We are out of here
I shouldn’t have to have a Facebook account or a Twitter account to contact the candidates. I received an envelope in the mail from Bob Tiffany for Supervisor District 4. He supposedly has a website, but it directs to Facebook, not an actual website that he can be contacted on.
I have lived here for 22 years and still don’t know what district I live in. I would think that the people running for office should know who is in their district and only mail to those people. I get mailings from several districts, I’m assuming I can only vote for one. No idea which!
We need new blood in this county. Get rid of the good old boy attitude. All these new houses are going in. Where are they supposed to get all the water for these new houses? Where are they supposed to get all the sewage capacity for all of these new houses?
They’re complaining that they can’t handle what we have now. They keep charging us for all these bonds, saying that they’re going to fix the roads and nothing gets done. They keep adding to the sales tax, saying that they’re going to fix the roads and all they do is patch and patch Fairview and Frazier Lake road to the point where it throws my back out just to drive on them. They need to be totally repaved.
They were supposed to widen Highway 25 a decade ago. All they did was put a concrete divider. I’m tired of paying for bonds and extra sales tax and not one thing gets done with the money that we are told is going to get done. Soon as my home is paid off we are out of here.
Highway 25 is a state road so the state would have to pay for the majority of it. Santa Clara County would have to pay for the portion that is in their county, including the on and off ramps which are horrendous! Sure they widened it close to town, but how does that help people trying to get on and off Highway 101 during commuter traffic? Don’t they have engineers that know how to do this stuff? Evidently not.
Dawn Eason
San Benito County
Time to end Covid-19 restrictions
I agree with Mayor Velazquez’s comment in an August opinion piece that it is hard to believe that we have been fighting Covid-19 in San Benito County for six months. But I find it harder to believe that after six months, we are still fighting it at all. We know more than we did six months ago, and shockingly, very little has changed in response to that knowledge, and in some places, restrictions are going deeper and further than ever before.
We now know that Covid-19 isn’t as deadly as many feared it would be. We know the survival rate is about 99 percent. We know that we are not facing the Spanish Flu, the bubonic plague, or the smallpox.
And that is where I have to disagree with the mayor. It makes no sense to keep doing what we’ve been doing for six months when we know so much more than we did in March.
I believe instead that:
It is time to accept the reality of living in an imperfect world that will never be risk-free, and stop expecting our government to protect us from a virus.
It is time to refuse to be afraid anymore, to refuse to allow the media to make us afraid, and to refuse to be controlled by fear.
It is time to be skeptical, to question, to suspect the motives (and follow the money) of those who continue to perpetuate fear and restrict our personal liberty in the name of safety.
It is time to demand that all Covid-19 restrictions be removed in San Benito County, and everywhere.
It is time to take personal responsibility for ourselves, and refuse to allow the government to parent us anymore. You should be able to choose to wear a mask and live a contactless life. You should also have the freedom to choose not to.
It is time to speak up for our lost freedoms and personal liberties. Because as history has so clearly shown us, each tiny step matters. It is time to recognize, beware, and protest the little steps—while we still have the freedom to do so.
Alana Dimmick
Paicines
Encounter the past downtown
A brief encounter with the past projects us into the future. The memory of the noontime cannery whistle and the courthouse personnel stride to Whalen’s Drug Store fountain to lunch on sandwiches and a soda while the cannery workers enjoy the contents of their lunch pails on nearby steps and curb. That downtown of the past beckons us to a future building anchored near Fourth Street soon to become the “Epicenter.”
Our downtown nestled between two historical anchors—the cannery and soon to be constructed replacement for the one that became earthquake rubble. Imagine a sidewalk stroll of yesteryear on San Benito Street, leisurely window shopping at Schipper’s and Baughmans past Hollister Pharmacy, then cross to the Creamery and to Pennywise. Then another cross thru Fifth Street, a corner guarded by three banks, and pass the original Wapples Drug Store on to the shops and community center that would occupy the Epicenter. That downtown of old could become a new downtown.
In the past, little or no fees or permits were required of the cannery. Tomato processing freely filled sewer ponds with unlimited sludge. Current population growth pays its way by providing a new sewer plant. But the cannery continues its use of sewer without providing funds for past and present sins. If the mayor speaks the truth of cannery payment then we have a city “anchor” from cannery row.
Assemblymember Rivas points to his favorite of the project: blueprints exposing 22 housing units. Rivas voices his approval that tenants would no longer need transportation to work. Jobs would be local and downtown. This usefulness mirrors what existed at the canneries long ago. No parking lots existed as workers simply walked to work from abundant housing located on Sally, Hawkins, South and East Streets.
This concept of inner city growth mirrors the exact opposite to that which Strade Verde offers. Strade Verde offers growth by sprawl: distant jobs, distant businesses and distant provision of city services.
Mary Zanger
Hollister
