On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Senate voted "no" to the so-called Smoke-Free Pennsylvania Act ("Smoking Ban Put in Doubt Again," June 5). Allegheny County senators were among those to disapprove the bill -- not because they disagree with the need for clean indoor air, but because they want to preserve the right of Allegheny County to enact stronger, more effective local laws.

The proposed state law contains a confusing web of exemptions that leave many workers unprotected. Our local legislators need the authority to do better. We need simple, strong laws that require clean indoor air for every business and will protect all workers from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Such laws are easier to enforce because patrons and business owners alike know and understand the rules.

STEPHANIE LAND, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Reduce Smoking and Exposure to Tobacco (ReSET) Center
University of Pittsburgh
DONALD S. BURKE, M.D.
Dean
Graduate School of Public Health
University of Pittsburgh
Oakland

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Kudos to the Allegheny County senators who voted against the report of the conference committee ("Smoking Ban Put in Doubt Again," June 5). Complicated though it may seem to some, a vote of "no" by our delegation was not as it might seem: a vote against a smoke-free law for Pennsylvania. It was actually a vote that said to the conference committee: not good enough.

Not only is SB 246 as crafted by the conference committee riddled with exemptions that leave thousands of Pennsylvania workers exposed to secondhand smoke in the workplace, it also denies Allegheny County the same privilege provided to Philadelphia, that being the ability to retain its stronger, more comprehensive law. Essentially, the conference committee has ignored the second-largest metropolitan area in the state, relegating the people of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County to the status of second-class citizens.

Allegheny County should be proud of its senators for seeing the big picture and understanding that the conference committee report lacked comprehensive language and local control and should be revised.

CINDY THOMAS
Executive Director
Tobacco Free Allegheny
North Side

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Twenty-four states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have passed smoke-free laws that cover restaurants and bars. The states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa (effective July 1), Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana (extends to bars Sept. 1, 2009), Nebraska (June 1, 2009), New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon (Jan. 1, 2009), Rhode Island, Utah (extends to bars Jan. 7, 2009), Vermont and Washington.

Internationally, a growing number of countries have enacted nationwide smoke-free laws. These include Bermuda, Bhutan, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Uruguay. Most Canadian provinces/territories and Australian states/territories have also enacted such laws.

Where is Pennsylvania? To the state Legislature, particularly the Senate: Please do something now, even if the compromise does not satisfy many on either side of the issue. It is a start, people.

Please let's finally join the rest of the human race on this issue.

MICHAEL P. DEASY
Squirrel Hill

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Vicki Guy has written from personal experience about how public transit adds to the quality of life in Vienna ("A Desire Named Streetcar," May 25 Forum). Ms. Guy needs to realistically look at five major considerations:

1) Europeans are miles ahead of us in addressing the need to conserve energy while lessening traffic snarls;

2) Americans have a love affair with their automobiles that assures them privacy and comfort -- public transit isn't "cool";

3) Politics, too much influenced by oil and highway interests, have dictated transit decisions in the past;

4) To develop regional transit, 130-plus communities need to merge into a County of Pittsburgh entity, which politics will never allow;

5) The Internet could render obsolete a central business district since much business can be done at home from a computer, negating the need for a downtown and a need to get to it. Europeans don't seem to be obsessed with computers.

Short of making one-person, one-car commuting a felony, punishable by confiscation of one's ear pods, popularizing public transit is an uphill battle. When the U.S. Steel building and others become condos, and Downtown is primarily karaoke bars and trendy coffee houses, mass transit will be unnecessary. A central business district trolley loop will facilitate bar hopping. Cars should, of course, have laptops and video games to assure that riders are not bored by conversation with other human beings.

DON ANDERSON
Bethel Park

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What cities like Vienna with world-class transportation systems appear to have in common are excellent light rail/trolley support systems ("A Desire Named Streetcar," May 25 Forum).

You don't have to go to Vienna to find one. I recently returned from San Francisco. It has the light-rail Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) and the San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI), which includes buses that connect seamlessly with the rail and trolley service. Other assorted transit systems also connect seamlessly with BART. You can transfer between BART and the MUNI system at many BART stations in San Francisco.

Trip planning information for all of the Bay area transit systems is available from one source at telephone number 511 or online at 511.org.

Pittsburgh has a light-rail service between Downtown and the South Hills and is extending it to the North Shore. Expanding the rail system in place of the HOV lane along 279 North and along the Martin Luther King Expressway in place of buses would enable the Port Authority to develop two additional corridors for a rail-based system that could provide the same level of service found in cities with world-class transit like San Francisco and Vienna. Bus service would complement the rail service by acting as feeder lines to the rail, as is done in San Francisco. A line to the airport could provide the fourth spoke on a regional system that would tie the western area more closely to the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

Tying the region together by rail would provide a world-class transportation net that could encourage prospective employers to locate to an area that already has world-class educational, high-tech and medical resources.

MARC YERGIN
Squirrel Hill

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Your May 11 article on Burton Morris ("Burton Is Back") did not show Burton the proper respect he deserves. I was Burton's business manager for a little more than a year. In addition, I am a collector and student of contemporary art.

Basic due diligence on Burton would have turned up the following: Burton has had exhibitions in museums around the world, including one at Sotheby's of Amsterdam. Only serious artists are afforded the luxury of museum shows.

You could make the argument that Burton was influenced by a number of well-known artists of past generations; what artist isn't? The only difference with Burton and the group of artists you refer to as "critics' darlings" is that virtually all of these artists in this category are either dead or have been creating art for as long as they are old. Many artists never make a living or get recognized by the critics until they are dead. Look at Jackson Pollock.

You cited a quote from Donald Miller about Keith Haring. He stated that the ability of an artist to continue inventing is the mark of a master, referring to Haring. Proper research would show it was not until Haring was already famous that he changed his style, and only then, slightly.

Above all, unfortunately, the part that you have so completely missed about Burton Morris is his relentless pursuit of art: his extreme and incredible generosity of his art locally and abroad; his willingness to sit with a smile with a group of teenagers who will never buy his artwork for the sake of art, so that perhaps just one aspiring artist might see Burton's success and pursue his or her own dream. The ability to provoke and influence is art in its truest form.

One final thought that I would raise: If Burton Morris is not a "critics' darling," then why would the Post-Gazette devote two full pages to Burton, including the cover of the Sunday Arts section?

HOWARD SWIMMER
Squirrel Hill

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