Letters to the Editor (issue 3)
"The Truth About Arkham"
I commend The Gotham Times for having the courage to print the truth about Arkham Asylum ("Problems Mar Arkham Asylum," 5/30).
I was a security guard there for almost a decade until things got so bad for me I decided to take a lower-paying job as a private security guard at a suburban shopping mall.
I can tell you from first-hand experience that the people who run Arkham are both clueless and corrupt, and I cannot think of a deadlier combination, especially when dealing with some of the state's worst criminal element.
Arkham employees who aren't "on the take" or who refuse to look the other way live in a climate of total fear. Management goes out of their way to make their work life miserable.
I even know of several cases where certain managers gave some of the inmates special benefits just to torment select guards. I was one who suffered such abuse.
Any institution which would allow the monster Jonathan Crane to test, produce, and distribute Fear Toxin using its own facilities as a headquarters must not be trusted.
While I'd love to come forward with my name and location, I'm afraid of reprisals from my old bosses, even though I haven't worked there in several months.
What Gotham City needs is to just start over. We need to close up Arkham, fumigate the place, and then demolish it and bury the remnants. All the senior management needs to be fired, or better, prosecuted and jailed. We cannot begin to solve our crime problem without moving past Arkham.
Anonymous
"Leaving Gotham"
Today's Gotham citizens have become so cynical and used to the status quo that they have forgotten what a wonderful city this once was. I grew up in the 1950s in Haysville, just a few blocks from Rootsville Park. While the city wasn't perfect (we certainly couldn't sleep in the park on summer nights like my parents used to do), it was a lovely place to grow up. When I married and had kids, I decided to stay in Gotham even though things were changing for the worse. You could say I had an up close view of this change in my role as a legal secretary for a prestigious firm.
Now I have five grandsons and I'm sad to say that I encouraged my own boys to raise them in the suburbs. Living in the burbs, they're going to miss out on all the cultural and social advantages that being in the heart of a city brings, and I feel sorry for all they will miss.
Diana Atenciarano
Granton
"The Noisy Skies"
Gotham International Airport has been good to me and my family. I worked there for several years before I got married, and my daughter manages the Duty Free store in the International Terminal. We've lived near the airport for years. Though it gets noisy, you eventually tune it out and find that the benefits far outweigh the bad. Real estate prices are lower and so is the general cost of living. Plus, we love our neighbors and never once thought about moving.
Until the new expansion, that is. I know that many in this city think that transportation chief Dwayne Washington can walk on water, but no matter what he says, the deal he put together to push through the expansion is bad for those of us who live in the area.
We went along with the airport and the FAA's plans to route more flights through Gotham International. We were told it would be good for us and we believed it.
But now that they are actually adding runway capacity and expanding several terminals, the noise and pollution problem is going to be out of control and our voices, apparently, do not count. Despite what Washington tells the press, we were never consulted about this project and are finding ourselves with decreasing property values that makes moving to a new neighborhood practically impossible. Basically, the new airport will make us prisoners in our own homes.
Rhonda Rudnick-Wilson
Pettsburg
"No More Unwanted Pets"
When I walk down the streets of Gotham, I see hunger, despair and loneliness in the eyes of the frightened creatures lining our gutters. Kittens with no homes, puppies crying for affection and hamsters just yearning to be loved by a caring pet owner.
Gotham citizens, why have you ignored your civic duty to get your furry friends spayed and/or neutered? The number of unwanted litters that scamper through our streets has exploded in the past few months and I, for one, am heartbroken. The procedure is simple, relatively painless, and it can be performed by any legitimate veterinarian. Also, your pet will most likely be better behaved after the operation. The only reason why I can conceive that this problem persists is just out-and-out laziness on the part of humans. It's time to put the "friend" back in "man's best friend."
Jeannette Daley Karpowski
West Harlow
