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Legislature should
step in on water fix
Re. “Water proposal resulting in rancor,” Page A1, Nov. 17:
California uses more water than it collects. The climate crisis is getting worse. We need food from farms that need water to grow crops. These are straightforward environmental and ecological concerns.
Let’s not turn the proposed “Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022” into another left-right ideological fight. Dams, reservoirs, desalination plants and recycled water plants can be built with appropriate and adequate environmental oversight while serving their purpose of providing more water for our parched state.
Maybe our state legislators should take this up and write a reasonable bill before the initiative process puts a proposition on the ballot that is less than well-designed.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont
Oakland must act
to end gun violence
Re. “Runaway gun violence sets the country apart,” Page A6, Nov. 16:
We are sick and tired of the failure of the City Council to get guns off the streets of Oakland.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution does not give thugs the right to carry guns used to mug, rob, terrorize and murder our citizens. The city must pass an ordinance with sharp teeth to keep these guns off the streets. If Texas can pass legislation that prevents women from having rights to their own bodies then surely the City Council can pass legislation to keep guns off the streets of Oakland, Second Amendment notwithstanding.
If the city continues to allow thugs to carry guns then people who abhor guns will start carrying concealed weapons for their own protection.
Stephen Matthews
Oakland
Petition Fremont council
for more dog parks
I have been a responsible dog owner in the Irvington neighborhood of Fremont for many years.
Fremont has seen a big boom in dog adoption since COVID. While dog adoption is fantastic, neighborhood parks do not have a designated, enclosed area where dogs can be off-leash and dog owners can train, socialize and exercise their pooches without scaring dog-fearing neighbors and children. In all of Fremont, we have one dog run near Lake Elizabeth. It isn’t convenient to dog owners — dirty, overcrowded and too far for most residents.
Fremont is drawing up a master plan for the neighborhood parks. Many dog owners in my neighborhood have petitioned the city to consider a dedicated area for a dog run in all neighborhood parks. I would like to reach other dog owners in Fremont to also petition their City Council members. For details about the petition, email needmoredogparksfremont@gmail.com.
Balachander Krishnamurthy
Fremont
Where are alternatives
to wood construction?
I live at Brooklyn Basin, on the Oakland Estuary, where massive construction projects are in progress and will be for many years.
I, too, along with Mike Roddy of Alameda (“We must stop using lumber for building,” Page 6, Nov. 17), am amazed at the amounts of lumber used in the buildings. Surely there are other safer, less carbon-heavy, cheaper, easier-to-manufacture alternatives than wood lumber.
One wonders why we are not actively pursuing these alternatives.
Connie Clausen
Oakland
No to defunding
overworked police
As a 56-year resident of Martinez, I wish to offer kudos to the Martinez Police Department.
We had a young deer go into our backyard and get entangled in garden wire. The deer panicked and burrowed herself under one of our outbuildings. We contacted Animal Control and Fish and Game. Neither would respond. Out of sheer frustration, I called Martinez PD (even though I know this is not their job). Two officers responded and freed the deer of the wire. We left the animal alone and she moved on eventually.
Police have to be everything nowadays. They have to respond to crimes, be mobile mental health workers, social workers and now animal control officers. For those of you who feel we should “defund the police,” I say, “Think again.”
William Harbin
Martinez
Identity politcs’ labels
constrain all of us
I’ve been put in a box, one I didn’t pick and one that’s not a good fit, but there’s nothing I can do about it.
You see, I’m White, male and a senior citizen. Now, remember that I had absolutely no control over those facts, but that doesn’t help. It’s called identity politics, and it affixes a label on me, like it or not.
I’m thinking that my label is less restrictive than others: Latino, Black, Asian, LGBTQ. I can only imagine how people stuck with those labels feel when told that they vote this way or that, believe this or that.
Maybe I’m naïve, but I wonder if we can somehow get by without these boxes.
Meade Fischer
Soquel
Source: www.mercurynews.com