Letters: Oakland must do right by California Hotel’s tenants

Submit your letter to the editor via this form Read more Letters to the Editor Oakland must do right by hotel s tenants Re California Hotel beset by disrepair disrepute Page A June I was appalled reading about the squalid unsafe conditions that residents at the California Hotel are having to endure This is just plain wrong East Bay Asian Local Maturation Corp and the Oakland Housing Authority should be ashamed of themselves for allowing selected of our the greater part vulnerable population members to live this way Everyone deserves to live in dignity I hope folks in Oakland speak out about this and loudly that they hold those in power responsible and demand they make the changes needed so the California Hotel is a safe livable place for the tenants who live there Angela Hajjem Alameda Forget high-speed rail and fix Bay Area transit Re No viable path to completion Trump administration plans to end funding to California high-speed rail project June High-speed rail to Fantasy Land is five years beyond the original completion deadline and no tracks have been laid It s a pointless waste of money so you can go from San Francisco to Los Angeles faster than Fremont to Sunnyvale during rush hour Ridiculous Before wasting money on this vain testament to the legacy of Jerry Brown and other politico spenders how about concentrating on making Bay Area intercity commuting usable One still cannot get around Silicon Valley in less than an hour and a half let alone from Livermore and the Central Valley in less than two and a half hours The ivory tower politicos dreaming up these grabs for a historical legacy have not endured the endless wasted commute hours foisted upon the exiled suburban dwellers trying to have a life outside work and commuting Jack Knutson Fremont Plant ban near homes too nuanced for state Re Ban on plants next to homes too simplistic Page A June The authors make a number of absorbing points but I think they ignore how complex this topic really is For example Who gets to decide which plants are suitable and which are terrible How do the responsible agencies confirm suitable choices have been implemented Continuous proper maintenance would be required including removing dead leaves from inside the plants Plants that look great on the outside can be full of dried leaves inside How can the responsible agencies confirm that proper maintenance is being performed Continuous proper irrigation of the plants is needed so the plants do not dry out in the hottest periods Irrigation requirements fluctuate and irrigation systems occasionally fail If a plant has dried out it s just fuel How can the responsible agencies ensure irrigation will inevitably be adequate How can the state write and enforce a regulation that deals with so plenty of nuances Jud Hammon Orinda Homeland Guard has lost its grasp on mission When a executive agency no longer adheres to its policies and practices it is time to disband it An agency that was supposed to protect us against terrorism is terrorizing citizens and civilians This administration uses gestapo tactics in the name of securing our borders when in fact there is no evidence of a safer perimeter The problems still exist and we are not gaining an advantage like Vietnam after the Tet Offensive we are losing with a loser Homeland Safeguard no longer has any merit and therefore has no purpose for operating It is a rogue agency Jean Paulsen Livermore Actions speak louder than nagging criticism Re Are we entering the cruelest period in our country s history Page A June Related Articles Letters San Mateo County s return to death penalty is wrong Letters Downtown Brentwood station would be good for entire county Letters Proposed transit tax for BART isn t supportable Letters Donald Trump s cuts to research will set the U S back Letters Regime must end payouts to Elon Musk I ve been seeing a lot of people outraged about the cuts made to numerous charitable programs once funded by the U S ruling body I certainly believe that when you break down everything the leadership spends money on charity is a much better and more humanitarian use for it than a large number of other things However I am reminded of the saying socialism is great until you run out of other people s money It s easy to spend other people s money what s hard is parting with your own So before you shame the country for how it chooses to spend its money consider how you spend your own What percentage of your money is going to charity every year If you want to set an example of how you think things should be done your actions can do much more than nagging words Max Ritter Livermore