Parking Spaces Still Blocked By Snow Piles

Editor,

Twice in three days last week, I took my business elsewhere because I could not get a parking space at the Broaddale Shopping Center in the City of Falls Church.

This place is always tight on parking, but now at least 10 spaces are full of dirty snow.

It's been over two weeks since the last storm. Does the property owner not know about front loaders? Or perhaps he or she could put some folks to work with shovels and a pickup truck to clear the spaces. If I owned a business in that shopping center, I would not be pleased about losing customers to other businesses. There are multiple other Hair Cutterys, Starbucks, and Jerry's for people to patronize outside the City.

That's where I went instead.

Is this another example of the City of Falls Church being friendly to small business?

Chris Raymond

Falls Church

Stop Signs Are Better Than Speed Bumps

Editor,

The recent destruction of speed bumps on East Columbia Street by snow plows, written about in a February 18 News-Press Letter to the Editor, shows the inherent weakness of nailing anything into our streets because we've ended up with sharp metal objects protruding from the road.

Why don't we replace the speed humps and bumps with stop signs?

Placing stop signs at every intersection and street junction will slow down traffic and keep our community safe ... and, if it's legal, we should install stop signs in the middle of long blocks like E. Columbia St., Hillwood Ave., and Cherry St.

Scot Walker

Falls Church

Thanks Good Samaritans For Help After Metro Fall

Editor,

I would like to express my gratitude to the five or six good Samaritans who came to my aid on last Thursday, Feb. 18. I was coming down the escalator at the East Falls Church Metro around 5 p.m., someone behind me fell into me and I was suddenly pushed face down, head first onto the moving escalator. The crowd around me sprang into action and several men and one woman picked me up and got me off and away from danger.

These wonderful people formed a protective circle around me and stayed with me until the paramedics arrived. Fortunately my dislocated elbow, cuts and bruises are healing.

I wish I could thank each one personally, but I was unable to get their names. A heartfelt thank you to those truly caring people who helped me.

Frances Ventis

Falls Church

Praises Column Hailing Effort of Johnny Weir

Editor,

Thank you so much for your column on Johnny Weir. I think that your inclusion of Sarah Hughes' comments further clarified and underlined the intention of the article. They all work so hard for those few minutes of microscopic judgment. There are more and more injuries from training for the quad. Having "walked off" several injuries myself, resulting in permanent injuries...in other arenas of life, I would never do it again. I know gymnasts in their late 20's having foot reconstructions from injuries sustained in training for competitions too.

Most U.S. skaters haven't been trained to skate since they were toddlers. But in some other countries, children are taken from their families...their parents honored by the selection of their child. Chosen and trained under state-run and financed programs, their developing muscles and emotions were so specifically trained that they became robotic skaters lacking soul.

Indeed, "Weir exhibits the most fluid poetry of motion, consciously elevating the sport's artistic elements over its purely athletic ones. Weir exhibits the most fluid poetry of motion, consciously elevating the sport's artistic elements over its purely athletic ones."

Thank you for remaining an empathetic and observant member of the human race.

Patricia Friesen

Washington State