Kymberleigh Richards

Re "Citing Valley Advocacy, Riordan Names Bernson to MTA Board," Oct. 7. While I applaud Mayor Richard Riordan for recognizing that the Valley needs a voice in local transit decisions, I question whether he can legally appoint City Councilman Hal Bernson to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board of directors. Paragraph (C) of Public Utilities Code section 130051, which is the law that created and governs the MTA, very clearly states that the mayor's appointees must be "two public members and one member of the City Council of the City of Los Angeles."

Re "Citing Valley Advocacy, Riordan Names Bernson to MTA Board," Oct. 7. While I applaud Mayor Richard Riordan for recognizing that the Valley needs a voice in local transit decisions, I question whether he can legally appoint City Councilman Hal Bernson to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board of directors. Paragraph (C) of Public Utilities Code section 130051, which is the law that created and governs the MTA, very clearly states that the mayor's appointees must be "two public members and one member of the City Council of the City of Los Angeles."

Re "MTA Trims Fees for Bike-Toting Riders," Jan. 28. [The Valley] section carried a report that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is eliminating the annual fee to carry one's bicycle on Metro Rail, with a spokeswoman saying "there are a number of people who travel to work by bicycle." Yet the article goes on to report that MTA's Cycle Express program does not allow cyclists to board Metro Rail with their bikes during rush-hour periods. Left hand, meet right hand. Right hand, meet left hand.

Regarding "No Mass Transit System Can Defy Society's Trends," editorial, Aug. 2: I take exception to your suggestion that the current MTA board should be replaced by "a board composed of elected local officials in their final term of office . . . along with acknowledged experts in the field." One of the greatest deficiencies in the present configuration of MTA's board of directors is a lack of accountability to the agency's constituency. Six of the directors are there by virtue of holding other offices (the mayor of Los Angeles and the five county supervisors)

Regarding "No Mass Transit System Can Defy Society's Trends," editorial, Aug. 2: I take exception to your suggestion that the current MTA board should be replaced by "a board composed of elected local officials in their final term of office . . . along with acknowledged experts in the field." One of the greatest deficiencies in the present configuration of MTA's board of directors is a lack of accountability to the agency's constituency. Six of the directors are there by virtue of holding other offices (the mayor of Los Angeles and the five county supervisors)

Your Dec. 4 editorial concludes with the statement "An overhaul that better serves the Valley's bus riders is long overdue." What the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has failed to tell the Valley's transit users is that the basis for the overhaul is already finished. In September, a study on restructuring public transit service in the Valley--begun more than two years previous, back in the days of MTA's predecessors, the RTD and the County Transportation Commission--was presented to the MTA Board of Directors after countless public hearings, meetings with community leaders and on-board ridership surveys.

On June 8, The Times Valley Edition published letters from Richard Stanger, executive director of the agency that operates Metrolink, and Supervisor Michael Antonovich, presenting contrasting views of how a cross-Valley rail line should proceed. Stanger provides the historical perspective of the acquisition of the Burbank-Chandler right of way from Southern Pacific. It should also be noted that the route that has been adopted for the Valley rail line--on more than one vote by the MTA board--is Burbank-Chandler.

Re "NASA is target of doomsday anxiety," Dec. 20 NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown says he'll be glad when Saturday comes and the questions end. Personally, I expect Harold Camping to announce on Saturday that the Mayans miscalculated the date. Kymberleigh Richards Van Nuys ALSO: Letters: Dealing with Hamas Letters: A tantrum by the rich Letters: When dying isn't easy

In his article on "Dateline NBC" ("No Slow News Days Here," Oct. 11), Robert Strauss says that "no one has ever before produced five hours of prime-time network programming a week." He fails to mention that ABC came very close during the fall of 1952, when it had 4 1/2 hours of "All Star News" (Sundays and Wednesdays 8-9, Mondays 9-10, Thursdays 8-8:30 and Friday 8:30-9:30) in prime time. Granted, this ambitious early news effort failed in the ratings against such blockbuster competition as Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town," "I Love Lucy," Arthur Godfrey, Burns & Allen and Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life."

A panel of citizens and public officials overseeing bus service in the San Fernando Valley will hold its first public meeting tonight at the Van Nuys Library. The agenda will include the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's plans for Valley bus routes and the effect of the state budget crisis on local transit. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. The library is at 6250 Sylmar Ave.

On June 8, The Times Valley Edition published letters from Richard Stanger, executive director of the agency that operates Metrolink, and Supervisor Michael Antonovich, presenting contrasting views of how a cross-Valley rail line should proceed. Stanger provides the historical perspective of the acquisition of the Burbank-Chandler right of way from Southern Pacific. It should also be noted that the route that has been adopted for the Valley rail line--on more than one vote by the MTA board--is Burbank-Chandler.

Re "MTA Trims Fees for Bike-Toting Riders," Jan. 28. [The Valley] section carried a report that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is eliminating the annual fee to carry one's bicycle on Metro Rail, with a spokeswoman saying "there are a number of people who travel to work by bicycle." Yet the article goes on to report that MTA's Cycle Express program does not allow cyclists to board Metro Rail with their bikes during rush-hour periods. Left hand, meet right hand. Right hand, meet left hand.

Your Dec. 4 editorial concludes with the statement "An overhaul that better serves the Valley's bus riders is long overdue." What the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has failed to tell the Valley's transit users is that the basis for the overhaul is already finished. In September, a study on restructuring public transit service in the Valley--begun more than two years previous, back in the days of MTA's predecessors, the RTD and the County Transportation Commission--was presented to the MTA Board of Directors after countless public hearings, meetings with community leaders and on-board ridership surveys.

I just finished reading Michael Walker's fascinating article on the history of credit cards ("Charge!" June 30), and I am profoundly upset that he failed to include the answer to the trivia question he posed in the article, as to whether C. F. Frost (the name on the American Express card in their advertising) really existed? Kymberleigh Richards Van Nuys Walker's reply: Charles F. Frost is a former executive of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, producer of Amex's original "Do You Know Me?"

Gregg B. White's suggestion in Counterpunch Letters ("Try Scrambling the TV Signal," Aug. 2) has a fatal flaw. Even if the Federal Communications Commission were receptive to such a proposal (and I doubt that it would be, since the public airwaves are designed to be received without obstacle by all) and there were some way to finance the installation of the millions of de-scramblers necessary, the technology would be incompatible with equipment in place on the several dozen cable systems serving the Los Angeles metropolitan area.