NIMBYs can opt out

EDITOR: Living in Sebastopol or any other city comes with costs - some financial, others social, some emotional. You'll see crime, compassion, litter, love, green cars and gross polluters. Companies will want to give you free Wi-Fi downtown or a new communications tower. People will volunteer to clean up creeks or start a farmers market, and others will have no good intentions at all. These and so much more come with living in a city.

We're not forced to live here; we've chosen to live here. Speaking up for what you believe in is your right. This is still a democracy, but a few NIMBYs shouldn't be able to make the majority have it their way or the highway. That's not very neighborly. Yes, neighbors come with a city, too.

I'm sure there are places left in our beautiful county where there's no cell reception, no electricity, and you can still drink from the creek. This may be a more comfortable place for some to live and leave the rest of us to our own demise because we also have that right. We've chosen to live in a city with neighbors and technology and the costs and benefits that come with it.

LOU GOUVEIA

Sebastopol