Readers Respond

Citizen planners can do more than conjure waterfalls

Grassroots websites to envision a better Baltimore are a worthy topic for a front page Sun story. But giant waterfalls in vacant lots between rowhouses? Let's get serious.

Its not really lack of imagination or good design ideas that keeps these lots vacant. They're merely a symptom of dwindling property values that make it uneconomical to build and maintain our communities.

But in her article ("Online, an empty lot can be a waterfall," May 16), Meredith Cohn briefly mentioned another website - BaltiMorphosis.com. Its first topic is a place where the city and state are preparing right now to make design decisions that will define its course for many decades - West Baltimore's Franklin-Mulberry highway corridor and the proposed rail transit Red Line.

This 16 block area is virtually nothing but vacant lots, created in the 1970s as part of the "highway to nowhere" and still vacant today. The latest plans would put the Red Line where it would still be dominated by the highway, either next to the highway ditch or in the median strip. But how can the Red Line actually make a difference?

BaltiMorphosis.com arms readers with 3D computer design modeling tools and a fully dimensioned model of the highway corridor. Accompanying this are inspiring photo montages exemplifying how the expressway ditch can be morphed into a truly livable transit-oriented environment while still accommodating all the traffic it carries now.

Gerald Neily, BaltimoreThe writer, a transportation planner, is a contributor to BaltiMorphosis.com

U.S. must recognize suffering of Palestinians

In his op-ed "Perilous Policy" (May 18), Ariel Cohen named three mistakes he felt the current administration is making in the quest for Middle East peace, skewing the situation for his own agenda in the process.

First, he felt the administration is ignoring hostility by Arabs and radical Muslims. While I agree such hostility exists, I think the administration's efforts to seek peace squarely attack that issue, for actions by both Israel and the U.S. are significant reasons (if not the reason) for such hostility. Much of it is the result of Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank - including settlement expansion and the construction of the Wall, which in reality annexes much land to Israel - along with the continued blockade on the Gaza Strip.

As for the U.S., the continued war in Iraq and a seemingly unconditional support of Israel in the past make it a major target for hostility in the Arab world.

The second mistake mentioned was a perceived "arm-twisting" of Israel to gain favor with Iran. This, however, again seems to only be the administration's effort to curb the hostility mentioned earlier. Why would Iran accept any of President Obama's gestures as sincere if the U.S. continues to unquestioningly back Israel, a country with long standing hostilities with Iran?

Third, Mr. Cohen claims the administration's path to peace rewards terrorism. There is a cruel irony that Mr. Cohen chooses to mention "terror attacks, which killed nearly 1,200 Israelis since 2000" - a number that is still less than the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel's bombardment the month leading up to President Obama taking office.

Eric Bjorlin, Phoenix