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schools. The reason is that neighborhood schools are worth preserving. They are generally buildings of architectural distinction that not only link residents to their roots in the past, but also provide enduring usefulness for communities.

Sure, as we grow, America will always need new schools. But there is immense value in reinvesting in older schools, advancing the quality of life in existing neighborhoods, improving education, and doing whatever we can to slow damaging and expensive sprawl.

N.Y. LAWS GIVE DEADLY MOTORISTS FREE RIDE

NY POST: Sunday, December 3,2000
By BILL SANDERSON
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Bad drivers have a license to kill in New York because of weak state laws and decades of court decisions that make it hard to prosecute murderous motorists, a Post probe shows.

Behind-the-wheel killers are often punished by a minimal fine - $40 for mowing down a pregnant woman in a crosswalk or $60 for killing a 6-year-old boy in the street.

Killer drivers run little risk of more serious sentences, a Post investigation found:

* Out of 419 auto deaths in New York City in 1999, just 13 arrests were made under the two laws most used to prosecute fatal-crash cases, state government data shows.

And the data may overstate law-enforcement efforts, since one of those laws, the criminally negligent homicide statute, applies to other deaths besides car crashes.

* Of those 13 arrests, just five came under the state's vehicular-manslaughter law - and charges were dropped in two of those cases. District attorneys say the vehicular-manslaughter law is so narrowly written, it's nearly useless.

* Since the mid-1950s, state judges have roadblocked district attorneys prosecuting killer drivers, by setting down a general rule that crash-causing motorists must commit two or more motor-vehicle violations before they can be prosecuted for criminally negligent homicide.

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