Compared with her predecessor, Mayor Sheila Dixon is a giant when it comes to fighting crime ("January killings fewest since '78," Feb. 2).

For seven years, Mayor Martin O'Malley blustered, name-called, wasted millions on police overtime pay, futilely arrested thousands of innocent people for petty misdemeanants, alienated the citizenry, prosecutors and many police officers and stubbornly refused to consider more rational approaches that were working to reduce violent crime in a number of other cities.

Meanwhile, he never came close to keeping his promise of a dramatic reduction in the city's murder rate, which remained about the same when he left office as it was when he was first elected.

From the outset, Ms. Dixon committed to scrapping Mr. O'Malley's flawed approach and to implementing one that was community-friendly and focused on violent offenders.

The results, especially since last July, when she installed her own police commissioner, have been a steady decline in murders, substantially reduced police overtime expenditures and much-improved cooperation among citizens, police and prosecutors.

Barry C. Steel

Phoenix

Artists help cities to truly flourish

The importance of artists to the financial prosperity of great cities has been proved over and over again ("Where art has lived," Feb. 2).

We give zillions of dollars of tax credits to developers of corporate centers, hotels and condominiums, and we should. We need this kind of development.

However, great city planners are aware of the value of protecting and fostering artist districts such as our Station North Arts District.

It doesn't take much money, and the payoff is significant.

Artists are not a drag on the city; they are the heart of the diversity of great cities of the world and one of the colorful, counterintuitive engines of commercial success.

Jan Angevine

Baltimore

The writer is a former director of the School 33 Art Center.

Ask the candidates about other issues

The editorial "The road to the White House" (Feb. 3) was on the wrong track regarding the issues Marylanders need to hear about from the candidates for president.

The editorial mentioned mostly issues related to Maryland. But why not ask what candidates will do about the earmarks that mostly go to fund parochial projects in the districts of various members of Congress?

And shouldn't we be hearing about the candidates' specific positions regarding the most important issues facing the country today - i.e., Medicare and Social Security funding, tax reform, election financing reform and our nation's fading role as an icon for democracy in this fragmented world?

The Sun could provide a much-needed site for these key issues and the specific positions each candidate advocates on them.

Is there any chance that The Sun will take on this important challenge?

Sam Davis

Towson

Closing institutions compromises care

Dan Rodricks hit the nail on the head: "Deinstitutionalization is a wonderful concept of noble intention, endorsed by the Supreme Court, and it has been liberating for many, but it has also left a trail of homeless and neglected adults across the fruited plain" ("Intention is good, but is the policy?" Jan. 20).

I have a family member who lives at the Holly Center in Salisbury, which community-only advocates will condemn because it is a big institution.

My brother is happy. My family feels that the wonderful support he receives at the Holly Center is key to his well-being, and it is a great blessing for him to live there.

There are others waiting for admission to the Holly Center, but Maryland's policy is to block admissions.

Does this make sense when 16,000 are on a waiting list for services for the disabled?

Linda Scherer

Catonsville

Focus on the past can hurt our future

The Sun's article "A coach's hidden life" (Jan. 27) struck a deep chord with me.

It's a tough story, yet hardly an unusual one in this city. But what makes Aaron McCown stand out is the rare ability for a man in his situation - with his past - to allow his paternal instincts to shine as he did in his work with the Old Town Gators.

Most other men would have allowed fear and shame to get in the way of reaching out to kids the way that Mr. McCown did. It breaks my heart that the response to his past was to put him out of the league.

We can't afford to put men with troubled pasts out of this community. Mr. McCown is far from a lost soul. He has a spark that deserves to be nurtured. So many men in our community do. In my work, I know hundreds of men who would make fine coaches and mentors to our youngsters, but they are often denied that opportunity because of their pasts.

We will not be able to create a society that can reverse its inherent inequities if we cannot move beyond this crime-and-punishment approach.

There are so many better ways to heal a community.

Jan Caughlan

Baltimore

The writer is director of mental health and social work for Health Care for the Homeless.

Executions foster our worst impulses

Does the writer who chastised a judge for not imposing the death penalty really believe that deciding to punish someone by putting him in a small cell for 23-plus hours a day, every day for the rest of his life, without the hope of his ever being released, "chose the easy way out" ("Morris deserved death penalty," letters, Feb. 2)? I suspect the judge found that decision anything but easy.

And isn't there something wrong with a system that leads, almost encourages, victims' families to believe that anything less than another killing is somehow disrespectful?

There is a reason the U.S. is nearly alone among respected countries in supporting the death penalty: It encourages the worst side of humanity in its citizens.

Dan Shemer

Lutherville

Sculpture at station a welcome contrast

On Thursday, The Sun once again published letters to the editor denigrating the Male/Female statue in front of Penn Station ("Misplaced sculpture clashes with station" and "No reason to wait to replace sculpture," Jan. 31).

Such letters typically express either outright hostility toward the statue or suggest it might be appropriate in a more modern location, such as the Inner Harbor, because it doesn't fit in front of an old-fashioned train station.

I once disliked the statue, but as a daily commuter from Penn Station, I have grown to appreciate it.

In the history of art, it is not unusual, of course, for an artist's contemporaries to reject his work but for later generations to recognize its virtues.

And one reason that Male/Female is striking and attractive is precisely that it does not blend in with its surrounding but instead provides a contrast.

Henry Cohen

Baltimore