Re: “ ” (Page A1, Sept. 19). For years, the city of San Jose sat on its hands.
For years, the property owner ignored its responsibilities. And what did Jim Salata do? Eliminated potential sources of catastrophic fire, removed debris and dry vegetation, secured windows to protect the integrity of a historical asset, repaired portions of the damaged roof, and pulled out a years-old, ragged tarp topping off an eyesore. Fine him? City staff and Councilmember Omar Torres should be sending Jim Salata thank you notes.
Re: “ ” (Page A6, Sept. 22). Tom McEnery’s eulogy for John Warnock hits all the right chords, but it does omit one important detail.
Warnock and Chuck Geschke had the insight and connections to commercialize the invention of one of their colleagues. John Gaffney was among the major architects of Postscript, the page description language that formed the foundation of Adobe’s innovations. Warnock himself eulogized John Gaffney at his early, untimely memorial, recognizing his contribution to the success of Adobe.
Corporate founders may justifiably receive the accolades for creating groundbreaking companies, but in many cases, the work of the inventors goes unrecognized. Re: “ ” (Page A6, Sept. 22).
There’s no such thing as a small tax hike. That’s like saying a tsunami is only drops of water. When we moved to San Jose in 1966, the state sales tax was about 3%.
Today it’s bumping up against 9. 5%. It didn’t get there overnight.
It was sold to the people through small 1/8% and 1/4% raises in words similar to Brian McCormick’s rather casual “most taxpayers can afford it. ” The reality is, we can’t always have everything we want because we simply can’t afford it. Thank you for publishing the 2023 list of National Merit Scholarship students contending for scholarships.
I know that it takes up a lot of print space to publish 1,140 names, but it must make them and their parents proud to see them honored in this way. It is gratifying to see such good news. Re: “ ” (Sept.
4). Why is artificial turf — whose existence is just a phony imitation of something the world has deemed necessary to its environmental well-being for centuries — so highly regarded in terms of alternatives to fresh grass? Even just one search on the internet proves it’s incapable of supplying users with the same benefits real grass offers. More importantly, even the players who use the fields agree on fresh grass’s superiority in terms of both safety and benefits.
Help remove artificial turf by emailing Gov. Gavin Newsom to ask him to pass bills — which would reinstate cities’ power to ban the installation of artificial turf — and — which would ban the installation of all turf containing PFAS — to make our cities and schools safer and more sustainable. Re: “ ” (Page A8, Aug.
6). Dan Pitt’s explanation of representative government is idealistic. We vote for politicians, hoping that they’ll serve us and represent the public interest.
Instead, they serve themselves and represent the interests of their major campaign contributors. This is why Republicans support oil drilling and the gun lobby. It’s also why in California we get housing laws that benefit developers, and the real estate lobby that heavily funds members of the state Legislature and the governor’s campaigns.
When politicians run for reelection, most voters don’t bother to evaluate a candidate’s performance or their voting record. They vote based on partisanship and name recognition. Most incumbents are termed out of office rather than voted out.
No one is more guilty of sloganeering and false propaganda in legislation than the California Legislature. Campaign financing has hijacked democracy and extreme partisanship of the voters in this country has virtually eliminated all accountability for politicians. .
From: mercurynews
URL: https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/09/25/letters-1424/