On land development, rude people, nuclear energy and insensitively timed wedding publications

City isn't listening

to neighborhoods

The Avery Addition neighborhood is fighting for its very existence against a loophole (Ordinance 2004-41) in our city's land development code.

But we are fighting without a voice because the City Council won't allow public input during the so-called "public" hearing tonight.

City Council's strategy of ignoring the loophole's damage and/or blaming it on a "state requirement" allows the city to avoid accountability for their actions.

But the council did have a choice. It was the citizens of Corvallis who were denied any input or choice about the loophole.

The city has failed to protect our neighborhoods, and given the damage caused and the enormous profits reaped by the developers, the citizens deserve to know exactly what happened.

The city has had four years to analyze the damage they caused with this loophole and implement emergency measures to protect our neighborhoods from the loophole.

Most citizens feel the city is supposed to protect neighborhoods from the "floods of greed" caused by developers pushing their problems onto surrounding neighbors to maximize profits. But apparently, the Planning Department and City Council do not see this as important.

I suggest that each reader visit the development on 10th & A, to see for themselves the kind of profitable abomination that can be built when you get to ignore city rules.

Then, before tonight's meeting, inform your City Council representative that there is a problem, they caused it and we expect them to clean up their mess.

Sam Hoskinson

Corvallis

A few simple words can go a long way

The holiday rush is over, the decorations come down, the tree hits the streets and normalcy returns.

The holidays are always a fun time for our family even if it is a hectic time of year.

The one negative thing I kept noticing was the complete lack of the use of the phrase "excuse me."

I can't count the number of times someone physically pushed in front of me to get past me or to get something off the shelf in front of me without uttering those two little words.

The worst situation being when a mom actually told her 10(ish)-year-old son to "squeeze" in front of me to get to the nutcracker display I was looking at with no instructions to say anything to me. This squeezing caused me to step back pushing my stroller enough to run into my own daughter who had stepped in front of the stroller right at that inopportune time.

We are all in a hurry sometimes and make errors in our behavior towards people, so I ask that we each make a resolution to be more polite to people and teach our kids that excuse me, please and thank you are words that should be said often and, if you slip, "I'm sorry" should fix the error.

Oh, and while we are at it remember to tell each other "I love you" - three words that can go a long way to making someone's day brighter.

Happy New Year.

Aly Welkley

Corvallis

Nuclear power won't fix global warming

When asked what caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown, the plant manager responded, "Intellectual arrogance."

Chernobyl imploded during an experiment to see how slowly the reaction could be contained. Pressures mounted unalterably, safety valves weren't, and voila - a core meltdown and massive clouds of lethal radioactivity contaminated vast areas of Russia.

From Sweden to Italy, reindeer, olives, bunny rabbits were destroyed to minimize radioactive fallout from entering world food supplies. Remember?

Nuclear engineers and nuke business types evangelize today's nukes as "inherently safe," not unlike Mickey Mouse playing at the sorcerer's apprentice's black cauldron, or Lucy pulling the football from Charlie Brown's kick.

Weren't the last ones supposed to be safe?

The dangers which cannot be engineered out? Human frailty, arrogance and error.

Nuclear power won't fix global warming.

Instead, redirect funding from nuclear research into low-head hydro turbines, efficient mass transit, passive solar designs, organic food production, natural medicine, closed-loop industrial plants, carbon taxes, etc.

That is, abandon dominionist, non-ecological, religious, nuclear fundamentalism.

Enough already!

Gentlemen, step away from the cauldron.

Reed Behrens

Corvallis

G-T wedding section was badly timed

OK, I guess I may be more sensitive than some with regard to gay rights.

I'm a happily married straight guy who has formed many friendships within the GLBT community.

These friendships have changed my perspective on what is important and, therefore, I get a little annoyed when I see others being insensitive or hurtful to my friends.

On Jan. 3, there was a wonderful article on the front page of this newspaper about the candlelight vigil that took place the night before in response to the recent actions by a judge that postpones the enactment of a domestic partnership bill passed by the Oregon Legislature.

Thank you, G-T, for that article as well as the article the previous day about the upcoming event.

But, inside the paper was an insert called "Wedding Planner."

Sure, the G-T has a right to make money and having a Wedding Planner insert makes sense as many in the straight community will be exercising their right to marry this year.

But, when the GLBT community has been kicked to the curb by the passing of Measure 36 and kicked again by this judge, I have to wonder about timing.

In 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., Rosa Parks sat in the fifth row of a bus and was found guilty of violating racial segregation laws.

How ironic it would have been if the local paper, after reporting on that conviction, had run a story about how the local bus company had re-upholstered the front section of its buses.

Tom Johnston

Corvallis