DATE: Sunday, May 25, 1997                  TAG: 9705230212

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 09   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letters 

                                            LENGTH:   83 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - VIRGINIA BEACH

After reading Hope Herritt's letter (the Beacon, April 11), I finally stopped laughing long enough to write this note.

She is upset because her 11-year-old son has to walk four blocks to school - imagine!

Four whole blocks! Ms. Herritt thinks her son should have a bus pick him up and that he should never have to walk over one block.

I do wonder what shape he will be in by the time he finishes high school?

Georgia L. Miller

April 12 Beggers need city license

Frequently there is a person with a ``down and out'' look (actor?), in the median strip on Rosemont Road at Virginia Beach Boulevard holding a cardboard sign saying . . . ``Wife and I lost all. Please help.''

After observing this person for several months, I believe him to be a professional beggar and called the Virginia Beach Police.

I was informed that he could legally stand there and hold his sign (beg) as long as he didn't say anything to you (be a nuisance).

I consider this annoyance to be a nuisance, even though there is no spoken word. Do the citizens of Virginia Beach want to tolerate this act? We should have an ordinance prohibiting this action on our city streets, or as a minimum, require the person to get a ``professional beggar's license.''

Local agencies, organizations and churches are available to assist those in real need.

Doyle Quisenberry

April 28 Desert is great place for retirement complex

The editorial pages of both The Beacon and The Virginian-Pilot have been favored for many months now by proponents of Coastal Green, a proposed development on the wrong side of the Green Line.

This haven for affluent oldsters is in an area planned for open spaces, through the city's Agricultural Reserve Program.

There has been an influx of letters from residents who are just looking for such a place to retire, who say there is no place in our vast city suitable for a well-fixed person to relax in the comfort his efforts have earned.

A facility in Nevada is the ideal to which these people people believe we should strive.

I believe, myself, that a desert is a perfect place for such an arrangement, free from green areas and wetlands.

We should not foster such a business in beautiful Virginia Beach, but perhaps the city should offer the protesters plane tickets to Las Vegas so they can live out their dream without creating an ecological nightmare here.

Edward F. Bacon

May 4 Loss of resort parking problem for businesses

I applaud the April 22 letter from Shelley Fox printed in the May 4 edition of The Beacon.

The city has long neglected the South End while unilaterally making decisions which affect the ability of so many of us to make a decent living.

An example is the way in which parking was abolished on 10th and 11th streets between Atlantic and Pacific avenues.

Local businesses, such as Phil's Grill on 11th Street, have been denied any input into removing parking meters and turning whole blocks into 24-hour loading zones.

These local businesses need their customers to have access to the goods and services they provide the community year-round.

This strong-armed move by the city is an obvious attempt to steer the automobile driver to the new parking structure at 9th Street and Atlantic Avenue. The financial impact on local businesses on these streets as well as the inconvenience to their customers obviously were not considered by the city before making this move.

I assume the expected revenue from the parking ``castle'' will more than make up for the removal of the meters from the streets in question.

One question for the city planners? What happens after the tourist season? Will the ``loading zones'' revert to parking spaces, or will the city continue to try to force everyone to use the ``castle?''

Imagine, all of this in the back yard of a city council person. I guess Mr. Branch was busy with other more pressing matters. But then, the Days Inn/South Shore has parking for its customers.

Ben Jackson

May 6

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