Letters for August 15, 2013

SN&R gets minus points

Re “Technology fail” (SN&R Scorekeeper, August 8):

I have to shake my head at the response to the August 5 Amber Alert. I heard colleagues at work saying they had changed their smartphone settings to block such alerts in the future, and your paper commented that the alert made “little sense,” given that the incident occurred hundreds of miles away, south of San Diego. Well, surprise, the alleged kidnapper drove due north, through Northern California, into Oregon and on to Idaho. Seems the alert made more sense than you thought.

How sad some people thought the alert was annoying. We are all for Amber Alerts to protect our children, but don't you dare bother us when we're watching TV! What a shame that people have now shut off their alerts. Wonder how they will react when it's their child who goes missing? The score: minus 656. This number is not arbitrary; it's the number of children successfully recovered through Amber Alerts, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dave Jones

Sacramento

Not a real city until we fix downtown

Re “The Kay after tomorrow” by Nick Miller (SN&R Feature Story, August 8):

I have always wanted to live downtown in a city. San Francisco is my ideal, but the weather and rent prices are not. So, I moved downtown. Sort of. I compromised and moved to the historic R Street area, since all of the downtown housing proper is for low-income folks or really, really rich folks (Hotel Berry and the lofts, respectively).

But it was just not what I imagined it to be. I am a middle-class American who does not want to own a home; that has never been my dream. But my dream is to live in a city—downtown, where life is full of vitality and diversity. I just can’t do that in Sacramento, and it is quite a shame. All of the rental housing downtown (even at R Street) is stupidly overpriced. I had zero amenities, and the only thing to recommend it was that I was a block away from light rail. Well, and that I could officially call downtown “home.”

We really cannot call ourselves a proper city until we fix downtown. And, by the way, I live in Midtown now.

Jeanette King

Sacramento

Know your food

Re “Fear to fork” by Chris Parker (SN&R Feature Story, August 1) and “Pork fetish” by Shoka (SN&R The V Word, August 1):

Both great articles and news we need to know about our food sources. Thank you. Shoka said exactly what I’ve been thinking as I’ve seen the rise of “pork kitsch” everywhere, too: Just because we are vegan doesn’t mean we are pointing out the facts of industrial agriculture, animal welfare and greed to bum meat-eaters out. Agribusiness is for profit, and if you think your pork or any other meat is immune from nasty corporate practices like abuse, chemicals and contamination, think again.

Ahbra Peach

via email