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Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad March 5, 2005 Commendations for speaking up Especially in a free society we need the public voicing of the military's thoughts and misgivings to help prevent disaster. I commend the commander for speaking out. I'll check your paper from now on. David Remus Clovis, Calif. AFN is a key service for city Thanks for your ongoing AFN coverage. You raise timely and important issues. A recent article quoted me as saying the city should subsidize AFN "because it attracts businesses to town and competition with Charter has saved consumers money." It certainly does, and has, but these are not the principal reasons for a subsidy if one is needed. As with most other services that the city chooses to "subsidize," AFN (AFN Internet in particular) has become an essential public service. In the same way we, the citizens, pay for roadways, electricity, water and public safety, we should also pay for AFN. You can call it a subsidy, or you can just call it part of what our government does. Regardless, it's important. Alan Oppenheimer President Open Door Networks, Inc. Ashland Even local press under attack Our Constitutional right to a free press is under attack again. Phoenix's mayor, Vicki Bear's edict that she's the only person allowed to speak to the press further erodes the public's right to know. It's getting impossible for citizens to know what's true. Between journalists paid by the Bush administration to spread their propaganda, phony White House "correspondents" with their pro-administration softball questions, and a consolidated corporate controlled media, the news is becoming heavily skewed toward the neo-con point of view. Now this ban on free speech by town officials will silence independent voices even more. Kathy Neary Portland Mayor gives bad image of Phoenix Unbelievable. Phoenix Mayor Vicki Bear has decided that the Bill of Rights don't apply to city employees; only she has the right to talk to the press! I've never been to Phoenix, but in my mind it looks something like a gulag in Siberia, with a crazed egomaniacal witch queen dressed in Nazi regalia running the show. Thomas McCullock Colorado Springs Clay Street plan too big for city Do the Planning Commissioners run this town for developers only? Are they all developers themselves? The majority of people living in Ashland do not want a big city full of development, which is why they moved here. We want roads without traffic jams and accidents, open land, plenty of good water and air, quiet, parks, and so on. Crowding will also bring crime and distance the population from the city government which they have hired. So that a few men can make millions, many thousand people would have to put up with a ruined community. Proposing 130 more new development units on Clay St. is outrageous! With a budget of $93.5 million, Ashland can afford to buy some beautiful parcels that come up for sale and preserve this unique city. Pavani Marden Ashland Buffer needed between cities It is tragic when elected city and county officials won't fight to maintain buffers between cities. No city in Jackson County has an adequate sprawl-preventing infill program. Proposed low-density annexations cause exponential increases in traffic, loss of resource lands, and greater pressures towards the extinction of species through loss of wildlife habitat. Leaders of Medford and Phoenix, Jackson County leaders, and representatives from the Rogue Valley Council of Governments must establish a permanent buffer between Phoenix and Medford so these communities maintain separate identities. Both cities with their current low densities already have enough underdeveloped land to accommodate much future growth. That a developer bought land on speculation to add to the sprawl problem should not matter in the decision to establish a buffer. It is also inappropriate for tax base discussions to affect decisions whether or not to include parcels in growth plans. If the goal is to increase tax bases, let people do more with their land within existing city limits with an infill program where the infrastructure is already present. Phoenix Councilor Terry Helfrich has the right idea. Let's hope other elected officials in Medford and Phoenix will also fight for a buffer. It is needed. Brent Thompson President Friends of Jackson County --> Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.