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Walnut Creek should
delay decision on oaks
The city of Walnut Creek is planning to remove two protected valley oaks from the Kinross right of way, a wetland, before the county has settled the lawsuit against it regarding the proposed project “The Glen at Heather Farm” at Seven Hills Ranch by Spieker Development.
It’s important to note that this is a strongly opposed and significantly controversial project requiring exceptions and modifications to zoning, ordinances and codes in place. What is the urgency to take such an irreversibly drastic action for an undecided project?
Thousands of people who actually live and vote in this area oppose this project but somehow it keeps progressing by just a couple of officials including a now-retired Contra Costa board member and a couple of Walnut Creek City Council members. It is time for our elected officials to hear their constituents’ voices.
Ozgur Kozaci
Walnut Creek
Dems shouldn’t balk
at rallying around Biden
Re: “Obama’s guy doubting Biden can beat Trump” (Page A7, Nov. 24).
Maureen Dowd’s opinion piece, while a very good opinion, misses something very important. The Democrat Party should be supporting Joe Biden’s reelection bid.
As an Independent voter, I listen to Democrat politicians and policy wonks with alarm over how they are piling on their party’s leader. Biden is obviously running for a second term, no matter how old he is. It is high time for all the Democrats criticizing Biden to stop that criticism and do everything they can to get him reelected.
Do they really want Donald Trump to win? Why help this traitor to our constitutional republic win another term? It would be an absolute disaster for our country.
I voted for Biden in 2020 to keep Trump as far away as possible from a second term. And considering what happened on Jan. 6, it was the right vote.
Rocky Fort
San Lorenzo
Defund war machine
to save our climate
Re: “Warnings about climate change begin heating up” (Page A1, Nov. 1).
The next time President Biden and Gov. Newsom confer with world leaders, they should discuss defunding all wars.
The shocking images of climate change disasters on the front page of the East Bay Times looked more like the battlefields of Ukraine and Gaza. Every war destroys ecosystems and contaminates environments. The war machine’s emissions worsen climate change by releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases. Peaceful investments help us fight climate change by supporting renewable energy research and reforestation. This will reduce environmental damage and promote global stewardship for a cleaner and more peaceful future.
America can no longer turn a blind eye to war’s destructive consequences. It is imperative that leaders prioritize peaceful resolutions, diplomacy and international cooperation to prevent future conflicts and protect our planet. We should evolve into a world where we prioritize allocating resources to preserving life. A Nobel Prize awaits.
Mark R. Clifford
Moraga
Lee would be stalwart
progressive in Senate
On March 5 (or before), be sure to vote for the Bay Area’s Barbara Lee for the U.S. Senate in California’s presidential primary election. Should she win, Lee would become the only elected African-American woman in the U.S. Senate. Lee’s Democratic Senate primary opponents — Southern California Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter — are both considerably more conservative and pro-corporate than proud, progressive stalwart Lee.
Lee has been proven correct time and again for the many politically difficult decisions that she has made over her past quarter-century in Congress, including having courageously cast the only vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 14, 2001, against the Republican Bush-Cheney regime’s reckless, carte blanche Authorization for the Use of Military Force that created the catastrophic, full-blown failure known as “The War On Terror.”
Barbara Lee for U.S. Senate.
Jake Pickering
Arcata
Bay Area, Houston can’t
compare for homeless
Re: “California can take a lesson from Houston” (Page A6, Nov. 8).
In the effort to combat homelessness, Sara Martinez offers ideas such as “collaboration, … accountability, … problem-solving,” and “data-driven decisions,” which worked in Houston. However, in her final paragraph, she writes one word that widely separates our two geographic areas: affordability.
There is another difference that applies nearly directly. The total population of the Houston metro is less than 7 million; homeless population is just over 3,200, obtained from Continuum of Care 2022 Homeless Count.
The Bay Area population is more than 7,000,000; the homeless population is 38,000. Ten times the problems at several multiples of affordability does not suggest a rosy outcome.
R Cote
Castro Valley
Source: www.mercurynews.com