Letters to the Editor for Friday, February 26, 2010

Writer: LU leaders need to grow up
I do not have a grudge against Liberty University, no more so than probably anyone who lives in any college town that has a college that shares in constant controversy such as this one does.

All I hear is how much LU contributes to this city. Well I, for one, am not impressed.

So we have more stores on Wards Road. Personally, they are not any big deal to me. We have a slew of restaurants that do nothing except offer a meal out at enormous cost; the time one spends waiting to be seated is really not worth it anyway. Furthermore, most of these restaurants and stores are staffed with LU students anyway.

So again, what is the big contribution for me and other residents?

All I see that is contributed is more traffic, more nice real estate turned into parking lots and a once beautiful Candlers Mountain turned in to a spectacle of gloating for the Falwells with that hideous “LU” monogram on it.

Don’t get me wrong, at least they provide some recreation for this town that the city never does, but hey, stop with all the “they contribute so much” when, in reality, all that’s contributed is a lot of complaining that everyone else owes them something.

As for the voting and location, these kids are grown, so they can get there the best way they can, just like the rest of us. It’s not the city’s job to hold their hands to cross the street.

Sorry, Jerry, but you can’t always get what you want. However if you really want to send a message to residents that you are concerned for this city and area, restore Candlers Mountain to its once nice green landscape and get rid of that “hey look at me” monogram on it.
RYAN LACY
Lynchburg

Double standard?
The point of busing in the Ward III precinct controversy is being missed entirely!

Liberty University was required to adopt a transportation strategy that addressed $6 fuel and reduced personal vehicle use by the city. LU has implemented most of its 2007 plan that focuses on reducing traffic impact. A major, first-class bus system was part of that plan. LU partnered with the city to enact the bus system and in doing so, GLTC received the national APTA Most Outstanding Transit System award. LU has changed its culture to move toward multiple occupancy vehicles and continues to move in this direction.

The addition of a voting location at LU (not the elimination of Heritage), as originally requested in 2008, would have eliminated 17,000 person miles of traffic on Election Day from the busiest roads in the precinct.

Despite one of the most vocal criticisms about LU being bad for local traffic, a plan that eliminated almost 70 percent of precinct voting-related traffic was rejected and further characterized as student pampering when, in fact, we are adopting a transportation strategy that addresses the very traffic issues that do concern every person in the precinct. It has also been lost in this discourse that the additional bus capacity directed toward the polls are public routes and provide excellent accessibility for many who live in the precinct.

The city needs to take a dose of its own medicine. If it wants to see LU move away from single occupied vehicles, then it needs to require something as important as polling location assessment to abide by the same standards that are being requested of Liberty University.
RICHARD MARTIN
Forest

Editor’s Note: Martin is director of financial research and analysis at Liberty University.