OCR Text |
Show A6 Thursday, April 3, 2008 DAILY HERA4.D dhorial Craig Dennis, President & Publisher Randy Wright, Executive Editor Jim Tynen, Editorial Page Editor s. .ft IN OUR VIEW Developing downtown Provo II 11 I rovo City is asking J for suggestions on Jr 1 revitalizing its down town district. We re glad to help, and offer a miscellaneous assortment of ideas. , 1 I Build on strengths the city already has. Cities spend millions to create charming neighborhoods d with little stores and streets. Provo already has all that. It should make its top priority preserving and renewing the core, whose center lies at the intersection of University Avenue and Center Street. Would anyone consider doing otherwise? Sadly, yes. If you doubt that, stop by the Hotel Roberts or the classic mission-styl- e Catholic church, St. Francis of Bolstered by a downtown confer- ence center closely linked to the Covey Center for the Arts. This Will be especially true if the city encourages the construction of new hotels for example, on the block of the existing Zion's Bank at 100 North and Freedom Blvd. I Make transportation a priority. Downtown residents and visitors must have easy access to the FrontRunner commuter rail train, which is expected to reach Provo in 2011, and to light raiL At the same time, drivers must be drawn to the city's core. A big challenge will be linking the downtown via University Avenue to the East Bay'area, and also linking the city's core to Interstate 15 via Center Street. Freedom Blvd. could become Assisi. a more useful artery in an out of conAnother strength of Provo is its downtowa Better east-werole as the county seat. The city nections and an improved link must cooperate in making sure to Provo Towne Centre would a redevelopment plan includes encourage more people to drive, accommodating the growth of making University less of a speedcounty offices. way and thus friendlier to shoppers. I Involve and execute. The city, Parking remains vitaL It's no as well as county government, use arguing that in suburban areas businesses, residents and other ..' people will think nothing of .park-- 1 stakeholders need to be involved ing a hundred yards away from a in making a clear plaa The Provo mall entrance, but they'll complain if they have to park 50 feet from City Redevelopment Agency is now holding meetings and gather- the front door of a city store. There needs to be lots of conveing ideas. A long view is needed, at least 15 years out, and a plan nient parking, on street and off. should be developed in as much detail as possible. I Don't get carried away. Plans Good execution of the plan is should be realistic, and the free essential Relevant agencies, espe market usually ensures practical outcomes. But big dreams by govdaily municipal ones, need to be decisive and cut red tape. Provo ernment can sometimes turn into should do its utmost to expedite boondoggles. worthy projects. At times, city officials have appeared unsure of There are dozens of downtowns what to do next, and bureaucracy across the nation that would love remains a concern. Consider for ; to have what Provo has: quaint storefronts, tow crime, a couple of example the Zions Financial Center, an exciting project announced big new office projects, a growing in late August but not approved county government, two major by the planning commission until university campuses nearby, and late February. That's too slow. all in a growing, prosperous The basic building blocks of a v ; r ' I Encourage diverse uses. This r wonderful, revitalized downtown would include government, busiare in place, and ample resources seem to be available. It's just a ness, retail and housing. The Wells Fargo Center is a good ' matter of putting it all together example of creating a space for a wisely and energetically. We urge major corporation, smaller firms the dry, county, businesses and and residents. residents to work hard to make Another use, tourism, would be thathappea 0 re-gi- ' MEDIA VOICES Paulson on right track From the Dallas Morning News, look at the right things and in context. Gaps in the existing regulatoWednesday, April 2, 2008: ry structure allow complex, murky the best financial transactions to become Sometimes idea is the time bombs. economy-shatterin- g If that's the case, jPaulson's proposal isn't perfect, but ft at least recognizes that the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is on the right track. ?: . existing regulatory system isn't a Within hours of floating a plan framework for the future. That's 2 to modernize financial clearly more than the regulation, he got a plan's critics are willModernization taste of the infighting to concede. In many ways, the ing that has stymied has to occur reform for years. In Fed already has the classic turf protecimplicit authority to because the ( tion mode, a bevy of go anywhere in the current system financial system to lobbyists, state regulators and financial preserve stability, is institutions picked but making this role apart the proposal explicitly part of the Some decried it as Fed's mission is wise. Last month, we got overregulatioa Others called it stealth deregulatioa a glimpse of how it might work Some accused the Federal Reserve in a crisis when the Fed prompted of engineering a power grab. the takeover of Bear Stearns. Fed To the contrary, we call officials rightly determined that 'Paulson's plan overdue. The Fed-erthis step would be less disrup-Reserve would become the to economic activity than ' nation's financial the psychological and financial jWith broader powers to intervene ;, impact of Bear Stearns going into in a crisis, and other federal finan-- - bankruptcy proceedings. Those !cial regulators would be consoli proceedings could have lasted ; ' for years and likely would have dated, barred millions of people from f: Modernization has to occur 'because the current system is gaining access to their investment to oversee today's accounts. world. The failure to more It's a power that needs to be used sparingly but an important closely monitor investment banks, tool to stave off a more devastathedge funds and mortgage companies is emerging as a key lesson ing crisis. We hope congressional from the subprime lending debacle. review and election-yea- r politics dont slow these reforms. Regulators have to be able to ! , . al super-regulat- , DOONESBURY W tPT WYWS lOUTO&eHPAlllMf C0MPLAIMH6 ABOUT tUmWRbfWX . ;i 4. A LflTlE"fc the LEFT. mg -- 1. st HARRIS, I S MCCAIN tree-shade- -- . .. (I ..V." ;,!;.; A BOARD EDITORIAL jDRGeeoTArAiseee- CAUSe Hi. wvA BANG-U- P 39 INTH5 BACK OF- - rxe. neiA9mKja 1 RUTH MARCUS Advice to Hillary: Finish game, play nice 'he unyielding arithmetic of the Democrats' delegate selection rules makes Hillary Clinton's prospects of winning the nomination dim and that's the rosy scenario. The prolonged primary contest, with candidates and aides bickering like cranky toddlers partway through a . long, hot car ride, is bad for the Demo' cratic Party. Still, Clinton shouldn't drop out. Not yet, anyway. The party adopted proce-durerfpicking the nominee that no one expected would matter. Now, hav- -; ing worked hard and played by those rules, to employ a Clintonian phrase, Clinton is under pressure to quit before the game is over. Why should she? Clinton'trails Barack Obama by at least 133 delegates. At a comparable point in the 1984 race, Gary Hart was more than 600 delegates behind Walter Mondale. At this stage in 1980, Ted Kennedy lagged Jimmy Carter by nearly 1,000 delegates. Clinton believes and millions of voters agree that she would be a stronger candidate against John Mc-Cain and would make a better president. She has a path to the nomination, albeit steep: a resounding win in Pennsylvania that underscores Obama's difficulties with working-clas- s whites, followed b a clear victory in Indiana and a loss in North Carolina. Most of aO, Clinton's chances hinge on the audacious hope that Obama somehow Under these closely divided circumstances, more voters in more states deserve a chance to be heard, rather than having a choice made for them. Ambivalent superdetegates would benefit from the instruction of additional primaries. : ' narrower-than-expecte- d VOW A BermjJB 1'PBeenweiDBCueiB. Back in December, Pennsylvania Gov, Ed Rendell told me he wasn't planning to endorse a candidate because his state's primary was "so late we won't matter." Rendell has since endorsed Clinton, and the April 22 contest has turned out to matter a great deal, indeed. Voters ought to have a chance to weigh in after learning about the troubling sermons of Obama's pastor and hearing Obama's intelligent, if incomplete, explanatioa Voters ought to be able to take into account Clinton's troubling inflation of her experience, such as the Bosnian tarmac sniper fire that wasn't. The pressure on Clinton to get out isn't sexist bullying by the big boys, as her campaign has implied. It takes some nerve for a campaign to complain about bullying when its big donors have just fired off the fundraising equivalent of a blackmail letter to Nancy Pelosi, demanding that the House speaker back off her statements that superdetegates shouldn't overturn the results of the primaries. Rather, the clamor for Clinton's departure stems from Democrats' fear that they will manage to blow what should have been an easy wia Even if the campaigns were playing nice, continuing the fight imposes political costs. The way it's going, McCain's admakers need only follow the candidates with video cameras, then splice in the relevant footage once i the nominee is chosea So Clinton shouldn't drop out but she, and her advisers, should stop the personal attacks. Obama's campaign should cool it, too, though the candidate himself has been more restrained than Clintoa There's a difference between : well-found- : drawing distinctions and drawing ' blood. Clinton's legitimate claim to stay in the race doesn't extend to savaging Obama so fiercely that it severely damages his general election prospects. Suggesting, as Clinton did, that McCain is more fit to be commander in chief than Obama crossed that line. It's not even good politics: Clinton said in launching her bid that she is "in it to win it," but she isn't going to win it by tearing down Obama. The point could come indeed, it probably will when sheer mathematical possibility is not enough to justify fighting oa At a certain stage in the analysis, the harm to the party, even factoring in Clinton's assessment of Obama's general election liabilities, may exceed the chance of her winning, especially after subtracting the continuing cost to her reputation by staying ia The other day, Obama compared the primary season to a movie that's gone on for too long. Like Clinton, I dont .V mind a good epic. , , ' This one, though, reminds me of . jj "The War of the Roses," the Kathleen cost-benef- it Douglas movie about a couple who build a beautiful house but manage to destroy it and themselves in the course of an ugly divorce, This would cast Democratic National Com- -' mittee Chairman Howard Dean in the Danny DeVitcfrole as the divorce lawyer powerless, to stop the carnage. Maybe bot candidates Should rent the DVD. Dean, too. They:need the $ : Turner-Micha- break thing. el and they might learn . 'v f some- -' I Ruth Marcus is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.' LETTERS Two solutions for entrenched politicians We have a real problem in the USA incumbent We have se--'t rial politicians who can stay in office as long as they wisji sometimes many .' decades (barring any Spitzer-typ- e ; blunders). These political figures will do - includ-- " r anything to keep their power ing selling America down the river. Two of the solutions lie ia 1) term limits and 2) repealing the 17th Amendment If elected officials knew they were only to have a relatively short time to make a difference, they would be more concerned with principle (what is good for the country) and not . just their own career. As for the way senators are elected, that should be returned to how the Constitution stipulates it should be done V they are to be appointed by each state legislature. The 17th Amendment changed this to a popular vote of the people, which never should have been done. Now both the House and Senate represent "the People," and - the states have lost their sovereignty. This was originally designed to be another on abuse at the federal leveL Without that direct accountability to the states, we have seen the national government bloat out of control, and become extremely ' irresponsible. i James Carlyle Green, , ' ' V Cedar Hills j check-and-balan- 'Garry Trudeau THEY MUST flff 1 Phantom liberal media , ' Krauthammer again (March 10) invoked the ever useful boogeyman . "Liberal Mass Media". This "Liberal '. Media" is a joke long past its punch line but it still gets results. "Lib-- . Krauthammer's eral Media" said nothing of Florida's (and Jeb Bush's) illegal voter purges in the 2000 electioa 90,000 citizens were disenfranchised. Butterfly ballots and Ralph Nader, a read liberal were blamed. The invasion plans for Afghanistan were signed on September 10, 2001. Several laws, executive orders and signing statements, including the soon to be passed Homegrown Terrorism and Radicalization Prevention Act (HR 1955 SB 1959) institutionalize the , suppression and criminalization of dis- -' sent and activism, implement marshal law, arrests and detention without legal representatioa Where is Krautham- "Liberal Media"? mer's Krauthammer's "Liberal Media" , ' banner Kucinich and Paul; the non- -' candidates ,1 corporate funded anti-wfrom debates and marginalized Ed- wards' liberal populism. Now why . would "The Liberal Media" dismiss and marginalize the most liberal and non status quo candidates? And wasnt that "Win-ter'- s great coverage of the anti-wSoldiers II" conference in Mary ''. land last week? Through omissions, distortions and contrast repetition, Corporate Media tells us what to think, Bush-hatin- Bush-hatin- g ar ar MALLARD FILLMORE what to think about, even how to think and who to blame. "liberals"!!!! I Paul Ames, Eureka Measuring losses in Iraq I want the Herald to know this article was well balanced and fair. In the article you review the losses during five years of the Clinton administration, 5, 1 19, with only one due to ; hostile action, over 1,000 more than the total lost as a result of combat in Iraq to date. When compared, the combat deaths, as you alluded, bring emotions to the surface, which is then exacerbated by the negative leanings directed towards the Iraq war by the media which in turn signals a call to protesters to join ia ,v ; I would like to have seen the Herald include in this article the ratio of National Guard deaths to that of the regular Army of those serving in Iraq. With so many deployments of Guardsmen on a multiple scale one has to , assume the regular army is dying in greater numbers or the Guardsmen ; are. In any case, if memory serves me well, the standing army was reduced from seventeen divisions to ten during the Clinton Administration, a fact that could be contributing to the constant deployment of the National Guard. Vincent Jack, American Fork , Bruce Tinsley BUTIHJM IZWAfSOF THAT EXPLAINS AIM. j r 'if- x. Wcu I, Alitor My n - |