Letters for March 31, 2016

Fire Katehi!

Re “‘She is rolling in money’” by Kris Hooks (SN&R News, March 24):

The Fire Katehi movement is spot-on and I salute the brave and principled students of the Mrak Hall occupation. UC Davis deserves a much better leader than Linda Katehi will ever be. President Janet Napolitano: The UC Davis community needs you to do your job and put and end this chancellor’s morally bankrupt and divisive reign once and for all!

Paul Medved

Alameda

Parking changes everything

Re “Kings of parking” by Nick Miller (SN&R News, March 24) and “End of the line” by Cosmo Garvin, (SN&R Essay, March 24):

For years, while attending River Cats’ games, I have parked near the Crocker Art Museum and walked across the Tower Bridge to Raley Field. This not only provided some exercise, but also took advantage of the free parking after 6 p.m.

The new parking enforcement hours make this impractical. I would gladly ride light rail or an RT bus to the games, but RT’s late-evening service makes this unworkable.

A couple of years ago, I attended a minor-league baseball game in Toledo, Ohio, a city much smaller than Sacramento. At the end of the game, about eight or nine buses were lined up outside the ball park, serving all the major bus routes in the city. The buses waited until about 15 minutes after the game was over before departing. Of course, RT would never do this because, for one thing, Raley Field is in Yolo County—outside its service area.

This same lack of late-night transit service will be an issue for attendees at Kings games, as well. With better transit service, the extension of enforcement hours for downtown parking would have a lot less impact.

Steve Miller

East Sacramento

RT failed

Re “End of the line” by Cosmo Garvin, (SN&R Essay, March 24):

The real question is: Why do we have RT? Is it supposed to be a transit system that takes commuters from where they live to where they work? Or is it an expensive social-engineering experiment that might lift a few people out of poverty? Light rail opened in 1987 and it will have been 40 years when it finally reaches the airport in 2027. Light rail goes to exactly zero major shopping centers. Seems almost as if it was designed to fail, doesn’t it?

Peter Finn

Sacramento

RT needs new leadership

Re “End of the line” by Cosmo Garvin, (SN&R Essay, March 24):

Sacramento Regional Transit has had problems for the last 30 years. When the talk of the town was bringing light rail to Sacramento, the board of directors didn’t have the foresight to realize there would be fare evasion. Unbelievable. They let their staff increase its wages at all levels, higher than almost all other transit systems throughout the country, and at the same time started cutting service and increasing fares. (And they didn’t anticipate fare evasion?) The fact they failed to develop the smart-card technology, even though they had access to federal funds, demonstrates their inability to coordinate and work with other regional operators, frequently bullying other operators and manipulating circumstances. Unfortunately, it has left them with few friends. Especially the poor, who are transit dependent. I am afraid the only answer is a new leadership team.

Mary Steinert

Sacramento

Correction

Re “Art’s Utility Player” by Steph Rodriguez, (SN&R Arts&Culture, March 24):

Darin Bradford’s credit for his photography accompanying this piece was inadvertently omitted. SN&R regrets the error.