Re: “Council chooses Hilltop for new Link” (TNT, 4-24).

From a geometric point of view, too many of the proposed routes are shaped like an S or a U and parallel existing Link track by blocks. I would think that newer ridership would come from a straight-line proposal that covers new area, integrates the huge Salishan development and East Pierce County, and has more land along its pathway for construction to keep costs down.

I drive down 13th Street from Hilltop to get on the freeway, and to have another track to cross in the downtown area could be …

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Want to see the worst pothole in Tacoma? It’s the enormous hole on South Hosmer near 19th.

Hosmer and surrounding Hilltop streets have had a few shovels of asphalt tossed in holes for decades without a repave, and the holes are back literally within a matter of weeks. When I contacted the city, they told me they had other priorities, and in other words, don’t even ask.

I have lived in Hilltop for 20 years, and I know first-hand that these neighborhoods never get a fair shake. Hosmer doesn’t even have sidewalks. You would never see a North End street …

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I love my neighborhood of Hilltop. I really do. But is it really getting better?

I moved here four years ago and learned a lesson of, “Lock up your stuff and keep it put away” within days of moving in. I had two bikes stolen out of my back yard within the first week.

Here I am four years later. I keep my stuff out of sight and locked up. I also added a security system and cameras. However, yesterday, a guy boldly walks onto the property, through two gates and steals a bike while being filmed. I have seen …

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Since no one is saying it, I want to thank Jack Connelly for all of the volunteer work he has done for the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association. He stepped forward and tried to help this entity and stayed with it after it fell victim to the economic crisis and nearly everyone else left.

Connelly’s law firm, of which I am a member, has represented the housing association pro-bono in an attempt to keep it afloat. He is now being attacked by individuals supporting the Jeannie Darneille campaign. This is being done without regard to the efforts Connelly has …

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My partner and I purchased a home on the Hilltop three years ago on a block that had seen much better, and much worse times. The last of the old crack houses was on the way out, and working families with children were buying homes. We have a community garden on our block, People’s Park with all of the playground equipment and several day cares operating in our neighborhood.

Imagine our dismay to find out that the old crack house was purchased by someone who would turn it into a boarding house for sex offenders!

Now, despite local TV coverage, …

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The Hilltop is my beloved neighborhood; “Upper Tacoma” never really fit, nor does the city’s current subarea plan with its “MLK district” and “Hillside District.”

At one point, our home was included in the “Tacoma Avenue Corridor,” a strange entity that was four blocks wide and 20 blocks long with little connective tissue between. Nonetheless, we were designated as a Community Based Services area.

The subarea planners simply stretched this corridor a bit longer and renamed it “Hillside,” as if drawing a rectangle on a map and slapping a name on it could erase our identity as part of the …

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