Dirty Streets

Editor: I sometimes wonder if Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and members of the Baltimore City Council ever take the time to walk around Baltimore City.

We have been told street cleaners have to go because they cost too much, but that they will be replaced by trucks that will do a better job.

I live in Locust Point. Our streets used to be reasonably clean. Now they are fast becoming an open sewer: trash is everywhere.

The waste cans on the corners are always overflowing. The whole mess is dumping so much trash into the sewers that they cannot function properly. And there are no trucks.

I realize money is tight for the city, but unless our elected officials want to see Baltimore become a sandbox for the homeless and poor, somebody had better wake up.

This is not the middle ages. People expect for their tax dollars the basic services cities are supposed to provide. Keeping the streets clean is a basic service we have every right to expect.

More people will just give up and move to the counties leaving the city with an even smaller tax base.

If Baltimore has reached the point where it can no longer provide basic services, why should anyone who can move continue to live here?

R. M. Hackney.

Baltimore.

Test Assistance

Editor: I would like to offer a clarification of your recent excellent article on the Abell Foundation report on the number of advanced placement tests taken by Baltimore City public high school students.

A spokesman for the school system defended the distressingly low number of tests taken by contending that advanced placement classes are small (20 students) and that high schools do not have the staff resources to offer courses that have so few students. The article then stated that Baltimore City College, which accounted for over 80 percent of the tests taken in Baltimore City, was able to increase the number of students taking AP tests fivefold in one year as a result of assistance from the Abell Foundation.

It is true that the Abell Foundation assisted City in its test program but the assistance did not include funds to reduce class sizes. In fact, the advance placement English and history classes at City contained 38 and 33 students, respectively. The aid that the foundation did provide, for books and teacher training, was offered to every public high school in Baltimore. Only City accepted that offer.

This year Poly and Western have asked for and received assistance from the foundation to improve their test performance. The offer of assistance to the city's high schools remains.

Alyson T. Cooke.

Baltimore.

The writer is a program officer for the Abell Foundation.

Mass Transit

Editor: The $151 billion highway/transit reauthorization legislation passed by Congress last year authorizes $31.5 billion for mass transit over six years.

Mass transit is also eligible for $24 billion in "flexible" funding under which states and cities can decide what goes to highways and what goes to mass transit. Inter-city passenger rail (Amtrak) is not eligible for this funding.

Another $725 million is authorized for magnetic levitation development. But only $50 million (plus $25 million for research and development) in available for a program for which both maglev and high speed conventional rail are eligible.

Our excessive dependence on automobiles, trucks, and planes is the principal cause of many serious problems. These include air pollution, acid rain, the greenhouse effect and global warming, dependence on imported oil and many, many others.

The most effective way to solve these problems is use our fuel-efficient but under-used railroads. The reauthorization legislation is a step in this direction.

The bad news is that inter-city rail passenger service (Amtrak) is not eligible for this flexible funding and that $725 million is authorized for magnetic levitation development.

This technology has never been used in actual service, and is not technically ready. It is an entirely different technology from our railroad network.

Amtrak should be eligible for the flexible funding; and instead of maglev, we should adopt the proven and successful French TGV system. Unlike maglev, the TGV trains can continue on existing track, far beyond the (temporary) ends of the new high speed track, thus making it possible to upgrade our railroads in stages, as traffic increases and money becomes available.

John J. Bowman Jr.

Baltimore.

Marylanders of the Year

Editor: Gallimaufry (Jan. 6) confuses temporary publicity with solid long-term achievement.

Discussing Cal Ripken's predecessors as your "Marylander of the Year," the column unfairly puts down as reborn under-achievers a number of individuals who in fact have continued quietly to make outstanding contributions to the community and to their professions.

Steven Muller was not forced out as president of Johns Hopkins University. Although the university is experiencing the financial pressures that beset higher education in general, he retired in dignity after a long and distinguished career, and continues to enjoy the respect of his peers.

So, too, with Ann Tyler. Although she received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for a single (and outstanding) novel, "Breathing Lessons," the honor was intended to reward career achievement reflected in ten prior volumes of fiction. Her accomplishments continue with "Saint Maybe," which certainly ranks among her finest novels.

To revert to the baseball analogy used in Gallimaufry, neither of the other two past recipients -- Robert Linowes and Vincent DeMarco -- experienced a sophomore jinx. Rather, each received his applause in the early innings of ball games which are far from over. Each is an experienced, public-spirited attorney who entered the game with no desire for accolades or expectation of easy victory, but anticipated many "innings" of difficult legislative sessions.

Mr. Linowes did not complete but merely began his tax reform efforts with preparation of his 1989 report, the importance of which has recently become apparent as the General Assembly struggles to balance budget cuts with an inevitable -- and hopefully equitable -- revision of the state's tax structure. It will be surprising and disappointing if at least some of the progressive recommendations of Mr. Linowes and his colleagues do not find their way into law.

Vincent DeMarco likewise knew full well that the 1988 referendum victory over the NRA was not a final solution to the problems posed by the proliferation of handguns in our communities, but at best a turning of the tide in favor of rational gun control. Mr. DeMarco today heads Marylanders Against Handguns.

Gallimaufry does a disservice not only to these four individuals but to the worthy interests and efforts they represent, in its flippant contrast with Cal Ripken's finest season. Marylanders may be proud of all five for their contributions.

Michael A. Pretl.

Baltimore.

Preposterous Scenario

Editor: I was startled as I read the editorial of Dec. 29 entitled "The Conspiracy to Murder JFK" and discovered that the stance of the editors of The Sun is that of complete agreement with the findings of the Warren Commission.

I would be even more startled to read an explanation of how a single bullet could enter a man's back at a downward angle, change course and travel upward through his chest, exit his throat ventrally, make a mysterious turn downward again and to the right, striking another man in the back, shattering his rib, exiting his chest, shattering his wrist, coming to rest in his thigh and being recovered on a stretcher in a "pristine" condition.

Who besides yourselves really believes this preposterous scenario as put forth by the Warren Commission?

James T. Rackson.

Baltimore. Editor: Baltimore County Executive Roger Hayden's decision to ignore the county's contract with Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 4 and furlough police officers demonstrates what he is:

Just another politician who cannot be trusted.

Lawrence Schaffer.

Randallstown.

School Dilemma

Editor: I see a great deal of irony in the dilemma in which the Baltimore City public school system finds itself.

First, while Gov. William Donald Schaefer has eliminated millions of dollars in funds that the school system needs for operating a 180-day school year, the State Department of Education is making innuendoes of punishment of one sort or another if the city proceeds with its plan to close schools for four days in February. (One arm of the state government takes while another arm threatens, and the city public schools are caught in the middle.)

Next, The Sun reports that city teachers raid their own pockets to buy paper, ditto fluid and other supplies they need in order to do their job while Superintendent Walter Amprey has announced that the four-day February furlough will be an "independent study week" with packets of work going home with each student. From where will the supplies for these packets come if the schools do not have materials for day-to-day instruction?

Finally, it has been suggested that if the four-day February closing does materialize, the days be made up by extending the school year four additional days in June. From where will the funds come to pay the teacher for the four extra days if a large part of the dollars to be saved by the proposed February closing will be four days of unpaid salaries to teachers?

Lillian L. Alston.

Baltimore.