Anyone who’s ever used SLO’s bus service can thank this late city councilman | Opinion

Steve Petterson’s contributions to SLO

Steven Petterson Obituary, sanluisobispo.com

It was sad to hear that former San Luis Obispo City Councilman Steve Petterson passed away last month just three short days of Christmas at the age of 79 in his home at Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Too few locals are aware that Steve left a legacy of accomplishment and service in San Luis Obispo.

We both grew up in a small Bay Area town where Steve was my family’s paperboy. We both went to the same high school in the early 1960s and ended up at Cal Poly later that decade. Steve studied agricultural business where he began his lifelong interest in horses. Indeed, his life personified Ronald Reagan’s credo: “The outside of a horse is the best thing for the inside of a man.”

But it was when both of us served on the San Luis Obispo City Council in the early 1970s, along with such visionaries as Mayor Kenneth Schwartz and Councilmember Myron Graham, that we got to know each other better.

While I was a liberal and Steve a conservative, we always got along. It was during those years that Mission Plaza was created which fueled the renaissance of Downtown San Luis Obispo. But it was Steve who proved to be a visionary, too. Steve’s top issue was to create the city’s first public transportation system — and he did just that. Some 50 years later, anyone who has used the city’s bus service owes Steve a debt of gratitude. He just made this community a better place to live.

For those of us who were fortunate enough to know him, we will never forget Steve Petterson.

T. Keith Gurnee

San Luis Obispo

Climate crisis on my mind

“This SLO County city nearly broke an almost 40-year-old heat record. Here’s how hot it got,” (sanluisobispo.com, Oct. 19)

With the climate crisis, we walk a fine line between awareness and despair. For every piece of encouraging news, there are many others frantically ringing the alarm.

Not only was last year the hottest on record, this year is predicted to be even hotter. We encounter terms such as “global boiling” and warnings of ecological and societal “collapse.” With these distressing phrases, sometimes I envy climate deniers who are untroubled by facts. But neither denialism nor doomsday-ism will help us, our children or our grandchildren find a path forward to a sustainable future.

Individual changes in our lives — at home, on the road and with our diet — are a start. Increasing pressure on government and business at all levels can bring broad and meaningful change to avoid the worst outcomes of rising CO2 levels. Above all, we need to keep this topic and the transition to renewable energy sources front and center. Across the country, the climate crisis should keep moving from the back pages to the front pages as we work to preserve a livable planet.

Jim Wright

San Luis Obispo

Cal Poly’s veiled threat

“Strike still looms at Cal Poly after CSU cancels bargaining sessions with faculty union,” (sanluisobispo.com, Jan. 12)

This week, Cal Poly’s Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Keith Humphrey, sent students an email regarding the upcoming faculty strike, in what amounted to a political speech supporting the administration’s side of this contract dispute. It’s disappointing that Cal Poly would use his position and that forum to engage in political speech instead of advising students as to what to expect during the strike (what services could be disrupted and what essential services would be uninterrupted, for example). Students and families should have been assured that student welfare is everyone’s top priority.

What’s worse is that he invited students to report faculty who strike, providing a link for students to report classes that are canceled as a result of the strike under the guise of assuring “continuity and fulfillment of instruction.” Those of us with experience in collective bargaining see this as an intimidation tactic and a veiled threat of retaliation against those who strike with students as pawns.

Please know that your education is everyone’s top priority. And the continued success of Cal Poly, which includes attracting and retaining the best faculty, is our goal.

In the meantime, we hope for the best and look forward to seeing you back in the classroom soon.

Glen Thorcroft

San Luis Obispo

Thoughtless plan

“Dana Reserve housing development clears SLO County Planning Commission — but with key changes,” (sanluisobispo.com, Oct. 24, 2023)

We wish to express our disappointment in Dana Reserve housing plans that would allow such a high density of housing. While we recognize that there is a need to build places for people to live, we also believe that it can be done without destroying the quality of life in Nipomo. Here, there is already rush hour traffic from San Luis Obispo to the Santa Maria River. We would like to see a scaled down version of this project that would leave more natural space to be enjoyed by all. Even the communities at Black Lake and Monarch Dunes are nowhere near the density being proposed here.

We realize that with an increased population, Nipomo would have a better chance to become its own city because of an increased tax base and have a better chance at self-government. But to dump this many people at once into a small area without employment possibilities does not fit into the rural surroundings that attract people to Nipomo in the first place.

John and Ann Stephens

Nipomo