Letters for the week of November 29, 2012

Cottage food is good food

Re “Cottage, geez” by Raheem F. Hosseini (SN&R Frontlines, November 15):

I think that Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Chairman Don Nottoli's characterization of the cottage-food act's controversy and passage gives a mistaken impression about the law.

The Cottage Food [Bill] (or Assembly Bill 1616) was introduced by Assemblyman Mike Gatto on February 8, 2012. It passed over six months later, after five different committees analyzed and voted on it. There cannot be any more of a full and robust debate than was had on this legislation (better than legislating via proposition, right?). The idea of fostering micro-entrepreneurship through the licensing and regulation of home-based food businesses was constant throughout the bill's debate and was in no way “rammed through” the process.

Of course, that isn't to say there were not any last-minute changes to the bill. The chaptered version contained an amendment with new provisions for a statewide “cottage food” producer training program. The producer-specific program replaced previous requirements that cottage-food producers just take food-handler classes already available statewide that would have required no additional curriculum development.

By the terms of the legislation, cottage-food operators will have three months before they must take the training class. I'm optimistic that the course will be developed and accommodations will be made to ensure that food micro-entrepreneurs may develop and grow their businesses.

Matt Read

Sacramento

Boo for bias

Re “No-limit politics and Sacramento’s newest casino” by Raheem F. Hosseini (SN&R Frontlines, November 21):

As I sat down to eat dinner, I started reading SN&R and I came across an article by Raheem F. Hosseini, which I quote: “And now that the relocation is official, neighbors and opponents worry the card room represents a first step in bringing destination resort-style gambling to their redheaded stepchild of a community.”

I’d really like to know where this expression, so long ago used as a derogatory and racially biased term, was obtained and deemed appropriate to use in this day and age.

As I come from a family including redheads and my husband is a redhead, I take a highly distasteful liking to this kind of racially biased term! No longer was our meal enjoyable, and as far as reading the rest of your tripe, I am now seeking a way to put your offensiveness behind us, as we have seen enough of your insensitive remarks called “journalism.”

It’s our hope that [Hosseini] gets sensitivity training after he’s been fired by SN&R!

G. Feldmann

Sacramento

Does that make Cosmo the turkey?

Re “Final grades, exit interviews” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R Bites, November 21):

Today, on Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for a roof over my head and a good life. I wish many others all around the world could have a basic home, food, safety and freedom from fear.

It always begins with truth, so I am very thankful for Cosmo Garvin, who always looks under the dirty rug, the floorboards, behind the curtain for that trail that leads back to the beginnings of shady deals, bad decisions and their consequences.

Honestly, I look forward to his column more than anything I read in just about any paper, including the other pamphlet of a paper delivered … to my doorstep every morning here in Sactown.

Melba Duncan

via email

Things are better in West Sac

Re “Giving thanks, SN&R style” (SN&R Editorial, November 21):

Amen!

Well, I know it is not Sacramento, but it is West Sacramento, and I for one am thankful that I live here. I am thankful for our local government (and this from a devout cynic who worked for the City of Sacramento some time ago). Projects this city undertakes are completed under budget and on time. They are worthwhile projects focusing on people, the environment and economic realities pretty much in that order. What more could one ask for?

Toba Goddard

West Sacramento

Not enough on homelessness

Re “The real face of homelessness” by Nick Miller (SN&R Feature Story, November 15):

I’m thrilled to see an article with breadth breaking the myopic stereotypes heaped on our homeless neighbors. Kudos, SN&R!

I’m five months into a Central Valley Walk for the Homeless that started in July with a three-week stay in Sacramento. I have a substantial “labor of love” as a homeless visual journalist documenting the without-a-roof communities of Sacramento, Marysville, Yuba City, Oroville and Chico. Sacramento is my least favorite community. It had a veneer that was transient and artificial and was the only community where homeless transients were more prevalent than those that have lived extended periods in the local community.

A city as large as Sacramento, and a state capital at that, should be doing far more for the homeless community. The powers that be seemed content isolating folks into the greater Loaves & Fishes, Salvation Army and the Union Gospel Mission areas.

If an alien ship landed on Earth and went nowhere but to this area of Sacramento, they would return home with the experience not of community, but of an emergency-room triage operation. Our homeless men, women and children deserve something far greater and respectful than what the city of Sacramento provides. They are neighbors, not animals to be herded and harassed. Empathy, love and respect would be great reference and starting points for our elected officials and select biased Sacramento Bee reporters.

Bill Mash

Sacramento

More like a slam, he sez

Re “Flight” by Jonathan Kiefer (SN&R Clips, November 1):

It’s not my wont to read movie reviews, but I read the reviews in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times—and then today, at the Coffee Garden, in SN&R—of Flight. I go to see films once a year and chose Flight for 2012.

This review is ghastly. Flight is anything but a “public-service announcement” for Christianity. The short, brilliant scene in a hospital room with the Christian co-pilot and his über-Christian wife is a stunning slam of Christianity.

The second dumb misreading is reference to “protracted moralizing.” There is none. A translation from psychobabble into English of “conflicted enablers” would have helped, too.

Owen McGowan

Courtland