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Curfew vote could cost
49ers-endorsed official
Re. “Santa Clara eases curfew at Levi’s,” Page A1, Nov. 18:
Your article about the Santa Clara City Council voting to ease the curfew at Levi’s Stadium quotes District 6 Councilman Anthony Becker as saying when he was campaigning for his seat, he rarely heard complaints about stadium-related noise. It fails to mention that Becker’s district is the furthest from the stadium of any of Santa Clara’s six districts.
The article also doesn’t mention that the 49ers spent $3 million dollars to get Becker and other council members elected in November 2020. I guess the 49ers finally got what they paid for in Becker.
Kevin Park of District 4, the next furthest from the stadium, voted against the curfew extension the football team wanted. Park was also backed by the 49ers in the November 2020 election. Park better watch his political back when he runs again in 2024. The 49ers play for keeps.
Tom Farrell
Santa Clara
Policy unnecessarily
punishes taxi drivers
Why do taxi services get such treatment at the San Jose airport while Uber and other gig-type services get away with so much? (“Taxi drivers halt service over fees, dress code,” Page B1, Nov. 20.)
The taxis are better regulated, yet it is as if they are punished for it. I will only use a regular taxi service and am sure others feel the same way, so please don’t discourage them from being available at the airport.
Gayle Moore
Santa Clara
After Coyote Valley vote,
restoring region next
San Jose City Council members deserve applause for their historic, unanimous vote on Nov. 16 in favor of preserving over 3,000 acres of Coyote Valley for open space and agriculture (“North Coyote Valley will be preserved as open space,” Page B1, Nov. 18). Located in the southern end of San Jose, this 7,400-acre landscape has been threatened by sprawl for decades.
This was a vote for local tribes, wildlife, flood protection, food security, clean water, climate action and quality of life.
This has been an intergenerational campaign. Hundreds of organizations and leaders across the region have been working for nearly half a century to protect Coyote Valley. We look forward to next steps in restoring this landscape for the benefit of all.
Kids today are going to have to deal with the biggest challenges humankind has ever faced. Protecting Coyote Valley is one problem they won’t have to solve. Thank goodness.
Megan Fluke
San Jose
Column misses most
urgent cuts for climate
Re. “California is missing the boat on climate change,” Page A6, Nov. 19:
Although I strongly agree that short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) are low-hanging fruit in fighting the climate emergency, I disagree strongly with the methodology proposed by Winston Hickox and Jim Boyd.
They suggest that the major pollutants can be alleviated by converting waste biomass to fuel. This is far from the truth. The most important SLCP is methane (natural gas) whose main sources are leaks from pipelines and industrial facilities like refineries, cattle that belch it, the anaerobic decomposition of manures from all farm animals, and municipal waste dumps. Conversion of woody biomass to fuel is a component of the solution but far from the largest.
The commentary also neglects to mention the contribution of the leaking of 25% of the charge annually of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants from supermarket refrigeration systems which have 4,000 times the global warming potential of CO2.
Attacking these sources is much more urgent than those the authors suggest.
Stephen Roseblum
Palo Alto
Verdict reaction shows
GOP’s lost principles
Re. “Rittenhouse found not guilty,” Page A1, Nov. 20:
An indelible shame in the history of our great nation — a killer walked free.
It is a disgrace that we are a nation that allows a teenager to walk around an area during civil unrest with an assault weapon, kill innocent people, and then claim successfully it was in self-defense. A jury believed that.
I was on a jury a few years ago on a car-theft case, and we deliberated for the entire week to deliver our judgment. This jury spent a fraction of that time to reach their verdict. The fact that then-President Trump declared that this killer was innocent and today that many Republican congressmen are offering this gunman internships adds to the shame.
Any voter who intends to vote Republican from now on is acquiescent to homicide and lawlessness. GOP is no longer the party of law and order or decency.
Rameysh Ramdas
San Jose
Despite shooting verdict
jury trial still most fair
On the Nov. 20 front page there is a photo of protesters in Oakland with raised fists, holding signs, upset about the Rittenhouse verdict (“Rittenhouse found not guilty,” Page A1, Nov. 20).
While I also disagreed with the not-guilty verdict, I’m curious as to who or what they were protesting. This wasn’t a decision by corrupt politicians, police, a judge or any government official. It was a decision by 12 citizens in Kenosha, people like you and me. Apparently, the defense managed to convince them that he acted in self-defense, perhaps aided by him breaking down on the stand.
The jury system isn’t perfect. Guilty people sometimes get off and innocent people sometimes get convicted. Still, the concept of being judged by a jury of your peers is the fairest system.
Meade Fischer
Soquel
Source: www.mercurynews.com