Letters: Preserve Price | Coastal development | Solar boost | Ruining USPS
East Bay Times Letters to the Editor for May 1, 2024
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Keep DA Price
to preserve reform
Re: “DA Price to face recall election” (Page A1, April 17).
We need to call the recall fanaticism what it truly is. The recall of District Attorney Pamela Price is a political agenda of disgruntled ex-deputy district attorneys.
Price’s justice reform is a solution to the failed tough-on-crime and mass-incarceration initiatives of old. In Alameda County, we need solutions, not more of the same failed policies. The fact that Price is willing to investigate the inhumane violence against inmates in Santa Rita Jail should be applauded. I was in Santa Rita Jail for seven months in 2023 for my resentencing petition. I’ve seen assaults by staff that shocked me and I’ve been in prison for 29 years now.
We need equity in the criminal justice system to eliminate the old punitive agenda. We must have fair and equal justice for all citizens: rich, poor or law enforcement.
John Crosthwaite
Corcoran State Prison
Coastal development
is more state overreach
Some Sacramento legislators are now planning to let developers build massive developments of homes along our cherished California coast.
In 1976, the Legislature passed the California Coastal Act, which limited the development of one of California’s largest natural resources, the California coast. The Legislature is now planning to gut this law that protects our coast for future generations by taking away the power of the Coastal Commission. Under the guise of pretending to build low-income homes, they are allowing developers to bypass local control and streamline permits to build whatever they want.
It is time we took back local control of zoning from the state politicians, who get massive donations from developers, and put an initiative on the next ballot that will allow local zoning to override any zoning that is forced upon us from the state Legislature. The coast is priceless. Once it is gone to development, it is gone forever.
John Briggs
Lafayette
Legislation would give
solar market a boost
Re: “No, the rooftop solar market isn’t dying” (Page A9, April 28).
Severin Borenstein says rich early solar adopters made out while working-class ratepayers paid more to support the grid.
Like any new technology, solar panels were only affordable to wealthy early adopters. Eventually, solar installation prices dropped, so by 2022, 62% of solar adopters were middle- and working-class households.
Due to utility lobbying, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) gutted the state’s net metering rules in 2022. Solar adoption plummeted after their decision. By the end of 2023, sales were down by 85% and 17,000 solar workers jobs were either gone or threatened.
Tell your legislators to support AB 2619, which bans solar taxes and requires the CPUC to revise its net metering decision. Let’s get rooftop solar growing again.
Sandy White
Fremont
Postmaster general
is ruining the USPS
Re: “Raising the price of stamps doesn’t work” (Page A7, April 25).
The Postal Service was never intended to be a money-making operation. It was established in 1775 as a service for all Americans.
The USPS never had any financial issues until 2006 when the Bush administration and Congress passed an act that forced the USPS to pre-fund its pensions. Then, in May 2020, Louis DeJoy was appointed postmaster general by Donald Trump in an attempt to slow down mail-in ballots. DeJoy immediately shut down hundreds of sorting machines, and he has been running the USPS like it is a private company that needs to turn a profit. He has created higher prices, slower service and fewer employees. He is trying to get rid of the USPS. And with it being so easy to pay bills online, he may achieve his goal.
Get rid of DeJoy, problem solved.
Rocky Fort
San Lorenzo