Letters to the Editor 02.17.22

Art in the Streets

Your cover piece about art and homeless women is everything journalism can be in the right hands (“Four women artists set out to bond with local homeless women. The results of their unusual, uneasy meeting – of two worlds that rarely converge – is now on exhibit,” Feb. 10-16). It re-inspires me to use my life for good ends. I am on the verge of coming home to Monterey for good.

Thank you for giving writer Agata Popeda enough space to tell this story. I know how much work, as a writer, went into it. Phyllis Theroux | Ashland, Virginia

Thank you wholeheartedly for your in-depth reporting on our collective and this Courage Within: Women Without Shelter art journey. After so much of our energy has gone into this project, it’s wonderful to have this form of documentation and acknowledgment that helps us further the cause. Plus, now I can send newspaper clippings to my 90-year-old mother, who has been obsessed with asking me all about “the women.”

We’re getting a lot of good feedback on the show and the journalism. It’s great to now have a writer like you in our community! Melissa Smedley | Salinas

A few years ago there was a cover story on homeless women that moved me so that I embarked on a path of affordable housing advocacy that became my passion. Your in-depth coverage on societal issues like this is invaluable and changes lives in many ways.

I’ve come to learn the fact that unaffordable rents are a key component that plunges many into homelessness. Affordable rent is the best tool we can use to prevent this population from growing while we wait for the political will to use it.

Please keep shining a light on this and help educate readers on the current facts about homeless people in our community; they are not mainly made up of addicts, the mentally ill or vagrants that many still believe become homeless by choice. Esther Malkin | Monterey

Leadership Lessons

I’m writing regarding your story on the recall effort against Mary Ann Leffel (“A controversial vote on LAFCO inspires participation – and a recall attempt,” Feb. 10-16).

1. Indeed, the public overwhelmingly voted yes on the public buyout of Cal Am, but with the caveat it must prove feasible, and lower the costs to the ratepayers. This latter point is what needs to be explored in the media and understood by the public. It is frequently glossed over, but there is a serious flaw in the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s numbers.

2. LAFCO and others see the buyout as problematic and not in the best interest of the ratepayers, the district or county.

3. Why is Leffel singled out? The vote was 5-2, and would have failed regardless of her vote.

The water district will continue blaming everyone but themselves. The obsession with the buyout is one of the reasons we still have no sustainable water solution, no affordable housing, and a homeless problem on the Monterey Peninsula. Mark T. Watson | Carmel

Pajaro Plans

Sounds like there is a problem with NIMBY attitudes (“The Pajaro community is united against a farmworker housing project in their midst,” Feb. 10-16). The only reason a new housing project would “kill your community” is if your community hates the kind of people who live in farmworker housing. I wonder what these people would say if they were the ones who needed housing and were being turned away by a silly petition. CJ Hunt | Seaside

You’ve told us what the neighbors don’t want. But have they offered any alternatives? The farmworkers still need adequate affordable housing. Frankly, I’m of a mind that when there are naysayers, those same naysayers should offer up alternatives to what they are naying. S. Duane Stratton | Monterey

Feast Table

I still see a disturbing trend in your news coverage of Feast of Lanterns (“Feast of Lanterns: The Weekly’s coverage,” 2007-2022; “After reckoning with the Feast of Lanterns, Pacific Grove should start over,” Feb. 3-9). Up until a few years ago, the articles tended to say that the festival was dated and tone-deaf rather than an active instance of racial targeting and disparagement, and organizers tried to make efforts to be sensitive to this criticism. I find the complaint that there shouldn’t be a Chinese villain in a play that has 100-percent Chinese characters puzzling and illogical.

Focusing on a handful of impassioned citizens showing up at municipal meetings and 300-plus signing a protest letter does not accurately poll the citizens of Pacific Grove. If someone can get 51 percent of the voters in P.G. to opt for cancellation, go for it.

Trying to not offend everyone is a herculean task and I don’t envy the organizers. I object to the “it is unsalvageable and must be totally eradicated” point of view. Many of us truly enjoy the sight of hundreds of lanterns lit along Lovers Point, a goofy pageant play and some good fireworks. Some of the alternative event suggestions that I have heard of thus far have approximately 0-percent entertainment value. Dean Roddick | Pacific Grove

Winning Big

That’s amazing! I’ve watched it with my kids several times already! (“Salinas-born filmmaker Mike Rianda receives his first Oscar nomination for an animated film based on his family,” posted Feb. 11.) Andrea Houston-Garcia | via social media

Feeling Famous

This is stupid and a waste of Seaside city staff’s time and Seaside dollars (“Squid Fry: Star Struck,” Feb. 10-16). City Hall must have more pressing needs. F.B. Gregory | via email

Correction

A column about Seaside City Council’s decision to create a Broadway Walk of Fame (“Squid Fry,” Feb. 10-16) incorrectly stated the council meeting was on Feb. 10. It was approved one week earlier, on Feb. 3. Squid regrets the error, but still fully intends to nominate Squidself for the honor of being included in the Walk of Fame.