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BART needs safe
trains, not tunnels
Re: “Newsom funds a second BART tube that district will never need” (Page A6, May 4).
Kudos to Dan Borenstein for his column regarding the building of a second BART tube. This is just another example of how so much of our taxpayer dollars are constantly going to waste.
The column cited many reasons why ridership is down, but one, that I believe is also very important is crime on BART. Many seniors like myself are refusing to ride this transit system because of the crimes committed against riders.
I long for the days gone by when one could step on a BART train, ride in comfort to a beautiful city and enjoy a wonderful day.
Mary Forney
Brentwood
Fisher, MLB to blame
for A’s move to Vegas
If the Oakland A’s leave Oakland, it won’t be the fault of the mayor, City Council or the fans. All of the blame falls on the A’s ownership (John Fisher) and Major League Baseball.
The A’s could have built a stadium on the existing site and been playing in it now, but instead, they pursued an unrealistic mega-development at Howard Terminal, all the while milking MLB’s revenue sharing, trading away their best players, raising ticket prices and then blaming the fans for not attending. MLB further enabled the A’s ownership by waiving a relocation fee to make it easier for them to leave to build a new stadium by the side of a freeway in Las Vegas, rather than forcing Fisher to sell or build in Oakland.
All of this is about John Fisher enriching himself at the expense of Oakland’s 55-year history of supporting the team.
James Peterson
Oakland
Adjust minimum wage
with the cost of living
The high living expenses in California are negatively impacting poverty rates and homelessness.
The poverty rate in California was 11.7% in 2021 and the rate of homelessness is the highest for any state in the country. If you live in a more expensive economy, shouldn’t wages be higher too?
Current rent requirements often includes proof of income double or triple the rent. The state minimum wage of $15.50 in California makes this a difficult benchmark to meet. In fact, with this requirement in place, it took my family of four about two years (2018-20) to move out of the room we were staying in. Once we saved up enough money to rent a place of our own, it was only enough to rent a studio.
I suggest that when the cost of living rises, the minimum wage should rise too in order to help combat issues of homelessness and poverty.
Karina Pinzon
Oakland
Raising debt limit is
a no-brainer for US
Raising the national debt ceiling is a “no-brainer” as a shutdown would be catastrophic.
Park rangers and FDA inspectors would go home. Americans would be placed in harm’s way. So significant is the debt that Republicans did nothing when Donald Trump added $8 trillion to it.
The political air reeks foul with duplicity and grandstanding. When swords are drawn it’s always the little guy who gets hurt. For God’s sake, just raise the debt as has been done many times before, but leave hard-working people out of this hypocrisy.
Mark Grzan
Morgan Hill
Keep religion out
of US government
The early American colonies absorbed many who fled religious persecution throughout Europe. The framers of the U.S. Constitution for a newly minted nation with a secular government wrote the First Amendment protection because they understood the pernicious nature of religious dogma infused into government.
Ministers and clergy preach and teach abortion is murder. That is a religious precept. It does not stem from our Constitution. Judges with religious biases overturning established law protecting abortion is a travesty. Shedding an unwanted fetus is not murder. Punishing women for alternative understandings of life and self-determination is the definition of religious persecution and is an abrogation of their First Amendment rights. The founders would see this as an aberration of the legacy they left to us.
We must vote out elected officials who insert religious beliefs into a secular government and must insist Congress bring a correction to the Supreme Court.
Edward McCaskey
Dublin
Source: www.mercurynews.com