Letters, letters, letters

The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer's name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.

To the Editor:

McDonald's isn't the problem. It's the traffic. And it's not surprising Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) wants to solve Sisters' occasional congestion in the time-honored and cheapest fashion possible, by rerouting and speeding up traffic. This will only serve to attract a second McDonald's, this one on the east side of town.

None of this surprising. Since the well-intentioned ODOT transitioned from building roads to engineering traffic 75 years ago, its so-called experts have been rolling over small towns with dire warnings that traffic is like water: dam it up or divert it from its course and it'll find outlets where it meets less resistance. And while visions of floods dance in the heads of local politicos, ODOT paved a gash through the gut of the small town and destroyed its livability.

Think Sandy with its one-way couplet that cut five minutes off a skier's commute to Mount Hood and brought a McDonald's to that once-quaint burg. Think of historic Aurora, location of the historically significant, 19th century communal utopia with its unique and eminently walkable layout, gutted by 99E.

Think Florence, Astoria and Madras, towns gashed open by ODOT in an effort to ease congestion by speeding up traffic through living areas where people used to safely walk, jog, stroll, shop, play, bicycle, sit, in short, live.

The "urban myth" that traffic is like water, it's got to go somewhere, is patently unproven and untrue. According to a 1998 study of 60 cases worldwide, conducted by the University College, London, for Great Britain's Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, more roads and added lanes increase traffic; fewer roads and road closures reduce traffic.

Bend exploited its traffic congestion by successfully lobbying for its Parkway. Corvallis preserved its downtown by lobbying for the Hwy. 34 bypass.

Instead of complaining about McDonald's, maybe we should be lobbying the feds and the state to build a U.S. Highway 20 bypass that spares Sisters its livability?

Alan Guggenheim

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To the Editor:

Much of the success of McDonald's can be attributed to sameness. Customers who go there know they will get the same as at any other McDonald's.

Now Sisters can be just the same as everywhere else.

Roger Detweiler

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To the Editor:

I would like to take this opportunity to express my opinion about building a McDonald's restaurant in Sisters.

I, for one, totally enjoy going to McDonald's in Bend about once a week. I order a cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato, frequently have a fudge sundae and coffee too. I really like the food. I can eat the WHOLE thing.

I don't think the looks of the building will in any way detract from the theme of Sisters.

One thing that I think we don't need and that is another gas station. We already have five gas stations in this town. How can we support that many gas stations in the middle of winter when the Pass is unpassable and we are not deluged with tourists?

I think that is a question that needs to be addressed.

Respectfully,

Diana Raske Lovgren

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T o the Editor:

I have lived in Sisters for 71 years. I attended five years of school at the old two-story frame building where the middle school and old gymnasium once stood. I graduated in 1938.

In The Nugget issue of October 20, it stated on page 19 (second paragraph) that the old brick structure was built in 1937. If this is true, I would have graduated from this school in 1938. When I graduated, it was from the old frame building in 1938.

The brick school was constructed in 1940. Of my two brothers, Blaine Carroll was one of the first to graduate from there; Orville Carroll, my younger brother, graduated in 1942, also from there.

Sincerely,

Naomi (Carroll) Smith

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To the Editor:

Spring is just around the corner. My mailbox is blooming with garden catalogs. I have a list of catalogs at geocities.com/bberryhill/garden.html.

There are still a few people in town interested in starting a community garden. The new park might be a good place. Call me at 420-3730 if you want to see a community garden in Sisters.

Bruce Berryhill