Making sense on 156
Richard Morris, in a guest editorial Jan. 30, presents reasoned
objections balanced by viable alternatives concerning Hwy. 156
through San Juan Valley. I reside on the other end, or northern end
of Hwy. 156 near the Hwy. 152-156 flyover. I thoroughly agree with
his position.
The current system, shunting east-west coast-valley traffic
through San Benito County via Hwy. 156 drastically needs
re-shunting via Mr. Morris’ suggestion, saving San Benito County
resources and taxpayers.’ His shorter route proposal, connecting
the coast and Central Valley via Hwy. 152 and 25 makes ecological,
environmental, agricultural, tourism, supervisor-approved and
financial sense.
Mary Zanger
Hollister
Trucks, towns and multiculturalism
In September 2006, I wrote in the Pinnacle, “Highway 156 could be readily shoved into the future by creating either an overpass at Union Road, or at least an extra lane at the stoplight so cars can pass trucks. Most of the traffic is because cars accelerate faster than trucks, and for goodness sakes, we don’t need to spend millions and destroy farmland just to wait five minutes.” Richard Morris repeated the same thing in his lengthy article where at the end he commented on a flyover which would eliminate the SOLE cause of delays on Highway 156, getting around slow accelerating trucks from a standstill. A similar project could be constructed in San Juan. But it won’t happen. It makes too much sense and not enough revenue for Caltrans.
Next, Mary Zanger asked how can we bring back downtown? Ms. Zanger should use her own considerable assets and invest in downtown herself. I personally don’t want to live downtown and abhor forced relationships by forced proximity by idealists who refuse to invest their own money in those ideals, but continually seek to use other people’s money, i.e. tax dollars and the redevelopment agency, imminent domain and arbitrary declarations of blight. There is at least one businessperson who put his money where his mouth is, and even tried to get housing on the second level of one of his buildings, but was turned out by the all knowing government.
Finally, I received recently in the mail, a survey regarding what focus I as a parent would like to see in our schools. Two choices out of the 10 or so choices were science, math and music related coursework. A significant percentage of the remaining choices were multicultural choices. With the lead article in last week’s paper by Ms. Flores regarding the Oaxacan people having arranged marriages where it is a tradition for women (her word, but actually young girls) between 12 and 15 and men over 18, and not even question them about the illegality of such in the U.S. was an outrage. And to end the article with these same girls running off and having sex being a joke was equally outrageous. Perhaps this is what our schools have in mind to teach our children as acceptable. It’s clear to me that multiculturalism means the elimination of American culture and a beginning of enclaves of cultures where all morality is relative. Kind of strange. Government hates small business, but loves small enclaves. Interesting.
Mark Dickson
Hollister
Making sense on 156
Richard Morris, in a guest editorial Jan. 30, presents reasoned objections balanced by viable alternatives concerning Hwy. 156 through San Juan Valley. I reside on the other end, or northern end of Hwy. 156 near the Hwy. 152-156 flyover. I thoroughly agree with his position.
The current system, shunting east-west coast-valley traffic through San Benito County via Hwy. 156 drastically needs re-shunting via Mr. Morris’ suggestion, saving San Benito County resources and taxpayers.’ His shorter route proposal, connecting the coast and Central Valley via Hwy. 152 and 25 makes ecological, environmental, agricultural, tourism, supervisor-approved and financial sense.
Mary Zanger
Hollister
