18 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY may 2-8, 2024 www.montereycountyweekly.com Musical Chairs I have been receiving anonymous text messages telling me to demand the Salinas City Council call for a standalone election, but I am wondering if that is unnecessary (“Appointment or election? Salinas will weigh its options to fill a council vacancy,” posted April 22). This seems like it could be an opportunity for some groups to take advantage of low voter turnout to sneak a candidate into the City Council who normally couldn’t be allowed in. I live in this district and I didn’t vote for Steve McShane, but waiting a few months until the next regular election might be better for voters if that also meant a bigger selection of candidates could run. Jason Pineda | Salinas So four members of the Salinas City Council don’t support democracy (“Salinas City Council decides to fill a vacancy in District 3 by appointment,” posted April 23). That will be good information to share each November until they are voted out. Joseph W. Borawski | via web Homing In The article about the new state-mandated housing fails to put into perspective the effect this mandate is set to have on the Carmel Valley (“Carmel Valley residents won a housing unit cap in court. New state laws are going to break it,” April 19-24). It is not “some” of those will need to be in Carmel Valley as stated in the article; it is 2,500 of those 3,326, or over 75 percent of the whole statemandated housing for the entire county are aimed straight at Carmel Valley between Highway 1 and MidValley. Sheer madness! Eric Sand | Carmel Valley Fire Time A friend recently framed the issue to me in the same way in terms of Prop. 103 and the problematic nature of ballot initiative-driven legislation (“A 1988 voter-approved measure may bear some responsibility for today’s insurance crisis,” posted April 23). The framing makes sense to me. It’s time for some major changes in California. Shannon Rose | East Garrison Propositions are a necessity when legislators don’t act. Government loved the high revenues on property, when Proposition 13 took the wind out of their sails, and they scrambled looking for alternatives. Many people lost their property, unable to pay their taxes, until Proposition 13 was passed. I’m sure many of the others were well received. Walter Wagner | Salinas Get Schooled Nice article on the Monterey Peninsula College board (“Infighting on MPC board makes even the most basic tasks impossible,” April 18-24). We need to do better. Ken Wright | Big Sur This is just embarrassing. The community used to be proud of MPC. Arnold Seibel | Pacific Grove feel the churn Seems like the average length of employment for city managers in Monterey County is about 24 months! (“Upheaval in Seaside continues as the city council places the city manager on administrative leave,” posted April 24.) Jay Donato | Salinas Logo No-Go I find it very sad that the powers that be at CSU Monterey Bay would not have turned to their student body, including the artistically talented students in the science illustration program, to generate art (“Squid Fry: No Logo,” April 18-24). It could have then been voted on by the student body as part of the rebranding process. A golden opportunity for student engagement, ownership and spirit missed. Peter Hiller | Carmel On Tour I enjoyed your article on the San Antonio Valley Historical Association 2024 Spring Tour! (“A tour of King City’s historical sites was full of unexpected twists and turns in the countryside,” posted April 19.) It was a fun one and so was your article. Thank you for including SAVHA as part of your rainy Saturday adventures. Patricia Ashe-Woodfill | Lockwood Do No Evil Type “change” in the Monterey County Weekly search engine. You will soon learn that the Weekly has a deep-seated disdain for anything that is not in a constant state of flux. There has to be more change and more people. Things that have worked forever must change. Change! Change! Change! An evil newspaper. Joseph Bridau | Seaside change is here I like the new website look. Looks fresh. Nice job. Mike McCullough | Salinas round and round I thought readers would be interested in recent developments regarding the long-proposed roundabouts for Highway 68 and the Transportation Agency for Monterey County’s vote on April 24 (“Two retirees with ideas are causing agencies to rethink roundabouts on Highway 68,” Feb. 15-21). After hearing public comments opposing the roundabouts and advocating for AI Adaptive Signals instead, there was vigorous discussion among the board members about the way forward. Although the TAMC board voted to continue the process to evaluate roundabouts, including a new, untested hybrid design, and cut back from nine roundabouts to three for now, they also voted to recommend that Caltrans do an immediate installation of AI Adaptive Signal controls at all nine intersections. This comes after months of receiving significant pushback from the public and having many of their claims disproved by new information. Barry Jones | Monterey In Pictures I just picked up my first copy of your publication. I’m not familiar with cartoonist Rob Rogers but if he’s got the MAGA types up in arms, he must be great (“Letters,” April 18-24). Looking forward to seeing his work! Randy Hansen | Seaside 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. Please include your full name, contact information and city you live in.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==