Bee readers react to Sacramento’s failure to open new homeless sites, Proposition 30

EV practicality

“California electric cars: Adoption disparity by ZIP codes,” (sacbee.com, Oct. 21)

Electric cars are new and expensive technology. Most apartments don’t have off-street parking with charging outlets. If you can find a public charger that’s working and available, recharging takes about an hour. So even if lower-income people were able to afford electric cars, many would find the requirements impractical.

Today the most practical way to use an electric car is to charge it overnight, drive it locally and then return home in the evening. Cross-country travel requires extensive planning. The focus today should be on how we can make our communities more friendly to electric cars.

Charles R. Donaldson, Sr.

Sacramento

Ashby defense

“The Sacramento City Council has reached a new low in its anti-homeless demagoguery,” (sacbee.com, Oct. 22)

Nobody disagrees that we need to build more housing and provide more mental health and addiction services for homeless people. But protecting our kids from some of the drug addicts as well as the mentally challenged and violent inhabitants of illegal encampments that are increasingly lining our streets is far from “demagoguery”; it’s the right thing to do.

No kids should have to fear for their safety on their way to class. I applaud Councilwoman Angelique Ashby for listening to parents at Sutter Middle School and passing an ordinance that prohibits homeless camps within 500 feet of schools, day care centers and preschools.

Steven Maviglio

Sacramento

Selfish

“Special report: Sacramento approved 20 homeless sites a year ago. Here’s why none opened,” (sacbee.com, Oct. 24)

It’s ridiculous for the Sacramento City Council to have agreed to set aside $100 million dollars for Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s efforts to address our homelessness crisis and then not have a single shelter open. It has given homeless people a false sense of hope.

The opinions about homeless shelters near neighborhoods need to change. The idea that homeless shelters create more dangerous neighborhoods is false. Steinberg has made considerable efforts to open these sites, but the root of the problem is the community’s selfishness.

Christian Moran

San Francisco

Reality check

“Special report: Sacramento approved 20 homeless sites a year ago. Here’s why none opened,” (sacbee.com, Oct. 24)

Fourteen months ago, the City Council passed Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s plan to open 20 new homeless shelters and sanctioned camping sites. Not one of them has opened, yet the mayor maintains that the plan was not a failure.

“My idea is to try to start a discussion and then let a number of flowers bloom, see which flowers bloom, see which spark you can light and then look back and say, ‘OK, what did we accomplish?’” Steinberg said recently. “What we accomplished was an unprecedented number of beds for homeless people in our city.”

One can only imagine what Steinberg might say about the first voyage of the Titanic: “It was a great success; after all, the Titanic only sank once.”

Brian Powers

Sacramento

Democracy

“Of course Donald Trump won’t answer the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena. That reveals plenty,” (sacbee.com, Oct. 19)

Remember the saying: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” We need to be reminded that if fascism returns to power in any country, it could lead to even worse outcomes than ever before thanks to the advent of nuclear weapons.

Let’s reject the MAGA-Republican idea of ending democracy by dismissing any election they don’t win. People need to wake up to the reality that they are being manipulated by the conservative media to vote against their own self-interest. Reject anyone running for office who denies that Joe Biden is our duly elected president. Vote for democracy.

Sandy White

Fremont

Unprincipled

“How will California be affected if Republicans win the House?” (sacbee.com, Oct. 26)

For many years, Republican platforms have included solid conservative principles. That is until 2020, when no platform was adopted, suggesting the absence or abandonment of those long-held principles.

Fiscal responsibility has morphed into huge deficits, wars and tax cuts financed by borrowing; international cooperation has changed into withdrawal from, or refusal to join, responsible international agreements; and law and order have given way to denial of lawful subpoenas and armed insurrection. Formerly respected and honest party leaders have become spineless sycophants and enablers of the “Big Lie,” demeaning themselves simply to hang on to their little slice of power.

Alas, the Grand Old Party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan is no longer. Should responsible, informed voters owe their allegiance to a party that has changed so much or to the principles t they once believed in?

Bill Richmond

Carmichael

Yes on Prop. 30

“California Prop 30 will reduce wildfires and air pollution,” (sacbee.com, Oct. 24)

Sacramento and California have some of the worst air in the country, primarily due to vehicle exhaust and wildfires. Proposition 30 addresses both of these causes, providing $45 billion to lower the cost of zero-emission vehicles for consumers, cities and transit agencies as well as $35 billion to expand zero-emission charging stations, with 50% of these funds allocated to low- and middle-income communities.

The state has mandated a transition away from internal-combustion vehicles; this proposition provides the means to achieve that mandate, particularly for communities that may otherwise be left behind. Prop. 30 also provides $20 billion to prevent and fight wildfires, which are fouling the air we breathe. Prop. 30 will help clean our air now and help tomorrow’s climate.

William Pevec

Sacramento