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We need open space, too
With regard to canal development ("At home on the canal," December 3), it is another sad tale of more open space being gobbled up by developers. Why can't we have some nice open space preserved near where people live — without making every place a place where people live?
They will no doubt put up no-trespassing signs along the trail. I have enjoyed using the canal bike trail from Buffalo to Syracuse, and the parts I most enjoy are the parts left undeveloped. I suppose it is a lost cause, but at the very least do they have to rub salt in my wounds by naming new construction things like "The Reserve?" It is most certainly no longer any kind of reserve, any more than Seneca Meadows Landfill is a meadow or Kodak Park is a park. There are many more examples of such misleading names that turn my stomach.
LELAND BRUN
Keep politics and color out of immigration
I wonder if Mr. Palermo (Feedback, December 10) ever studied American history? How simplistic to say that President Obama's executive order on the undocumented was politically motivated, that the Latinos would vote democratic, and that whites would vote Republican.
Throughout our history, groups were discriminated against. Jews were not hired by banks, Irish need not apply for jobs in "Brahmin" Boston, Italians were not hired by Kodak. We enacted Asian exclusion laws. In the 1920's, quota laws were passed with the intent of limiting southern and Eastern Europeans.
Yet after World War II, the Displaced Persons Act let multitudes enter as a result of the war. So we have a history of restrictions and prejudice as well as generosity toward those wanting entry.
So, what motivated the writer? Is it because we have a black president who can't do anything right, according to Republicans? It is part of a pattern that is reflected in so many letters to the editor these past six years.
My advice: Get real. Embrace the 21st century with all of the diversity that America has to offer anyone wanting to live here and leave politics and color out of it.
DON GRIFFIN
More on the controversy at the Rochester Housing Authority
The most damaging part of this whole fiasco is [RHA board chair George] Moses's and [Adam] McFadden's narrative that they were persecuted because they were the only ones in town who wanted to have a courageous conversation about poverty. Give me a break. This community will never make a dent in our social problems if public officials are allowed to shield their misconduct by attacking the press and public in this way.
GEORGE O'CONNOR
Lord! Is there anything else to discuss? What happened with the feds' investigation with the modernization project with the city school district? How about them Bills? Anything?
SCORSESE93
The UR-East deal
The Board of Education took the initiative and sought out this partnership. In fact, our district had other options which would have included "phasing out" the old East and "phasing in" a new school. We think the EPO proposal is bold, innovative, and likely to generate the kind of results that will make this district proud.
VAN HENRI WHITE
Rochester school board president
