California Forum Letters: Bee readers weigh in on Newsom recall, Sac zoo

Meaningful solutions

“Let’s house humans before rhinos. Using public funds on the Sacramento Zoo is a bad idea” (sacbee.com, April 15)

Sacramento, like all major cities, suffers from a rising homeless problem. We could surrender all of Sacramento’s parks and close all recreation programs and eliminate any quality of life for Sacramento residents, or we can realize that homelessness is only one of many priorities we need to handle. We don’t necessarily need a zoo in every city, but where will Sacramento youth go to learn about world wildlife? Will less privileged local youngsters be driven for hours to the next nearest zoo? Not likely. I strongly doubt that eliminating the zoo will solve homelessness. Let’s put our heads together and find meaningful solutions that will help the homeless and our children.

Mike Azevedo

Manteca

Giving more

“Let’s house humans before rhinos. Using public funds on the Sacramento Zoo is a bad idea” (sacbee.com, April 15)

Despite its sound financial sense, the argument against using more public dollars to benefit animals includes a dangerous assumption that should be acknowledged: the belief that care and compassion for others constitutes a “pie” with limited pieces to be distributed. This concept contradicts the teachings of all the great spiritual traditions. Instead, we are encouraged by these traditions to see compassion for others as a resource that can grow. We don’t have to pit homeless humans against animals. We can recognize the needs of each and ask the question, “How much more can we afford to give?”

In the U.S., for a lot of stable and affluent people, the answer is “a lot.”

Deanna Davis

Valencia

Opinion

Closing the digital divide

“31% of Californians don’t have high-speed internet, state says. How Newsom can change that” (sacbee.com, April 7)

As California’s former secretary of technology, I know how critical digital access is to an equitable economy and equal opportunity. The article notes the different estimates of need but doesn’t distinguish between the availability of high-speed infrastructure (“deployment”) and the number of people signing up for internet at home (“adoption”). California must focus on expanding both. A California Emerging Technology Fund/USC survey found that Internet Service Providers have signed up just 9% of eligible low-income households and just 38% of eligible households are even aware of these options. ISPs receive subsidies to provide low-cost internet options but fall short on advertising them. ISPs make billions selling to the government without improving how they do business. AB1425 and AB1176 aim to close this gap, but the authors should require ISPs that sell to the state to do their share to close the digital divide.

Carlos Ramos

Elk Grove

Dividing duplexes

“California must fix its housing crisis with increased density and duplexes” (sacbee.com, March 14)

We welcome Toni Atkins’ efforts to create more opportunities for affordable housing. One mechanism needed to open up housing is to divide duplexes into two separate parcels. In this way, banks could finance one unit, which could then be bought and sold independently. The current real estate and financing structures make it nearly impossible for two different buyers to purchase the two parts of a duplex. Thus, duplexes remain as income-producing properties rented at market rates. Only by allowing duplexes (and triplexes and fourplexes) to be owned separately, like condos, do they create affordable opportunities to buy into this currently overheated housing market.

Travis Silcox

Sacramento

McClintock’s ignorance

“Tom McClintock thinks studying reparations is ‘evil.’ He should learn more about slavery.” (sacbee.com, April 17)

Thank you for highlighting McClintock’s willfully ignorant words and actions on issues of race. In 2021 alone, he has voted against: funding to protect Medicare, the stimulus/COVID relief package, extending PPP, paycheck equity, a citizenship path for Dreamers, a resolution condemning anti-Asian hate, an ERA extension, the Violence Against Women Act, gender identity civil rights, enforcing workplace safety for healthcare workers and efforts to prevent opioid-related child mistreatment. He also supported the hateful, divisive rhetoric of Marjorie Taylor Greene by voting against her removal from House committees.For me, McClintock will forever be defined by the day in 2017 when he watched while a roomful of attendees at a Christian conference jeered at a racist caricature of Maxine Waters. When asked later, he claimed we all needed a better sense of humor. No, we need a better representative in Congress.

Barbara Smith

Auburn

No on recall

“Caitlyn Jenner, a porn star and more: The Gavin Newsom recall is getting crowded” (sacbee.com, April 15)

A GOP-led recall petition, signed by only 12% of the voters from the last California governor’s race, will get to tell the rest of us that Gov. Gavin Newsom should be recalled. California will potentially spend more than $81 million of our tax dollars to hold a recall election later this year – money that should be used to help vaccinate our communities. We could easily see over 100 candidates crawling out of the woodwork to campaign for governor, with a winner-take-all outcome. Wake up, California.

Rene Wise

Fremont

Building dams

“Why won’t Gavin Newsom declare a drought? California recall puts him in tough spot” (sacbee.com, April 16)

In your article regarding the lack of rain and the dreaded “d” word — drought — there is not a hint, an utterance or a whisper of the other “d” word: dam. You may not want dams, but somewhere in that opus is the possibility of actually saving the water we do have from running willy-nilly to the sea and instead using it for our own power, our own drinking and our own recreation. People may be leaving California for a long list of reasons, but that does not mean that under the current water policy in the Capitol we will have enough water or power for not only ourselves but future generations. Wake up, legislators — this is happening on your watch. Build a dam.

Phil Vercruyssen

Sacramento