Letters for May 1, 2014

More awesome Sacto bands

Re “Our hit parade” (SN&R Music, April 24):

I thought there were some good choices here. Not that anyone asked, but here are my top three. No. 1: Tales of Terror. Without question, the most important Sacramento band ever. (And, yeah, I know they are older than 25 years, but your writers didn't seem to pay attention to the rules, either!) No. 2: the Trouble Makers. Single-handedly keeping garage music alive! No. 3: the Decibels. One of the greatest power-pop bands to ever grace the planet. Honorable mentions to Sex 66, Pretty Girls, '58 Fury.

Skid Jones

West Sacramento

Another take on the next 25

Re “It’s the big 25” (SN&R Feature Story, April 24):

Year 2039: Mayor Sonny Mayugba dedicates a memorial to the victims of the flood of ’27. The devastated Natomas basin is rededicated to prime farmland and clean-energy facilities. Vehicles and bikes are communal and available freely. Former freeways are lined with organic gardens. The Sacramento River is developed with waterfront businesses. The American River Parkway is still wild. Ground is broken on the new Sacramento Kings arena project at the undeveloped McKinley Village site. The outdated Kings Palace Arena downtown is transformed into a public high school. Abandoned big-box shopping centers serve as entertainment zones. Women begin to have their stiletto-heel implants removed. A youth trend of “skinsters” refuse to associate with or hire anyone who has tattoos. Nestlé Dam is raised to hold more water. Another generation of self-styled “engaged, intelligent and selfless” newcomers arrives, claiming they aren’t “jaded by decades of the nothingness,” while “Sacramento spent a generation in stagnation.”

Marion Millin

Sacramento

Downtown needs safer bike infrastructure

Re “Letters for April 24, 2014” (SN&R Letters, April 24) and “Biketopia?” by Alastair Bland (SN&R Feature Story, April 17):

I enjoyed the Letters that responded to the excellent April 17 bicycling cover story. To hear writers Paul Berger, Paul Henderson and Doug Morgan tell it, all you need to find bicycling downtown fun, easy and safe is to be a nonwussie cyclist with hundreds of thousands of miles in the saddle or years of experience biking downtown. My own credentials are less, but I’m nonetheless comfortable kicking cabs and staring down Subarus to assert my right to a bike-sized space of roadway.

I used to think as they do, but no longer. I’ve met too many people who find downtown’s streets too chaotic and frightening for them to build up that confidence. My mother is one—even after taking a six-hour bicycling course, the traffic around her apartment near the Amtrak station is too hectic for her to take her rightful legal place on the street when she wants to bike elsewhere.

We’ll do every prospective rider (and traffic overall) a great service by building some useful and encouraging bike infrastructure downtown. We might even satisfy letter writer Tom McDowell as more legal options for bicyclists will curb the bad behavior seen from riders responding rationally to roads that don’t accommodate them.

Ryan Sharpe

Sacramento

Cleaner streets for bicyclists

Re “Biketopia?” by Alastair Bland (SN&R Feature Story, April 17):

Thank you for the informative cover story regarding two-wheeling in Sactown. While the article addressed many of the issues relating to needs for cyclists in our city, the subject of maintenance of existing bicycle infrastructure was overlooked. Commuting from downtown Sac to Roseville via Roseville Road five days a week results in at least one flat a week (on a good one). The Folsom Boulevard route to Rancho Cordova is not much better. Street sweeping is much needed to remove nails, broken glass, scrap lumber and other tire-shredding objects. If the funds could be found to correct this problem, long-distance commuting would be a more pleasant experience. Ride safe.

Michael Kellogg

via email