No more construction monstrosities in East End
We congratulate Erika Strassburger on her election to city council (March 7, “Familiar Face Wins Race in East End”). She’s shown herself to be competent andconscientious.
But we need to share publicly a major concern. Ms. Strassburger, please rethink the kinds of development we’re seeing in the East End. For example, One On Centre, the new student apartment building on Centre at Craig in Oakland, is a monstrosity — completely out of scale with the neighborhood, and with no evident setbacks or public green space.
At 17 stories, it is one of the the tallest buildings in Oakland, dwarfing everything around it. It’s already being called the “Cathedral of Irresponsible Development.”
If there were hearings before this design was approved, nobody we know was aware of them. It surely seems that the developers were given a free hand to maximize profit at the expense of the neighborhood.
That shouldn’t have happened. And it certainly shouldn’t happen again.
Please make the approvals process more transparent — and mandate that developers consider the context of their projects. We can’t afford another monstrosity. JOHN and SUSAN COSGROVE
Oakland
To that end, these officials are still not banning assault-style weapons. They probably never lost a loved one to a weapon of this kind, nor were they ever shot at by one. Just maybe if they had, their sad decisions on how to handle the issue of a ban on these weapons would be stronger. Furthermore, a ban on bump stocks is worthless without a ban on assault-style weapons. We have had more mass shootings since the Brady Bill expired in 2004 then ever before. I want to be wrong, but I believe itwill happen again.
Our officials did nothing after Sandy Hook, the Pulse nightclub, Las Vegas and now Parkland, Fla. When will they wake up and pass a ban? LARRY GRUMET
Squirrel Hill
Letters to the editor regarding gun control reveal a massive public ignorance about weaponry. The favorite whipping boy for the anti-gun crowd, the AR-15, is a prime example.
There are two models of this rifle: the M (for military) 16, which can be selectively fired as full or semi-automatic, and the AR-15 semi-auto-only model available to law enforcement and civilians. Also, the M16 was modified shortly after its introduction to combat to fire only short bursts in the full auto mode to improve efficiency. If one would find its way into civilian hands, it would be incapable of the 30- round magazine-emptying shooting seen on TV.
But the greatest misunderstanding is this: The operating sequence of the AR-15 is the same as any modern hunting rifle, the venerable 1911 Colt “automatic,” modern pistols like the Glock and even the lowly revolver — one trigger pull, one shot. Another worthless argument is for smaller magazines, with people not understanding that with a little practice a shooter can switch mags in less than 3 seconds.
Lost in all the debate about gun control is that the Parkland tragedy was the result of a massive failure of law enforcement from top to bottom and the absence of an armed defender to confront the shooter. WILLIAM R. CASEY
West Mifflin