Red Line Route

Re “Debate Over Subway Path Surfaces Again,” April 24:

I believe that the Mid-City extension of the Red Line should stay on Wilshire instead of going along Pico to San Vicente or any other alternate routes. It seems that ridership along Wilshire would be much greater than elsewhere. There are many more attractions on Wilshire and the present buses running down Wilshire are among the most crowded of MTA’s routes.

Since the construction is not supposed to start for two more years, there is time to push for the MTA to change its plans. Since we are spending a lot of money on the subway, we should choose the route that will maximize ridership.

CHRIS FLESCHER

Riverside

* You quote Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan: “No matter what we think, our hands are tied. If we act with indecision, it can hurt our chances to get hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The same article quotes L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke as saying: “Unfortunately, our monies come from that federal government that makes arbitrary and sometimes irrational decisions.”

One wonders why Mayor Riordan and Supervisor Burke think it better to accede to an arbitrary and/or irrational decision about the Mid-City segment than to insist that hundreds of millions of tax dollars be spent in a rational way.

Why don’t Riordan, Burke and the rest of the MTA board of directors say to Reps. Julian Dixon, Henry Waxman and the federal government that we don’t want money for the subway if it can’t be spent in a responsible, rational way? Isn’t this what leadership should be about? Poor Los Angeles!

WILLIAM KENDALL

Los Angeles