Saturday, July 5, 2008

In a July 2 letter responding to Jonathan Elkind's June 29 Close to Home commentary about the proposed Purple Line, two writers suggested that it would be better to put electric buses or a light-rail line on the "existing asphalt" of East West Highway or Jones Bridge Road than to disturb the "nesting cardinals" of the Capital Crescent Trail.

As a Jones Bridge Road homeowner who would almost certainly lose her house under such a plan -- because the already-busy Jones Bridge Road would have to be widened to accommodate those buses or rail -- I see the choice a bit differently.

Entire neighborhoods along Connecticut Avenue and Jones Bridge Road are already threatened by the upcoming relocation of tens of thousands of workers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center to the National Naval Medical Center. We are now told that we may have to suffer additional home losses or plummeting property values to resolve the Purple Line debate. I have nothing against nesting cardinals, but you can imagine where we who would be directly affected stand on the issue.

JANA MASON

Chevy Chase