Taxis For Schoolchildren Too Expensive, Readers Say
When he picks a passenger up on a busy street, Jon A. Holloway of Spokane has the person wait around the corner. “I go around the corner, pick him/her up, continue around the block and emerge back onto the same busy avenue, having been only slightly inconvenienced.”
He says Spokane School District 81 could use the same idea with school buses rather than paying for taxis each school day to transport a handful of students between elementary school and their homes on busy streets.
“Taxis costing roughly four times the cost of bus transport, I think someone would welcome being able to save $9,000 with such a simple concept.”
Mrs. John T. Waters Sr. of Spokane agrees: “Wouldn’t a change in bus route to a less-busy street enable the two to six children involved to walk a couple of blocks to catch a bus?”
But D.J. Merritt of Spokane says the buses’ flashing red lights provide enough security. “People are going to stop for those buses - I don’t care what street they’re on,” he said. “Just cut out this taxi baloney.”
He won’t be turning over a new leaf
For most of the 26 years Larry Garvin has lived in Spokane, it was illegal to rake leaves into the streets.
Now that the city will discontinue its four-year-old leaf-pickup service, “most of us,” Garvin says, “will continue to do as we always have and collect the maple leaves fallen from trees on the city right of way into the streets and watch for the Gestapo as we do so. The alternative is to hire it done or fill our refuse system with plastic bags.”
Two maple trees at C. Michael Archer’s South Hill home generate 30 to 40 bags of leaves each fall. At $3 to $5 a bag, he says, “the city is, in essence, making tons of money off of those of us who own trees but don’t own a truck.”
Rico Reed, Spokane: “Some cities that I’ve read about have solved the problem by baling the leaves in the street, and then they find that the bales are all picked up by gardeners for use in garden mulching. I, for one, would take several tons that way.”
Allen Larson of Spokane says leaf pickup is “about the only thing they’ve done that benefits the average homeowner in this town. If they want to save some money, why don’t they abolish the Arts Commission or possibly the international sister cities commission or some of those window-dressing things that we really can’t afford?”
, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.