Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to mail@austinchronicle.com. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    In response to the city of Austin pushing for parking meters to require $1 minimum for credit cards.
     Parking meters are another dumb idea cities and towns often use to try to get more income. However, meters do not work because it takes a lot of money to purchase, install, maintain, and collect money from them. It is counter-productive and another bad idea. It also sends the wrong message to residents and visitors.  However, if you want to charge to park, an alternative is to get rid of meters and charge one fee for a sticker to park anywhere in Austin.
     What does it take for Austin leaders to develop creative and worthwhile ideas for making money?  One way would be to trim the fat from city government, combine departments and – most of all – cut costs.  That would increase revenue immediately.

Dear Editor,
    Re: "Then There's This: MACC Attack Averted?" [News, Oct. 12]: "The city historically has had a hard time saying no to developer interests." Unfortunately, this statement is painfully true for East Austin residents. For many decades city officials have been giving into the wishes of these powerful capitalists over those of longtime residents.
    This News article also stated that Rainey Street is Austin's first known Mexican-American neighborhood. This is not true; the first Mexican-American neighborhood was actually located in West Downtown. In the 1920s, the city forcibly relocated them to the Eastside. This segregationist plan included my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents!  This News piece also referred to Rainey as a Southeast Downtown neighborhood. My family lived there from 1945-1985 and we considered it East Austin because the residents were mostly Mexican. This whole encroachment on our land and total disrespect of our people must stop. Gentrification of this type smacks of racism!

Dear Editor,
    As someone who swims at Barton Springs Pool every day and cares for preserving its natural beauty – unlike Robin Cravey who is a pseudo “friend” of the pool, I say that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for an unwarranted and unwanted renovation of the existing bathhouse would be a terrible waste of taxpayer money ["Then There's This: Pool Plan Panned and Lauded," News, Aug. 31]. When visiting the pool now, you get a great view of the springs from the existing ticket office, which would be lost if the entrance were moved. I don't want to have to enter and exit through an air-conditioned building to enter the pool grounds. Nor do I want to have to enter separately from men in order to pass through the separate dressing rooms.
    The bathhouse is never overcrowded and there is no need to renovate. Simple attention to cleaning is all that I want stepped up. This bathhouse renovation is tied in with the wasteful Barton Springs Master Plan that has threatened to cut down 80% of the tree canopy around the pool (Cravey was recorded saying, "Some of the trees will have to be sacrificed"), wasted $900,000 for a dredging project that closed the pool for months and dug a hole so small that the next season’s floods easily filled it in with new sediment, and that now proposes a Disneyland-like renovation of the south side with extensive, 6-foot-wide walkways and other obtrusive designs like an ornate new gate, bigger ticket booth, and oversized public art.
    I don't understand why Cravey's political game involves messing with Austin's crown jewel. Let’s follow the lead of the Save Our Springs Alliance and put our attention on protecting the water in the aquifer from pollution and keeping the pool open to the public seven days a week, without closing it for so-called grounds improvement.

Dear Editor,
    My question and/or request is this: Why is there not a "Best Cab Driver" category in the Chronicle's “Best of Austin ? Can you create the category? I have a vested interest in the matter. I'm a native Austinite and I've been driving a yellow cab for nearly 16 years here in Austin. All my regulars and every group of tourists I run around compliment me by saying that I'm the best cab driver they've ever had, period, anywhere. They say there should be a category for cab drivers in the Chronicle's “Best of Austin,” but there's not. Good local cab drivers really make people's nights out, weekend getaways, ACLs, SXSWs, etc. I get calls from people in England and Ireland every year asking if I'm going to be available!
    Shine some light our way! We are the people that make it safe and possible.

   [Kate X Messer, senior editor, “Best of Austin,” replies: To address such matters, we include a Wild Card category on each ballot. Use it! We read the results of this category to inform many future categories and even a number of Critics Picks winners. Be sure to check the 2012 “Best of Austin” issue when it hits the stands the week of Nov. 9.]

Dear Editor,
    We have a lot of good candidates this year. Here's how to treat them right:
    1) Find out what they are really like.
    2) Don't expect them to be God.
    3) Encourage them.
    4) Volunteer to help them with time, energy, and money.
    5) Tell everyone you know about the candidates you like, and ask your friends to vote for them. We need good legislators. Let's make it happen.

Dear Editor,
    It was good to see the article “Wine of the Week” [Oct. 12] about Texas native grapes that mentioned Munson. It is disappointing that the information had to come to you from California.
    T.V. Munson, an educated viticulturist who arrived in Texas in April, 1876, spent the rest of his life identifying and classifying many native grape varieties, as many as 200-300, depending upon which author is read. I did not know who Munson was until we wondered about the French wine-producing areas and found old plaques and statues in almost every town square honoring this guy (T.V. Munson) from Texas. It was Munson who discovered Texas native root stocks were resistant to the grape root disease phylloxera, which was destroying the wine industry in Europe. It was Munson who organized and shipped boxcar loads of Texas root stock to Europe, saving the industry.
    An article from The Dallas Morning News in the late 1970s states about Munson, "Few Americans have heard of Munson, who bred and developed more than 200 grape varieties at the end of the 19th century. But in Europe where he is credited with saving the wine industry, he is a hero." To this day, French wines are grown, and grafted, on Texas root stocks.
    “Thus vineyards of the El Paso (or Mission) grapes were established in Texas at least one hundred years before vineyards appeared in California.” At the turn of the last century there were more active vineyards in Texas (due in large part to the early Spanish missions) than there were in California. However, all the vineyards, except the Val Verde Winery in Del Rio, died out during Prohibition in the 1930s. Val Verde remained viable by providing holy wine to the Catholics in Texas and Mexico. Incidentally, the Wiederkehr Wine Cellars (est. 1880) in Altus, Ark., made it through Prohibition by selling holy wines to the nearby Subiaco Abbey Benedictines.
    It is a shame that Texas has not honored T.V. Munson more as the father of Texas viticulture. We should have a monument to Munson on the state capitol grounds!
    “I had found my grape paradise! Surely, now, I thought, this is the place for experimentation with grapes.” T.V. Munson, 1876; from Frank Giordano, Texas Wines and Wineries, Texas Monthly Press, 1984, introduction.

   [Wes Marshall replies: Thank you for your kind letter. I appreciate you reading the article. I agree that Munson was quite an important figure in saving Europe’s vineyards. I have had sections on Munson in both of my books about Texas wine. I was pleased that Mr. Grahm was going to pay attention to these grapes that Munson loved so much. Most Texas winemakers don’t get a chance to try working with any of the native grapes because there is insufficient research being done in our Texas universities, so they end up using hybrid grapes developed in other states. Hopefully Grahm will discover something. If you are ever in Denison, there is a study program and small museum to Munson at Grayson County Community College. It is called the T.V. Munson School of Viticulture and Enology.]  

Dear Editor,
    Re: "Med School Campaign Goes High-Speed" [News, Oct. 12]: Just for the record, I consider myself an Independent voter. But I couldn't help but notice how many Democratic groups are supporting Proposition 1. I would just like to thank them all from the bottom of my wallet for supporting this proposition. I would like to thank them all for wanting to raise my taxes. This is what you seem to do best. Thank you, Democrats, for making this already expensive town an even more expensive one in which to live. Funny, but the day this article came out, I went to my mailbox and found a flier which states that 15,000 jobs would be created by the passing of this proposition. Oh, really? Probably some of these new employees might even be able to purchase a home here – that is, if they can afford the new taxes, along with all the old taxes. I have a slogan for all those proponents of Proposition 1: Ad valorem increase … ad infinitum. Is this really the only way to fund (what seems to me) a huge make-work project? Oh, you can bet I'll be going all the way down the ballot looking for this one! Looking to cancel out Sen. Kirk Watson's vote.

Dear Editor,
    Some people will vote Republican. They think the economy is recovering too slowly, but they'll vote to continue the tax cuts and deregulations that got us into this mess. They feel that unemployment is too high, but they'll vote for the guy who made his fortune closing American companies and offshoring jobs to China. They want to lower unemployment, but they'll vote for the party that blocked Obama's jobs bill. They support smaller government, but they'll vote for the party that will intrude government into every woman's private medical choices. They get angry every time their medical insurance goes up, but they'll vote for making Medicare a private insurance voucher system. They worry about their retirement savings, but they'll vote for the candidates who say Social Security recipients are "moochers," and propose cutting payments. They are concerned about the growing deficit, but they'll vote for reducing tax revenue from the very rich, and increasing Pentagon purchases above what the military wants or needs.
    They believe America's reputation is No. 1, but they'll vote for the party that threatened to lower our nation's credit rating just to preserve tax breaks for the richest. They hate special tax loopholes, but they'll vote for the guy who pays 13% tax on his income while the rest of us pay up to 35%. They want leaders to obey the law, but they'll vote for the candidate who won't release his tax returns, which may reveal that he's hiding income in offshore banks. They know the war in Iraq was a wasteful failure, but they'll vote for the guy who'd start a war with Iran. They understand that science can help us repair the environment, so they'll support the party that denies evolution and global warming. Go figure.

Dear Chronicle,
    I know your paper is liberal in its politics, but is there a reason why Richard Whittaker [“Can Dems Flip the Suburbs?,” News, Oct. 12] made sure to mention that Democrat Chris Frandsen in House District 47 is an "infantry veteran" while somehow leaving out the fact that Republican Tony Dale in HD 136 (and his wife) are veterans of the U.S. Army? I personally know that Tony Dale's service is something of which he is rightly proud. He has consistently been an advocate and supporter of veterans and military members in our community. Surely, this was just an unbiased oversight on your part, right?

P.S. p.s. Lakeline and Brushy Creek aren't towns.

   [Richard Whittaker replies: Tony Dale's military service is a matter of public record, but this was an article about the Democrats in the race and how Democrats are approaching these races, rather than a full examination of all candidates.]

Dear Editor,
    Concerning the imminent Supreme Court case involving Abigail Fisher versus the University of Texas, I don't want to talk about how irrelevant the term “affirmative action” is when you have average scores (Abigail's SAT scores – 1180) and aren't ranked within the top 10 percentile of your school (read UT's “Top Ten” policy). I also don't want to talk about how she benefits from de facto affirmative action by virtue of her white skin and middle class upbringing. I really feel for her. After all, her dreams were crushed.
    “The only thing I missed out on was my post-graduation years,” she said. “Just being in a network of UT graduates would have been a really nice thing to be in. And I probably would have gotten a better job offer had I gone to UT.”
    I mean, this was a girl who just wanted to go to the magical University of Texas where you land your dream job upon graduating.
    I propose this. Do you remember the movie Never Been Kissed, starring America's sweetheart Drew Barrymore? How about The Austin Chronicle hire her as a journalist who infiltrates the UT campus and gets the real story on what goes on during those undergrad years? It's a win-win. You get a series of great, raw stories about an “undergrad's" (shh, it's our little secret) first encounters with pho, the intricacies of friend-zoning a male friend, and how hard it is to get a parking space. But let's not forget about her. She gets something that most can only dream of: redemption, a chance to start anew. Like all great American stories, this has a happy ending: a job that pays $65,000 versus $57,000 and bragging rights to all those fat-cat, high-achieving minorities.