Is real leadership to repair Sacramento County roads too much to ask? | Opinion
County leadership lacking
“Sacramento County, get ready for a sea of potholes and rutty roads,” (sacbee.com, June 19)
For years, we have said the sky is falling when we talk about our failing roads in Sacramento County. Well, as opinion writer Tom Philp reports, the sky has fallen, in the form of pothole-filled roads that will only get worse in the coming years.
I have always voted for tax increases to maintain our infrastructure, but I won’t anymore unless the Sacramento Board of Supervisors exercises real leadership in attacking our failed roads.
I would support a .76% increase in our sales tax, but only if it was restricted to repaving county roads through the issuance of general obligation bonds that would be used exclusively for road repair with a five-year plan to bring our roads up to par — no special projects to appease special interest groups, just road repair/repaving.
Is real leadership and action on repairing county roads too much to ask?
Tom Novi
Carmichael
Opinion
New approaches
“Sacramento County, get ready for a sea of potholes and rutty roads,” (sacbee.com, June 19)
Opinion writer Tom Philip is right when he says Elk Grove roads are in the best shape and that tax revenue isn’t available to fix Sacramento roads; but he omits that newer municipalities with room to develop are at the beginning of a growth Ponzi scheme, or that our taxes don’t account for the increase wear-and-tear cars cause to roads. We have over $2.23 billion in total deferred maintenance in Sacramento proper.
But we can fix this together by trying new approaches: Close select roads and implement more road diets to reduce lane miles needing maintenance; allow neighborhood business districts to develop which reduces the need to drive outside for basic services; and consider a tax that accurately reflects the cost of the damage driving a personally owned vehicle causes on our streets rather than having a blanket tax that unduly burdens those who can’t afford it.
Kay Crumb
Sacramento
Focus on current problems
“Sacramento County, get ready for a sea of potholes and rutty roads,” (sacbee.com, June 19)
Roads are falling apart not only in Sacramento County, but throughout the state. Highways and city streets can be an obstacle course in avoiding ubiquitous bumps from potholes. Not only are roads in disrepair, but the state is woefully deficient with ongoing maintenance of our power grids, water storage, educational facilities, existing transportation networks and other infrastructure.
A solution? Kill the high-speed rail project, reallocate the projected $100 billion of remaining costs and redeploy 10,000 jobs toward modernizing and fixing existing infrastructure.
It’s time to stop throwing good money around and focus on fixing the crumbling infrastructure that already exists.
Joe Selewicz
Sacramento
Safety measures
“Sacramento CA plans to improve pedestrian, cyclist safety,” (sacbee.com, June 21)
As an orientation and mobility specialist enabling blind and visually-impaired persons to function safely and independently in hazardous pedestrian environments for decades, I applaud the city’s efforts to physically improve high-risk locations in Sacramento.
At the same time, we — as walkers and bike riders on or by streets — need to be sober, avoid distractions and proceed carefully while thinking “what if?”
Yes, drivers and roadways often put us at risk, but if we have contributed to being struck, we can not always use them as our scapegoats. Stay safe out there!
Alvin Vopata
Antelope
Everyone gets a shot
“’Latino Century’ is a definitive book on Latino voting power,” (sacbee.com, June 20)
This was an interesting, insightful, well-written piece, but its closing lines feed the extremists’ screed (i.e., “they’re out to get us...poison our blood”). I, too, hope “we can get beyond the old conceptions of our American identity” and embrace the truly American ideal. But labeling that future “a new American century — a Latino century” feeds extremist paranoid rhetoric.
Here’s what I hope we realize: It’s not us against them; it’s every man for himself. Sounds cruel, but it’s meant to convey that this country gives every individual their “shot.” That’s all we get anyway; it’s the way of the world.
I want an American century when every citizen (as fairly, as justly as possible) gets “what they deserve.” And I think that’s the point, anyway.
Chris Reynolds
Sacramento
Fight together
“Cases still not investigated by Cal-OSHA because of staffing,” (sacbee.com, June 24)
This piece exhibits an inevitable outcome of an economic system that devalues workers, particularly low-paid workers in dangerous jobs. It also highlights the problems with bureaucracy and the under-funding of vital government services.
Preventable deaths described in the article are outrageous. Let them serve as a reason for more workers to join unions and as a rallying cry for workers of all kinds to show up in solidarity with one another. History tells us that workers fighting together win big!
Merideth Hartsell-Cooper
Sacramento
