Flooding persists and the once in 40- to 60-year flood seems to
return every other year. We are nowhere nearer to a solution than
we were 30 some years ago with no foreseeable federal funding to
support flood control projects.
Time for a building moratorium until flooding problems are fixed
Dear Editor,
Flooding persists and the once in 40- to 60-year flood seems to return every other year. We are nowhere nearer to a solution than we were 30 some years ago with no foreseeable federal funding to support flood control projects. This last one was incredible. I had to wade through waste deep water to reach my flooded home and I’m a mile from the creek and out of the flood zone.
Local efforts are far from effective with some city catch basins filling while others do not. The water district does not know where the Little Llagas Creek bottlenecks are, has no corrective plan and has never ventured into our city during the height of the floods to understand its impacts and damage.
For example, water drains to a dead end at Watsonville Road only to meander onto vacant lots, streets, and ineffective culverts only to find its way onto old and inadequate channels. While these bottlenecks could be corrected with minimal funding, the district and the city waste time on a strategy of hope that the federal government will fund the necessary $120 million.
While our local governments acknowledge the problem, the city and the county continue to allow development that contributes to the overflow. It’s time for a moratorium on housing and other projects along our western boundaries that add to the runoff. Paving surfaces, adding parking lots, extending driveways and adding new streets contribute to a known and growing problem: Little Llagas Creek is overwhelmed and cannot handle current – let alone future – rainfall.
Sandbags, while helpful, are missing from distribution sites. Placing piles of sand and old burlap bags for residents to fill is a total fail. At nearly 59, I participated in a panicked sandbag effort, competing with fellow residents for shovels, bags and sand in a torrent of rainfall. These bags should be filled, available and delivered to known areas when flooding threatens. It does not make sense to have a central distribution site, if that site cannot be reached.
Capture basins that dot our community can’t handle the overflow, and are a wasted and grossly inefficient use of land. If Llagas Creek is properly finished, it would eliminate 80 percent of the floods, says Public Works Director Jim Ashcraft, as well the need for most of the flood control district and the many extra hundreds of thousands of dollars residents pay annually for flood insurance.
Pocket parks which enclose these basins are limited enhancements to open space. They are seldom used, and in some instances are not maintained to the chagrin of residents and neighbors. Pocket parks are no substitute for neighborhood/city parks that are called for in our general plan. Our efforts to date are like putting a Band-Aid on a severed arm.
Therefore, as much as it is distasteful and unwanted, we must institute a building moratorium on the western slopes, plains, and rights-of-way to protect people and property. We must stop the wasteful use and poorly engineered catch basins that cannot hold back the rain water of today let alone of the wetter winters that are forecast with global climate change. We must have better plans where residents are notified of impending disaster, problem spots are identified, bottlenecks are corrected, and sandbags are filled and available at convenient sites.
Finally, we must be on the phone, online, in the office and in-the-face of our elected representatives and regulatory agencies to get this project completed. Writing soft and understanding letters requesting assistance is futile. It’s time for a deliberate and active campaign.
Mark Grzan, Morgan Hill
‘Control freaks’ should back off on the marijuana dispensary issue
Dear Editor,
I am wondering if Ron Kirkish can add his name to the regrettably long list of the local control freaks who wish to protect us from ourselves.
This time the excuse is, “the pain of lives destroyed by drug abuse and addiction,” lumping marijuana in with highly addictive substances like methamphetamine. I’m sure the same line was used to advocate the failure known as Prohibition, which targeted something more harmful than marijuana.
Also stated is, “When a dispensary is allowed to operate it sends a very clear message that … we support and approve of its use.” Guess what: We the voters of California approved said use!
We the voters need to distinguish between (1) violent crimes with victims, (2) nonviolent crimes with victims, and (3) nonviolent victimless crimes (like smoking pot). Prisons (and capital punishment) are for the first group. Rehabilitation and truly corrective programs, such as probation and repayment, are for the second group.
The third group are merely victims of society’s holier-than-thou finger-pointers – the “there ought to be a law” bunch – the complainers, the whiners, the hypocrites whose “standards” are morally superior to ours. This infection isn’t limited to the lies and propaganda resembling the temperance movement; locally, such freaks wish to ban fireworks and guard dogs, and statewide, recently enacted a law against buying ammunition online. Their kind refuses to accept the fact that we do not have the resources to enforce such laws. The United States tops the world’s chart at a 0.756 percent incarceration rate! California as a microcosm suggests it is not mere coincidence that we’re also the top debtor nation and state, respectively.
The enforcement is then either selective (discrimination) or nonexistent, which causes the erosion of respect for the entire system especially those who enforce all these laws. Nationally, we’re increasing the number of home-grown terrorists. The Establishment remedy will surely be, “pass more laws.” (An example of insanity, and the Establishment, is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.)
A ballot measure to legalize marijuana now has enough signatures to make the 2010 ballot. Vote for it and let’s take our country back.
Alan Viarengo, Gilroy
