Letters to the Editor 11/1

Let results stand

Californians voted to allow a nonpartisan committee to redraw our districts. I attended our local public hearing on redistricting and believe the California Redistricting Committee got our lines exactly right according to the census data and the public hearing comments.

The California Republican Party doesn’t like the results, has failed to show the committee was unfair in court and now is funding a petition for a ballot referendum to overturn the nonpartisan committee’s results.

Don’t sign the petition. Let the results of the voter-approved, nonpartisan committee stand.

Julie Clark

Atascadero

Put aside denial

In Victor Davis Hanson’s commentary (“Global Warming, RIP?” Oct. 27) he based his argument on two premises. The first is false and the second is misleading.

He states, “The planet had not heated up at all during the last 10 years.” In fact, according to the World Meteorological Organization, the 10 hottest years ever recorded have been since 1998. NASA data for both land and ocean temperatures also shows clearly that since the 1880s there has been a steady upward trend in global temperatures with no signs of leveling off.

Second, he says we don’t know “positively” whether recent human activity causes global warming. We do know that the Earth’s climate is being significantly warmed by human activity. This conclusion is supported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the American Meteorological Society, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

We have already made significant changes to the climate with more severe ones yet to come. It is time to put aside the denial and start dealing with the problem. Our future depends on it.

Lyle Yager

Pismo Beach

Development fever

Rather than giving Pismo Beach a “victory” by adding the Godfrey property to the sphere of influence, I’d compare LAFCO’s actions to those of a group of doctors putting all five flu patients in the same hospital ward. That way, they can better control the outbreak and protect the public from any bad consequences.

Now, with all five parcels together, and with the new stricter conditions, LAFCO has a much better chance of stopping and directing the out-of-control plans put forward by the city and developers to bulldoze Price Canyon and fill it with houses.

And speaking of sickness, how do you cure the extreme case of “development fever” exhibited by the leaders of Pismo Beach? When a deaf City Council and Planning Commission continually ignores its citizens over and over, what can you do? Where do you go? The ballot box? The courts? We’ll see.

In the meantime, that noise you hear is the majority of Pismo Beach residents chanting, “Save Price Canyon! Save Price Canyon!”

Gary Linquist

Morro Bay

Scary number

This Halloween is when we surpass 7 billion humans.

Now that’s scary.

Jim Carlisle

Atascadero

Where’s the homage?

The Oct. 26 article regarding the new building at Monterey and Johnson in San Luis Obispo was referred to by the developer as a “homage to the past.”

I’m sorry, but I fail to see any historical context within its design. Perhaps, he is referring to the glass firehouse doors, but that would be a stretch. I see only a building designed to obtain the maximum amount of rental square footage and then squeezed onto a city lot of minimal size. This is not a cardinal sin, but the diversity of postmodernism is wonderful only when a building is positioned and proportioned well on its lot.

The Garden Street Terraces project will go before the City Council soon. It will no doubt be approved as it is a good project, and the developers have made many good concessions. However, the pivotal corner of Broad and Marsh streets has been buried in protests. Professionals and lay people have spoken of unsuitable colors, inappropriate materials and lack of detail. Why hasn’t this corner received more attention from the Planning Department? That corner could have been renegotiated. That corner is at the entrance to downtown San Luis and deserves special focus.

Diversity of architecture is welcome in SLO, but it should have some architectural ambience of connection to the rest of the city.

Rita Mertens

San Luis Obispo

A blight of drunks

I read with interest The Tribune’s request for reporting blight in our neighborhoods.

I have one for you. How about delivering us from the trolls who wander home — drunk and ready to pillage, vanquish and destroy anything in their path (or parkway) — after a night on the town?

I am baffled by the destruction of signs, fences, trees or anything within a foot’s kick by these complete idiots. Can someone please help me understand why?

J.D. Phillip

San Luis Obispo