Level the Transportation Playing Field
Now that the baseball strike has slowed the hoopla around Camden Yards, and the Redskin stadium proposal has collapsed over the prospects of an avalanche of automobiles, perhaps it is time for some sober reflection on transportation in general, and specifically on the role of Camden Station.
As everyone knows, Camden Station, built to serve train passengers, has been made into a baseball trophy display.
In fact, thousands of train riders embark and debark at Camden daily and need both shelter and services, which should be provided in the building that was built for that purpose -- Camden Station.
Passengers transferring from or to the adjacent trolley line also need shelter and services in Camden Station.
Surely such daily human needs vastly outweigh baseball trophies, which could be housed elsewhere in the former warehouse complex next door.
As Herbert Harwood and James Dilts have amply shown in their respective books on the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, this was a great public undertaking in the truest sense.
Yet, thanks to a century of distorted government policies, we have seen the massive aggrandizement of government, the growth of massive public subsidies, all of which have suppressed the effectiveness and efficiency of the rail
road the people themselves built and financed.
Government does not run airlines, or car companies, so why should it be running passenger trains? Obviously, the railroad companies can do it better and cheaper, if the subsidies for competing modes end.
The true cost to operate an automobile is $1 a mile per car; of this, the owner pays about 40 cents per mile and public subsidy pays the remaining 60 cents per mile.
No wonder government is always broke. As Stephen Goddard demonstrates in his recent book, "Getting There," gasoline should be $2.25 more per gallon to cover all the true costs of driving.
No wonder the railroads are hobbled, and citizens are angry over excessive taxes. The time has come to level the transportation playing field and return to allowing the railroads to do what they can do most effectively and efficiently.
Joseph J. Snyder
Shepherdstown, W. Va.
Intrusive Ban
I am really astonished by the federal government's latest intrusion into the lives of its citizens. The attempt by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to ban smoking in all restaurants is a new low, among many recent lows, in government officiousness.
Has the idea of private property really become so meaningless that one can no longer set the policies in his own establishment?
Sadly, the answer seems pretty clear. The government wants to dictate every decision, down to whether you can put ashtrays on the tables of your restaurant.
Surely OSHA is one candidate, among many, for sizable budget cuts, if it really has come to believe that its mission is to root out any remaining pockets of individual choice.
Lee Gable
Annapolis
Save the Tapes
Alysa Moores (letter, Oct. 14) is right on target. The grocery stores' "Tapes for Schools" programs can widen the opportunity gap between low-income and upper-income children. But it need not necessarily work out that way.
The Renaissance Institute at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland is also concerned about the unequal educational opportunities of Baltimore's inner city kids.
As a remedy they have started a Save the Tapes program. We urge all people who shop at Safeway, Giant or Metro to send their grocery tapes to this constructive, innovative program.
In the spring, the proceeds will go to the neediest Baltimore inner-city school(s) with the highest attendance record(s).
Washington has such a program and has been able to equip several schools with computer labs. Why not Baltimore?
Send your grocery tapes to: Save the Tapes, Renaissance Institute, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, 4701 North Charles Street, 21210-2476. Tapes can be mailed weekly or monthly.
Susan P. Tippett
Baltimore
Vietnam Veterans
I am writing not to excuse, just to explain, the Oct. 19 Associated Press article on the use of drugs, addiction and mortality rate of Vietnam veterans.
The average age of the soldiers in Vietnam was 19, compared to 26 for those who fought in World War II.
For the greater majority, after six months of training, cast into the harsh environment of war, death, prostitution and drugs, this was probably the first time they had been away from home.
The constant fear of death makes it easy to look for a release, and it was there. In every way, shape and form. Buying drugs tTC was as easy as getting a candy bar in the corner store, and the consensus was, "If you get it today (killed or wounded), you won't feel it."
For those who don't know, war isn't pleasant. The sight and smell of death and mutilation is not a pretty sight.
Maybe if there was more understanding and concern when we came home 26 years ago, these men wouldn't be such a statistic in a newspaper.
Society and government must realize that you can't turn off what these men were made to deal with like you flip off a light switch.
Albert Bailer
Rosedale
Settlement Costs
In his letter of Oct. 16, ("Settlement Costs in Maryland"), Jon C. Burrell, executive director of the Maryland Municipal League, explained the seemingly impossible dilemma of lowering Maryland's real estate settlement costs.
Since our founding conference of Feb. 15, 1994, the City-Wide Coalition has advocated that residential property tax be replaced with a progressive income tax and supplemented with a progressive commuter tax.
The several advantages of such an arrangement I will temporarily leave aside for a hoped for full analysis in your business section -- except to point out that the millions of dollars Baltimore spends each year in collecting property taxes could be saved entirely by implementing such a change.
It wasn't until I studied Burrell's letter that I realized that ours was also the solution to his real estate dilemma.
Burrell explains that property taxes in Maryland "must be paid for the year ahead rather than the year just concluded . . . This has led the real estate industry to call for a semi-annual system of property tax billings to reduce the property taxes that must be paid at the real estate settlement table."
"Such a switch" Burrell explains, will cost the taxpayer in lost interest earnings and increased administrative costs.
Replacing residential property tax with a progressive income tax entirely eliminates the problem.
We wouldn't have to concern ourselves with collecting next year's property taxes this year at the settlement table if we replaced residential property with an income tax.
A. Robert Kaufman
Baltimore
Lippman's Low Blows Cause Indigestion
Shame on Theo Lippman Jr.! Normally, his column makes for interesting reading because he bases his thoughts (opinions) on rather rational and factual information.
Of course, anyone can disagree with him occasionally -- isn't that a purpose of a columnist? But his Oct. 13 musings have gone a little too far.
He starts by claiming that he is "a prophet without honor" in his own land. Then in his discussion of the growth of potential suburban domination in Maryland politics, he delivers one of the standard "low blows" from the columnist's repertoire. He divides the our state into "they" and "we."
Rather than admitting that we need each other to survive and that we are all part of the same political "family" (the State of Maryland), he pits the Washington suburbs ("they") against the two Baltimores ("we").
Why can't he be a true prophet with honor and suggest that what is needed is inter-regional cooperation? Why can't he be positive and suggest ways of bringing these two areas together?
Then he gets to his concluding paragraphs and decides to sling a little "mud" before he is done for the day.
He writes that former Gov. Oden Bowie has "two of the most unattractive places on the East Coast named after him." I can only infer that one of these two places is the City of Bowie. (Tell me I'm wrong, Mr. Lippman!)
Has he ever visited it, one of Maryland's largest incorporated cities?
Has he ever seen the planned community built by William Levitt that is home to about 42,000 citizens? Has he ever visited the historic Belair Mansion -- the home of many Maryland governors?
Has he ever visited the Belair Stables -- called by many as the cradle of horse racing?
When was the time he took a little time to "smell the roses" in Bowie? (It is a pleasant smell, unpolluted by the "progress" of the other suburban area.)
Come, come, Mr. Lippman. Express your opinions about politics -- theory and/or fact. But please do not malign an attractive, pleasant and enjoyable municipality in our great state.
The citizens of Bowie and the memory of Gov. Oden Bowie deserve better. In fact, maybe they deserve an apology. But what can one expect?
John A. Clinton
Millersville
I'm fighting a case of after-lunch indigestion, and the food and company were fine. The source of the displeasure is Theo Lippman Jr.'s column (Oct. 13) in which he asserts that former Gov. Oden Bowie has "two of the most unattractive places on the East Coast named after him."
The 42,500 residents of Bowie are justifiably proud of a community which contains over 600 acres of parkland and open space, including a recently dedicated 100-percent accessible playground built with the assistance of a federal grant.
I would be glad to have Mr. Lippman visit Bowie so that he might observe our well-maintained neighborhoods providing a range of housing options, excellent public facilities and a growing commercial and office sector.
Furthermore, recent improvements to area highways means that Bowie enjoys a strategic location in the region. Please inform Mr. Lippman that the largest municipality in Prince George's County would welcome his visit. We are confident he will return the short distance to Baltimore with a positive impression.
David J. Deutsch
Bowie
The writer is city manager of the City of Bowie.