”

I think it would help if he also said that we should not tolerate our own country’s easing of EPA rules which will now allow the poisoning of our water and air, with the discharge of animal waste, toxic gases, and cancer-causing chemicals, which will slowly, but surely, kill men, women and children.