Sacramento Bee readers write in about affordable housing, Diablo Canyon, electric vehicles
Inhumane
“Sacramento’s ban on many homeless camps isn’t really a plan,” (sacbee.com, Aug. 25)
I have worked as a volunteer to provide support to people in Chico who, for a variety of reasons, have lost their housing. Chico went through the same inhumane and pointless procedures of rousting people from parks and other public spaces. A prominent conservative member of the Chico City Council stated their strategy at one point a couple of years ago: “We will move you and move you until you go away.”
This eventually cost the city a lot of money in a lawsuit that it lost based on the legal precedent set in Boise v. Martin: that it’s “cruel and unusual punishment” to roust people from public property if they have nowhere else to go. This forced the city to increase the number of shelter beds and reduce the endless harassment of unhoused people. In every small and large community in the U.S., there are hundreds and thousands of human beings who are forced to exist (or die) without affordable and available housing.
Robert Van Fleet
Chico
Think differently
“Why Sacramento CA region has an affordable housing crisis,” (sacbee.com, Aug. 28)
We need to ask new questions and come up with real solutions to address the affordable housing shortfall. It is simply too expensive to produce housing with public funding sources.
How can we attract investment to produce low-cost, efficient housing to fill vacant lots and large parking areas that line our older commercial areas along Franklin, Stockton and Auburn boulevards? These empty spaces are a blight on our urban fabric. If they aren’t used for gardens or other productive means, the owners of these lots should be penalized such as by Oakland’s vacant parcel tax.
We don’t need to follow Folsom’s example: more sprawling McMansions built on the edge of the region for high-income earners, with a few “affordable” units sprinkled in as required. We need developers, elected leaders and property owners to step up.
Steve Schweigerdt
Sacramento
EV for all?
“California set historic clean vehicle standards. Are we ready?” (sacbee.com, Aug. 25)
The questions regarding the reliability of California’s power grid are definitely warranted. As a lifelong Sacramentan, I have watched as the state government has systematically reduced available power generation. If the grid fails, with every home or business attached to it, life as we know it will stop — there will be no hot water, refrigeration, cooking, laundry, heat or air-conditioning.
There are a few aspects of the “electric car for all” mantra that remain unclear to me as a member of the middle class. How much are replacement batteries, and how much will the fee to dispose of them be? In California, vehicle registration cost is calculated based on the price of the vehicle. The registration would be cost-prohibitive for many middle- and low-income families, never mind the costs of insuring the vehicle.
Joan Bach
Sacramento
Close Diablo
“Feinstein writes to CA lawmakers in support of Diablo Canyon,” (sacbee.com, Aug. 31)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is misinformed. Nuclear reactors produce steam and plutonium, not electricity. This plutonium — roughly 1,400 pounds per year — is the problem.
In spent fuel rod form, plutonium is not very dangerous. But if someone steals it and blows it up into a dust cloud that humans breathe, we’re dead. The land this cloud falls on will be uninhabitable for longer than the recorded history of humankind. Plutonium’s half-life is 24,100 years, meaning 96,400 years from now, 6.25% of this poison will still be with us.
The answer is to sever the existing steam pipes from the nuclear reactors, shut the reactors down, install natural gas boilers to make steam for the electricity and add wind and solar where the site permits. It’s immoral for California to allow the nuclear portion of Diablo Canyon to continue operating.
Don Siefkes
San Leandro
Different view
“CA must stop debt collectors from hounding working families,” (sacbee.com, Aug. 23)
Sen. Bob Wieckowski’s opinion piece doesn’t consider the real balance between collections and the cost and accessibility of credit. Wage garnishment is a post-judgment tool used as a last resort to enforce an undisputed financial obligation. Significantly limiting this post-judgment remedy will have unintended consequences for all Californians.
When creditors can’t recover debts, they respond to these losses by eliminating and/or reducing access to credit for risky borrowers and/or increasing prices for all borrowers to cover the added risk. Senate Bill 1477 doesn’t protect consumers. It lowers the standard of living for the people this bill is intended to protect by driving consumers to risky and unregulated sources of lending for which reasonable rates and remedies are not available.
Courtney Reynaud
Fresno
More housing
“Gov. Newsom hails effort to clear highway homeless camps. Here’s what he calls a success,” (sacbee.com, Aug. 28)
This article finds the governor hailing the “clearing” of homeless camps. “Leaving people on the streets and our highways is inhumane,” Gov. Gavin Newsom states. But where are these people moved to? Is there any follow-up to determine where they went? My guess is back on the streets and highways.
Billions of dollars are being invested to get people off the streets, but where are they housed? There is nothing permanent being built to make a long-term difference.
What is needed is more affordable housing. Neighborhoods and communities have got to stop blocking affordable housing projects. If people can afford to live indoors, they won’t live on the streets. As for mentally ill homeless people, some of our state’s billions of dollars should be used to construct dormitory-style residences, with advisers on each floor providing supportive supervision.
Diane McGuire
Sacramento