LETTERS to the EDITOR 11.02.17

Short Game

It would be nice if affordable housing or the overinflated long-term rental market received similar attention (“As short-term rentals continue to proliferate, new regulations are starting to take shape,” Oct. 26-Nov. 1). David Goldman | via Facebook

Because why? Because hotels are in government’s back pocket. Daylene Jane Alliman | via Facebook

Glad to hear the city of Seaside is taking on the issue. The rentals need to be registered and monitored. A complaint process for neighbors need to be in place. Seaside already has serious parking issues. City officials need to look at the impact to already congested neighborhoods. They also need to regulate home owners who rent rooms. Janet McPherson | via Facebook

Monterey and Carmel have taken excellent leadership with regards to standing up and protecting their neighborhoods, housing and community. Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Kampe remains in the pockets of realtors and out-of-town “home-tel” investors. November 2018 can’t come soon enough. Jenny McAdams | via Facebook

How about a non-occupancy tax? They are getting tax write-offs as second homes and I know of one house where the owners have not been here for 10 years. If they are that wealthy that they can tie up homes like that, make them pay. It would also more than likely force down the housing prices and inflation. Niels Andrews | via Facebook

Unlucky 13

No way is Salinas one of the happiest towns (“Squid tries to smile bigger in Salinas to keep up with 13th happiest city ranking,” posted Oct. 23). Who created this list? Our crime rate is phenomenal, poverty is rampant and people get shot, even in the nice areas. This has to be bogus. We have practically zero entertainment, other than the rodeo. If you can’t speak Spanish, it’s almost improbable to find work. They must not have included our illegal population in this census. I have nothing against them but no way is this one of the happiest towns. I can think of numerous cities and towns that would be happier. The crime is so bad that downtown is dead at night. Only the vicinity of Maya Cinemas is active. I could go on and on, I call bull@#%@. I won’t even go into the massive homeless population and ghettos here. Edmond Lash | Salinas

Once upon a time, many years ago, Salinas was a great place to live. That was quite a few years ago. Bill Carrothers | Salinas

Fit to Print

Julie Reynolds’ screed against the investor who purchased the Monterey Herald, and other such “vulture capitalists” totally missed the point (“Wall Street tycoons are cashing in big by shrinking local newspapers, but there are hopeful and creative solutions emerging,” Oct. 26-Nov. 1). Unaddressed remains the sensitive question of why newspaper readership has declined so precipitously over the past two decades. The salient reason is the leftward tilt of an industry in which 95 percent of journalists support positions ranging from Democratic to communistic.

Personally, I canned my Herald subscription five years ago, and haven’t missed out on much. Almost every U.S. newspaper leans left – BORING! If newspapers could re-establish objectivity in reporting, instead of remaining cheerleaders for socialist decay that has bankrupted our state and country, they might start winning back millions of readers who now enjoy fresher perspectives than those offered by Fake News hucksters. Jeffrey Flathers | Pacific Grove

Your article on investment companies buying/owning newspapers is a very old story, one that you have beat to death in regard to the Herald. Time to move on and support those who do their best to report local news instead of the constant reporting of layoffs. Jeff Mitchell | Pacific Grove

Farm Town

The way I read Assistant Agricultural Commissioner Bob Roach’s quote about Prefar is that he’s exasperated with complaints about “normal” ag behavior (“Part of Salinas’ controversial economic development strategy is to expand outward into farmland,” Oct. 19-25). The article doesn’t explain anything about Prefar, so the reader may have been left with Roach’s comments as true. But Prefar has bensulide in it, an organophosphate that is banned for agricultural use in the European Union and is under investigation by the U.S. EPA [which says bensulide “can overstimulate the nervous system causing nausea, dizziness, confusion, and at very high exposures (e.g., accidents or major spills), respiratory paralysis and death”].

We shouldn’t accept that as normal. To accept that an industry is so dangerous that people can’t live near it is a) relatively new in human existence, and b) insane. Sustainable ag is the answer, but that’s for another article (I hope!). Mark Weller | Santa Cruz

Editor’s note: Weller is co-director of Californians for Pesticide Reform.

Changing Tides

Acidification of our oceans is the most crucial global warming issue we face and one President Donald Trump cannot deny. Trump’s energy policy is the death blow to our planet since phytoplankton creates 70 percent of the Earth’s oxygen, and acidification is causing phytoplankton (and other shellfish skeletal organisms) the inability to create their structures. Carbon dioxide is the culprit and unless solar and tidal energy come to the forefront, we don’t have a chance.

All life on Earth is threatened by the death of our oceans. The main sources of carbon dioxide production are meat-based diets, coal, oil and gas, and air travel. Do you part; maybe together we can turn it all around. Lorna Moffat | Monterey