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S.J. council must honor
constituents’ needs
OK, so you hedged your bets and sided with Cindy Chavez in the election for the next mayor of San Jose. She lost to Matt Mahan because we as residents are very unhappy with the state of our city. The decline has been extreme for native San Joseans.
Now, the question is are you willing to make some necessary changes to improve the city you have been elected to represent? You need to make a difference for the city and not just for your political careers.
Many things (e.g. safety, crime, roads, the 311 Help Line, unhoused individuals) are not good and they continue to decline. I am hopeful, with a new mayor and a different approach, you will decide to commit to improving San Jose. Please make a difference for us.
Mark Milioto
San Jose
There’s no sympathy
for felonious PG&E
The letter by Doug Peterson (“CPUC must grow spine on NEM 3.0 update,” Page A6, Dec. 6) failed to win any sympathy from me for convicted felon PG&E. Its desire to penalize owners of home solar arrays is unacceptable.
PG&E simply can not be trusted to tell the public or any regulatory entity what the true cost of maintaining the grid actually is. It squanders money by overpaying upper management and giving out outrageous golden parachutes to executives. It failed to spend all the money legally required to cut back trees and maintain safety and instead, claimed that money as profits, playing to the desires of Wall Street with tragic results.
It should be public policy to do whatever it takes to cover every rooftop, in California and the entire planet, with PV panels. If it takes breaking up PG&E to achieve this goal in this state, then so be it.
Steve Wright
San Jose
Levi’s Stadium must
improve ADA services
I attended this weekend’s 49ers game at Levi’s Stadium with my walker-bound brother. Great game, but we found ourselves, with other wheelchair attendees, in a constant rain waiting for a half-hour for an ADA shuttle to the rideshare lot. It never showed.
That is not okay, operationally, ethically or legally.
I implore Santa Clara County to intervene and mandate ADA drop-off at the stadium curbside, as is common for Warriors and other Bay Area sports attractions.
Mark Breier
Los Altos Hills
Project for homeless
is too expensive
Re. “New funding gap found in affordable housing project,” Page B1, Dec. 3:
So let me get this straight — a loan of over $13 million and “other funding sources for the project, which will cost over $100 million” for “128 permanent affordable housing apartments.” So that works out to about $1 million per apartment.
These must be some awesome “affordable” apartments for $1 million each or something is very, very wrong. Heck, they should just buy a person a home fully paid off with the $1 million and I’m sure it will be larger than “an old motel” room that is refurbished.
What am I missing here? This seems to me to be an extreme waste of taxpayers’ money.
Alan Heimlich
San Jose
Turns out Democrats
are undemocratic party
Re. “San Jose council to appoint 2 seats,” Page A1, Dec. 7:
Shocker! By choosing appointments rather than elections for two vacant council seats, the San Jose City Council has validated one of Donald Trump’s claims: The election process is rigged. If you don’t get your desired result at the ballot box, there are workarounds.
We thought the Republicans were the “evil” party; turns out the Democrats are just as bad.
Tom Darby
San Jose
Pandemic reaction, not
pandemic, stressed teens
According to a Stanford study, “The stress from the pandemic prematurely aged adolescents’ brains.” (“Pandemic stress aged teen brains,” Page A1, Dec. 2)
It needs to be said clearly: The pandemic did not put stress on adolescents. COVID-19 did not age adolescents’ brains. Adults put stress on adolescents. The response to COVID-19 from government, media and those who are supposed to protect children aged adolescents’ brains.
Children suffered lockdowns, masking, remote school and canceled events that can never be lived again, and a pervasive sense of panic from adults. Yet their risk of dying from COVID-19 was always lower than their risk of dying in a car accident in a month.
Whether it was due to a horribly misguided attempt to reduce transmission at any cost or due to simple fear, children bore the burden of the poor judgment of adults.
The harms done to their lives for decades to come will continue to be counted.
Michael Peercy
Los Altos
San Jose needs
more water fountains
As our society continues to build toward a sustainable and environmentally conscious mindset, our city too can play a pivotal role in this path.
It sounds counterintuitive at first but the need for more safe and clean water fountains can help reduce the need to buy more water bottles thus creating a chain reaction of plastic companies having a decrease in demand which can lead to closure. Reusable water bottles are just as accessible as regular water bottles, with the ability to purchase them anywhere for an affordable price.
The only inaccessible aspect of this equation is the lack of safe and clean drinking fountains, and we can turn to the Europeans as an example. With 1,200 fountains alone in Paris, France, and some containing sparkling water, it goes to show how far the implementation of fountains can lead to a cleaner city.
Moses Bravo
San Jose
Source: www.mercurynews.com