Sending a wrong message: It shouldn't matter how tall, talented or athletic or what her basketball lineage may be: Suggesting that a twelve-year-old skip any schooling to play pro sports is not the message to send to your readership [Mike Seely, "SheBron's Truth," February 12]. A front-page pep rally like this for Sheila Bronson sends the wrong message to young people and messes up the priorities of people who should know better. I thought that the Riverfront Times had better vision than this. I am bitterly disappointed.
Dave Luther
St. Louis
How about the "female Sidd Finch"? When I saw the picture on the RFT cover page, I thought this story would be a complete joke. Now I am intrigued. How about this for a career path: (1) 2004 Summer Olympics, U.S. women's team; (2) WNBA; (3) 2008 World Basketball Championships, U.S. men's team; (4) NBA. If she can conquer the world, I don't see how any pro league can deny "SheBron" the opportunity to play. Are we seeing the female Yao Ming? You go, girl!
Michael Granderson
St. Louis
Cheap Trick
Call him Nero: Word on the street is that the Riverfront Times is going sex, drugs and rock & roll and leaving the hard news and investigative muckraking behind. This is apparent enough through cover stories such as "Drinkin' Dirt" [Mike Seely, February 5] and the loss of [the columns] Speedloader and Short Cuts, the only things that passed for exposé in town. But "SheBron's Truth" [February 12] takes the cake. Seely has shot us all the moon; too bad the joke is on your readers, and it ain't funny. Such editorial onanism might be amusing if we didn't so desperately need real reporting in St. Louis. If the RFT won't do it, who will? Go ahead and fiddle while Rome burns, RFT. Savage Love and the escort services have your back. Make the editorial pages your own personal playground, your in-joke directed at a handful of hip friends. We'll find our way somehow. Just don't expect us to follow you anywhere.
Margie Newman
St. Louis
Broken trust: The Riverfront Times broke faith with this reader with the SheBron hoax. I don't know much about basketball, so I read the article to learn about a new phenom who could be in the news a lot. Reading days later, in a paper the RFT constantly ridicules, that the story was a trick betrayed my trust. What else am I to re-evaluate later as fiction -- the articles about Archbishop Rigali or civic corruption or animal abuse? I won't read RFT articles again without a public statement that from now on, they will mean what they say.
Tom Wyrsch
St. Louis
City Dump
Signs of the times: Thank you for pointing out the huge disappointment and eyesore areas that the Amshack and bus terminals afford visitors to St. Louis [Mike Seely, "White-Trash Junction," February 5]. I take the train on occasion and will drive out of my way to another station. The city should jump on the chance to improve the station to bring tourists directly into the city. The hotels and restaurants will benefit, too. We're traveling soon to New Orleans, where everything is accessible near the station without a car.
Pamela Allison
Washington, Missouri
Don't forget, it's strange: As a former St. Louisan, and current Chicagoan, old enough to have childhood memories of a working Union Station and young enough to have fresh, if not particularly pleasant, recollections of the current Amshack, I say enough! Enough of the obsequious over-interest in what other people, in other places, think of St. Louis and St. Louisans. So some sloshed Angeleno cried upon seeing the Amshack. So Chicagoans think of St. Louis as a third-rate city, if they think of it at all. So what? St. Louis is not a "world-class city," whatever that means, and will never be one again. It is, however, a livable, affordable, charming and strange place with problems much like those faced by other cities. Should the city replace the Amshack? Absolutely. But do it for St. Louis, not for California or Chicago.
Pier Petersen
Chicago
And they call this the Gateway City? I cannot believe that my tax dollars are going to build a new stadium that is going to cost $500 million but a doorway into this city looks like that. You read all these articles on how everyone wants to rebuild the downtown area and make St. Louis a great city -- why not put some money into making it more inviting to visitors? I would help pay for someone to come in on a plane so I did not have to pick them up at such a shithole. I think that this city needs to focus on its curb appeal more than how much money some rich corporate snob will pay for a luxury box at a new stadium. If we do that, then maybe we will not have to hear how great Chicago is all the time.
Name withheld by request
Tiny Type
When pigs fly: You know, I am not one to complain, but I picked up the RFT today -- the print was so small, I could barely read it with my glasses on. Yikes! Do you think you could make the print a little larger?
Suzanne Holton
University City
