Mayor Truax,

Would it be too much to ask you to place the question of whether we want light rail in Forest Grove on the November ballot? With all the problems it brings and with its exorbitant price tag, I think it should be the people of Forest Grove -- and not you alone -- to decide if we want this boondoggle.

Before you start spending our money -- and make no mistake, the money Obama is printing is still our money -- can you first fix all the broken sidewalks in the Old Town?

Don't you know or refuse to accept that light rail is the least efficient mode of transportation? The traffic congestion never improves because the rail doesn't go where people want to go. More importantly, this thing is just insanely expensive. You could build another TV highway, put several buses on it and still have some money left to fix the street in front of my house. There is a huge pothole that fills with water whenever it rains; I've been complaining about it for 10 years now but nobody cares. I guess the problem is too pedestrian for you.

If you want to erect another monument to government arrogance and your own vanity, here is an idea. Pave the rails over, paint some stripes and, look, there is a bike lane; you can even call it after yourself. How about Truaxway? You will solve two problems: you will take crazy cyclists off the TV Highway and forever bury the temptation for the ruling class to flush our money down the rail.

-- the Polish Immigrant

Winged words. I wish we had a hundred like him.