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VIKINGS STADIUM

Courage or not in Minneapolis?

Shame on Sid Hartman (Feb. 26) for essentially placing bull's-eyes on the seven City Council members who have stated that they will vote against the Vikings stadium deal because they want to uphold the law enshrined in the Minneapolis city charter. If the Vikings should move for failure to get a new stadium, Hartman has no right to place this solely at the feet of these seven individuals.

The Legislature has had years to get a deal done, but cannot. The current proposal places a substantial portion of the funding mechanism in the laps of Minneapolis residents, and the city charter is clear that if any tax burden for a stadium is more than $10 million, then the residents get to vote on it.

I applaud the members of the City Council who are standing up for my right to vote on this matter, and I appreciate their standing up to the Legislature.

BRIAN AUST, MINNEAPOLIS

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The Minneapolis City Council is just the latest example of elected officials looking for the easy way out of making a tough decision. Imagine how much business would get done if every budget expenditure were subject to a vote of the people?

Most citizens do not have the time and resources to fully weigh the costs and benefits of putting in a new streetlight, much less the costs and benefits of building a new stadium employing thousands of construction workers, ensuring future jobs for those who will work in the stadium and surrounding businesses, and securing Minneapolis as an NFL city, with all the exposure and business that brings.

That is why the charter amendment passed 15 years ago requiring a referendum on stadium funding is flawed. The people already have a vote in this matter: It is when they vote for the elected officials they entrust to govern, lead and make the tough decisions in their best interests. It's time for our council members (and all elected officials) to do their jobs, and lead.

JEFF ISAACSON, MINNEAPOLIS

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America's image

Improved because of Obama's actions

In separate Sunday talk-show appearances, Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum both castigated President Obama for apologizing for the recent inadvertent burning of Qur'ans by American troops at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. According to this misguided, indeed ridiculous, perspective, the president's conciliatory gesture demonstrated weakness and sullied our national reputation because these burnings were accidental, rather than deliberate or malicious.

On the contrary, Obama's consistent practice of acknowledging and repudiating our occasional mistakes has gone far in rehabilitating America's international image, which fell to an all-time historic low during the previous administration. Like Santorum and Romney, that president confused tight-lipped intransigence with dignity and strength, only to suffer severe backlash in terms of negative world opinion.

CHARLES CLELAND, BROOKLYN PARK

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Role models

Tell us about more than their nightlife

I am no teetotaler. I even tended bar my way through college to pay tuition. Still, I question the value of the Feb 24 article "Cold ones with the Wolves' hot star." How many Star Tribune readers are really interested in reading a column -- or, in this case, the better part of two pages to learn what and where Kevin Love drinks to catch a buzz?

I am thankful that my 4-year-old is still too young to read that athletes "drink when they're down," or that there was ever a time "for drowning the T'Wolves sorrows in booze," or that a mere thumbs-up or thumbs-down at one establishment "will keep [the drinks] coming" for Mr. Love.

What would be interesting to read is how athletes volunteer their time to nonprofit organizations. Do they read to underprivileged kids? Do they champion coat drives? Do they help fund after-school recreation programs? Do they build houses for the homeless?

For many children, athletes are modern-day heroes -- and young eyes are watching their every move. Finding opportunities to present Love and his fellow athletes in the best light possible -- rather than promoting their favorite cocktails -- would be more refreshing than a Grape Ape.

BRAD NEARY, MINNETONKA

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Sabo bridge

Blame gets placed where it isn't due

I love red-meat America. The Sabo bridge falls down, and we get rants about artists and cyclists (Readers Write, Feb. 24 and 25.) "Artists" did not build the bridge. The specifics of the design were done by people with engineering training. The bridge was built by construction companies. Therefore, the red-meat logic has to be that engineers and construction workers should never be involved in bridge building.

The majority of cyclists who wish to cross Hiawatha Avenue at that location do use the Sabo bridge. Most of those who choose to cross at street level do wait for the "walk" signal. This intersection is "sometimes dangerous" because eastbound drivers turning right on red from 28th Street often don't make a complete stop before turning, thereby strafing cyclists crossing legally in the crosswalk.

I have been driving the streets of this city since 1959. The habits I see are breathtaking. Speeding, failing to signal, failing to yield, running red lights, rolling through stop signs, straddling lanes -- it's endless. If you apply red-meat logic to this situation, we would have to tear up the roads to put an end to all this lawlessness.

CLEVE PETTERSEN, MINNEAPOLIS

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Correction

A Feb. 25 column by John Rash misstated the name of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.