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Sunday, August 25, 2002

Let's get moving

People like Frieda G. Shapira are part of the problem in Pittsburgh ("Stop the Mon-Fayette Expressway," Aug. 18 Forum). People do need to drive places in their cars, and businesses do need to move their products. To accomplish this efficiently, we do need some highways. Pittsburgh is so far behind in this area that it is pathetic.

I was born and raised in McKeesport and now live in the North Hills. It would be so nice to visit family and friends on the other side of town without making a day trip of it. It would have been nice to have that highway when I was growing up.

So, Ms. Shapira, Mayor Tom Murphy and others, please let's move on and build this much-needed highway that should have been constructed 35 years ago. The unfortunate thing is that the Route 51-to-Pittsburgh section should have been built first.

JOSEPH MUHA
Ross

Parochial thinking

As a former resident of the Mon Valley -- Clairton and West Mifflin -- and with family still in both areas, I am sick and tired of reading articles in the local papers bashing the new Mon-Fayette Expressway ("Stop the Mon-Fayette Expressway," Forum, Aug. 18). One does not have to drive far into the valley to see the economic devastation of the departure of the steel industry. The expressway offers new life to a depressed area. Just look north to see what Interstate 279 has accomplished in areas such as Ross, Franklin Park and Cranberry.

As for the argument of increased traffic and pollution, if one drives on East Carson Street, Second Avenue or Route 51 south during rush hour and experiences the gridlock, thus increased exhaust from stop-and-go traffic, one has to ask how an expressway, which would help to expedite traffic flow, would increase pollution?

It used to take 45 minutes to drive from Large to California, Pa.; now with that portion of the expressway it takes 20 minutes. With an automobile running at ultimate fuel efficiency on a highway, does that not help the environment?

An approach we may want to take in the entire region, including the city of Pittsburgh, is to look for ways to promote the brown areas in our region as well as our Downtown. Could you envision articles in Los Angeles aimed at the high-tech industry, highlighting our region's abundance of water, electricity and housing for employees at a fraction of what they pay on the West Coast?

Ms. Shapira and others like her need to start taking all of their negative energy and start focusing it on our future instead of continuing our parochial thinking.

KARL CASEY
South Side

Same old complaints

Here we go again. I refer to the Aug. 18 commentary "Stop the Mon-Fayette Expressway." Frieda Shapira, described as a longtime civic volunteer, tells us that this highway has no economic benefits and will do much harm.

I don't know how much of the nation Ms. Shapira has traveled, but in my travels, I see that highways are being built just about everywhere. Travel in any direction; every time we visit southwestern Indiana, a new road has been opened or a new one is under construction -- and all four-lane. Sure, it's cheaper to build roads in the "flatlands," but we have lots of hills; when projects are done, the same economic benefits come.

This country made a commitment many years ago to travel by automobile. State and interstate commerce is transported by truck, and that is here to stay. As for public transportation, you better have a car or a good horse or "you are not going to get there from here."

Will the expressway promote exodus from Pittsburgh to the suburbs? Probably -- to our townships and boroughs, I hope. After all, this Mon Valley to us means Monongahela, Monessen, Charleroi, California and south. But it will also bring us toward Pittsburgh to shop, dine and play. The wife and I use it weekly to travel toward the city for those purposes. It has cut our driving time to 20 minutes plus.

Many of us down this way have worked more than 35 years to get this road. If Pittsburgh doesn't want it, and if I were in charge of the project, I would run it to Monroeville (which does want it), bypass Pittsburgh completely to the south and go on to the Pittsburgh airport.

WARREN E. SHEPPICK
Fallowfield

Not a road to progress

In regard to the Aug. 18 commentary by Frieda G. Shapira: The views stated are shared by many well-informed and intelligent people as to the uselessness and wastefulness of this political boondoggle. Unfortunately, a small, vocal minority seems to feel that this will spur economic development in the Mon Valley.

It's difficult to envision another Motel 6 and a Burger King as progress. In all probability, it will have the same result as Interstate 279. It will allow residents to move farther away from the valley or city and still allow them to commute to their jobs.

However, there does not appear to be any politician willing to stand up and say, "This is a bad idea."

ROBERT WOPPMAN
Finleyville