Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    Now that Austin is doing away with commercial and residential parking minimums, what can we expect? To the extent useful mass transit is available, this is a solid approach. But in most of Austin, people need a car to live their lives. So without increased emphasis on mass transit (including numerous park-and-ride oases in the transit deserts) the trend will be toward two different Austins: one suburban, car-centric, often less well-off and with lower investment, seen as less important to the City; the other a higher-investment Downtown with several densified, redeveloping satellite neighborhood cores, better-off, where most the economic and political focus will be. This second Austin will tend to become a no-go area for people who need their cars to move around, just as the carless high-risers Downtown and in the nearby cores won't easily visit or work in the transit deserts. Extrapolation is always a guessing game, but who needs yet another axis of us versus them, when it can so easily be avoided? In new (or re-) development without parking, the developers save big. They should at least be required to help fund useful mass transit which will, after all, bring people to them.

Dear Editor,
    Thank you so much for reporting this mold issue! [“Tenants of Affordable Complex Face Mold, Pests, and Raising Rent,” News, Oct. 3] It is really helpful! This is Chen, a social worker student in UT and one of my current senior client in the other Austin affordable housing is experiencing the same issue and be in a desperate situation.
    Is there any social media that can help report her situation? We found the Austin Code and attorney, but failed to solve this problem.
    Thank you so much!

   News Editor Maggie Thompson responds: Any tenant with mold issues should report the problem to their landlord in writing and keep a copy of that document. If the landlord does not fix the issue, Austin Code may be able to help. Call 3-1-1 or submit a report online.

Dear Chronicle Editors,
    Your December 29, 2023 cover photo stunned many members of the Jewish community in Austin who are regular readers of The Austin Chronicle. The cover photo and the three photos inside were perceived by many as anti-Israel editorialization. ["Chronicle Photographers Reflect on Their Most Memorable Photos of the Year"] Intentionally or not, photos can communicate an implicit bias. In many ways, they communicate more than words. Moreover, the omission of any reference to the terrorist attack on Israel in the accompanying copy only served to magnify that bias.
    During this very volatile and divisive time, publications have, if not an obligation, then a valuable opportunity to cover this crisis responsibly, with the nuance and balance it deserves. Journalistic bias on this topic will only lead to more divisive rhetoric and escalation of already alarming levels of hate-fueled assaults, discrimination and violence toward the Jewish and Muslim communities.
    Israeli and Palestinian civilians continue to suffer at the hands of Hamas, hostages – including children and Americans – are still being held captive, and hundreds of women who, if they were lucky enough to survive the massacre on October 7, will continue to live with the trauma of sexual violence. Recognition of these truths, especially during this time when hate is roiling locally and worldwide, would have made for more insightful and balanced journalism.