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UC should look
elsewhere for housing
Re. “Clashes halt housing project,” Page A1, Aug. 4:
As a “People’s Park Survivor” shot in both legs that infamous day, May 15, 1969, I don’t understand why UC needs to use this particular site, other than the chancellor’s ego. It all seems like a power move. Why, over so many years, can the university still not embrace the amazing piece of work this park is?
In spite of the homelessness and messiness, it is a tribute to the creative, positive actions people took all those years ago. Let’s keep this park as the much-needed open space it is. Save the park. Southside needs open space.
I still hope that UC, Berkeley residents, and the city can get it together to make it a much better park than it has been up to now.
Andus Brandt
Oakland
Weapons station housing
would worsen traffic
Building housing at the Concord Naval Weapons Station site will bring much more traffic to the freeways for us. Residents already have enough traffic; it’s hard to get to work and home.
I work in Richmond from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., but due to traffic issues I need to leave before 6 a.m. to make it to work on time. Coming back home, it takes me around an hour and a half, which means I am away almost 12 hours from home and family just to work 7 1/2 hours. This affects my mental health. I am stressed out not having time to share with my family and not having time for myself to rest for the next day.
I am sure there are a lot of people like me. Besides all that, the environment is getting smaller and smaller. We do not need to destroy it.
Irma Prieto
Pittsburg
Walnut Creek makes
bicyclists too welcome
Oh, the drama. Regarding Clayton Dewberry’s letter (“Walnut Creek doesn’t make cyclists welcome,” Page A6, July 29), nothing could be further from the truth.
Mountain bikers have just about taken over the trails around Lime Ridge and associated parking at Montecito off Ygnacio Valley Road. Walking and hiking on the trails is like taking your life in your own hands. Cyclists speed by at 20-plus mph, coming within a foot of hikers. One mishap would result in some serious injury.
Now they want even more of the space devoted to their “flow-through” trails. There is no enforcement of the rules so they are regularly disregarding. Also, the spandex squads of 10-plus riders disregard stop signs and signals with impunity. They’ll take up an entire lane of traffic where speed limits are more than 40 mph, impeding traffic. Also, the city spent a lot of money recently on putting bollards at many intersections and putting in bicycle lanes and trails to protect bicycle riders.
Randy Domercq
Walnut Creek
County libraries offer
more than books
Accolades and gratitude to our Contra Costa County libraries and their staffs.
I visit several Contra Costa County libraries: El Sobrante, Hercules, El Cerrito, Orinda and San Pablo. Staff in each library is helpful, personable and professional. I volunteer at the San Pablo Library. I love to see members of my community waiting for the doors to open. At 10 a.m. people pour in the doors. Some people go directly to the computers, some find a comfortable chair, some bring their children and look for books, some need to use the restrooms.
Our libraries offer much more than books, movies and computers. They also offer programs for literacy, children and families. Our libraries offer a safe, clean haven for many who need just that.
Thank you, Contra Costa County libraries.
Julie Haselden
El Sobrante
Bill would make
firms reveal emissions
The state Assembly must pass SB 260, the Climate Corporate Accountability Act.
SB 260 has already passed the state Senate and requires U.S. corporations operating in California and grossing over $1 billion annually to disclose their carbon emissions. Corporations opposing this bill say it will hurt their revenue and that it’s “just too hard” to measure. But international measurement standards, such as the Greenhouse Protocol, already exist and can be used by U.S. corporations. Corporations making over $1 billion in revenue annually can surely afford to do this. Instead, corporations ask individuals to make the necessary changes.
Time is running out to save our planet. We need to know the impact of corporate emissions on the pollution threatening California residents. Corporations must disclose their impact on the environment; the public has a right to know.
Herbert. R. Salomon, M.D.
and Marcia Liberson, M.P.H.
Walnut Creek
Source: www.mercurynews.com