Letters for December 20, 2018

Re: “Steinberg’s brilliant idea,” by Jeff vonKaenel (Greenlight, December 13): Brilliant? Did you not hear from the folks in North Sac at the very beginning of this debacle? All of us said it would be much better to have relatively small shelters spread throughout the entire city? [Mayor Darrell] Steinberg and [Councilman Allen] Warren were not going for it, so we had to shout even louder. So, are we brilliant, too?

Karen Solberg

Sacramento

via sactoletters

Vision and guts

Re: “What now?” by Jeff vonKaenel (Greenlight, December 6):

I wholeheartedly agree with your column … probably because it’s what I’ve been thinking for years! This is the capital of one of the most desirable places on Earth to live. In addition to undoing a lot of the damage [President] Trump has done to the rest of the country, we have everything it takes to leap up to a global leadership position in so many areas—a green new deal, health care for all, a living wage for all working people, etc. We have all the resources it takes to solve these problems and more and show the rest of the country how to do it.

There’s not a single recommendation in your column that we can’t achieve—and then some. We need leaders with this kind of vision and the guts to make it happen because it most certainly can be done.

Diane Brazil

Sacramento

via email

Orwell would approve

Re: “Beyond the borders,” by Scott Thomas Anderson (News, December 6):

This “Tenant Protection and Relief Act” sounds like a page from the playbook of the developer and owners lobby: Come up with an Orwellian sounding name and language that looks good to a distracted and exhausted public; make sure the language is meaningless and has no teeth; buy off a few myopic, self promoting, and self-interested politicians to pass it with the requisite “glowing praise;” and then launch a slander campaign against the ballot measure that would enact real change by calling it “extreme and unnecessary” because the city already passed “common sense” (read: do nothing) legislation to “address” the problem.

The purpose being to convince (likely, successfully) the aforementioned distracted and exhausted public that the ballot measure will be unnecessary. And as icing on the cake, they throw in “regulatory streamlining,” which is just more Orwellian code language for gutting regulations to save a few bucks that they will, of course, pocket rather than passing on the savings to renters and home buyers. … Just another day in the greatest country on Earth … for the billionaire class anyway.

Jeff Doll

Elk Grove

via sactoletters

Corrections

Re: “Steinberg’s brilliant idea,” by Jeff vonKaenel (Greenlight, December 13): The column incorrectly stated which City Council district includes the homeless shelter on Railroad Drive. It is in District 3, represented by Jeff Harris.

Re: “Preliminary theater” by Raheem F. Hosseini (News, December 13): The story incorrectly reported that only prosecutors can call witnesses during preliminary hearings.

SN&R regrets the errors.