In the long run, our city would have been much better off had it invested the money and effort it spent on IndyCar racing downtown on making our streets more bicycle friendly ("It had better be worth it," July 13).

In today's America, a bicycle friendly city is a magnet for young, upwardly mobile professionals, the kind of people Baltimore desperately needs to improve its housing stock and increase its property tax revenues.

As long as Baltimore retains its bicycle unfriendly reputation, the very type of people we need most will look elsewhere to make their careers.

Herman M. Heyn, Baltimore