to cover I-95?

Re: "Deep six for I-95 by Penn's Landing?", Tuesday:

Removing the Penn's Landing section of I-95 represents a unique opportunity to revive the riverfront and deliver economic benefits to the city and the region.

San Francisco offers a parallel story. For decades, the unpopular Embarcadero Freeway, a two-deck, elevated eyesore, separated that city's financial district from its waterfront. When the 1989 earthquake rendered the freeway dangerous and irreparable, it was demolished for implementation of a long-shelved proposal to reimagine the waterfront.

A new cityscape emerged, with street-level traffic and an expanded light-rail line running alongside a wide esplanade to accommodate bicyclists, runners, and walkers. With easy waterfront access and a more human-scaled traffic pattern, commercial and residential development followed.

This could be Philadelphia's future. Our earthquake could be the Obama administration's focus on cities and the likelihood that federal funds could come our way.

Karen Gelman

Wynnewood

Rendell must cut

more spending

I understand the concern about the state budget. Instead of looking only at tax increases, how about a proposal like this: Gov. Rendell proposes a 16.5 percent tax increase coupled with a 16.5 percent decrease in state spending.

The cuts would include everything: bloated bureaucracy, the Turnpike Commission, all the pension increases given over the last few years to state employees - everything! Maybe then I could feel better about paying more into the system.

Bryan Richardson

Villanova

btr1@comcast.net

Governments

spend too much

I work hard, I save my money, I spend responsibly. Why is it that government, state or federal, is not held to the same standard? Why is it that if I cannot afford to buy an item, I don't, but if the state wants to fund a "pet project," or some sort of unnecessary social program, and there's no money to do so, it thinks it can just raise our taxes?

It is becoming very clear that it does not pay to work hard when the government comes along and just takes more, because of reckless and unnecessary spending. What is going to happen when people like me get tired of carrying the burden of this government?

Liz Rodelli

Norristown

America needs

socialized medicine

Wouldn't socialized medicine be better than the health-care system we have, which costs much more than in other countries and still does not do the job?

Eliminating the horrific extra cost of privatized health care would be like generating the automatic savings equal to a tax cut of 5 percent for an average income. It would work better to provide care, too, if data from the World Health Organization is to be believed.

And then, we would no longer need to regulate all the medical interest groups, or pay for their advertising, and lobbies, and kickbacks, too.

Martin Klaver

Lumberton

Nothing's 'free'

for federal workers

Re: "Federal workers' benefits too costly," letter, June 19:

After working more than 37 years for the federal government, I recently retired. Unfortunately, the public is misinformed about our benefits. Yes, the House passed a bill giving federal employees "paid" leave to care for a newly born, adopted, or foster child. But what the public fails to realize is that this paid leave is the employee's own earned annual leave (vacation time) and/or sick leave.

We earn this leave based upon the hours we work. Nothing is given to us free. If someone has no accrued leave, then the leave granted will be without pay. People should get their facts straight before criticizing federal employees. As a whole, we are hardworking, and underpaid, doing what we feel is a service to this great country.

Marianne R. Crocetto

Mount Laurel

Tanning requires

more regulation

The Pennsylvania Medical Society strongly supports the Indoor Tanning Regulation Act introduced by State Sen. Pat Browne. While we would prefer that people simply not engage in recreational tanning, we believe the enactment of Senate Bill 460 will minimize the damage caused to the health of our citizens who use tanning facilities.

Tanning dangers include eye damage, skin cancer, and premature aging of the skin.

Senate Bill 460 contains a number of important health and safety provisions, including licensure of tanning facilities, health warnings to consumers, training for facility employees, prohibition of false safety claims, mandatory injury reports, and state inspections.

Daniel J. Glunk

President

Pennsylvania Medical Society

Harrisburg

stat@pamedsos.org