LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Parking lot crackdown a costly move
4/27/2011Toledo's crackdown on "unlicensed" parking lots is another penny-wise, pound-foolish tactic that will have a bad effect on the Warehouse District ("City of Toledo to crack down on parking lots," April 19).
Parking has always been a problem there, and it gets worse when the Mud Hens are playing. The unlicensed dirt and gravel lots west of Lafayette Street offer cheaper parking for those who are wiling to walk a few blocks to the game.
The owners of those lots are not going to pay to pave, stripe, and light them. Instead, lots of cheap parking will be removed and, with less supply and more demand, the remaining lots will raise their rates.
In the first 10 years of Fifth Third Field, the Mud Hens and the Warehouse District have prospered. Why is the city trying to ruin that with stupid parking lot licensing?
Jack Wilson
South St. Clair Street
Answer's blowing in the wind
It amazes me that while we all want power, there is always someone who will object to any of the options to generate it ("200 hear of wind turbines' noise," April 20).
Most of the time it is fear and ignorance, not rational observation, that drives this "not in my back yard" fervor. Riga Township residents should stop bickering.
I've stood literally at the base of the wind turbines in Wood County, but I struggle to remember hearing any noise. Near Lincoln, Kan., I drove by a monstrous wind farm that stretched as far as my eyes could see. I stopped and heard nothing but the cars on the highway.
As for noise expert Rick James' statement that six decibels can affect people: 10 decibels is roughly equal to the sound of light leaf rustling. Sixty decibels, the inferred average ambient noise in the township, is the sound of a normal conversation.
Soon the cost of electricity from wind turbines will be a bargain, even without the enormous environmental advantages.
Jim Susko
Cherry Lane
Courtesy-title rule is old-fashioned
In response to Jack Lessenberry's April 17 ombudsman column, "Courtesy-title policy requires occasional explanation": To refer to "Dr." as a courtesy title for medical doctors but not PhDs is inaccurate. People holding these degrees have earned them.
To refer to the president of the University of Toledo as Dr. (Lloyd) Jacobs and to the president and president-elect of Bowling Green State University as Ms. (Carol) Cartwright and Ms. (Mary Ellen) Mazey certainly sounds sexist to me.
Lloyd Jacobs has an MD degree, but is functioning in university administration, not in a medical field. He could be addressed as President Jacobs. The other two officials, as holders of the PhD degree common to most university presidents, could be President Cartwright and President-elect Mazey.
To say, as Mr. Lessenberry does, that "there are so many PhDs and other forms of doctorates these days that the editors feel that to use the Dr. title for all of these would only add confusion" is ridiculous. Isn't it time for The Blade to give up using the outdated recommendations of the Associated Press from 1953? Many prominent newspapers as well as TV news channels throughout the nation do not adhere to these policies.
Mr. Lessenberry, in his April 22 op-ed column ("Snyder shows unexpected political savvy"), refers to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's success in repealing "a decades-old law requiring that every item in stores be stamped with an individual price." So why does Mr. Lessenberry not think it appropriate to abandon the AP's recommendations from 1953 about the title of "Dr."?
Wallace L. Pretzer
Bowling Green
Editor's Note: The writer is a retired professor of English at Bowling Green State University.
Spitzer Building welcoming tenants
Your April 21 article about the Cutting Edge barbershop moving from the Spitzer Building to the Toledo Club was misleading by depicting the building as losing one of its last tenants ("Toledo Club gains a barber"). So was an online revision, that called the building half empty.
We look at the Spitzer Building as being 50 percent full, with the arcade almost at capacity. Although it is in receivership, the Spitzer Building continues to welcome tenants. We are optimistically looking forward to a more prosperous future.
Patrice Spitzer
Perrysburg
Editor's Note: The writer is a manager of the Spitzer Building.
Going to the dogs, again and again
Dogs are the top story on Easter Sunday ("Dog pound's kill rate climbs despite changes," March 24)? Are you kidding me? When will you publish pictures of children who are up for adoption?
I like dogs, but I don't need to see their faces every day.
Please tell me there are more important things in Toledo.
Rick Sobecki
288th Street
Solutions needed to dog-pound issues
What is going on at our animal pound?
Are we a society that routinely kills and throws away loving animals in landfills just as we do with dirty diapers and other disgusting items?
We need a larger facility or other solutions to house animals and a re-evaluation of the aggressiveness tests. Are knowledgeable personnel conducting the tests, or simply volunteers or other inexperienced workers? What time frame is used to conduct the tests?
From my experience, the pound is not a calm environment for the animals. I'm sure it's very frightening for those accustomed to running free, as they are surrounded by equally confused and agitated inmates. Thrust into an unfamiliar situation, some animals act aggressively until they become acclimated to their new surroundings.
It's time for an investigation of the mentality at the pound. A new direction and revised policies may be in order for our beloved animal companions.
James Shaler
Bowen Road
Apparel doesn't denote allegiance
It's hard to believe you would bow to associative encoding in your April 23 article "Jury decides Fla. pastor a safety threat," about Pastor Terry Jones and associate Rev. Wayne Sapp: "Pastor Jones and Pastor Sapp, who both wore Harley-Davidson T-shirts, represented themselves in court."
What was the relevance of Harley-Davidson T-shirts to self-representation by these two controversial figures?
I ride a Harley-Davidson and often wear T-shirts representative of places and events I have been to. But that does not make me, or anyone else who rides a Harley or any other motorcycle, affiliated with or loyal to a particular group or cause.
A person's wardrobe does not always dictate one's association or allegiance. To do so would be to judge a book by its cover or a newspaper by its headlines. I highly prize freedom of speech and of the press, but there are limits.
Henry E. Zech
Defiance
Personal liberty no case for abortion
Abortion proponents use the argument that a woman has the right to do whatever she wants with her own body. The barbaric practice of abortion defended in the guise of personal liberty sickens me.
I'm trying to understand why the same defense of freedom does not carry over into the realm of prostitution. Offer sex for money, or money for sex, and you get arrested.
Rarely does the entertainment industry refrain from exploiting overt sexual themes and covert sexual innuendo. It relies on sexual tension between two characters to move the plot along.
The advertising industry would be hamstrung without being able to use sexual energy to sell products.
Adult bookstores pepper the landscape. Their owners know their product is protected by the Constitution.
But let some hapless man in the midst of a midlife crisis get caught up in a prostitution sting and the state tries to ruin his life. At the very least, he will suffer public humiliation. His family life and livelihood may be destroyed.
A woman has the right to do whatever she wants with her own body. Does she now?
Don Gozdowski
Franklin Avenue