Intersection needs caution light

On Sunday, Sept. 6, an elderly woman was hit by a car and killed while crossing E. Boulder Street, on Middle Shooks Run Trail. This is a pedestrian trail that crosses a very busy street. There are no street markings or crosswalk signs on the east side of the Boulder Street and N. El Paso intersection. When a person is crossing south to north on the trail, a car’s vision is blocked if another car is beside them on the inside lane (traveling west).

I walk this trail everyday and often see “near misses.” This accident is heartbreaking for all of us trail walkers who greet each other daily. A crossing/caution blinking light (like the one placed on Cascade for the CC students), needs to be installed at E. Boulder and N. El Paso St. – in honor of Larisa Kovshar and her family.

Martha Slonim

Colorado Springs

Coercive aspects of unionism

While reading Neal Talbott’s glowing defense of forced unionism, I checked my calendar and, lo and behold, it read 2015 not 1915. No one I know denies that unions once served a legitimate purpose, but those days are long gone.

Having checked the statistics for right-to-work states versus the others, I see the marked positive performance differences in the RTW states. How our judicial system has been able to overlook the coercive aspects of required union membership for so long is beyond me.

Even Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed that government workers (including teachers) should not have the right to extort the taxpayers for whom they work. We may have a real chance to get freedom from forced unionism enacted for the entire nation.

James W. Gilliam

Colorado Springs

Kudos for missing alerts

Kudos to the Colorado Springs Police Department! On Sept. 4 I got a call informing me of an “at-risk” elderly woman in my area, Grand Cordera Boulevard, in northern Colorado Springs. I was advised to call 911 if I happened to see this lady. On a follow-up call a couple of hours later, I was informed that the person had been located and was safely at home with family. Kudos to CSPD for the initial call and the follow-up.

Elinor Trejo

Colorado Springs

Immigration’s environmental cost

In the discussion of immigration, the environmental cost is seldom addressed. Every year we add 1 million legal immigrants to our population. In less than five years, that is like adding another “Colorado.” The impact of a million initial immigrants is misleading as they reproduce and eventually become 2 million. The number of illegal aliens in the United States is guessed at11 million. That is as great as the population of Washington and Oregon.

Our population is 320 million. The Census Bureau estimates at current immigration rates we will have 399 million by 2050. Its high estimate is 458 million. Compare these increases to just 323,000,000 with zero immigration.

So what is the environmental cost of immigration? The loss of wildlife habitat, agricultural land and open space is especially great. Every hour of every day we lose 50 acres of farm and ranch lands to development. Between 1982 and 2010, we lost 24 million acres of agricultural land to urban sprawl, highways and malls to accommodate our growing population. Increased demands for water is a serious problem difficult to solve. Pollution, carbon footprint and energy demands increase with population increases.

Few in power care about the environmental cost of immigration. The Republicans want cheap labor and associated campaign contributions. The Democrats want the votes from Third World immigrants. Environmental groups are no longer opposed to immigration for the same reason.

If we don’t reduce immigration the environmental cost will be huge. We need to end the anchor baby hedge, stop ‘chain immigration’, secure our southern border, crack down on expired visas, and reduce legal immigration to no more than 100,000. Unless the average American rises up against our policy of massive immigration, I see no hope for the long-term quality of our environment.

Robert Hooper

Montrose

Questioning student housing plan

I am appalled at the approval by City Council of the Bates Student Housing complex. This 60′ tall, 700′ long structure is so out of context for this Cragmoor neighborhood as to be unbelievable. It will result in the immediate decimation of the neighborhood property values. I am sure the equity of the homeowners is a substantial part of their net worth, and the resultant drop in their property value resulting from the proposed structure is nothing short of a taking from these tax paying citizens.

Questions awaiting answer include:

How are the 621 students to get to the campus for class? Are they expected to walk the half mile to the signalized crossing into the campus?

Has a pedestrian bridge across Austin Bluffs been considered?

Where are visitors to the complex expected to park? The proposed parking garage accommodates the same number of spaces as the number of residents. Will visitors park in the neighborhood? How will garage access be controlled to prevent nonresidents from using the parking spaces?

Justifying support for this project as “developing infill” is stretching the concept beyond recognition. Decimating an existing, well-maintained neighborhood for a poorly thought out (and possibly not needed) apartment project is wrong. Our City Council should rethink this one.

Jack Lundberg

Colorado Springs

No up or down vote

The Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration is a really big deal for the future security of the United States and millions of people through out the world. The deal is strongly opposed by the majority of Americans.

Sept. 10, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colo., voted against closing debate and bringing the deal to a vote. Had Bennet been able to find one additional Democratic senator, to vote for closing debate, the issue would have had an up or down vote on the merits of the deal.

As reported in The Gazette, Adam Bozzi – Sen. Bennet’s spokesman – said Thursday that Bennet would have “preferred an up or down vote on the merits” of the Iran deal.

Either Sen. Bennet is confused about Senate rules or he is utilizing his spokesman to be hypocritically cunning.

After all, by his actions, Sen. Bennet is doing everything he can to prevent an up or down vote on the merits of the Iran deal.

I am embarrassed that Bennet is my U.S. senator!

Jim Egbert

Colorado Springs