Bill Wood: Spend our money two biggest problems, water and roads
There are real pressing problems for California. The drought affects everybody. We need an alternate source of drinking water. The construction of desalination plants along the coast would work. Rising sea levels due to global warming insures adequate supply of salt water. The plants are expensive to build and operate, but would benefit all of us.
The second real problem is our road system. My frequent drives to Los Angeles remind me of bouncing along the roads in Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s. The recent collapse of Interstate 10 has “inconvenienced” lots of people. The failure of this critical east-west road should have been anticipated, but lack of funding precludes effective inspections and repairs. We need to upgrade our road system, which has fallen from world-class to mediocre or poor. Looking at our state budget, we see see billions to build the high-speed rail system. It will never become a self-sustaining reality. It will benefit a small percent of us. The time has come to recognize reality and dump that loser and spend the money for the greater good.
Bill Wood, Oakdale
This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 11:05 AM with the headline "Bill Wood: Spend our money two biggest problems, water and roads."