I find the statement by Carroll County commissioner Richard Rothschild that "We don't want subways or metro buses" because "they are conduits for crime" ("Carroll commissioners break with past on growth, housing, transit" June 23) to be very short sighted and narrow. Though I am a citizen of Baltimore County, I ride four days a week on the Metro with many Carroll countians. I've been riding the Metro to work since the Owings Mills station opened. Ridership includes many hard working citizens, students, the elderly and handicapped and the occasional homeless person looking for cheap rent for the day. Are there criminals among us? Probably sometimes, but I've never witnessed any violence in all of these years. Heck, I know a women who met her husband on the Metro. We riders have saved countless gallons of gasoline and reduced congestion on 795 and the beltway not to mention experiencing a pleasant daily rush hour commute.
Does a Metro stop bring criminals into a community? Maybe criminals who have to hike back and forth between a crime and their transportation, but I do know that the Metro brings much that is good. I suggest to Carroll County voters that you not elect officials who only see the world as black and white; good and evil. Complex decisions have many pros and cons to weigh, and you need commissioners capable of doing so.
David Plaut, Reisterstown