Letters for November 23, 2017

Street fight

Re “In a housing shortage, too” (letters, Nov. 2):

I live in Sparks. I still live on one of the streets affected by the Pyramid/McCarran project. I would like to let Mr. Stremmel know that, according to my friends and neighbors, they received above-market value for their homes when they were relocated, plus assistance in relocating if they needed it. As to the northwest corner property, I understand that acquiring the land would also have involved the expense of a section belonging to the Catholic Church.

Many of my current neighbors are happy that we have wide sidewalks to get to the Raley’s shopping center, and that we have better lighting, landscaping and bike lanes. Now the guys at the end of the street even have a mountain view from their front yard! My only suggestion is that the RTC should put up sound-walls and sidewalks on that last little stretch of McCarran down to Baring Boulevard. Just want to get the other side of the story published, from a person who actually lives in the affected area.

Susan Allen

Sparks

A rare call for goodness

A half century ago, Ike warned us to beware of the military-industrial complex. Yet today we still ejaculate our gold-plated bombs onto our everchanging “enemy” and feed the hungry war machine.

A quarter century ago, Jimmy told us we needed to kick our oil addiction. Yet conventional oil peaked a decade ago and the low-hanging fruit is long gone. Witness tar sands, fracking, and deep ocean drilling so that we can continue to drive our fat SUVs to the store for a Slurpee, with no awareness that we will run out of affordable oil in the next 10 years—and no plans for that certain eventuality.

We decry violence, yet our media continue to latch lamprey-like onto every horror and call it breaking news for weeks until the next massacre happens.

Our info insanity continues into the evening entertainment sector where we are confronted with yet more violent programming, guns, shootings and head shots, and ponder why there is escalating gun violence.

Kids, we don’t need to make America great again. We need to make it good again.

Craig Bergland

Reno

The circle game

Whenever an attack, whether it was by a truck as in NYC or the shooting in Texas, Trump has two responses. If the attacker was an immigrant, then Trump tweets immigration reform and build-the-wall. If the attacker was white then he tweets “Let us pray for the victims.”

Neither is working. Mass shootings have been around for decades. We went through this in the Clinton years. We went through this in the Bush years. We went through this in the Obama years. And now we are going through this in the Trump years. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome. Time for sanity. When the time comes, get out and vote for people who will make a change.

Dewey Quong

Reno

Delayed reaction

Re “The doctor won’t see you now” (cover story, Nov. 28, 2013):

In response to where does the rest of the money go, your answer is overhead. The doctor still has to pay for office rent, employee payroll and taxes, health insurance, numerous government fees, malpractice insurance, general office insurance, workers compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, phone bills, utilities, office supplies, medical supplies, repairs, new equipment, etc.

These expenses are easily $40,000 to $50,000 per month under the MDVIP plan. I know, because I have a large traditional practice and my overhead, before I get paid a penny is around $60,000 to $70,000 a month. Most patients do not realize how high the overhead is on a physician office.

Gerard Mazza

Cleveland, Tennessee

Editor’s note: This letter responds to a four-year-old Jessica Santina cover story about new business models for medical offices.