Letters for December 8, 2005

City doesn’t plan, just blames

Re “After the flood” by Chrisanne Beckner (SN&R Cover, November 23):

Sacramento-area roads and freeways are already jammed. How will a million-plus people evacuate the Sacramento area if the levees fail and flood the city within minutes?

The answer: They won’t! This is a disaster waiting to happen. Instead of passing meaningless war resolutions, Sacramento’s city council and the mayor should stop the rampant development in area like Natomas and start planning now on how to evacuate the city’s population!

No doubt they are planning to blame President Bush and the federal government if the levees do fail, just like Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco did in Louisiana.

G.D. Sachman
via e-mail

Tell SMUD it’s easy to be green

Re “Seeing green” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R News, November 23):

As a Sacramento resident and SMUD ratepayer who values quality of life, I have been impressed by SMUD’s contributions to the community. Their efforts to provide clean air with Greenergy, their “plant a tree” programs and their maintenance of the Amanda Blake Wildlife Refuge all stand as fine examples of their commitment to the environment.

So it stands to reason that I am perplexed by SMUD’s move to present their Upper American River Project (UARP) re-licensing proposal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) without the recommendations of the seven resource agencies and several nongovernmental organizations they have been working with for the past four years.

Leaving more water in the river for fish, wildlife and aquatic ecosystems; improving recreational access to reservoirs and streams; and providing whitewater flows for whitewater recreation are all attainable goals for the UARP. Yet, SMUD would choose to ignore these goals because striving to restore the river would mean less power generation?

I can only hope that SMUD will follow their tag line, “The Power to Do More,” and return to the table with the resource agencies and nongovernmental organizations to produce a re-licensing proposal that everyone can live with for the next 50 years.

Theresa L. Simsiman
Sacramento

Is the Hamburglar on the loose?

Re “McLitterbugs” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R News, November 23):

While I appreciate 17-year-old Stephen Mangum’s frustration with litter in his yard, I question his problem-solving skills.

Sending the litter to the McDonald’s headquarters may be the most amusing reaction to the problem, but it’s probably the least effective.

First off, I’m not sure why Mangum blames the restaurant for the litter thrown by customers. It’s not like the Hamburglar is out there wadding up wrappers and chucking them at his house.

Is he going to send “care packages” to Wrigley’s if he happens to step in some improperly discarded gum? Is Alpo in for some special deliveries from the Mangum household if the neighbor’s dog craps in his yard?

If he insists on blaming McDonald’s for its customers’ bad habits, contacting the local restaurant would have been the obvious first step. But apparently Mangum feels too superior to set foot in the place, so he didn’t even attempt that route.

How about asking the police to enforce our anti-letter laws? Or maybe even posting a “please don’t litter” sign in the yard?

These ideas are less fun than being a pissed-off lefty who sends trash to guys in suits, but they might have actually reduced the litter.

Buffy Kline
Sacramento

No courage in proclamation

Re “Grateful for Fitzgerald, boycotting Williams” (SN&R Letters, November 17):

I found Chuck McIntyre’s characterization of the Sacramento City Council’s silly proclamation on the Iraq war as “courageous” to be a profound impoverishment of language. Courage, Mr. McIntyre, requires risk. I saw courage every day in my infantry platoon in Vietnam, but you’ll find none in the chambers of the Sacramento City Council.

Liberalism today has become the most disgraceful, narcissistic nonsense I’ve ever seen. It’s OK for 400,000 American soldiers to die so that the French can be free, but no American soldiers should die so that Arabs can be free. If I were an Arab-American, I’d find this contrast startling. Liberal Democrats are actually rooting against democracy and security for the people of Iraq in hopes of winning back the White House and Congress, but then again, when I was on the battlefields of Vietnam, they were rooting for the other side, too.

Dennis McMurray
Nevada City

Bending the rules for skateboarders

Re “Skateboarding is not a sport” by Becca Costello (SN&R Cover, November 10):

I have just read your article, and I loved it, but I thought I should tell you that there are a few of us that work in the city lots that tend to bend the rules, even though they’re posted on the walls of the lots saying that skateboarding is not allowed.

As a security officer at one of the lots, I have made a few rules and told the riders about them, and they obey them pretty much.

name withheld by request
Sacramento

Correction

Re “50,000 volts” by Sasha Abramsky (SN&R Feature story, November 17):

The story reported that Taser guns were “marketed as a high-tech substitute for live ammunition.” In fact, marketing materials for Taser International did not explicitly refer to Tasers as a substitute for lethal force, even though, for whatever reasons, many police departments apparently were left with that impression. We apologize for the misstatement.