Unfettered Letters

Paseo Bridge needs bike lane

I had always expected gasoline prices to set new records, but I still was shocked to spend more than $4 a gallon. Then the Big Three automakers simultaneously needing a bailout certainly was a bigger surprise than that.

Paseo Bridge project director Brian Kidwell needs to take a close look at current events and stop thinking of cycling as recreational (11/18, FYI, “Cyclists push for right of passage; New Paseo Bridge over the river will not have a bike/pedestrian lane”). It’s beyond that for a lot of people, and a dedicated Paseo Bridge bike and pedestrian lane is a definite worthy cause. It’s certainly not too late in the planning to take care of this.

Out in here in the backwoods (Independence) better foresight has been shown. When the Bundschu Bridge was rebuilt a couple of years back, it received dedicated walkways going both ways. And this is in an area that is probably decades from development.

I think the record gas prices will be back sooner than later. The money for the bike lane can be found and would benefit more and more people for years to come.

Mark Breeding
Independence

Red Bridge project

As a Red Bridge Road area resident, I appreciate the public input process that the city undertook with BWR (Bucher Willis & Ratliff Corp.) consultants.

It showed the true consensus in the area for a real bridge over the railroad tracks and Blue River with at least a three-lane road, sidewalk and trail from Holmes to Grandview Road.

I ask our city leaders to help the project move forward per the BWR study and take the “Friends of Red Bridge” group input for what it is — a minority opinion that does not reflect reality.

Dan Packard
Kansas City

The new Paseo Bridge

In regard to the suggestion to name the renovated Paseo Bridge Buck O’Neil Bridge (1/19, Letters, “Name It for Buck”), I would like to suggest another option. Buck O’Neil and Kit Bond definitely are entitled to a park, street or a building named after them, but the magnificent bridge should be dedicated to our real heroes, those who put their lives on the line for us. Consider: “U.S. Armed Forces Bridge” or “Veteran Bridge,” or if local patriotism prevails, “Missouri National Guard Bridge.”
Moreover, I suggest having an open competition for the appropriate name. Let students debate, vote and submit their class suggestion. And the prize for the winner: having the honor to cut the ribbon when the bridge opens.
Uri S. Alon
Overland Park

I have nothing against Kit Bond. I do object, however, to naming after him the new, gorgeous Paseo Bridge.
We have the Kauffman Stadium, and now the in-progress Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. And there is the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Kennedy Space Center, as well as Kennedy Airport, not to mention the myriad of high schools, junior high schools, middle schools, etc., named after dead presidents.
It seems that we Americans have some kind of a fetish involving the names of popular structures. And now it’s the Paseo Bridge replacement.
Why not simply name it the New Paseo Bridge? Is it too late?
George Robb
Kansas City

I totally agree that the Kansas City community should wholly endorse Peg Ekerdt’s suggestion (11/19, Letters) and honor our beloved late Kansas Citian Buck O’Neil by naming the Paseo Bridge for the community’s highly esteemed “bridge builder.” Ekerdt’s idea should rally Buck’s friends and allies to this important cause. What a brilliant idea!
Norge W. Jerome
Shawnee

There has been some measure of brouhaha in the last few days over the design of the proposed new Paseo Bridge. I wish to point out that the bridge from Charleston, S.C., to Mt. Pleasant (Patriot’s Point), S.C., is basically the same design and twice as big as the new proposal. While I would welcome such a bridge as proposed, it will not be anything new.
Aaron Peters
Atchison, Kan.