California forum letters: Bee readers take on city’s clearing of homeless, Roe’s future

PG&E responds

“Slashing solar incentives only helps private utilities. California regulators must back down,” (sacbee.com, Dec. 6)

Californians without rooftop solar pay $3.4 billion more annually in electricity bills to subsidize typically wealthier solar customers who don’t pay their share of grid costs or for public programs like low-income discounts. Yet these customers continue to use the grid when the sun isn’t shining. PG&E supports solar with 20% of the country’s rooftop solar in our service area, but the 25-year-old net energy metering incentive program is long overdue for change. Costs to install rooftop solar have dropped by 70%, and high subsidies are no longer necessary. The inequity is a reality and will continue to grow if NEM is not modernized.

Robert Kenney, PG&E senior vice president, Regulatory and External Affairs

Oakland

County responds

“Homelessness on Commerce Circle needed a complex solution. Sacramento chose a quick fix,” (sacbee.com, Dec. 7)

The county has and will continue to be actively involved with the city of Sacramento and others in providing outreach to homeless encampments and making connections to available housing and other services. The county was not aware of the action that was recently taken on Commerce Circle, but has reached out to city staff to see if there is still an opportunity for outreach to the residents who were affected.

Ethan Dye, director, Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance

Cruelty

“Sacramento clears 160 vehicles used by homeless from business park. Are more sweeps coming?” (sacbee.com, Dec. 7)

I can’t be the only reader whose first thought turned to the Anatole France quote, “In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.” And whose second thought was about the cruelty of forcing people with nowhere to go to move into tents just as the temperature drops. The city should provide bathrooms and necessities to prevent the problems complained of by neighbors instead of spending money to tow people’s homes away.

Valerie Feldman

Sacramento

Unapologetic

“Sacramento’s slow streets experiment did not go well. But the city shouldn’t give up on it,” (sacbee.com, Dec. 2)

After reading this opinion piece, I drove by a rollover crash at 65th Street and 4th Avenue. Nearly every day when I’m on the road I come across a totally preventable collision. Highway 50 between Stockton Boulevard and Power Inn has daily pile-ups. That’s not hyperbole. I know The Bee’s editorial board is trying to make the point that despite poor polling, we should continue to find ways to decrease dangerous speeding on our city streets. But we are so conditioned to accept that dozens of people dying on our roads each year is totally normal, and when, god-forbid, we temporarily slow down a couple of residential streets we have to apologize our way into promoting more safety improvements in the future.

Isaac Gonzalez

Sacramento

Bear break-ins

“Tahoe is bear country. It’s up to residents to keep bears out of their homes,” (sacbee.com, Dec. 5)

Ann Bryant asserts that the only time bears get into people’s houses is when doors or windows are unlocked or open. This assertion is false. My extended family owns a cabin in Lake Tahoe. For many years, we had little or no problems with bears. However, in the last two or three years, we have had two bear break-ins. In both cases, the bear smashed in a window and entered through the broken window. In the first case, the window was constructed so that it couldn’t be opened. In the second case, the window could be opened, but was locked when the bear smashed it in. Something is changing in Lake Tahoe. We need to rethink how we are handling these top predators.

James Morgan

Sacramento

Religious freedom

“With Roe in question, justices dig into private debate,” (sacbee.com, Dec. 5)

As a vice president of The National Council of Jewish Women, I condemn the Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy with few exceptions. A Supreme Court decision to uphold the law would eviscerate 50 years of precedent affirming the constitutional right to abortion, and 24 states would likely take action to prohibit abortion outright. Restrictions and bans fall hardest on people who already face discriminatory obstacles to health care. This violation of human dignity and bodily autonomy is antithetical to Jewish text and values. Abortion is not only permitted in Judaism, but in some cases required when the life of the pregnant person is at stake. Restrictive abortion laws, rooted in a particular faith based understanding of when life begins, limit the ability to make healthcare decisions in alignment with one’s own faith, undermining their constitutional right to abortion but also the constitutional right to religious freedom.

Claire Lipschultz

Carmichael

Not soon enough

“Devin Nunes to retire from Congress, lead Donald Trump’s new social media company,” (sacbee.com, Dec. 6)

Nunes cannot leave Congress soon enough. He has shown a disdain for the First Amendment right to free speech and free press by filing multiple lawsuits against individuals and media because they were critical of him. The suits were filed out of state, presumably to avoid California sanctions which punish the improper attempt to silence criticism. He sought to aid in stealing the presidential election by voting to refuse to certify Biden’s election. He is a present and real danger to our democracy. That danger remains, as long as his toadies (Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley etc.) hold elective office at any level of government. Drain the swamp, vote out Trump’s toadies.

William Schmidt

Wilton