While we agree with the premises of several of the major points
in your recent editorial regarding the SEQ, we strongly disagree
with your conclusions.
Dear Editor,
While we agree with the premises of several of the major points in your recent editorial regarding the SEQ, we strongly disagree with your conclusions.
You said, for example, that the future of the SEQ is very important because it is the largest piece of undeveloped land adjacent to Morgan Hill. We couldn’t agree with you more. The SEQ is Morgan Hill’s last major opportunity to create the permanent greenbelt that our residents have long supported.
However, given the great importance of the SEQ, its future should be determined by a thoughtful communitywide dialogue about our city’s future needs in the upcoming citywide General Plan Update – not simply in a reactive process driven by specific development proposals put forth by developers, as is currently the case.
Does anyone seriously believe that if city residents discussed the best uses for the SEQ to meet our community’s current and future needs that we would conclude, for example, that an artificial snowboarding and ski mountain would be our highest priority for use of these precious remaining open space lands?
Why is the city spending more than $173,000 of General Plan Update fund revenues for an EIR that’s related to a decision making process that bypasses the thoughtful review of a citywide General Plan Update? Preparation of an EIR is not a responsible alternative to a citywide General Plan Update. EIR processes only narrowly assess the potential environmental impacts of the specific development projects that are being proposed. They don’t take into account the overall, long term needs of the community.
And why, in the midst of these very difficult economic times for our city – when major cutbacks and layoffs are being considered in every department – is the city considering approving additional development out beyond the current edge of our city that will only further strain our ability to provide urban services to existing residents and businesses?
Given its great importance, the future of the SEQ should be determined as part of a thoughtful, citywide review of our current and future needs, in which there is broad community participation – not in a separate, piecemeal, developer-driven process. Morgan Hill needs and deserves better than what is currently taking place.
Julie Hutcheson, Thrive! Morgan Hill
Alvarado is the right candidate at the right time for South County
Dear Editor,
Recently, I turned to the Editorial pages in the Mercury News and I was very happy to read of the Mercury News’ endorsement of Teresa Alvarado for Santa Clara County Supervisor Dist. 1 (South County). I have been involved with community issues for years and have worked on and with many candidates. Some of the best elections I have been involved in includes Former Mayor Kennedy, Assemblyman Bill Monning and Congressman Jerry McNerney. I have also served on a city commission, and have been vocal about the flooding issue in Morgan Hill, the lack of an air quality monitoring station, and serve on the Perchlorate Community Advisory Committee. So when a great candidate comes along for an important position, I pay attention.
I really got to know Teresa Alvarado at the last very successful Wine Stroll. We were able to sit down and talk about the issues facing the county in general and South County in particular. Teresa blew me away! She knows in detail the issues that South County voters are facing. She answered all of my questions and I found her to be very intelligent and educated in many facets regarding the environment, public service and local issues. As the Mercury News has said, “Alvarado has the right blend of fiscal responsibility tempered with understanding to help guide the county through exceptionally perilous times.” I could not support a candidate that has the backing of big labor and developers looking at South County like it is a gold mine. Teresa is for sensible yet controlled growth. Her opponent Forrest Williams, (a nice guy) tried to push Coyote Valley Development and did not fulfill a promise that the city of San Jose made to place an air quality monitoring station downwind of Calpine Energy Center.
She is of course a champion of our Hispanic community, as her tenure as CEO of the nonprofit Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley proves. I encourage all of you to attend the candidates forum today at the Morgan Hill Playhouse and get to know Teresa, and you will understand why she is “Head and Shoulders above the rest” (of the candidates.) By the way, she is the only candidate to blast the fact that Morgan Hill’s Downtown floods nearly every year, and called it a travesty. She will have my vote!
Swanee Edwards, Morgan Hill
State legislation needed to outlaw cruel rodeo events that harm animals
Dear Editor,
Rodeo season is upon us, and with it the Mexican-style rodeos called “charreadas,” common throughout California.
Charreadas feature nine standard events, several of them especially brutal. One, “horse tripping” (aka “manganas”), was outlawed in California in 1994.
An equally cruel event, “steer tailing” (aka “colas”) was banned in Alameda and Contra Costa counties in 1993, but continues elsewhere. The steer’s tail, horns, even
back may be broken, and sometimes the horses suffer broken legs when the steers run the wrong way. Not acceptable.
In 1996, the Legislative Counsel of California issued a legal opinion stating, in part, “We think that a court could conclude, and in most cases probably would conclude, that this practice of ‘steer tailing’ is prohibited by Penal Code Section 597.”
This legal opinion should put charreada promoters on notice, and inspire local Animal Control agencies to issue citations. A few court cases would help lay the groundwork for the needed state legislation to outlaw this cruelty throughout California.
Eric Mills, coordinator, Action for Animals
Tea Partiers accomplish little and will see no change
Dear Editor,
The Million Man March. The Promise Keepers. Ross Perot’s Stand Up America. The Tea Party. They come and they go.
“Get the government out of our lives.” “Stop controlling us.” “Reduce government to what the Founding Fathers intended.” Ain’t gonna happen; those ships sailed about the end of the Civil War when States’ Rights ceased to be the country’s operative paradigm. They’re not coming back.
What are the uber-patriots of the Tea Party persuasion actually going to accomplish beyond the psychologically therapeutic advantages of continuously enraged venting at everything they suddenly see around them?
If Vegas took bets on it, I’d lay a little money on “nothing.” Oh, a handful of world-wise politicians will dutifully spout the required lingo in hopes of saving their seats, and perhaps a smattering of newbies will be sent to Congress vowing to chop it into pieces and send it packing right out of our lives.
But the veterans will promptly go back to conducting business as usual and the neophytes will have no idea how to get anything done, in no small part because they don’t really know what they want in any practical sense beyond the fervent desire to fill the halls of Congress with fiery oratory in support of some vague Get-the-Government-Out-of-Our-Lives Act. Tea Partiers will see no change large enough to be visible to the naked eye; the hard-core will continue to dream of the days of yesteryear and of the distant planet called Eighteenth Century Earth , and the government will go on, large and controlling, respectful of but not enslaved by the modern men of their time, the Founding Fathers.
Myself, I have not the slightest doubt that if Thomas Jefferson could be brought back to live among us he would be first in line at the Apple store to get himself an iPad, and he would also have the wisdom to see that government and circumstances, unlike some people, move with the times.
Robert B. Mitchell, Morgan Hill
Buy American, buy Morgan Hill and stimulate our economy
Dear Editor,
As we begin to emerge from the Great Global Recession of 2008-09, we should reconsider some of the day-to-day choices we make in Morgan Hill.
When I was a child, the term “buy American” was very popular. Buying American was patriotic.
In our pursuit of lower prices, since the 1980s, many cannot afford higher priced items anymore, so we buy lower priced goods from China, India, Pakistan, So. Korea and Mexico and we feed their economies, not ours. On a recent trip to our local WalMart, I needed a new lawn hose. There was a good quality hose for $9, great deal! As I walked to the register, I saw some very high quality, “guaranteed for life” black hoses for $18. The first was warranted for one year only. The black hose was the better deal, and guess what? It was made in America, by Americans.
This works for me!
In our own local economy, if we start to by local goods and services, local produce, retail, insurance, local credit unions not big banks, local professional services, etc., we will help rebuild the Morgan Hill economy 30 to 40 percent faster, and rebuild our employment base. Instead of buying vast amounts of cheap stuff, we could consider buying less, but better quality products and services.
Perhaps less can be more? Buy Morgan Hill, buy American.
Daniel J. Kenney, Morgan Hill
