Letters

Monday, March 1, 1999

Letters

Gever humorous, full of wacky ideas

This letter is in response to Matthew Gever's article "Sweatshops offer good jobs, chance to achieve better life" (Viewpoint, Feb. 25).

It is interesting how Gever attacked Praxis and the "many on the left" in his Viewpoint column. I assume that this means Gever himself is of the "right" persuasion.

As a person on the right, it is even more interesting that Gever supports the kind of sweatshop labor outlined in his article. More often than not, it is those on the right who complain about jobs moving overseas, taking away opportunities for hard working Americans.

But I do have to applaud Gever for his wide definition of "sweatshops," which he attributes to those on the left. That way, he can safely defend the abuse of human rights in other countries by Americans without actually saying so. Do these "sweatshops" offer more than what a developing nation can offer to its own citizens? Sure. But do they offer all that Americans can, and should, offer as Americans? Probably not.

I enjoy Gever's right-wing articles. Some ideas are so far out you can't help but laugh. I eagerly anticipate his next piece of work.

Wayne Lu

1998 Alumni

Aerospace engineering

Bruin MTA article uninformative

The recent story about a Sunset bus line published in the Daily Bruin ("New Sunset bus line draws criticism," News, Feb. 19) was too vague to be informative. The article may refer to a proposal for a line 303.

Line 303 would take the place of current MTA lines 302 and 429, both of which operate on Sunset Boulevard and service UCLA.

The 302 and 429 are being restructured as part of a plan to modify several MTA bus lines in the Hollywood area to directly serve the new stations along the Hollywood extension of the Metro Red Line subway. The change is supposed to happen around the time when the Red Line reaches Hollywood in mid-May of 1999.

Line 303 will also be routed off Sunset to Santa Monica Boulevard. This is a bad idea. First of all, Santa Monica has limited stop service provided by line 304. Another problem is Santa Monica is very slow. The worst congestion is in Century City, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. This would kill any time advantage this new line would bring. Line 303 should stay on Sunset.

On another note, contrary to what the article and the Bus Riders' Union say, Van Nuys has an adequate amount of transportation. There are several bus lines that operate there: Metro Bus Lines 167, 169, 233, 236, 420, 426, 561 (most of these run about every 8-20 minutes), two DASH community circulators (Van Nuys/Studio City and Van Nuys/Panorama City), and a commuter bus to Santa Clarita. And that's just along Van Nuys Boulevard.

There is also a Metrolink/ Amtrak station located on Van Nuys north of Sherman Way, plus several other MTA lines that cross Van Nuys Boulevard. At major intersections like Burbank Boulevard, Victory Boulevard, Vanowen Street, Sherman Way, Saticoy Street and Roscoe Boulevard.

The MTA will hold a public hearing about the bus and rail restructuring on March 6 at 10 a.m., located at the headquarters building at Union Station. More information is available at the MTA web site at http://www.mta.net. This should clear up any confusion.

Armando Avalos

Third-year

Undeclared

Director at large

Southern California Transit Advocates

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