Letters to the Editor
Readers write about the similarities and differences between hateful words and hateful actions, the lower tuition rate needed for study abroad programs, older PeaceCorps and AmeriCorps volunteers, and the life span of free parking.
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Older volunteers in Peace Corps
Regarding the Sept. 19 article, "Peace Corps recruits older volunteers": My spouse and I recently returned from 27 months in Ukraine with the Peace Corps. We had such a great time, we decided to extend the adventure and signed up for AmeriCorps/VISTA here in the US! We are both well into our 50s, and though we spoke of taking the Peace Corps plunge much earlier in our lives, we both agree that our skills and work experience, coupled with the joys of a full, rich life and parenthood, enhanced the entire Peace Corps adventure.
Thank you for publishing this wonderful article and reminding your readers that they can and should participate in life!
Virginia J. Pulver
Santa Fe, N.M.
Free parking is here to stay
In response to the Sept. 24 article, "He tallies hidden costs of free parking – one space at a time": The efforts of professors trying to count America's parking spaces appear desperate.
The real quest, of course, is to convince the soccer mom that life should be less convenient at Safeway. Despite the decades-long efforts of activists to demonize the automobile, they haven't succeeded in restoring their "romantic city," complete with street-car-supporting density and forgotten poverty and pollution. Therefore, the next planning fashion appears to be the vilification of free parking. Inconveniently, nearly everyone likes free parking.
The parking-space counting exercise is a logical step that follows Donald Shoup's claim that parking is wildly subsidized. Yet the conclusions from the "parking guru" are unconvincing because of his unreasonable estimates of external social costs, which he compares to the cost of Medicare and national defense. In addition, Prof. Shoup ignores that the cost of free parking at the store is paid indirectly by customers. Without being hassled by a parking attendant, the driver pays the market rate in a nonintrusive way.
If professors are teaching that exorbitant parking fees will make people take bicycles to Home Depot, perhaps they should first take a drive and see the real world that others live in.
Gregory Cohen
Washington
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