PLEASE, KEEP THE WARM LIGHTS

The other night I took my international exchange students to the high end of the High Bridge for the most beautiful view of St. Paul.

A lookout that is beautiful any time of year (thanks to volunteers who take care of the gardens in the summer). The students were dazzled.

It is truly spectacular at night. The GOLDEN lights of the city reflecting on the river and throughout the neighborhoods is warm and reminds one of a European city at night. Please — mayor, city council and whoever will be making decisions regarding lighting of the city — do not incorporate blue/white LED lighting. It will effectively destroy the very character of St. Paul.

LEDs can be warm and golden. The trend in some neighborhoods to cold white LEDs has already infiltrated the city. Let’s stop it before it is irreversible.

Rick Halverson, Vadnais Heights

STARVED SOULS

If the eye is the “window to the soul” how many starved souls are there? So-called “smart” phones have radically (perhaps irrevocably) diminished eye-to-eye contact. If everyone becomes a slave to their phone our souls will be lost indeed!

Ann Redding, Minneapolis

LET’S MAKE A DEAL, MR. WALZ

Well, here we go. I admit I was surprised that a Democrat dominated our state governor race. I mean, who would vote for tax hikes? Another lesson learned.

So, now that we know the gas tax will be hiked for our own benefit, to go along with my garbage collection rates going up for our benefit, and I can imagine how much other taxes and fees will increase. For those of us living on our Social Security pension, these increases hurt us a lot more than high income workers.

We all paid Social Security tax our entire working life, only to be taxed on it again as income in our retirement years. Now you want to increase another tax.

The new governor supports a $15 an hour minimum wage, claiming $15 / hour is the minimum a family must have to afford the essentials, so I did some figuring.

A full-time worker earning $15 an hour, it equals $2,600 a month. So Mr. Walz, let’s make a deal. Until the minimum Social Security check equals $2,600 a month, do not increase our basic cost of living with your gas tax increase, or any other tax that affects the lower-income folks disproportionally.

You might also consider not placing an income tax on Social Security income, most other states don’t.

Mike Miller, St. Paul