Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
Silicon Valley can handle
ranked choice voting
Re. “Santa Clara County should not adopt ranked choice voting,” Page A6, Feb. 2:
Larry Stone’s claim about ranked choice voting being confusing to Santa Clara County voters falls flat when you consider that folks in Alaska have figured it out. There’s nothing complex about ranking candidates. However, as my son explained to me, there are far more important reasons to support ranked choice voting.
Today, voters feel disenfranchised when their candidate does not win. Under ranked choice voting, they would still feel like they had a choice when, for example, their second choice prevailed. This would improve voter engagement.
Candidates are also less likely to engage in negative campaigning because the elections would no longer be a binary choice. This would reduce partisan rancor so prominent in today’s landscape.
It saves money and has worked from Alaska to Australia. Why not in Silicon Valley?
Rajiv Bhateja
Los Altos Hills
State should be able
to construct HSR
Re. “Why high-speed rail is essential to California’s future,” Page A6, feb. 16:
Failing to finish California’s high-speed rail would be an American disgrace.
Once completed, HSR will reduce traffic, lower carbon emissions and increase economic freedom. A better scenario for a high-speed train could hardly be imagined: a connection between two major population and economic hubs with future population growth expected along the route.
HSR is an investment in our future. The emissions from our cars and planes are irreparably damaging our planet. Building an alternative increases our freedom and safeguards our environment, paving the way for the rest of the country to follow suit.
It may have high initial costs, but the returns economically, environmentally and socially are undeniable and will keep coming in for years.
America is nearly alone among top-income countries with our lack of HSR. We live in the richest state in the richest country in the world; we should be able to build a fast train.
Matthew Lundy
Morgan Hill
A host of delays
greet developers
Re. “Construction halt prompts protest,” Page A1, Feb. 9:
Anyone who has had to obtain building permits, pay excessive fees and encountered numerous delays will sympathize with Navneet Aron. His situation is not uncommon. The smaller the developer, the more cities seem to quash your projects, and almost always for the wrong reasons.
The real concerns should be is the structure safe, and whether there is enough power, water and space in the school system to accommodate it.
As mind-boggling as it may seem there is no coordination between building permits and the availability of water and power.
We constantly hear about water shortages, yet nothing is done about 80% of the state’s water going to corporate agriculture. There seems no political will to really fix these problems.
Erin ODoherty
San Jose
VTA not uninterested in
returning unclaimed cash
On Feb. 16, VTA published the names of people for whom it had unclaimed money (Page B3), saying these people had to claim their money by April 15 or lose it.
The names ran across the page and in absolutely no order (alphabetical, for instance). Reading it was an exercise in futility. If VTA really wanted to give people back their money, they would have used a less disingenuous manner — such as an alphabetical list — so that one could see immediately if one’s name was there.
My impression is that VTA does not want people to find their names and thus claim their money. They could not have made it more difficult if they tried — unless they did not publish the names at all, which is against the law. They followed the law to the letter but not at all to the spirit.
Margaret Novotny
Palo Alto
Greene not up to
task of Congress
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene seems disinterested in the real work of a legislator. Rather than doing what her constituents sent her to Washington to do, she rather finds time to do things that
criticize the president, from screeching “Liar!” at him during the State of the Union message to strolling around the Capitol with a white balloon to complaining about how difficult it is to live on her congressional salary (as if the president had anything to do with her income).
She doesn’t realize how she demeans herself with each petty act or comment. As a former public school teacher, I tried to teach my students to behave better than she does; and I would have been thrilled to be forced to live on $174,000.
So, Rep. Taylor Greene, I suggest that you dig in and do the job we citizens pay you to do rather than engage in comic theater.
Lorraine D’Ambruoso
San Jose
Source: www.mercurynews.com