Riding bikes, funding education, voting for a president, stealing guns

City does not make roads bike-friendly

Re “Bicycle-friendly life still an afterthought in Sacramento” (Viewpoints, May 10): Thank you, Daniel Weintraub, for your informative article on bicycling in Sacramento. I would agree with his statement: “It is mostly talk and hope, and precious little action.” Sacramento does little when it comes to making our city a better place to ride. Officials paint a rosy picture but never come close to making it happen.

I have been riding my bike in Sacramento for 65 years and I don’t know how many times I felt that, with just a little bit of effort by the city, the biking situation could be greatly improved. These are not major road improvements.

When decisions are being made, a small amount of sincere consideration for bicycling would go a long way. Being a second-class citizen on the road when your life is in the balance can be threatening. If the city leaders were fully aware of that fact, things would improve.

Fully fund state’s higher education

For more than a decade, public higher education has been under-funded in California’s budget process. This inadequate funding has disproportionately impacted students from diverse and low-income communities. I urge Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature to provide a fix by including full funding in the state budget for our community college, California State University and University of California systems.

The numbers are startling. Due to inadequate funding over the past five years, California public higher education has denied access to 2.5 million students who were eligible to attend college. According to a Public Policy Institute of California study, the state’s workforce will be short more than 1 million college graduates by 2030.

Public higher education is the most effective and socially valuable driver for our state’s economic vitality. We must not postpone providing these public institutions the funding needed to ensure that every eligible person has access to higher education.

California has strange priorities

Re “All-gender bathroom bill passes state Assembly” (Capitol & California, May 10): Way to go, California. Never mind trivial details like budgets, immigration or the water supply. Our Legislature focuses on the important stuff – playing bathroom police.

Anyone in government offices, public facilities and private businesses must now do their business the way Sacramento tells them to. Churches and private homes soon to follow, of course.

Choosing a course in this election

It appears to me, after following the Republican and Democratic primaries, that some generalities can be assumed. The Donald Trump voters appear disenchanted with the Washington elite, while the Hillary Clinton/Bernie Sanders voters want more of the same.

The Trump voters, in general, appear to want to know what the candidate can do for the country. The Clinton/Sanders voters seem more interested in what “they can do for me.”

If my hypothesis is correct, then the voter must decide which course for the country is more important, what is in the best interest of the United States.

Neither side of the political spectrum has a candidate who matches what the country deserves, and the path the voters choose can be crucial to future generations.

Gun thieves and all those gun laws

Re “Thieves hit gun stores in Elk Grove” (Page 5A, May 10): When reporting the break-ins at local gun stores, The Sacramento Bee states that it’s a continuing trend for thieves to burglarize gun stores. How can this be? Do you mean that criminals don’t take the mandatory gun safety test and then buy their guns at gun stores or dealers? They don’t submit to background checks, fingerprinting, 10-day waiting periods and aren’t limited to purchasing one new gun every 30 days?

I don’t understand. Politicians and many others have insisted that all these gun laws would prevent criminals and other persons who shouldn’t have guns from obtaining them.

You mean that’s not true?

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Riding bikes, funding education, voting for a president, stealing guns."