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Police, not BART,
should handle homeless
While we need to have compassion for the homeless we cannot let them run the state as it seems often they do.
If a person refuses services, they cannot camp out in BART forever; they must be removed. Where is the compassion for riders paying for the system? I don’t want to sit next to someone who has not showered in a month. I don’t want to walk through the trash left behind or be confronted by aggressive panhandling.
BART does not have enough funding to safely run trains. They should not be in the social services business. It is a police matter to remove campers from the entire BART system.
Chris Wood
Pleasanton
Forethought on housing
could have avoided suit
Kudos to the three pro-housing groups that have filed lawsuits to force cities to comply with the state’s homebuilding requirements (“3 pro-housing groups sue 11 cities, county,” Page A1, Feb. 8).
One of the cities being sued, Pleasant Hill, has had ample opportunities over the past several years to approve housing projects and pro-actively pursue housing development opportunities. Instead, revenue-generating projects such as hotels and used car dealerships were sought out and approved. Now the city is forced to develop high-density housing projects on the few remaining open spaces across the city.
More forethought and planning could have prevented the lawsuit and the last-ditch efforts to meet state requirements, and would have produced more favorable outcomes.
Cathy Teegardin
Pleasant Hill
Violent crime is not
‘distinctly American’
I am responding to the headline “Dreams of immigrants collide with ‘America’s gun violence’” in Sunday’s East Bay Times (Page A1, Feb. 12). Your staff writers’ reference to the Half Moon Bay tragedy as “a distinctly American crime” obviously shows their mindset.
According to this approach, those of Philippine descent don’t care about the deaths due to fighting terrorists (gunmen), Chinese immigrants must ignore slave labor camps, organ harvesting and Tiananmen Square (the government), or those from Central America don’t care about the cartels (gunmen) no matter how many people die.
This was the work of one man with a grievance. A travesty sure, but the gun did not do it by itself. It took a human to shoot the gun. Seven people died and the perpetrator is in custody. He won’t be able to do it again. Human-caused deaths occur worldwide daily, and they are not “distinctly American” crimes.
David Pastor
Pleasanton
Support leaders with
ideas to keep us safe
Kudos to the The East Bay Times Editorial Board for its strong endorsement of California legislators’, Attorney General Rob Bonta’s and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fighting gun violence by limiting legal permissions to carry concealed guns (“Pass California’s concealed carry gun legislation,” Page A8, Feb. 12).
Our society seems obsessed with the notion that we all should have whatever we want and whenever we want it. See people tempted by weapons manufacturers to buy guns for themselves and even their children but not taking the time, trouble and training to use and store them safely. See people eating and drinking substances bad for human health but refusing limitations on gun use to protect themselves and the people around them — the way some resist vaccinations against deadly viruses.
Let’s wake up to the dangers of self-indulgence by opting for sensible ways to keep guns in their proper place and all of us safer. Let’s all support leaders who try in every reasonable way to increase public safety.
Ruby MacDonald
El Cerrito
PG&E doesn’t control
cost, but you can help
West Coast natural gas prices have been rising this winter.
PG&E does not control the market prices we pay for natural gas, and we don’t mark up the cost of the energy we buy to serve our customers.
Price increases are due largely to higher demand and tighter supplies.
As a result, residential gas and electricity bills could be 32% higher on average this winter compared to last winter, with most of the increase for energy supply costs.
PG&E works to limit price impacts, and we’re working with the state to provide bill relief. We’ll distribute the annual April Climate Credit as soon as possible — a $91.17 credit for PG&E customers receiving gas and electricity.
Aaron Johnson
PG&E Bay Area Regional Vice President
Oakland
Correction
A headline of a letter to the editor in Tuesday’s Opinion section misidentified the subject of the letter. The letter was about the Alameda County district attorney, not the Contra Costa County district attorney.
Source: www.mercurynews.com