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Complaint distracts
from taxpayer ripoff
Recently, three Santa Clara City Council members filed a frivolous complaint against Stand Up for Santa Clara, a grassroots group that formed to stop the 49ers from taking our city’s youth soccer park and turning it into VIP parking for football games.
One of their claims is that we are not registered as a nonprofit organization. That charge, like the rest of their complaint, is irresponsible and false. I helped form the organization because Santa Clarans care about our city and we don’t want an NFL team and its billionaire owner controlling City Hall. Unfortunately, that’s been the case since 2020 when Anthony Becker, Suds Jain and Kevin Park got elected, as the civil grand jury reported last year.
Those three council members are up for reelection next year. Their complaint demonstrates how they are trying to distract the public from their actions that have financially enriched the team at the expense of Santa Clara taxpayers.
Burt Field
Co-founder, Stand Up for Santa Clara
Santa Clara
University police
must rethink safety
Re: “Man fatally stabbed near edge of campus” (Page B5, Sept. 16).
It is another day on campus where students get the notification and are advised to stay observant and be cautious.
Stalking, armed robbery, attempted carjacking and homicide are just the few incidents that have occurred within the past week. On-campus residents are frightened and afraid to step outside of their dorms at night. Students have grown tired of the consistent reminders that their campus is swarmed with people who bring harm. How are our loved ones supposed to let us students out into the world to receive higher education the same way we let our soldiers out into war? What can the San Jose State University Police Department do differently to prevent the rapid pace of crime from striking another student?
This is the time for our UPD to re-evaluate its protocol and take the initiative for the safety of our students.
Alexis Avitia
San Jose
San Jose staff deserve
accolades for library
Re: “Anniversary celebration looks toward the future” (Page B1, Sept. 21).
It is great to see the celebration over the 20-year anniversary of the landmark MLK Library project.
What I find frustrating is any acknowledgment that this project could not have moved forward or succeeded without the funding and coordination provided by the Redevelopment Agency. It takes not only political will but administrative will to deliver such a project.
University and agency staff should receive commensurate recognition.
Bill Ekern
San Jose
Removing Trump from
ballot is wrong impulse
Re: ”Kicking Trump off California’s ’24 ballot is misguided approach” (Page A6, Sept. 21).
I couldn’t agree more with Mark Z. Barabak’s main point: Taking Donald Trump off the ballot will only feed the fire he so desires, so demands — and so needs.
Most of us can get by with just air, water and a little food. But Trump needs attention — lots and lots of it — just to survive: lots of pictures, headlines, columns, lawsuits, revolving doors of lawyers, social and slanted media, all shining light on a very unhappy man.
Isn’t it time to take the light off Donald Trump and, instead, let it shine again on American democracy?
Dan Dippery
Menlo Park
Legislature must restore
incentives for solar
The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) December 2022 NEM3 decision reduced the compensation to homeowners for rooftop solar’s contribution to the electricity grid. The main argument was that the previous net metering policy was unfair to low-income households. A lawsuit was filed and it was recently reported that the State Court of Appeal in San Francisco agreed to hear the case.
California needs rooftop solar to expand across all income groups to increase the amount of renewable electricity from our sun-blessed state. Generous funding for installing solar is becoming available to low-income groups. Taking away the net metering advantage for them works in the other direction and makes rooftop solar more expensive for disadvantaged communities.
This issue should be addressed by the state Legislature. Contact your Assembly and Senate representatives in Sacramento to appeal the CPUC decision and restore the incentives for rooftop solar.
Rob Hogue
Menlo Park
Source: www.mercurynews.com