Continued: Letters to the editor for Monday, Dec. 17

RETAIL IN MINNEAPOLIS

Try these on for size

Want more retail in downtown Minneapolis (editorial, Dec. 12)? Here's a couple of "no-brainers" for Sam Grabarski and the Downtown Council:

Stop building office buildings with blank walls at the street level. US Bank, Target, Wells Fargo, American Express and other new buildings have entire blocks of street frontage that offer nothing but smooth vertical walls of stone, brick and glass. Combine this with gaping openings for parking entry/exits and truck docks and what you have is about as unfriendly an urban streetscape as can possibly be created.

Start cleaning up sidewalks in winter. There is no excuse for snowdrifts in the downtown core. Bus stops should be cleared along the entire length of the curb to welcome transit passengers. Provide large heated bus shelters with electronic bus schedules with real time arrival information.

Limit traffic in the entire downtown core. Turn the street over to electric vehicles, bikes and pedestrians. Get rid of the diesel exhaust from trucks and buses during peak hours. Do delivery at night when there are fewer people around.

Create small retail leaseholds at the street level and subsidize them so that small business owners can afford to have a presence in the high traffic areas. Get the news stands, eateries and specialty shops going again.

Create incentives for people-oriented service businesses to locate in the new street-level infrastructure. Make the street so attractive with amenities and activities that downtown workers have a reason to stay late and enjoy the urban experience.

There are working examples of great urban infrastructure all over the world. It's not rocket science. It's also not Minneapolis.

GEORGE HUTCHINSON, MINNEAPOLIS

SHOVEL DUSTUP

Officer had solution

Regarding Nick Coleman's Dec. 14 column about the Mystic Lake bingo bus stuck in northeast Minneapolis: This could have easily been solved without fuss had the Minneapolis police desk officer put on his coat, boots and mittens, locked the Second Precinct station and walked to the bus and offered to help push out the bus himself, hopefully not throwing out his back in the process.

An apology for the large amount of snow left by city plows would also have been nice. Isn't this what we pay our police officers for?

JIM WILSON, WAYZATA;

RETIRED MINNEAPOLIS POLICE OFFICER

UNITEDHEALTH ON THE MOVE

Service has improved

As a follow-up to your recent story about service and compliance issues with our UnitedHealthcare business, I would like to provide a little more context.

We have made it clear that our service levels at our UnitedHealthcare business were unsatisfactory in the past, and have been engaged in intense, systemwide efforts to improve them. We are seeing the positive results of these efforts. For example, we are now consistently above 99 percent for accuracy in claims processing, we have empowered executives to provide responsive service to resolve complex transactions, and consumer satisfaction levels are above 90 percent.

More important, the external markets are seeing the improvements as well. For example, U.S. News & World Report said in October that "UnitedHealthcare's average health plan ranking leads all national competitors." And California's Gateway to Health Care Quality Ratings ranked us "highest in satisfaction" among nine plans rated by California members.

Our overall service levels are back on par with other companies. Now we are committed to achieving industry-leading service for the benefit of physicians, hospitals, customers and our members.

DON NATHAN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, UNITEDHEALTH GROUP, MINNETONKA

SCRATCH MY EARMARK

And I'll scratch yours

Stephen Sarvi's Dec. 14 Counterpoint "Not all federal earmarks are bad" misses the point of Rep. John Kline's principled stand against earmarks. The earmark system is corrupt and without transparency.

Neither party takes the lead in reforming earmarks, because its main attraction to lawmakers is that it promotes their incumbency. Bringing home the bacon (which is pork, of course) helps get them reelected. The most powerful lawmakers deliver the most, and if you dare to criticize a wasteful earmark, your own earmarks will be threatened.

Opting out of the game takes political courage and principle. Candidate Sarvi would not be part of the solution to the mess in Washington, he'd be just another pig at the trough.

CRAIG CHRISTENSEN, MINNEAPOLIS

BOTTLED WATER

So drink from the tap

Thank you for pointing out in "Have You Heard" Dec. 12 that, on average, Americans consume 27.6 gallons of bottled water each year. However, what is also important to point out is that we are also consuming 1.5 million barrels of oil.

The oil is used to make the plastic bottles and to fuel the trucks to transport the bottled water. That is enough oil to electrify 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for one year! Then when we are finished drinking the water we discard the plastic to our landfills. Only 5 percent of all plastic is recycled. In addition, the EPA does not regulate the production of bottled water as it does tap water. The Harvard School of Public Health has stated that "reasonably reliable tap water is available to nearly all 270 million U.S. residents."

Richard Drill-Mellum, Waconia