To the editor,

It is untenable to support the so-called Nickelsville in any form. It is nothing more or less than a slum just like the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Is that what we want Seattle to become, another Rio with its poor living in rickety homemade housing? It's time we stop wasting public money on frivolities like trying to get another ill-fated basketball team here and start paying attention to things that matter, things that have real bearing on the lifestyle of all of us. It's ironic that a big deal was made of flying salmon from Alaska in the same issue. Flip a few pages and you see people who have no hope of ever having a bite of salmon.

Walter Marquardt
Westwood