Friday’s Letters to the Editor

Meeting housing needs

EDITOR: Three hundred people signed petitions against an affordable housing project in Sebastopol (“Another try at apartments,” April 13). For years, most affordable housing has been built in Santa Rosa, especially southwest Santa Rosa. It’s about time communities like Sebastopol do their part.

Neighborhoods often cite traffic congestion, environmental concerns, pollution and the like to justify efforts to block these projects. I agree with Zeke Guzman, an affordable housing advocate quoted in the article, that another underlying reason for opposition is racial bias. He noted a statement by a Design Review Board member that the apartments would become overcrowded. Guzman said this statement reflected racial bias, because most apartments will go to workers who are Latino.

Communities like Sebastopol benefit from the labor provided by individuals who don’t make a living wage allowing them to live near their work. Isn’t it about time they put aside their fears and, yes, even racial bias to help those who help them and all of Sonoma County live a lifestyle of abundance?

PAM SVETLIK

Santa Rosa

Feinstein should resign

EDITOR: Recent news stories report that a number of senators and House members have discussed asking Sen. Dianne Feinstein to resign. They say that, due to failing memory and declining cognitive abilities, she is no longer able to perform her duties and serve the people of our state. I agree with their assessment: for far too long, Feinstein has been missing in action, infrequently meeting with constituents and rarely, if ever, representing our state in interviews with the media on pressing problems of the day.

As someone who voted for Feinstein for San Francisco mayor multiple times, when she ran for governor and in her many Senate races, I think the time for her to resign has come.

She should resign, holding her head high, knowing that she will be held in high esteem for her many years of service to the city and the state that she loves. Feinstein’s many accomplishments, including her legislation to ban assault weapons and preserve hundreds of thousands of acres of California deserts for millenniums, will be her enduring legacy.

VIC AIUTO

Cloverdale

Amazon’s traffic

EDITOR: It is evident that any argument about increased traffic from a facility like the defunct Amazon project near Sonoma County airport is nonsense (“Why Amazon opened a site in Napa Valley,” Sunday). Driving to Napa at 10 a.m. on a recent morning, I was amazed by the dozens and dozens of Amazon trucks on Highways 116, 121 and 12 heading into Sonoma County. Considering this, it seems we are the cause of the increase in traffic, not Amazon. After all, if they didn’t have a package to deliver to your house, they wouldn’t be on the road at all.

JOHN SERGNERI

Petaluma

South county’s choice

EDITOR: I am supporting Blake Hooper to replace David Rabbitt as 2nd District supervisor. A key issue for me is that Rabbitt is supported by groups like the Farm Bureau and Sonoma Alliance that favor the big moneyed interests in the county, while Hooper is supported by Sonoma County Conservation Action, which supports open space and habitat protection while promoting city-centered development.

Rabbitt has been OK on some things I support, like parks. He voted to place Measure M on the ballot to raise the sales tax for parks. But his claim that parks doubled in the south county during his watch is only technically correct. Tolay Lake Regional Park did open during his term, but the deal to buy the property came before he was in office.

It took nearly a decade of Rabbitt’s three terms to open Tolay. The point being that while Rabbitt touts how he sits on a lot of regional boards, he doesn’t initiate things. We need a doer not a sitter.

JERRY THOMPSON

Petaluma

Free generators for all

EDITOR: PG&E’s monthly bill coincidentally arrived during the second power outage in our Windsor neighborhood in a week. The bill came with a flyer announcing PG&E’s “request” for a rate increase. This was especially irksome timing since the power was off from about 6 p.m. to midnight.

We’ve lived in our home for more than 27 years. Power outages were rare for the first 20 or so years. Now they are ridiculously common, and not just during huge windstorms. Could it be that the cause is a failure on PG&E’s part to properly check and maintain or replace its aging equipment before outages occur?

Since PG&E can no longer provide dependable power, it’s time for them to provide generators to every household, at no cost to the customers.

And the rate increase “request?” Sorry, no.

SHARON ROONEY

Windsor

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.