Ticket seller has high fees
3/28/2010I wish Blade Editor David Kushma had mentioned the outrageous fees that Ticketmaster rips off from its captive customers in his March 14 column, "City's burden has to fall somewhere."
Nobody complains about this extortion while Mayor Mike Bell has to beg for desperately needed money.
Gary Supinski
Oregon
The proposed ticket tax for downtown venues must not go through.
For years I have been involved in arts groups. I was the arts consultant in former Mayor Jack Ford's administration, a position that was created to help the arts community. Mr. Ford realized the importance of the arts as an engine for economic development and tourism for our community.
We worked to help the arts, not tax the arts, so we could move our city forward.
Susan Reams
Perrysburg
The City of Toledo's huge deficit calls for concessions and staff reductions.
All departments must take a hit, although police and fire personnel should be treated differently, as they deal directly with our safety. They put their lives on the line and endure mental stress.
Let Mayor Bell take the first step by taking a 50 percent salary cut, and then make deep cuts in management salaries.
Peter L. Romstadt
Shoreland Avenue
In the 1970s, we had lots of police. I know, because I was married to a police officer.
Now, sincetax revenue is downand some cityworkers are paid more than the police who protect them, it is the decision of our leaders to lay off police.
This is ludicrous. Cut salaries of all city employees, from the top down.We need police protection. The crooks will be even more brazen. With fewer police, criminals will do whatever they want.
We are going to become hostages in our homes and businesses will be sitting ducks for crime.
Sharon Tobian
Adella Street
I was laid off from a professional position with a global company. I have not been able to find work for the last seven months.
I would like to tell Toledo police that if I had beenasked by my company to take acut in pay and help with my pension for a year, rather than go through the financially, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically drainingexperience of being unemployed, I would have jumped at the chance. So would the other 1,100 people who were laid off with me.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and wise decisions. Toledo firefighters know this. They have always been our heroes.
Toledo police officers need to check their egos and take-a-stance bravado at the door ("City police veto concession deal," March 26).
Bonnie Zaruca
Sylvania
Why not ask the Marines and Army to practice war games in Toledo more often now, since 125 police officers could be laid off? The union's decision to reject concessions shows the police don't care about our stability or safety.
Many who live and work in this area have lost jobs and/or taken substantial pay cuts. It is not a time for stubborn union tactics that will endanger us all.
No wonder so many honest citizens are buying handguns.
Jim Pugh
Sylvania
I called the City of Toledo in fall 2007 to request the city trees in front of my home be trimmed. A few days later a placard left on my front door said that I was on the schedule. To this day, nothing has been done.
The trees and limbs are so large that they cover half of my driveway. I'm afraid the tree is going to come down, and I doubt the city would pay for the damage.
I have called the city repeatedly and I'm told I'm still on the list. It was suggested I get a permit and pay for the trimming myself. When a city tree crew was within two blocks of my home, I asked if it could do mine next. The answer was no.
What is it going to take, an accident or injury? By then, what's the point?
Brent Harbaugh
Templar Road
It is unlikely that the University of Toledo will be held accountable, as you suggest in your March 20 editorial "Truth will out."
Only stories of crime, sexual escapades, and sports cheating seem to interest local media.
You have chosen to ignore the overpaid tyrant, Lloyd Jacobs, who was chosen president without a transparent and cooperative search.
The situation was much the same when Vik Kapoor was chosen president by the board against the advice of people who recognized his tendencies. That situation finally got too bad to ignore.
But you have successfully ignored the problems of the Jacobs administration.
The administrators he has chosen are characterized more by their unquestioning adherence to his orders than to anything else.
Kay Wilcox
Sherbrooke Road
What former UT men's basketball coach Gene Cross and former basketball player Kashif Payne have done and who they did it with are none of our business.
Mr. Cross is an unmarried adult. He can do what he wants off the court. His actions had nothing to do with basketball or graduation rates.
Mr. Payne was undergoing investigation by the FBI when he quit basketball.
Could it be that UT was not supposed to talk about what was going on? Would you prefer that UT smear the reputations of a former coach and a former basketball player so our curiosity could be satisfied? It makes for great gossip, but it is not news.
If either one of these men wanted the so-called truth to come out, he could have had a press conference. They didn't. Leave them alone.
Nancy Creech
Sylvania
Why are government bailouts for the financial and auto industries called saving democracy and capitalism, while government reform of health care is labeled socialism?
This hypocrisy of the Tea Party - formerly the GOP - is laughable. The biggest joke is Ohio Sen. George Voinovich's bellyaching the day after the House passed a health-care bill supported by most Americans.
The Tea Party represents an elite and rich minority who don't want others to have what they have. The health-care bill won't give most Americans what Mr. Voinovich and other members of Congress are privy to.
Yet he rails about the costs and worries about where the funding will come from. It will come from the same place his insurance does.
Mr. Voinovich had no qualms about voting for a blank check for the Iraq war, where no weapons of mass destruction were found. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on the war. What's in the tea he drinks?
Paul Szymanowski
Curtice