Wednesday’s Letters to the Editor

Dec 22, 2023

Bring arts downtown

EDITOR: I agree with T. Walter Williams about what is needed to revive downtown Santa Rosa ("Downtown needs help," Letters, June 3). One more thing would also be great. Turn the vacant Third Street Cinema building into a performing arts center. This would give us another reason to come downtown. Its several theaters would be great venues for local acts and bands to perform and would be a draw to bring people to Santa Rosa. Maybe 6th Street Playhouse could become 3rd Street Playhouse.

A few years ago, my wife and I drove to Livermore to hear a concert. Their performing arts center is in the center of town, and we were impressed by how lively downtown Livermore was after the concert ended.

DAVE STARE

Santa Rosa

Shortsighted decisions

EDITOR: Several years ago, I worked for a small local manufacturing company. When the company hired a new manufacturing manager, the company transitioned from a "batch" oriented manufacturing system to a more continuous ("kanban") methodology. Part of the change consisted of moving all the miscellaneous parts, like nuts and bolts, to open bins on the shop floor. When one of the long-term supervisors complained that workers would start stealing small parts, the new manager responded, "When their pockets are full they’ll stop." And it turned out that whatever small losses occurred, the new process, being much more efficient, was more profitable to the company.

I read that states are beginning to remove millions of their poorest citizens and their children off Medicaid ("States kick millions off Medicaid," May 27). Like the above company, they are focused on trivial costs and ignoring the larger cost of having a badly designed system. Or, as we have in this country, no real health care system at all. As a result of this thinking, the United States suffers the most expensive medical care in the world with the poorest outcome of any industrial country.

JIM HOUSMAN

Sebastopol

More housing options

EDITOR: A friend and I succeeded in pulling the first permit for a tiny house under the new zoning code, which allows one "temporary unit" per county property.

The code allows one mobile unit on each property that doesn't already have an accessory dwelling unit. The permit is renewable yearly and on an ongoing basis. The unit can be a tiny house, a manufactured home or a recreational vehicle.

The purpose of the code is to increase safe, affordable housing by allowing property owners to install water, septic and electric connections and rent space to someone who owns a mobile unit. Alternately, the property owner can provide and rent out the tiny house (or other mobile unit) as well as the space with hookups.

Either way, more affordable housing units can be up and running in short order. This is a win-win for property owners and renters seeking affordable housing options. Also, these units provide safe, affordable housing at no cost to the county.

SONYA TAFEJIAN

Penngrove

Incomplete narrative

EDITOR: The compelling May 28 editorial about Colorado River water allocations provokes further thought, especially when applying lessons learned to our region ("Another chance for a river deal").

Colorado River water irrigates agricultural land, including California's Imperial Valley, which you said "produces two thirds of the nation's winter crops." But this is a misleading narrative. While 80% of California's water allocation goes to the Imperial Valley to irrigate 800,000 acres of farmland, only 15% of that farmland grew winter vegetables in 2015. Currently, over half of the acreage grows hay forage.

An acre of hay (mostly alfalfa) uses 5-acre feet of water per year (equivalent to water for 10 families) for a crop that is harvested 10 times a year in a drought-stricken low desert, with annual rainfall just over 3 inches. Moreover, the majority of this hay is shipped to China, Japan and Saudi Arabia, the High Country News reported in 2022.

Please consider looking deeper at incomplete and biased narratives about water usage in our region as well, especially when facing hard choices ahead.

MARYLEE GUINON

Freestone

Kudos for health lab

EDITOR: Please have respect for people who work in Sonoma County's public health lab. I first became aware of them in the 1900s. The workers would stop by hospitals to pick up specimens that were referred to them, thus ensuring that specimens were received and worked on in a timely fashion. Lab workers were always friendly when a hospital tech would call with a technical question. They would answer fully, with all the information.

Their facility has a large work area devoted to a high-level biosafety lab. This enables them to work on infectious diseases not diagnosed in local hospital labs. Please treat them well and with respect. They are the backbone of infectious disease detection in Sonoma and Mendocino counties.

LESLIE WILLIAMS

Yountville

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