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Rent control fees
Let me get this right. The Rental Housing Committee balks at trying to collect the rent control fee from the deadbeat large apartment complexes that are rolling in dough (“Dozens of landlords have unpaid rent control fees,” Dec. 6)?! You’ve got to be kidding me. Then you’ve got the mom and pop small complex owners that somehow find a way to pay their rent control fees?! Well guess what? Why should we pay ours when the city is allowing the big dudes to slide on their $100K in fees?
Rental Housing Committee, I suggest you grow a pair and find a way to collect those fees from the larger complexes, or perhaps the mom and pops will also jump on that bandwagon. What’s fair is fair.
Muriel Sivyer-Lee
Velarde Street
Cooking with gas
In light of our City Council’s desperate effort to achieve climate change goals via a natural gas ban (“Council approves natural gas ban, electric car requirements,” Nov. 15), I am dismayed by their disregard for information available regarding the actual effect of such a ban.
I take exception to the allowance for commercial restaurant chefs to cook with natural gas, but as a home chef, cooking with natural gas in the future would be forbidden in new homes. I wonder if members of the City Council cook meals at home?
Cooking with fire, to me, is intrinsic to our human experience. It is the mode of cooking, globally. It is deeply ingrained in our beings, as is the “coming home” experience of a walk in the forest. It is systematic to all cultures anthropologically.
Let’s not forget the rain forests being burned in South America that contribute to carbon emissions, the bombs we drop that result in conflagrations, and the fossil fuel consumption of air travel we take for granted. Also, not to be overlooked, the emissions of our refuse disposal sites that exceed cattle ranch manure methane gas production!
The silver lining, I suppose, is that the market for tenancy in older buildings will command higher rents, so landlords may be less inclined to tear them down!
Tere Clair
Victor Way
Natural gas ban
I believe that the ban on new gas appliances is an important “consciousness raising” method. Gas is not “clean,” it is a hazard to the environment. It’s cheap, in part, because of fracking, which compounds this hazard.
I agree that we should also pursue more impactful policies; such a ban is an important reminder of the importance of weaning ourselves off fossil fuel.
Bill Michel
Redwood City
March ballot
On the March 3 ballot in Mountain View are candidates to succeed our termed-out state Sen. Jerry Hill (thanks for your service) and the following measures:
•A statewide $15 billion school bond (i.e., request to borrow money by selling bonds repayable with interest)
•Another bond proposed by the Foothill-De Anza Community College District — this one $898 million
•A five-year parcel tax to increase revenue to the Foothill-De Anza district by a total of $27.5 million
•Another bond in the Mountain View-Whisman School District — this time for $259 million, and
•A City Council-proposed set of amendments to the part of the city charter that established limited residential rent control (Measure V adopted by voters in November 2016).
Oh yeah, there are also candidates to succeed Donald Trump as president. March 3 is “Super Tuesday,” with presidential primaries in some 15 states.
I previously wrote the Voice about a proposed amendment to Measure V (promoted in subcommittee by Vice Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga) that would have empowered the City Council to permit the eviction of all tenants protected by Measure V in exchange for relocation payments fixed by an ordinance to be enacted by the City Council.
That proposal disappeared after my letter — almost as fast as Trump released military assistance to Ukraine after he got caught! The chief selling point for the council-proposed changes to Measure V (currently headed for the city ballot on March 3 as Measure D) is that maybe its approval would inspire the two official proponents of the petition-initiated “sneaky repeal” of Measure V (headed for the Nov. 3 ballot) to withdraw that petition.
How about withdrawing the petition now — before we vote on Measure D. A new state law that took effect just two months ago (elections code section 9266.5) permits proponents of an initiative charter amendment to withdraw the petition even after it has qualified for the ballot.
With regard to suing over the City Council’s placement of its proposed set of amendments on the March 3 primary, while the action was likely unlawful under the government code and elections code section 9255 (without the landlord initiative on the same ballot) and elections code section 1415, I do not now intend to sue.
Gary Wesley
Continental Circle
President Sauron
In the Tolkien fantasy “Lord of the Rings,” the evil tyrant Sauron rules over the dark land of Mordor.
I find eerie parallels between Sauron and our current president.* As Sauron casts a malevolent far-seeing eye that targets his enemies from afar, so does Donald Trump spew venom via Twitter to zombify the brains of his followers.
As evil wizards do, he takes vicious rumors and toxic innuendos and pulls them into our reality by publicizing the most vile conspiracy theories in order to besmirch his enemies.
Finally, his policies of environmental destruction echo Tolkien’s description of the land of Mordor “where the shadows lie.” I just hope we don’t go “full Mordor” before we can end his evil actions.
Ed Taub
Devoto Street
Send letters to the editor to letters@mv-voice.com. Letters must be signed and no more than 300 words long.
Send letters to the editor to letters@mv-voice.com. Letters must be signed and no more than 300 words long.
Send letters to the editor to letters@mv-voice.com. Letters must be signed and no more than 300 words long.
I support the ban on gas hooks to new residential housing.
Natural gas is methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 22x more potent than carbon dioxide. Natural gas lines rupture and leak methane in many ways.
Methane is an odorless, tasteless gas. (The “smell” of natural gas is really an odorizer added to methane). This means that ruptured gas lines are not detected for hours or days. Once detected the leak can continue for months before fixed. Such a major leak happened in 2016 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35659947
Getting natural gas out of the fuel fix is necessary and fast.
Totally bogus arguments. What’s the alternative? So an odorless gas that is odorized is difficult to detect. What nonsense.