Letters: Quality of life | DA’s rights | Fixing Oakland | Rein in Musk | Expansion in Mideast
Mercury News Letters to the Editor for April 24, 2024
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San Jose’s quality
of life needs a boost
Re: “San Jose fourth in quality of life in U.S.” (Page B1, April 6).
Being fourth best for quality of life in the country is questionable when the disparity between the rich and poor is extreme.
San Jose boasts tremendous diversity in its communities, advanced technology and a robust economy. However, this doesn’t fully encapsulate the city, especially downtown. Despite the accolades the city just received, homelessness, traffic congestion and food insecurity are still imminent. We cannot live comfortably and claim satisfied living when all these problems are happening right in front of us. A high quality of life means not worrying about your next meal, rent for the month, or your punctuality setback because of traffic. This is the lifestyle we all should strive for.
As proud residents of San Jose, we must advocate for policies that prioritize affordable housing, sustainable transportation infrastructure and education. Writing to our local representatives and council and supporting initiatives alone could significantly improve our great city.
Carl Corpus
San Jose
DA is within rights to
request resentencing
Re: “DA has no right to dismantle death sentences” (Page A9, April 21).
In his recent op-ed, Ron Matthias suggests that Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s reasons for asking the courts to resentence 14 death-sentenced men to life without parole “are incoherent, contrived and legally baseless.” However, Rosen rather coherently told the Los Angeles Times, “We don’t have the moral authority as a society to execute someone.” Sounds thoughtful to me.
And if one looks, Rosen isn’t contriving a clear racial bias in death sentences. (California’s death row is 35% Black, while the state’s Black population is only about 5%.) Even more egregious, 197 individuals have been freed from death row based on evidence of their innocence since 1973, five of them from California.
As for Rosen’s actions being “illegal,” that’s just silly. AB 2942, signed into law in 2018, allows local district attorneys to recommend cases for resentencing.
Mike Farrell
President, Death Penalty Focus
Los Angeles
Changing airport
name won’t fix Oakland
Re: “SFO files lawsuit to stop name-change proposal in Oakland” (Page A1, April 19).
This is slightly tongue-in-cheek but also a bit serious. The Warriors left Oakland, the Raiders left Oakland, the A’s are about to leave Oakland; and now, even the Oakland International Airport wants to leave Oakland.
Despite all the research (which can easily be faked) that Port of Oakland officials have conducted, the root problem is that they are ashamed of their city name. Why else do they want to adopt San Francisco? Focus on working with the city leadership (I know, it’s nonexistent) to fix the city instead of putting lipstick on a pig.
I love Oakland, but I despise the nonsense and incompetence that go on by the political officials there.
Victor Thu
Los Gatos
Tesla board should
rein in volatile Musk
Re: “Who. Me?” (Page A1, April 22).
Elon Musk is a good innovator, but a very poor manager. He is very rigid and a micro-manager. He now has become bored with Tesla, not unusual for an innovator, and seems more interested in being an influencer on X. He has tanked the auto company and stock with his comments. He appears to suffer from narcissistic personality disorder.
Unfortunately, the Tesla Board of Directors are ineffective at managing Musk, mainly because they’re a bunch of sycophants more interested in associating with Musk than managing him and Tesla. He should be put on a performance improvement plan. If he fails to meet the goals set out in the plan, the board should follow through with action. And he definitely should not be awarded $56 billion. He has underperformed.
George Badger
Soquel
U.S. should halt aid to
stop war’s expansion
Seems the genocide continuing in Gaza is expanding into the West Bank, where Israel has killed more than 400 Palestinians since the start of the Israel-Hamas War, including 18 children last weekend.
Apparently, Hamas and Israeli leaders don’t care about innocent civilians killed and captured as hostages. After Israel’s attacks in Syria, Iran has joined the war, ignoring the plight of local innocent civilians.
U.S. efforts and appeals for protecting civilians are being ignored by these parties. The United States should just get out of the way and stop all aid to all parties. At least our arms and bombs will not kill more people.
The United States should also declare that Hamas and Israel are responsible for destruction and must be held responsible for reconstruction without any American funds.
Pratap Banthia
San Jose