Readers Write: April 13

Corporations should invest in transportation

Regarding the Watching your Tax Dollars story (“Little-noticed agencies give big tax breaks,” News April 2), I very much appreciate how it calls into question the advantages to taxpayers, and the potential for personal motivations to play a part. One thing that it didn’t mention was the drag on Atlanta’s transportation infrastructure these will cause. It sounds like anathema to suggest that we make it more difficult to bring jobs to Atlanta (or even lose some), but that may be our best course of action considering we are over-capacity already. We no longer live in the 1950s — unemployment will stay at a healthy level in the city, and more jobs means more people moving to the area and commuting to and/or within the city. That is why we hear people saying there are a lot of “transplants” in Atlanta; myself included — we all came here to work. In fact, rather than give corporations tax incentives, it seems it would be wise to require them to invest in our transportation infrastructure as the cost of entry with the goal of them having a “traffic-neutral” impact should they locate/relocate here.

KEVIN CLEARY, BUCKHEAD

State officials complicit in bridge collapse

Thank you for the story of the events regarding the I-85 fire and bridge collapse (“Catastrophe exposes city’s vulnerabilities,” News, April 2). I especially appreciated the mention of the official(s) who allowed storage of flammable materials under the bridge. Without their complicity, the homeless man in question would have ignited only a chair, which would have burned out in minutes with nothing else to combust. The combination of a reckless homeless man and at least one reckless official working for whom — the department of transportation? City? County? — were both required to create this disaster, and both should be called to account for it.

PATRICIA YEARGIN, LILBURN