To The Editor:

Although Tom Allon makes a good case for term limits, I must respectfully disagree ("Why Term Limits Are Good," Oct. 10).

If an elected official is doing a good job, his/her constituents should have the right to continue to vote for them indefinitely. If s/he is not doing a good job, those constituents can always vote for someone else. The problem is not with term limits per se, but rather with the entrenchment of "bad" elected officials ? which certainly exists, but is the exception rather than the rule.

No, what must change is the redistricting and gerrymandering rules that allow the creation of unfairly (read "cynically") drawn election districts. It is this that leads to entrenchment of "bad" politicians, not the lack of term limits. And this applies nationally, not just locally. If election districts were drawn solely on the basis of population density, they would be closer to "squares" than to the bizarrely-drawn districts that exist, and there would be a greater diversity of political opinion ? and affiliation.

Ian Alterman

Upper West Side