1/10 Letters: Durham public housing conditions are unacceptable. Fix it now.

Public housing

Regarding “Stoves, heaters at Durham public housing community emitting carbon monoxide, CEO says,” (Jan. 8):

I’m appalled at the reports of conditions in Durham public housing.

I’m a Durham resident who pays taxes that presumably provide for safe, affordable housing.

My tax dollars are now spent relocating families rather than simply replacing appliances and making repairs.

It’s embarrassing to be a resident of such a city.

Children raised in these conditions cannot hope to break the cycle of poverty. It affects their health, both physical and emotional. It breaks trust in authority and our society.

Fix. This. Now.

Elizabeth Austin, Durham

Light rail

Regarding “Commuter rail in Wake and Durham counties would cost up to $1.8 billion, study says,” (Jan. 7):

Can someone explain why none of the light-rail proposals for the Triangle have ever included service to RDU airport?

With millions of people flying in and out every year light-rail service to Raleigh-Durham Airport would reduce congestion on I-40 and U.S. 70.

It can be part of a phase two expansion if needed, but should be part of the original planning.

Dennis Cafferty, Durham

Pellet industry

Regarding the “Slow Burn” series (Jan. 3):

Take note that the pellet industry is consuming N.C. forests at a rate of 145 acres a day. Forest services, including flood control, habitat, water filtration, recreation, and most importantly carbon sequestration, are being squandered for corporate profit.

The economic driver for this perfidy are government subsidies used by Drax Energy to buy pellets for its power plants in England. Further down the subsidy chain, Enviva, pellet supplier for Drax, has received $6 million in state and local subsidies.

Eliminating subsidies would be the most direct path to the demise of the industry. Though organizations worldwide are trying to persuade the EU to halt subsidizing biomass, more formidable resistance to subsidies is required in our state.

If Gov. Roy Cooper and DEQ have no power to control logging on private land, the legislature must step up. Rather than subsidizing the pellet industry, state subsidies for “proforestation,” growing forests to their ecological potential, should be directed to owners for safeguarding forest services that are now more than ever paramount to terminating climate change.

Priss Endo, Wilmington

Charter schools

The Jan. 3 article “Board revises wording of NC report on charter schools” was disturbing.

The N.C. Charter Schools Advisory Board was presented with a report that contained empirical evidence that charter schools contribute to racial segregation. Rather than seeking to address this problem, the board decided to stick its head in the sand and remove the offending information from the report.

Advisory Board chairman Alex Quigley “believes,” apparently without evidence, the opposite of what the data unequivocally demonstrates — including that 75 percent of charter schools have a white enrollment that is more than 10 percent out of line with the districts in which they’re located.

Like any other cover-up, this one stinks.

Brent Miller, Cary

Impeachment

Regarding “Nothing new to politicians behaving badly,” (Jan. 4 Opinion):

Edwin Yoder’s op-ed completely ignored the denial of due process and equal protection to President Trump by House Democrats.

Yoder argued that the Republican senators are “overlooking their oaths” by planning to acquit the president summarily. One has to wonder what oaths the Democrats were upholding when they engaged in their one-sided impeachment charade in the House and passed its disingenuous articles of impeachment purely as a political ploy instead of as a constitutional protection.

Paul Duffy, Rocky Mount

Imminent attack

The “imminent” attack claimed by the president as the reason for the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani appears to be the upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate.

Jim Seitzer, Chapel Hill

Bicycle lanes

Regarding “Raleigh plans bike lanes in downtown Warehouse District,” (Jan. 3):

The proposed bicycle lanes downtown are certainly an improvement, but they do not address the real criminals of Raleigh: employers, merchants and home builders who locate off the bus lines and beyond reach of decent, civilized, non-automotive humanity, as well as the motorists who enable them.

I am a man, not a motorist. Daily I search job boards for employment I can ride my bike to. Fortunately, I have an annuity that pays the bills. Reasonably-located employers are few and far between.

Greta Thunberg would be shocked at how Raleigh is laid out. Public transit tries hard to keep up but it cannot go everywhere in this labyrinth. A habitable city is compact with employers and residences close together.

Jonathan C. Halperen, Raleigh