[Regarding Geov Parrish’s “This Year’s Local Ballot, Part Two,” October 2012:] Thanks for the no on [Initiative] 1240 (charter schools).

Just to note, Washington state voters have actually said no three times, not twice.

And I hope on Nov. 7, we can all say it was four (and that 4 is the charm).

Charters don’t work. We underfund our existing schools, and [Initiative] 1240 is vague and hurts schools and taxpayers. Melissa Westbrook, Chair, No On 1240 campaign

Thanks for your timely opinion piece in the October issue of City Living Seattle. I agree completely with the idea that “2.7-plus is a Must for African-American Students” (by Charlie James).

I’m a retired Army officer and retired trainman with a degree in math. I’ve also tutored math. I’m willing to volunteer a bit of time (perhaps one or two evenings a week) to tutor math and basic writing as part of the Campaign for Educational Excellence.

Mauris Emeka, Bremerton, Wash.

I appreciated your recent transportation-related article in the City Living Seattle paper: “Bring Back the Ride Free Area — or Something Like It” (by Clark Humphrey, October 2012).

Members of the University District Community Council and the neighborhood groups represented by the North East District Council have endorsed an idea proposed by a local neighbor Philip Thiel (architect, professor emeritus, 50-year U-District resident).

The location of the U-District Sound Transit station is an excellent opportunity for a public plaza, instead of yet another tall building. The area is similar in size to many of the public plazas in Europe and offers the opportunity to retain some human scale to the development forced on neighborhoods by the new zoning (Transit-Oriented Development) promoted by our mayor, zoning department (Department of Planning and Development) and Sound Transit.

If this is a topic of interest to you I’m sure Mr. Thiel would be willing to talk with you. Our group promoting this park idea in the heart of the District would appreciate the press. Steve Wilkins, University District

When my wife and I were married in a Baptist church in 2006, we offered the following statement at the bottom of our program: “Samara and Ned recognize that their ability to marry is a privilege, and they pray for a day when their friends who are in committed same-sex relationships are afforded the same rights and privileges that they enter into today.”

At the time, it felt right but also inconsequential. We love all of our friends dearly and equally and feel compelled to stand up for them when society forces them to sit down.

Now, as a Baptist minister, my heart breaks open for my pastor friends who can legally perform marriages because they are members of the clergy community, but cannot get married themselves because they are members of the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) community.

And so, today, I speak. Today, I offer the only part of Leviticus that Jesus himself highlights in Scripture when I say, let us love our neighbors as ourselves, because God first loved us. Rev. Ned Allyn Parker, Seattle First Baptist Church