Letters to the Editor 

Canadian Perspective

I am a recent transplant from Burlington to Toronto and thoroughly enjoyed [“Hi Ho, Ontario!” January 11], though I thought I might point out a few things.

First, it’s Gerrard Street — not Gerard Street — for those looking to find Little India using mapping software to find their way. Also, we are thrilled that you found the Mill Street Brewery, as the Tankhouse Ale is a favorite, and particularly thrilled you found Ontario Spring Water Sake Company, a brilliant local product of global quality. (Seven Days had it as the Ontario Spring Sake Water Company.)

I hope the readers appreciate that any city of 2.7 million that is 85 percent immigrant is going to have frighteningly large quantities of ethnic food options. Luckily, there are many things to do between meals that don’t involve other meals: free ice skating; traditional music sessions in pubs; heck, these folks even have a queen. I hope Americans who hop the Porter flights do more than import American gluttony north of the border.

Rob Rohr

Toronto, Ontario

Abuse Extends to Classifieds

While I appreciate your spotlight on animal welfare [“Is Vermont Failing Its Livestock? A Tale of Two Animal-Abuse Cases,” December 14, and “State Police Seize Six Malnourished Horses from Jeffersonville Man,” Blurt, January 10], I do not appreciate seeing classified advertisements in your paper allowing pets to be sold for profit, and usually not neutered. Will your newspaper be following up on the welfare of the potential hundreds of pups those dogs could sire?

Leah Korce

Jericho

Get Moving, South Burlington

[Re “South Burlington Considers a Development Moratorium — Again,” January 11]: Supporters of the interim-zoning bylaw suggest that city planners need two years “to put the finishing touches on a new, five-year comprehensive plan.” Really? You need two years just to finish up a five-year plan? Does that mean that in seven years, you’ll need another two years again? Come on!

You can’t put the world on pause for two years while you take your sweet time to figure out your “finishing touches.” Businesses can’t press pause on their budgets, salaries, financial planning, growth strategies or debt service on property they have already purchased and planned to develop. That anyone in South Burlington is even requesting such a fantastical concept as pausing the world in the first place shows where the real problem is: Bureaucrats live in a fantasy land where the real challenges of residents and businesspeople don’t apply. City planners need to get it together and make faster — and maybe more imperfect — decisions. They need to live in the real world, just like every resident and business, where things move faster than you can keep up with, and you just have to make the best decision you can with the time that you have. Stopping time is simply not a choice. No matter how city council votes, businesses and residents need rules under which they can develop and plan developments. If city planners don’t understand that and they can’t work with that, then they should be replaced with qualified candidates who can.

Jonny Adler

Burlington

There’s More to the South Burlington Story...

Ken Picard’s article only scratches the surface of the motivations for the interim-zoning proposal [“South Burlington Considers a Development Moratorium — Again,” January 11]. No mention is made of Sandra Dooley’s antidevelopment obsession driven by her 20-plus-year opposition to the Cupola Golf Course development in her back yard. Little is mentioned about Roseanne Greco’s antigrowth ideology. Nothing is mentioned about Meaghan Emery’s opposition to the continued growth of the airport and the National Guard.

Responsible people with different views can respectfully debate the pros and cons of growth and its impacts. This is a “forever” type process, which is democratically facilitated through the zoning and planning process. These councilors are not satisfied with this process. This proposal is a power grab. They think they know better than everyone else what is good for our community. They are attempting to hijack the zoning and planning process to impose their will through interim zoning.

It is a scary thought that three people can exercise this kind of power to satisfy their own objectives. They are supposed to serve, not be served!

Michael Simoneau

South Burlington

Editor’s note: Andy Bromage wrote an article about Sandra Dooley last summer, when South Burlington last considered restricting development. The July 13 story was titled, “Is a Conflict of Interest Behind South Burlington’s Development Slowdown?”

Shot in the Dark

Although public health officials would have you believe otherwise, flu shots do far more harm than good, with far more adverse reactions [“Flu Shot or Not? State Health Officials Warn Against ‘Alarmist’ Reaction to Young Girl’s Death,” January 11]. These injections come from contaminated chicken embryos, which contain retroviruses, recombinant DNA strands; aluminum, a known neurotoxin; and mercury — the second most toxic thing on the planet next to plutonium. There are several other extremely harmful elements in their makeup, as well. Getting this toxic cocktail actually injures your immune system and can create a host of auto-immune issues. Doctors and state health officials repeatedly parrot how safe and effective these vaccines are, but the truth is, only 1 percent of all adverse vaccine reactions are ever reported, since it is the doctors who administer these shots themselves who have to make the actual report. Ninety-nine percent of the time they say any bad reaction, including paralysis and death, is just coincidence. Anyone who takes the time to do any real research on the ingredients and methods of manufacture of these shots would run at full speed in the other direction if they saw an MD coming at them with a needle. Vaccines are a $25 billion industry with an annual growth rate of 12 percent. Need I say more?

Julia Kunkowski

Chittenden

CORRECTION:

Last week in our State of the Arts story “In Montpelier and St. Johnsbury, Arts Alliances Take Shape,” we misspelled the name of CALM spokesperson Steve Falbel. Our apologies for the error.