Twice as Vice

 Hook, line and sinker: Regarding C.J. Janovy's Kansas City Strip (June 26): Don't you guys have DANGEROUS criminals on your streets? What a waste of money entrapping escorts and their clients!

Why not just go door to door and search people's homes? Surely they'd find dangerous criminals that way, too, but Gestapo tactics are not the American way. Leaving consenting adults alone when they are in private IS the American way.

This "vice squad" is a threat to freedom, a waste of taxpayer money and an enemy of America.
Ronald Heiman
Las Vegas

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Train of Thought
Grand railroad funk: Regarding Casey Logan's piece on Clay Chastain (Kansas City Strip, June 19): I believe that Clay has been underappreciated and not taken seriously enough.

I am 21 years old and have no vehicle, due to my lack of funds. Though I have the option of riding the city bus (and have ridden it), I loathe the bus. It's never on time, it doesn't go to a variety of places, and you have to schedule your day around what time you think the bus will arrive -- or, in many cases, not arrive.

Being from the western side of KCK, I would have to hop on and off of several buses to take the bus downtown. If light rail were to connect KCK, Johnson County and downtown KCMO, I believe people would ride and there would be a flow of people into downtown and elsewhere. People need to stop looking at the financial picture and look at the idea of light rail, street cars or any other type of transportation that isn't a bus.

It is time for this area to get a shake-up in the way it lives. The residents of Kansas City, Missouri, have voted to raise taxes to support better roads more times than I can count, and lord if I can see any road improvements. I think people should try light rail, and if it does fail miserably, then they can get the satisfaction of saying "I told you so" and can get back in their nice little cars, waste more money on roads and proceed to fall into another pothole.
Name Withheld Upon Request

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Repo Depot
Drive me crazy: Allie Johnson's "Repo Men" (July 3) reminds me of her article on Shawnee Mission Ford and their corrupt dealings with car buyers ("Hell on Wheels," September 5, 2002). I hear Shawnee Mission Ford has turned over a new leaf. YEAH, RIGHT.

Is this Neil's Finance Plaza the same one that advertises on TV with the three kids assisting the father in telling how easy it is to buy a car? If it is, then the father should be real proud of himself. In my opinion, this is bordering on the grounds of child abuse. Just like parents who do drugs or are criminals, the chance that their kids will turn out the same is quite high. Similarly, the children shown in the TV ad will probably grow up to be used-car salesmen(women).

This Steve Coffin guy is a peach, too -- no wonder used-car salesmen and attorneys all come from the same mold. It is very evident that these customers are people who are down on their luck, and charging them 19 percent to 22 percent interest when in today's market you're lucky to get 2 percent on a CD ... I will bet that the Neil's folks are living high on the hog, at the expense of people who need a break, not a hosing.
Name Withheld Upon Request

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Broken Home
Good deeds done dirt cheap: Regarding Allie Johnson's "Unnatural Habitat" (June 26): The problems experienced by the Habitat for Humanity folks in dealing with dissatisfied clients is proof positive that "No good deed goes unpunished." Kelly Willoughby is learning this valuable lesson the hard way.
Kenneth Lee
Raytown

Off the wall: From the perspective of a Habitat volunteer, I read Allie Johnson's article with interest. I am disappointed that Ms. Madison has chosen such a difficult path. I am sure had she been more objective, a solution would have been achieved. At this point, she will never be satisfied.

At any rate, my objective for this writing is to pose a question preceded by a witnessed scenario: Cleaning homes part time afforded me the opportunity to be inside a myriad of price levels, from a two-bedroom apartment to a million-dollar home. Routinely in the price range of $300,000-$400,000 homes, I observe paint chips on windows and doors and cracks in the 90 degree wall angles. Questions: Are there any statistics about customer dissatisfaction with the expensive, for-hire builders? And if so, what is the final outcome?
Mae Harbor
Kansas City, Kansas

Hitting the ceiling: I thought the title of "Unnatural Habitat" was a poor choice given the content of the story. At first glance, it throws Habitat for Humanity, an organization that has benefited our community greatly, into a negative light.

What bothered me even more was that there didn't really seem to be a point to the story at all. So Habitat built budget homes as a better alternative to the Section 8 hovels low-income families were living in? And then residents actually have the nerve to complain?