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Get Sunnyvale project
back on track
Re. “Construction halt prompts protest,” Page A1, Feb. 9:
I have thought for a while that national disenchantment with government has at least a partial onset in local bureaucracy, and your article regarding Sunnyvale bureaucracy delaying home construction underlines how infuriating this can be.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “Substantial justice remains a higher aim for our civilization than technical legalism.” I hope Jennifer Garnett and Larry Little will read their words (understanding they may have been edited) and feel embarrassed.
Councilmember Alysa Cisneros should walk down to the relevant department, take her code enforcement staff by the hand, walk to her car, drive to the county building and find Mr. Little, and take both of them to Navneet Aron’s site and end this.
William Fisher
Cupertino
Farms’ ignorance claim
is unfathomable
Re. “How county failed farmworkers,” Page A1, Feb. 5:
You have got to be kidding me if you’re telling me that the owners of California Terra Garden seriously did not know about a series of code and permitting requirements before the shooting and that the housing conditions were so bad.
Just look at the structures (they cannot be called homes). One doesn’t need to know code and permit requirements to recognize egregious abuses of land-lording or subhuman living conditions. One just needs to treat people with dignity and according to how they, themselves, would want to be treated (permit or no permit).
But the mighty dollar speaks louder than conscience, I guess. And it takes a tragedy for people to wake up and do the right thing.
Julie Hall
Sunnyvale
COVID-driven hate
lingers for AAPI people
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic gripped our nation, the amount of hate crimes, specifically against Asian Americans, has been on the rise. Not only is this evident in public but is also evident online.
Take business review sites such as Yelp for example. According to NBC Bay Area, in 2022 Yelp proactively removed more than 2,000 reviews that were deemed to be racist before they were published online, which is almost a tenfold increase compared to the year before. These reviews, when published online, can have damaging effects on businesses such as restaurants owned by Asian Americans that have relentlessly suffered throughout the pandemic due to the virus originating in Wuhan, China.
Potential customers may have the general impression that these businesses owned by Asian Americans can be areas where the virus is circulating, causing a decrease in customers, thus lower profits for the businesses.
Alan Ngai
San Jose
China’s land purchases
worse than spy balloon
We should be less concerned with watching the bouncing ball or balloon and be more concerned about the “farmland” the Chinese purchased around Montana.
If we had to launch one of our missiles from a silo, they are very slow on take-off and a well-fired RPG from a wheat field could cause destruction on-site.
Our government should not allow this.
Joe Sindorf
San Jose
Biden administration
has US on solid ground
The state of our union is back to being strong. The president and Democrats have done a fantastic job of digging us out of multiple pits such as COVID, a dismal economy with high unemployment, unprecedented deficits and diminished world standing.
Despite Republican stonewalling, they have invigorated the economy to achieve the lowest jobless rate in 50 years, invested in critical infrastructure while still reducing the deficit in half, and lowered prescription drug prices with a phenomenal increase in health coverage for Americans. Our stature in the world has been restored as has decency in our government. The United States is facing off with Russian President Vladimir Putin and offering unstinted support to Ukraine. Contrast this record with the previous four years which were filled with vitriol, division, lies and hate.
One wonders what of these achievements does the dissatisfied 62%, per a recent perhaps GOP-leaning poll, not like, care about or benefit from.
Rameysh Ramdas
San Jose
US must do more
to preserve environment
NatureServe’s “Biodiversity in Focus: US Edition” opens with: “Species are going extinct faster than any time in human history.” This research is the most comprehensive to date on the status of U.S. ecosystems, concluding that 51% of grasslands and 40% of forests and wetlands are collapsing. Forty percent of U.S. animals and 34% of plants are facing extinction.
This global problem is a product of habitat loss from spreading human populations, their polluting, extractive, industrial, agricultural and residential development, use of pesticides and introduced invasive species.
The Center for Biological Diversity states, “we’re creating an extinction crisis. It’s suicidal to pretend that business as usual is more important than safeguarding the natural world.”
Only 12% of U.S. lands are protected. The America the Beautiful Initiative would bring 30% of U.S. lands, waters and inhabitants under protection. Tell your politicians you want funding for endangered species and to prioritize actions to save nature.
Tina Peak
Palo Alto
Source: www.mercurynews.com