`Just leave Modesto’s Muni alone’ | Letters to the editor: Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022
Just leave Muni alone
I’m a lifelong resident of Modesto growing up on the west side near Muni (the former golf course). I’m 79 years old. I try not to drive at night. My computer skills are not that good so I missed both meetings (about its future).
Why not leave Muni as it is? There are not that many parks on the west side. The neighbors there are mostly against housing. You say costs will be lower; don’t fool yourselves. Once you take out the park, you cannot put it back. Besides, I was always told we should leave things better than when we found them. There is a lot of Modesto’s history on that old golf course.
Steve Pedego, Modesto
Losing Modesto businesses
The closings of Deva Café and Yesterday’s Books are a huge loss for Modesto, yet emblematic of an America that citizens, apparently, desire. The Deva Café owner realized that inflation is a manipulated issue, based upon the record-breaking profits currently being racked up by corporations, companies, and wealthy individuals. Yet, millions vote for this outcome.
Just five years ago the great tax giveaway took place for American corporations, companies, and the wealthy. These groups are in line for about $1.5 trillion dollars in tax savings, but there were two implied scenarios. One, the cuts would pay for themselves, because of trickle-down economics and companies wouldn’t need to raise prices. Two, Social Security and Medicare would remain as they are. The cuts did not pay for themselves; the lies are causing small businesses and contractors to be eaten up, or plowed under; and the safety nets, which we’ve paid into our entire working lives, look to be next on their greed list.
The smokescreens of caravans, CRT, socialism, white replacement theory, and gun confiscation will likely keep Americans from seeing what is really happening, as they keep voting away their hard-earned dollars.
Dean Jepson, Turlock
New companies, not taxes
A thought occurred to me after reading about new revenue coming for Turlock and the hiring of 500 employees for a fulfillment center. More and more tax revenue for Turlock. Why have we not seen Modesto attract new revenue sources with new larger businesses opening here? Are there any significant employers being attracted to Modesto for revenue instead of constant reliance on local taxpayers?
Ernie Seppi, Modesto
Let’s help the homeless
I agree with a lot of readers that homelessness on our streets is a big issue and it seems like it’s only getting worse after COVID. Where have all the government funds gone to house and help these people get back on their feet? What can we as a community do to help this issue get some movement in the right direction? It seems like all the city does is kick out the homeless encampments from where they are but sooner or later they either come back or situate themselves elsewhere and that’s not a solution.
Local and state government need to address this crisis and local news media need to put some pressure on our elected officials to start making some changes and getting these people the help they need. I hope the $2 billion fund that Newsom is proposing is used well and distributed in the right way and I hope a lot of that money not only goes into housing but helping them with their mental health and overall well-being.
Carlos U. Palmeno, Turlock
Sometimes more is less
How many deep wells in the foothills will be tolerated? They drain the aquifers of the foothills that have fed our useful aquifers under the valley floor, here where we live. How many more unneeded, unnecessary Riverwalk Projects ( Riverbank) will we tolerate? We don’t have the water! Project after project in the Valley are based on the existing homeowner picking up the tab for expanded capacity water and sewer systems, more roads, more congestion, more crime. Less quality of life, less solitude, less safety.
For decades we have been warned of the “era of limits” — we are here. We have limited prime farmland, limited water supplies, limited funding, and now limited patience. It is impossible to get that “small town feel” without a small town. Impossible to “get there quickly” when more is only defined by congestion. Impossible to walk to the store as neighborhood shopping centers are eliminated for warehouse savings.
Hotter summers, unpredictable flooding, and limited water supplies must direct our development inward. Protecting our prime farmland, agricultural economy and infrastructure for the long term must direct our county and cities. Our elected leaders need to be disciplined; sprawl is easy.
Why would we want more when we get less for it?
Denny Jackman, Modesto
Biden is clueless
Joe Biden stands there staring blankly while we pay over $6 a gallon for gas. And he begs OPEC for more when we have gigantic reserves right here. He watches with that same blank stare while millions of totally unknown humans cut to the front of the line and walk right in while legal applicants wait. He lets drugs pour into the country while the cartels reap billions and face little if any resistance. A dollar the day he was inaugurated is now worth 82 cents but must buy food at highly inflated prices. He hardly says a thing about rapidly increasing crime. He and his family are safe. His main interests seem to be corralling votes for his party and making sure abortion is available on every street corner.
And with this glowing record, 40% of you think we should commission an artist to carve his likeness on Mt. Rushmore. Because come what may, he’s not Donald Trump.
Richard Oliver, Modesto
Down with disinformation
I came across the word “plaguenation” to describe the Black Death plague in England in the 1600s. It was defined by some as a “substitute for damnation.” The current plague in our nation is misinformation. From denial of scientific studies and the indisputable benefits of vaccines to the refusal to recognize that Trump lost fair and square, we are plagued by those who prefer fantasy to fact. Small-d democracy depends on people graciously accepting election results and not fabricating nonexisting fraud.
Misinformation appears to be the new substitute for damnation. Democracy is doomed until sanity returns to the public discourse.
Robert LeFevre, Modesto
Address climate change now
I’m interested in your readers, their families and their futures. Climate change is clearly happening and human-caused. We cannot afford to elect leaders who feel dealing with this can be delayed. Let’s join together and demand legislation that addresses risks head on. The best start is a revenue neutral fee (neutral in that revenues are returned in full to businesses or families) on those gases that cause our climate to warm.
Des Orsinelli, Ripon
Suppressing conservative views
Re “Attack on Yale explains the right’s ‘cancel culture’ ruse” (Page 6A, Oct.13): The argument by Paul Waldman is ridiculous. It has been well-attributed by a host of commentators that many of our major universities do, in fact, allow a culture where conservative views are suppressed, as is free speech of a conservative nature.
Where Waldman gets it wrong is that he tries to equate Judge Ho’s refusal to hire Yale graduates with Yale’s tendency to maintain a cancel culture environment. Justice Ho is not trying to suppress anyone’s right to anything; all he is doing is refusing to hire students from a certain university. He is not trying to force the students or the university to change anything (although I’m sure he would like them to). What he is doing is little more than adding a preference to a job description related to people he would like to hire. And he would be perfectly within his right to add a college preference even if it had nothing to do with politics.
Lance Bernard, Hughson
Kudos, Modesto ballet troupe
“Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus,” presented by Central West Ballet was spectacular. The dancers, singers, musicians, actors, costumes, lighting, make-up, set, and videography was magical and memorable. Rene Daveluy choreographed, scored and wrote lyrics for this one-of-a-kind world premiere. He invited the Modesto Symphony Orchestra, Opera Modesto and Prospect Theater Project to participate in this two-year collaboration. The ballet was brilliantly interpreted by Mark Medina. We are very lucky to live in a community with so much talent. As a person with hearing loss, Karin Reenstierna, the executive director, understands the importance of making shows accessible to everyone.
Kaye Osborn, Modesto