With the new Vikings stadium on the horizon, community leaders have successfully bid for a Super Bowl and will be bidding for an NCAA Final Four to bring business to the Twin Cities. Why not bid for WrestleMania? The last eight WrestleManias have taken place in football stadiums, with an average attendance of 75,690. Fans travel from all 50 states and 30 countries to see the event. Coming with it is the weeklong fanfest Axxess (29,000 attended in 2014) and the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. According to Enigma research, the average attendee stays three nights. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced that the economic of WrestleMania 29 at MetLife Stadium was just over $100 million. San Fransisco and Dallas have already successfully bid for the next two annual events. I know professional wrestling isn't taken seriously by many, but bringing 75,000 people to town to patronize our hotels, stores and restaurants is serious business.

DEREK RUEKERT, Andover
OBAMA NAPPING?

It's doubtful that the president was asleep

A Sept. 9 letter writer commented on a photo of President Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hegel meeting about the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant ("Guess President Obama isn't all that concerned"). The writer, obviously no fan of the president, says Obama was "asleep" when the photo was taken. I doubt that very much. With his hectic schedule, I'm sure the president needs a second or two to shut his eyes now and then. I also doubt that any of us could do his job and not try to catch a few catnaps whenever possible. Unless any of us could do better, give Obama a break. He could also have been praying. Or maybe that's also an unfair stretch of the imagination.

PETER CLARK, Roseville
THE ISIL THREAT

For the U.S., airstrikes are adequate response

Anyone who doubts that ISIL is a threat to the United States is a bit delusional. ISIL is a threat to anyone who doesn't buy into its insane view of Islam. The good news is that, hopefully, therein lies the solution. No one is more threatened by ISIL than its fellow Muslims, who are being slaughtered by the hundreds. President Obama has done just fine so far. Airstrikes in support of local forces are a sensible response and one that has brought results. His call for a coalition of local powers to stop ISIL is also on target.

We've proven that having boots on the ground accomplishes nothing if they're U.S. boots. We don't need to try that again. The states in the Middle East that are threatened by ISIL must rise to the occasion and fight their own fight, especially the Saudis who drove the creation of this monster by exporting their fundamentalist Wahhabi beliefs throughout the region. For them, this is indeed an existential problem, and letting them take the lead is an obvious solution.

JOHN F. HETTERICK, Plymouth
BELL MUSEUM

Why belittle those who want dioramas saved?

Susan Weller, director of the Bell Museum of Natural History, seems to be sneering at thousands of Minnesotans when she refers to us as "priests and priestesses of the dioramahood" ("U museum, but not all of its dioramas, to migrate east," Sept. 8). The museum plans to pop the glass on its dioramas in order to inspect the contents. Then the dismantling begins. Piece by piece, these works of art will all come down. An architect has yet to be named for a new building across the way on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. Presumably, the bits and pieces will be stored away safely somewhere for several years. Eleven of the 16 large dioramas will make the cut.

MAGGIE PETERSEN, St. Paul
LiGHT RAIL

After a Minneapolis trip, I'm a fan of LRT

As a recent visitor to Minneapolis, I enjoyed a fast and comfortable ride from the airport to my downtown hotel, not realizing I was on a 19th-century vehicle, as was implied by Bob "Again" Carney Jr. in his Sept. 2 commentary ("Road projects should drive transit fixes"). This made me wonder how Minneapolis has entrusted its transit program to such shortsighted managers. I also wondered if this brand of transit ignorance was contagious, as cities around the country such as Portland, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Salt Lake City and Denver are also investing vast sums of money in "19th-century" light-rail programs, obviously not benefiting from Mr. Carney's wisdom. Indeed, ignorance of his low-cost transit solutions must be worldwide, as more than 100 cities have opened new or extended existing light-rail lines during the past 10 years. And from my 19th-century perspective, had there not been a light-rail line from the airport to downtown, I would have taken a taxi rather than a bouncing small bus.

JULIEN R. WOLFE, Windsor, Ontario
SUBSIDIZED HOUSING

The mentally disabled need care and a roof

Regarding the Sept. 8 story "Neighbors clash in public house," I have worked as a licensed psychologist for many years with disabled people with severe and persistent mental illnesses. Based on my experience, it's unwise to house people with severe disabilities in subsidized housing unless we also provide adequate services to them.

It's a fundamental tenet of psychiatric rehabilitation that people with psychiatric disabilities have a right to choose their living situations. They also must be provided with adequate supports to maintain their mental (and chemical) health in those settings. Some available programs are ARMHS (Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services) and CADI (Community Alternatives for Disabled Individuals).

I also understand that in the past, social workers were located on-site in Minneapolis public-housing buildings, but that practice has been discontinued. Providing adequate social services is as crucial as providing subsidized housing to both senior citizens and to the disabled.

SUZANNE REEDY, Minneapolis
Minnesota Twins

Thanks very little for another terrific season

Once again, I want to say thanks, Twins, for keeping "Skipper" Ron Gardenhire, GM Terry Ryan and the rest of the coaching staff. It's paid off with another banner year.

C.J. PETERSON, Big Lake, Minn.