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Without enforcement,
water savings unlikely
Re. “Water saving still missing target,” Page A1, July 9:
It is going to be hard to get people to conserve water with no consequences.
We have been hearing about fines for several months, yet until the issue starts hitting people’s bank accounts, they will not take action. San Jose Water Company has no plans to hire “water cops,” and even though they do have a place on their website (https://www.sjwater.com/) to report water waste, they take no action when it is reported.
There must be enforcement and ramifications for wasting water if we are going to make any headway on this issue
Nancy DeBiccari
San Jose
Fractious Council costing
Cupertino leaders
I read with interest Grace Hase’s article regarding Cupertino’s resigning city manager (“Cupertino losing another city manager,” Page B1, July 5), but why does It matter to Cupertino residents?
Since the Better Cupertino group took over Cupertino, we’ve lost six city managers, our city attorney, our directors of Public Works, Parks and Recreation, Planning and Finance. The Better Cupertino group has also managed to alienate our nonprofits.
When we had a positive relationship between staff and Council and our nonprofits we got wonderful new amenities for our residents: A new library, community hall, a senior center, teen center, Cali Mill Plaza, a trail at Blackberry Farm, the Sterling-Barnhart park, the theaters at Vallco, West Valley Community Service’s Vista Village, the Don Burnett Pedestrian Bridge over Interstate 280, the Juniper Hotel, and Main Street.
We need to get back to the days of partnership between the Council, city staff, our nonprofits and our residents, and get back to doing things for our community.
Richard Lowenthal
Former Cupertino mayor
Cupertino
With Chavez, you’ll
get same old politics
With District 2 Supervisor Cindy Chavez leading the way, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors evicted the Eastridge Little League, as of July 18, on their 50th anniversary from their home field at Reid Hillview airport over a lead issue that, according to their own county study, does not constitute a lead hazard.
Concurrently, the board requested that an activist group, Latinos United for A New America, which shares Chavez’s goal of airport closure, be paid $412,000 to “educate” residents only within a 1.5-mile radius about a nonexistent problem.
Rather than create a phony neighborhood panic at taxpayers’ expense, Chavez and the board would better serve their constituents by working on real problems like homelessness or water-saving legislation. As a San Jose mayoral candidate, Chavez boasts of her almost 20 years of political experience. Is it really years of political experience or merely one year’s experience 20 times over? San Jose and the county deserve better than politics as usual.
John Carr
Santa Clara County Airport Commissioner
San Jose
Biden, Lofgren sacrifice
energy independence
Recently President Biden announced he would deplete our Strategic Petroleum Reserve by half to appease motorists appalled by high gas prices.
I documented at the time that was a horrible mistake and a risk to our national security. But that’s only the beginning of the horror. Reuters reported July 5 that over five million barrels of the release were exported to China and Italy. China is thrilled to increase its energy security while Biden gives the U.S. security away.
However, in November here in District 18, we have a chance to start moving in a more sane direction; we can replace Zoe Lofgren with Peter Hernandez. Lofgren has been a reliable enabler of Biden’s dismantling of our energy independence. Her votes from the Progressive Caucus on HR 455 have provided Biden a stable platform to carry out this destruction.
C. Michael Hogan
Monterey
Video games are
glamorizing violence
Re. “What is wrong with American men?” Page A9, July 10:
I can answer the question “What is wrong with American men?” which was asked by Leonard Pitts Jr. in his article of the same name. The answer is: “Mortal Kombat” (1992), “Grand Theft Auto” (1997), “Postal” (2003), “Call of Duty” (2003), “Manhunt” (2003), “Bulletstorm” (2011), and many, many more.
We have silently been feeding our young men (and women) the thrill of killing humans for almost 30 years. I refused to buy my children any violent video games, but they found them anyway – at their friend’s homes. The Mature (M) or Adult (A) rating means nothing when there is an older sibling or parent buying it. Kids will find it and share it.
Some adults are clueless to the psychological harm that these games are doing to the developing minds of children.
Cindy Webenbauer
Morgan Hill
Source: www.mercurynews.com