Readers Write (Dec. 18): Nicollet Mall building, Cuba, Minneapolis superintendent, Bakken oil, 'Hunger Games'

Yikes! An 80-story building on Nicollet Mall ("Lofty visions fill site plans," Dec. 13)?! Alex Duval introduced this monstrosity to the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

Please, let's make up our minds on the direction we want to take our premier downtown destination. A tree-lined mall seems much more approachable, friendly and environmentally sound. Parkways and plazas with low-rise office buildings and apartments with greenery instill a healthier, more livable attitude. Today, the Gateway district looks much too industrial, masculine and intimidating. It is certainly off-putting.

Bigger is not always better, and the trends are actually moving in a different, more cohesive direction. People want things easy, intimate and doable, yet efficient. A good way to keep the rest of us (suburban and rural) out of there is to keep increasing the size of bricks and mortar. I thought with the advent of the Internet that we would celebrate villages, connections and smaller communities. Our vision for downtown Minneapolis should include structures that inspire productivity, creativity and accessibility. Can't we have it all?

Why is President Obama changing U.S. policy now? There is clearly no emergency or drastic change within the Cuban government to indicate it has made any changes in its policies or human rights efforts.

Apparently, Obama has forgotten that 30-some years ago, we had to send U.S. troops to Grenada to kick the Cubans out after they tried to take over that country. We lost good men in that encounter, and Cuba hasn't changed its aggressive policies since then.

So why are we changing? The purpose of U.S. policy toward Cuba was to get rid of the Communist dictator and bring a more humane government to its people. Since that has not happened — and Cubans remain under a dictator's regime and human rights are still an issue — it's fair to say that Obama's change in policy is clearly politically motivated — motivated toward increasing his party's share of the Latino vote, rather than bringing about meaningful changes in Cuba that would actually help its people.

The normalization of diplomatic relations with Cuba and the move toward lifting the failed and archaic embargo of Cuba are long overdue.

Pope Francis has helped to bring Cuba and the United States together, but I didn't see it on the headlines or the e-mail news bulletins. Here we have a religious leader who is doing the right thing in leading by example, and it doesn't get comparable publicity to those times when religious leaders have disappointed us. We're not afraid to give our leaders a kick in the butt when we think they deserve it. As a Jew, I want to give the Pope a pat on the back. He deserves nothing less.

The departing school superintendent will not be missed by this retired city resident and homeowner for 39 years who always voted for new school levies ("Head of Mpls. schools quits abruptly," Dec. 17). Bernadeia Johnson wanted us to believe that the main problem in our schools was the staff. She must have known that the biggest problem in lack of academic achievement among many city kids was those kids not being ready for school, but apparently she didn't want to offend anyone other than teachers.

The Star Tribune recently published an article about a study showing that all-day preschool with nutritious meals significantly improved academic performance later. Another article showed that successful elementary students are read books at home almost from birth, and that they learn words, numbers and other elementary skills before ever attending school.

There could be many reasons why some kids are not as ready for school as others, but those reasons could take years to correct. All-day preschool can be started next year, helps right away and saves money in the long run. It is the ultimate, if not only, means to give those kids who lack school readiness what they need so they can get a good education and become productive citizens.

In the article on Bakken dangers ("Bakken dangers: both oil and rail," Dec. 16), the author only told half of the story that best fits his opinion. It was stated that the RVP for gasoline is around 9 pounds per square inch (psi). While this is true for summer blends, it is not true for fall and winter blended fuels. The RVP is the vapor pressure of the gasoline blend when the temperature is 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Winter blends are phased in as the weather gets cooler. In some areas, the allowed RVP eventually increases to 15 psi. This allows the gasoline to vaporize more readily in the cold, thus greatly improving the start ability of gasoline engines.

Holy moly, Peter Bloom's Dec. 17 commentary, "Us Against Them," sure gave me a fright about my fellow American teenagers inciting a popular revolution against the American political regime because of the "Hunger Games" movies. For a couple of seconds, anyway.

Then I realized there is no way a rebellion could be started by a population that, as a whole, does not exhibit any political efficacy whatsoever, cares more about fantasy football and Twitter than the activities of our armed forces, and would rather watch mindless television shows than (God forbid) pick up a book.

Thank you for your confidence, Mr. Bloom, but teens seem to be just fine with aimlessly drifting through life during the day and drinking away our problems at night, much like the generations before us.