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Keep development
off of rural land
Re: “Housing could fill in open spaces” (Page A1, April 21).
The Mountain Winery and other owners of wilderness or farm property who are trying to use the “builder’s remedy” law to build in rural areas are making a mistake. They’re seeking to use a law that doesn’t apply to them.
The “builder’s remedy” lets developers bypass local zoning in counties or cities that have missed their deadlines to submit plans for future housing to the state. But even the builder’s remedy prohibits building in open space areas like where the Mountain Winery is located, and in areas lacking adequate water and sewer service.
Green Foothills, a local environmental nonprofit, opposes these ill-advised projects and urges Santa Clara County to reject them. Our area desperately needs more housing, but we should build infill development in urban areas, not bulldoze the wilderness.
Shruti Gopinathan
Board member, Green Foothills
Palo Alto
State must employ
alternatives to fiber
Re: “State too reliant on fiber to span the digital divide” (Page A6, May 7).
It’s great that we’re trying to get everyone online, but it’s like we’re putting all eggs in one very expensive basket with the PUC’s fiber obsession. It’s not too smart on the budget to spend millions to hook up a few houses in places like Plumas County.
There are other technologies that do the job for one-tenth of the cost for fiber-class speeds. Fixed wireless, for example, is working for 4% of California households and could help tens of thousands more in a tenth of the time to deploy.
The CPUC’s finally talking about utilizing other technologies beyond fiber to help bridge the digital divide, but talk is cheap and we’ve all seen how slow they’ve been in including these lower-cost options. It’s time they start actually using these alternatives before we blow through even more money. Otherwise, we’re just throwing away resources that can be used to get more people online faster.
Janardhan Gottipati
San Jose
Let’s continue march
toward clean energy
Re: “Electricity from clean sources reaches 30% of global total” (Page C9, May 9).
According to this report, the world is making significant progress toward limiting carbon emissions when generating electricity. It wasn’t that long ago when some energy experts said that solar energy would never make a significant contribution to our energy supplies.
We can continue this progress in California and model low-carbon approaches for the rest of the country and the world. We need to continue to put more solar panels on rooftops. We need more nonprofit, 100% clean energy providers like Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Peninsula Clean Energy. Homes and buildings need to change to electric heat pumps for space and water heating. Gas ranges need to be replaced with induction ranges. Small communities and neighborhoods need to set up microgrids that are sourced with local renewable electricity and can store and share electricity with each other.
Urge your representatives and neighbors to help continue this progress.
Rob Hogue
Menlo Park
Use your vote to slow
the climate crisis
Re: “Lookout Santa Cruz staff wins top award for breaking news” (Page A2, May 7).
I was impressed to read that the Lookout Santa Cruz newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the catastrophic flooding and mudslides in the Santa Cruz area last year. It’s great to see local journalism recognized, and coverage of how our world is overheating, increasing the threat of extreme weather, is vital.
There’s widespread consensus that escalating extreme weather events are linked to fossil fuel pollution, which traps heat in our atmosphere. A warmer atmosphere holds more water, eventually releasing it with increasing ferocity, meaning that communities like ours are at growing risk of flooding and landslides.
We don’t have to accept this trajectory. We all have constituent power to urge our elected officials to do more to reduce carbon pollution and protect our climate.
Pulitzer Prizes clearly show that issues are important, but the best prize for future generations is a livable planet.
Renee Hinson
Mountain View
We must listen to
student protesters
The protesters have demands. Listen to them.
The student protests at various colleges are not about antisemitism. That is a concoction. The protests are about the slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza.
American students are being beaten by the police, thrown to the ground and arrested because they dare to speak out about the genocide of civilians, health personnel and humanitarian aid workers, and the blocking of food, water and fuel.
The students don’t like the slaughter, and they don’t like U.S. complicity. The students are protesting the whole sordid affair.
Yes, the International Criminal Court is considering indicting Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, but 12 U.S. senators have written to the ICC that if it targets Israel, the United States will target the ICC, thus interfering in an international court action.
Listen to the students.
Larry Dorshkind
Redwood City
Our nation doesn’t
need a would-be king
We are not in need of a king, dictator or someone who would consolidate presidential power. This is a democracy. Bullies have no place in the White House, nor do they command the respect of our allies.
We are a nation, indivisible. Those who seek to divide us are not worthy to hold office in our government. We are not a Christian nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Jewish nation, or any other religious affiliation. This country was founded on freedom of religion and belief.
Take a look at where intolerance has brought us as a country today. We must reject those whose platform is to divide us as a nation. We are a democratic republic. We can keep it by having civil discussion and finding common ground to move forward even when we strongly disagree.
Democracy, freedom of the press and the freedom to vote are messy but worth it.
Angela Boles King
Los Gatos
Source: www.mercurynews.com