››LETTERS The sunny side of the Streetscape Plan
In last week’s Upfront [“Nightmare On Miller Avenue?” Nov. 7], Peter Seidman provides a thoughtful and accurate account of Mill Valley’s journey with the Miller Avenue Streetscape Plan. It’s truly been a “long and winding road.” Peter captured very well the many twists and turns we’ve faced over the years and the lessons we’ve learned along the way, including, as he wrote, “the ability to compromise with opponents and arrive at a solution that still benefits the community.” We learned to take our time with the process so that we didn’t get out ahead of the community, and we took great measures to engage our residents at every step in the process. Councilmember Ken Wachtel and I have guided the Miller Avenue process since our election in 2007, and have had great support from our City Manager Jim McCann, and our city staff. While it took Mill Valley some extra time to complete the plan, we arrived at a solution that’s within the budget, and one that most everyone could live with—and many were enthusiastic about. In these times, that’s something to be proud of. Thanks to the Pacific Sun for following our story and for Peter’s insightful article.
Stephanie Moulton-Peters, Mayor Mill Valley
We
Use of ‘Frisco’ a cunning stunt indeed!
James Cavenaugh’s letter [“Star Spangled Santana,” Nov. 7] used an incredibly offensive abbreviation for San Francisco, and it should be addressed. This word (which I will not write but rhymes with Crisco) is as offensive, probably more so than the c-word rhyming with “runt” or the N-word that sounds similar to “figure.” The Sun ought to really be ashamed for publishing it. Taboo words are never appropriate for a weekly periodical.
Tony Good, San Rafael
‘Stupidity is a talent for misconception’—Edgar Allan Poe
I have to agree with Gino Gerald Thomas that the Sun should stop running my stupid stuff [“Preferred Whatley,” Nov. 14]. Pretty much everything I write is stupid, especially when I look at it a week or so later. And when I look at stuff I wrote 10 years ago, it looks pretty stupid, too. Was I that stupid back then? That is the problem with writers. You write something, and it looks SO good at the time, and you are SO proud that you got the typos out, and then when you look at it later, you say to yourself, “What was I thinking? This is stupid.” Anyway, he’s right. I’ll keep sending stupid stuff in, and you can print it
Marin
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4 PACIFIC SUN NOVEMBER 21 - NOVEMBER 27, 2014
out and pass it around the Sun staff internally if you like, with a Post-It note that says, “FYI, please read, this is pretty stupid.” Either that or put a warning sign on the cover of each Sun that says, “Warning: some pretty stupid stuff in the Letters area.”
Skip Corsini, Shasta
Egad! ‘They’ve’ got to Van Horn ...
People got upset at even discussing the proposal to build this pipeline [“In the Pipeline,” Nov. 14]? Jeez, maybe we need “trigger warnings”: Discussing this topic may cause discomfort in those who are prone to believing everything is an evil conspiracy by shadowy, powerful forces. Maybe we could pipe in a little emotional maturity.
promoting the boondoggle. The lockstep five-member MMWD board hasn’t earned Marin residents’ trust or confidence because they are still obsessed with herbicides ($600,000 and counting) and desal ($6 million and counting) and now pipelines against the express wishes of the vast majority of the population. The MMWD board can start earning trust by focusing on cutting the fat from there bloated expensive topheavy management which sucks up most of their revenue, and stop caring water for Monsanto. We want goats not Roundup! Conservation, not desal and pipelines to nowhere.
Mike Kavanagh, Mill Valley
Mike Van Horn, Marin
Reality check
Like clockwork, Peter Seidman has cranked out yet another lopsided notso-thinly veiled hit piece on critics of the Marin Municipal Water District. Let’s take a brief look at your track record of being consistently prodevelopment and openly hostile to environmentalists, shall we? Pro-desalination plant—check! Pro-herbicide in the watershed— check! Hostile and condescending to anyone who questions or opposes Association of Bay Area Governments and “smart growth” high-density condo development, labeling them racist and conservative—check. Susan Adams loses election—Marin has gone to the conservative racist dark side—check. Pro-pipeline over the bridge— check. Regarding the mistrust to the pipeline “planning” and “conspiracy” mongering and “distrust” of the MMWD intentions I really like how you completely left out any mention in pipeline article that the MMWD attempt (not so long ago) at building a $400 million desalination plant, which was an embarrassing political fiasco. The anger it generated is still fresh with the public. The fallout of which ultimately led to the sacking of pervious General Manager Paul Helliker, who shamelessly spent years
Keeping track of Seidman’s pro-development, anti-environmental stances is getting to be a fulltime job.
Mixed signals
What Marin County needs is an ordinance forbidding the use of public monies, employees or resources to promote or “educate the public” about any ballot measure. Without the more than $300,000 in tax dollars Marin Emergency Radio Authority spent on this race, Measure A would be nowhere near getting approved.
Shell game
Alex Easton-Brown, Lagunitas
Once more the climate-denial folks are pushing to build a thousand miles of pipes to send raw petroleum material (a sludge) from the northern plains to Houston, for processing. Yet where is the rationale behind such an endeavor? Why are they not building a processing plant in North Dakota, and then ship the refined oil in a more hospitable and safe, well-established manner? This would increase the population of a traditionally rural area, perhaps exposing the countryside to a higher standard of living. Wouldn’t that be a most desirable benefit?