West Roxbury's downtown has to play to its strengths: It doesn't have great public transportation, but it does have a nice, four-lane Centre Street to get customers in and out fairly painlessly. That's a lesson most neighborhood residents and businesses get. But, surprisingly, one of the big, bad dailies came out and endorsed the idea of a small group which wants to narrow Centre Street to three lanes.
 
     Anyone who has driven the street knows why that won't work: the traffic barely moves as it is now. If there were one lane in each direction and a center turn lane, as the group called Walkable West Roxbury wants, it would turn Centre Street into a parking lot. It sure would be walkable: the only way people could get anywhere was walking on the hoods of the traffic-jammed cars.
 
     Anyone who wants to get a glimpse of what Centre Street could look like should hop in his car and follow Baker Street into Newton, go past the country club and find Needham Street. It's a strip like Centre Street, filled with shops and restaurants and a couple of apartment complexes. Newton, a couple of years ago, turned Needham Street into a three-lane road, and it basically has totally shut down. It turns into a parking lot in the morning commute, the evening commute and lunchtime. The lines of cars stretch a quarter- to a half-mile at the worst times. The result? Business has fallen way off. No one goes there unless they absolutely, positively have to. And traffic has come to a complete halt.
 
     Doesn't sound what like any friend of West Roxbury would really want. And in Newton, they don't double park like we do in Boston. We take it as our inalienable right, and will double park anywhere, anytime. It is hard to imagine how the one lane for travel on each side of Centre Street will not quickly fill with double-parked cars, leaving no room to pass.
 
     The one thing Walkable West Roxbury has right is that downtown needs to look friendlier to walkers. The Boston Transportation Department should change its Centre Street renovation plans to add more stoplights, with push-activated walk signals, and ditch the crosswalks. No driver in the history of Boston has ever stopped for one, and it just gives pedestrians a false sense of security. Ditch the crosswalks, double the stoplights and we might have ourselves a much friendlier Centre Street.
 
     Leash pit bulls now
 
     Normally we are very supportive of dog owners who tend to get the short end of the stick from the city. But after this weekend, when a pest exterminator was bitten by a pit bull as he sprayed a Waterloo Street apartment, we have to say it is time for the city to crack down on them.
 
     We think Rob Consalvo's proposal to require pit bulls to be on leash in public is a good one, and should be adopted as soon as possible. Consalvo also wants to limit pit bulls to two per home, and require any house or apartment with one to have a sign at the door warning visitors, two more good ideas.
 
     Pit bulls are different than normal dogs. When a beagle attacks another dog, its owner can get him off with a quick kick to the dog's butt. But there is virtually no way to pull a pit bull off either another dog or a human once they get their powerful, locking jaws on their victims. A good friend of ours had her bison fiche killed by a pit bull as the owner of the pit tried everything to get his dog off hers.
 
     The exterminator, John Shea, was smart with the dog that attacked him in Roslindale. "He was hanging on my arm. I punched him in the head three times, and it didn't faze him. Then I punched him in the eye. He dropped off, but immediately sprang up and bit my leg." He finally kicked the dog down a flight of stairs and locked himself in the apartment. But what if the dog had attacked a child or a senior? The mind reels.
 
     There's no denying the breed has gotten a bad reputation recently, and we've known many a gentle pit bull. But we've also known and seen too many pit bulls in action and are convinced they pose a threat above and beyond other breeds, even Dobermans.