The expressway is essential for the Mon corridor

The April 23 editorial “The $2 Billion Question: The Mon-Fayette Extension Is Not the Best Use for This Money” overlooked major assets of the expressway project and, even more puzzling, called for MonFayette Expressway funding to be spent outside of the southwestern Pennsylvania region.

Two economic studies on the PA Route 51 to I-376 Expressway project cited significantly improved highway access for major brownfield developments, improved access for Mon Valley communities, major local construction employment and longterm employment gains of nearly 20,000 new jobs. Post-Gazette articles included major findings of these reports.

The potential of linking an extension of the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway to a proposed expressway interchange in East Pittsburgh would broaden expressway benefits to also include a multimodal function. Construction of the busway extension, currently under study by the Port Authority, would serve transit systems throughout the region and provide direct mass transit access into the city of Pittsburgh, thus relieving congestion on the Parkway East. With engaged local leadership, we could see construction on the expressway begin within five years.

Rather than turning its back on the still-suffering Mon Valley, the Post-Gazette should call for quick action by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission to approve the Mon-Fayette Expressway and ask the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to place a high priority on construction of this crucial project.

ROBERT MACEY Member of Allegheny Council

District 9 West Mifflin

This policy may be direct, as in having the State Department promote Mar-a-Lago on its blog and the president traveling to Mar-a-Lago nearly as often as he stays at the White House and greeting $200,000 club members on the taxpayers’ dime; having foreign dignitaries, who have hopes of a meeting with him, stay at his Washington, D.C., hotel; or profiting from the family businesses by pretending to turn them over to his family and then having his family in on most of his “policy” discussions.

When a decision is called for that has no upfront business ties, he chooses a course of action that he believes would arouse his base the most. And when arousing his base is not enough, he will try to settle for any kind of a “win” (political expedience). Anything that may provide him with a bump in his polling numbers — like dropping bombs — Mr. Trump uses to leverage support for his branding decisions.

“Defenestrating policies” (Mr. Swaim’s word for flip-flopping) — think of Mr. Trump’s admiration of Vladimir Putin, his charge that NATO is obsolete, that China is a currency manipulator, etc., — is only a recognition that not all of his pretend policy pronouncements work out the way he expected and he abandons them as if they never existed. ART WILAND

Monroeville

Regarding your April 21 editorial “Pick Up the Flag: NFL Is Wrong to Target Players Over

We welcome your opinion

Charity Event”: I certainly agree that it seems that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell cannot see the forest for the trees. However, it reminded me of an old story about gambling in sports.

It seems that baseball Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, who liked to go to the track and bet on the ponies occasionally, was called into the office of commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and was read the riot act for gambling. Reportedly his response was “Sir, what I do at the racetrack is no different than what you do in the stock market,” and turned and walked out.

Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know, but the story has been around for years. And if you think about it, there’s truth in what Hornsby said. BILL CUMMINGS

Crafton