Housing opportunities for poor will tumble with Flag House

An article in The Sun reports that HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo delivered a $21.5 million grant to the Housing Authority of Baltimore City to demolish Flag House Courts and rebuild the area ("HUD gives Baltimore $21.5 million grant," Sept. 2).

Flag House's 487 units will be destroyed and replaced with 338 new units. Of those new units, only 113 will be available as public housing for rent to low- or no-income Baltimoreans.

The remaining units will be sold, rented at market-rate prices, or be made available under a lease-purchase agreement. This will result in a loss of 357 units for our poorest neighbors.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 70,000 Baltimore households have no earned income. And let's not forget the 9,000 families (reported in The Sun article Aug. 28, "Welfare cuts loom for 9,000") who face a January 1 deadline for welfare cutoff. Where will these indigent people live if not in subsidized housing?

The goal of transforming public housing into safe, pleasant and attractive living space is a laudable one, but must it happen at the cost of diminishing the supply of affordable housing?

The policies represented by this grant are short-sighted in their response to a cash-strapped budget. Welcoming working and middle-class citizens into public housing is fine as long as those who cannot afford market-rate housing are also served. Our communities are not strengthened by housing the have-somethings and rejecting the have-nothings.

With budget surpluses in Maryland and the federal government, perhaps we can turn our attention to rebuilding communities for all.

Lauren Siegel

Baltimore

Experience counts for state comptroller

I was appalled and amazed upon reading your endorsements in the comptroller's race that you believe someone with no tax or computer experience, in today's technologically sophisticated world, will be the best candidate.

Having a chief financial officer who doesn't understand the details of the position is a road map to fiscal disaster. The comptroller is responsible to oversee the pension fund and is a key person in maintaining our triple-A bond rating. Therefore, he must be knowledgeable in the area of the bond and stock markets to carry out this function effectively.

I am voting for Larry Epstein, certified public accountant, for this position because he has the tax, computer and government background necessary to properly administer this office. He was chairman of the tax and budget committees of Baltimore County and is an excellent adviser and promoter of business.

He will provide productive change to make things work better and more efficiently. He also has a great deal of construction background to understand where and how our dollars are spent on the Board of Public Works.

Kathleen Bossom

Belair

Sen. Blount wasn't frank, but he's the better choice

If the worst thing state Del. Frank Boston can say about his opponent, Sen. Clarence W. Blount, is that he's moved to Pikesville, I guess I'll (reluctantly) vote for Mr. Blount, given the limited choice..

I say reluctantly because, if Mr, Blount were a mensch, he would not have gone out of his way to give his constituents such as myself the false impression that he still resided in Ashburton.

Personally, I don't care where he sleeps, so long as his political activities are clearly serving the low- and middle-income folk of his district.

Mr. Blount should have been frank (no pun intended) with the citizenry and said, "Look, folks, the Mrs. and I have bought a retirement home in Pikesville, as many of you would like to do if you could afford to. If you want me to continue to serve you in the state Senate, you must support a bill I will introduce to permit any voter in Maryland to vote for any candidate for office, regardless of where they live."

Such legislation could have done away with the fiction of legislative, municipal or federal electoral districts and replaced them with citywide proportional representation.

Such elections would result in more representative legislators in all three legislative bodies. And we wouldn't have had to waste so much time and money on the residency charade.

A. Robert Kaufman

Baltimore

Is there a reason anyone should commit to the city?

Why should we be surprised or disappointed that a leading local law firm is not committed to staying in the city and is moving to Baltimore County when the highest court in the state has held that a state senator who represents a city district can live in the county?

Diane Levin

Baltimore

Fixation on trivial matters reveals impoverishment

Thanks for publishing Robert Birt's letter about the actions President Clinton really ought to regret. I fail to understand why the press has gone mad over a sexual event that neither party should have betrayed the other by talking about.

I second the assessment of "matters of social justice and the common good" in which the president betrayed the public: The health-care issue was bungled, with fewer citizens having access to even minimal care; the compromise on discrimination against gays in the military is nonsensical; and we lost an opportunity to learn more about Lani Guinier's useful thinking on how to remove racism as the primary determinant in voting.

A year or two ago, writing about Louis Farrakhan, Henry Louis Gates said "Farrakhan is a man of unhealthy fixations, but the reciprocal fixation on Farrakhan that you find in the so-called mainstream is a sign of our own impoverished political culture."

The present extremely distasteful fixation on a matter that should not have been discussed bears out Mr. Gates' assessment of America's political culture.

Edna E. Heatherington

Baltimore

Former teacher's article pointed to school flaws

I read Gary Levin's article ("Give school reforms an F," Sept. 6), and I wanted to applaud him on an accurate report on the school systems of today.

I taught for several years and had to succumb to jumping on whatever bandwagon our administrators were supporting.

We were instructed to teach entirely by the whole-language approach in all required subjects. I was forced to abandon traditional teaching approaches and follow the rules and teaching techniques handed down to me to avoid receiving a poor evaluation from my supervisors.

As a result, many students ended up lacking the basic skills needed to read and write well. Teachers have experience and expertise in a variety of teaching styles and should be allowed to implement them without being ruled by the latest unproven fads being supported by school administrators.

Thank you, Mr. Levin, for such an insightful service.

Julie Sonlin

Millersville

Shakespeare's 'Merchant' has lesson for critics

It sickens me to watch President Clinton enemies' relentless effort to hound him out of office.

Like Shakespeare's Shylock, the president's enemies will accept nothing less than "a pound of flesh. To be cut off by him (them) nearest to the merchant's (president's) heart." Never mind that destroying President Clinton will do no one any good and harm our entire country.

These hellhounds would be well-advised to ponder Portia's speech in the court of justice that begins with the famous words "The quality of mercy is not strained." In it, Portia warns Shylock that: "... Though justice be thy plea, consider this -- That in the course of justice none of us Should see salvation: We pray for mercy."

Beware, you who show no mercy to President Clinton and hence to your fellow citizens. If you ignore Portia's warning, you will share Shylock's fate: "For, as thou urgest justice, be assured; Thou shalt have justice more than thou desirest."

Peg Ross

Baltimore

Clinton deserves impeachment threat

President Clinton is disgusting. He should be threatened with impeachment and forced to resign exactly like Richard Nixon.

William H. Brown

Phoenix

Pub Date: 9/10/98