16 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 20-26, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com CALLED TO THE CARPET Thank you for the excellent article about the disturbing conditions at Pacific Meadows (“Tenants wait for answers about persistent problems at their affordable senior apartments,” July 6-12). I have friends living there, and I hear their frustration and upsetness over being “forgotten, spoken to rudely, inability to access help” etc. The dirty carpet is the most disturbing at the moment. But add to that list only one generator, dark stairwells during electrical outages—which means no elevators as well—and lack of maintenance for apartment problems. One friend has had a water leak through a window frame for the two years she’s been there, which allows water to flow down her wall and onto her bedroom floor. In spite of putting in requests for maintenance to come fix it, no one has shown up—for two years. It’s hard to get older. It’s hard to have limited funds. It’s not right that they also have to also deal with poor and uncaring management. It’s ironic that the parent company is named HumanGood. Christine Williams | Carmel Valley As someone who is reaching that age demographic, this story saddens and scares me. The elderly are some of our most vulnerable people. There must be something we as a community can do to help them. If their voices go unheard, we have failed to protect them. Any ideas on how to help? Linda LePine | Seaside Currently Pacific Meadows is operating at 95-percent occupancy, and this will vary from month to month. It seems like you are equating resident vacancies to staffing levels and our ability to serve the residents. Pacific Meadows is an independent living community for seniors and the staffing level is not dependent on occupancy. Funding for additional vendor services or requests for items such as generators are not connected to our staffing levels, and do not reflect our team’s ability to serve residents and maintain the community grounds, which we do with pride. Apartments are rented at the 30, 50 and 60 percent of Area Median Income. This means that apartments that must be rented at 60 percent of the AMI will have a higher rent than a 30-percent unit—those units take longer to fill vacancies due to the lower affordability but again, this does not impact our staffing levels or our ability to serve the community. Along with ECHO Fair Housing, we feel that the town hall was a productive meeting to clarify resident concerns and questions and we look forward to our next meeting with residents and partners in August. James Park | Duarte, Calif. Note: Park is senior vice president of corporate communications for HumanGood. LIKE A WEED Monterey County is also driving its legacy Big Sur growers to extinction because nobody can meet the county’s conditions (“Monterey County’s cannabis industry is struggling to survive—and claims overtaxing and burdensome regulations are to blame,” July 13-19). Big Sur is so important to the history of cannabis that the Berkeley Oral History Center is documenting it before it is all gone. The ridiculous and onerous “fire tax” that the Monterey County Regional Fire District passed, the only fire district in the state to do that, is a heavy burden. The county has reduced its tax over time while the MCRFD has raised theirs. Bob Roach | Salinas Note: Roach is the former executive director of the now-defunct Monterey County Cannabis Industry Association. “Long term, Hackett believes that the way forward for the industry is to open up cannabis retail options to pharmacies, convenience stores and other conventional outlets.” That will ease the cost factor also, since it won’t be necessary to maintain a whole building for retail sales, just a section of an aisle. There is some justification for the extra taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Because of their massive harms, they create huge social costs. Science and widespread experience have shown cannabis has no significant harms. Hence, there are no associated social costs and no justification for extra taxes. Because of its near harmless nature, the only regulation cannabis really needs is to prohibit sales to children and require adequate sanitation, as we do for all produce. John Thomas | Salinas SLACK THE ROPE I implore you to have the courage to stop promoting rodeos (“Big Week is about more than the rodeo—it’s about the city of Salinas’ identity,” posted July 13). Rodeos are nothing short of sanctioned animal abuse. Abolishing rodeos is not an attack on a particular culture. It is acknowledging that it is time to stop this barbaric practice. Many other forms of entertainment have realized that exploiting animals is not acceptable. The circus industry has stopped using animals. Sea World has stopped capturing orcas. Bull fighting has been banned in many countries. Dog fighting is illegal, as is cock fighting. So why is it acceptable to torture innocent and sentient animals? The rodeo has to stop. All of the animals in a rodeo experience pain and fear just like humans. Please do not promote the rodeo. Wendy Ledner | Salinas COURT REFORM In the year since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, abortion has been effectively banned in 14 states. This year, the Court overturned access to clean water, affirmative action in college admissions, and student debt relief for millions of middle- and low-income borrowers. They’ve set the precedent of overturning policies simply because they were enacted by a Democratic president. We can’t let this continue. Congress must stop the out-of-control, rightwing majority on the Supreme Court. The only way to do that is to restore ideological balance to the Court by adding four more seats. Saralinda Subbiondo | Monterey RAISE A GLASS The wines are superb (“Odonata’s new Drink Me! line gives wines—and us—a chance to relax and have fun,” June 29-July 5). Scott Moore | via social media LETTERS • COMMENTSOPINION Submit letters to the editor to letters@mcweekly.com. Please keep your letter to 150 words or less; subject to editing for space. 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