LETTERS: Special interests keep monorail from airport

Monorail hurdles

The article on a possible monorail extension to McCarran International Airport was a laughable example of reporting in this city (“Monorail to McCarran? Still too expensive, executive says,” Saturday Review-Journal). As a former employee of McCarran and a Las Vegas resident, it is apparent to me that the “old boy network” in Las Vegas is the main reason we lack a monorail link from the Strip to the airport.

Instead, the article sets forth the path of gold for the monorail: a link to Mandalay Bay. (Keep on scratching the backs of the corporations.) Don’t think for a second the cab companies would like to free us from their exhaust-belching vehicles that clog the roadways, or that Rosemary Vassiliadis, director of aviation at McCarran, would like to give up those high parking revenues. Yes, too many long-haul cab rides and too much airport parking revenue are at stake should the monorail be extended to the airport terminals.

The costs to construct Terminal 3 at McCarran were huge and have paid off with increased international arrivals. Going into our future, it’s absurd for those travelers to rely on antiquated transportation to and from the airport.

It seems ideas that move forward in Las Vegas depend wholly on whose pockets get lined. I’m pretty certain Las Vegas Monorail President and CEO Curtis Myles would never dream of putting an airport extension up to a vote by valley residents. He doesn’t need our opinion; his mind is made up and paid for. If residents and business owners of our city are willing to accept the status quo, then we deserve to live with it.

Dan Zelna

Las Vegas

Curbing homicide

The Review-Journal reported 129 people were killed and more than 350 were wounded in the recent attack by terrorists in Paris (“Attacks are ‘act of war,'” Sunday Review-Journal). People are rightly concerned that such an attack could happen in the United States.

While it pains the heart and mind to hear about such heinous acts, to put this in perspective, the American people should consider that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports there are more than 17,000 violent homicides each year in the United States, perpetrated by our citizens on one another. And the system only covers statistics for 32 of our 50 states.

While we are now aware of and increasingly concerned about attacks from outside radical groups, we should also try to do something to prevent attacks right here between our own citizens. Broadly speaking, for example, we could all pitch in to improve our public education system and increase the availability of meaningful work at a living wage. People with kids in a good school, food on the table and a roof over their head are not nearly as prone to be violent.

Charles Parrish

Las Vegas

Keystone pipeline

The editorial on the Keystone XL oil pipeline was right on (“Keystone cop-out,” Saturday Review-Journal). This was another poor decision by President Barack Obama. He is against higher-paying job growth, preferring to keep people on the government dole and increasing our ever-growing federal debt.

Where is the national media on the Keystone decision? We need new, higher-paying jobs, so why aren’t the trade unions raising heck over this move? It is much safer to ship oil through a pipeline than by rail. Are the railroads in the Obama administration’s pocket?

Finally, where is the Republican-majority House and Senate on this issue? This is further proof that our elected officials and party leaders are, as Donald Trump says, “incompetent idiots.” Mr. Trump and Carly Fiorina are right — we need leadership, not the ineffective malaise currently running our country into the ground. I applaud the Review-Journal’s stance on the pipeline. Might I suggest that such editorials be placed on the front page?

John Turzer

Henderson