Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 12, 1994 TAG: 9404140009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
For those of us who work in downtown Roanoke, we pay our $40 to $65 a month for parking. And while it doesn't make us happy, it's all part of the cost of locating an office downtown.
The real problem's with suppliers. We have had United Parcel Service, Federal Express and other delivery vehicles get tickets in front of our building on Jefferson Street. People stopping for just a few seconds to pick up materials for our clients and suppliers get tickets.
With the squeeze on small business these days, it could seriously impact our decision to stay downtown when our lease expires next year.
We have 19 employees, most of whom pay for space while a few spend a lot of time dodging the police's ticket brigade.
If we average spending $50 a month for space, that's about $9,000 for 15 employees a year. We can buy a lot of space in Salem or Roanoke County for parking with that kind of money.
|HOWARD C. PACKETT |President |The Packett Group |ROANOKE
Low-pay jobs|
won't cover losses|
LORINDA Lionberger of the Commonwealth Transportation Board said that she was ``very in tune with the questions and concerns of people in Blacksburg and Giles County,'' after the board approved the U.S. 460/U.S. 220 routing of Interstate 73 recently. (March 18 news article by staff writer Greg Edwards, ``U.S. 460/U.S. 220 chosen for interstate.'') Yet she was completely out of tune with considerable local opposition to routing I-73 through Montgomery and Giles counties and seemed most interested in the supposed benefits of upgrading U.S. 220 south of Roanoke. Her ``eloquent argument'' looked like unusually eloquent politics.
What frightens me about this rush job is the open acknowledgement that nothing counts but jobs (illusory though they may be). The corridor shown on the map in this newspaper on March 18 would seriously impact the recreational area around Pandapas Pond in Poverty Hollow, which is already affected by highway runoff. It apparently would also obliterate or compromise the Nature Conservancy's Bottom Creek Gorge Preserve. A few minimum-wage jobs in interchange fast-food restaurants can scarcely make up for those losses. If improving U.S. 220 is really going to save Roanoke from certain doom, then by all means do it. But don't carve up Montgomery and Giles in the process.
|DAVID A. WEST |BLACKSBURG
More government|
isn't the solution|
PROBLEM: Medical care costs too much. Cause: Government-licensed doctors and hospitals charge too much. Solution of a free people: Increase price and service competition among medical-care providers. Government's solution: Disguise the cause of the problem by calling medical care health care (as if healthy people need doctors' care or hospitalization). Use the problem to justify the takeover of medical care to increase government's power to tax, rule and spend.
Problem: Health insurers won't insure poor health risks at a reasonable price. Cause: Health insurers compete for the best health risks because the law allows that. Solution of a free people: Legislation requiring health insurers to pool health risks and share poor-health-risk burden among all insured. Public-policy government solution: Attack profits and private enterprise, and use the problem to justify the takeover of medical care to increase government's power to tax, rule and spend.
Problem: Medicaid and Medicare costs are out of control and bankrupting the country. Cause: Ask government. It's their health-care program. Solution of a free people: Increase prices and service competition among medical-care providers. Public-policy government solution: Use the problem to justify the takeover of medical care to increase government's power to tax, rule and spend.
Freedom and ``free'' government health care cannot exist together. If you need a doctor, hospital and health insurance you can afford, ask your elected representative to increase price and service competition among doctors and hospitals, and to legislate pooled health-insurance risks. Oppose government's takeover of medical care, or expect the sympathy of the Internal Revenue Service and the efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service when you need a human, caring medical cure.
|JAY RUTLEDGE |ROANOKE
Harris has strong|
sense of values|
IN A DAY when there's a great deal of discussion related to family, values and an education crisis, I hope voters of Roanoke will vote for Nelson Harris for Roanoke City Council.
Harris, who is a family man with two small children, will bring a strong sense of values to the political process. He's already shown that he's equipped to handle difficult decisions and to gain community support by his service on the Roanoke City School Board.
As one who knows him as a colleague and a friend, I urge voters to cast their ballot for Harris.
|KIRKLAND H. LASHLEY |ROANOKE
by CNB