Letters

Battery powered

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Turns out people are interested in my electric car. I don’t blame them, as it’s pretty cool. I thought I’d throw out some additions to my cover story.

First, Nissan threw in Sirius/ XM, which was cool. But what’s really cool about it is when I stop in the shadow of one of Reno’s taller buildings, it blocks the satellite reception. So get this, since the car makes no noise, and there’s no background hum from the car engine, it’s like the car has died. Weird. With no engine noise, the stereo sounds awesome. It’s like driving headphones to work.

People ask me how many miles I get to a charge. I don’t know. It’s about a hundred, but since the brakes charge the batteries, certain conditions add miles to the charge.

If I use the regular, old plugit-in-the-wall plug, the 120 volts, it takes about 12 or 13 hours to go from 0 percent to 100 percent. Again, just an estimation, since I’ve only let it get down to 12 percent or so. But I installed a 240 volt power station, and that cuts the time in half, which is about what you’d expect.

The car is very powerful, the kind of power that gets you off at the light more than the kind that tows boats. It’s got two settings, powersaving (ECO) and regular drive. The fact that the speed is on a governor convinces me that if I weren’t on a lease I could hack that governor and increase the speed and the top end. Also, the Bluetooth works on the cell phone calls, but not on the cell phone MP3 player. I have a feeling that’s another hack I could do if I wanted to risk my warranty, which I don’t.

Still, I am interested in the concept of car security and hacking, since all I have to do is walk up to it, and the “smart key” allows me to open the door and start the car. ***

It’s 95-word short fiction time. Send your entries to renofiction@newsreview.com. Deadline is 9 a.m. on Oct. 23. That’s exactly 95 words including headline. For inspiration, check out last year’s contest, www. newsreview.com/reno/strangerthan-truth/content?oid=8291872 . —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

Livable community?

It appears that some city employees are working with a company based in Incline Village to ram a noxious project down the throats of the good people of our city!

Earlier this year, C4 Equity LLC (a.k.a. FW Carson Company) proposed to build a truck terminal and a concrete/asphalt crushing and composting facility at 700 Gaslight Lane, adjacent to University Ridge homes. Our community was caught off guard, as the public notice did not reveal the full extent of the planned operation. Surprisingly, the Planning Commission approved the application on Feb. 6. Many citizens and the University Ridge Homeowners Association appealed. The City Council unanimously voted to revoke the permit on March 13. In addition to creating noise, dust and stench for neighbors, the project would have been a hazard to public health because of truck traffic at the intersection of Socrates Drive and Gaslight Lane. This intersection is on a downhill curve and adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad grade crossing. UP sent the City a letter opposing the project for this reason.

Prior to the hearing before the City Council, C4 Equity threatened that if the appellants would not compromise, it would subdivide the property so it could do anything it wanted to do on parcels not adjacent to homes. The principals of C4 Equity followed through with their threat and their application for subdivision was considered at a public hearing before the Planning Commission on July 9. As at the City Council meeting, at least 100 concerned citizens appeared at the hearing and many voiced their objections. Thankfully, the Planning Commission turned down C4 Equity’s application this time around.

We were shocked to learn, a few days later, that city employees in the Community Development department decided to rule the Planning Commission’s decision null and void! They claimed that the city’s requirement for a Special Use Permit Application for subdivision of land with residential adjacency conflicted with state law, but they did not explain why. If you read the state law they cited, you will be as baffled as I am at this apparently arbitrary decision. Moreover, we do not believe that city officials have the legal authority for this action. Changing city code requires proposing a text amendment, which is reviewed by the Planning Commission with a public hearing. By de facto changing city code, these officials have violated due process and stripped Reno citizens of their rights!

It appears that to some city employees “Community Development” means company development, and let the community be damned! We deplore this outrageous action and we will fight to protect citizens’ rights. Thomas W. Bell University Ridge Homeowners Association

Livable community?

I just do not understand how the city is planning our community. We live in the northwest area. We lived here before the houses became shabby with dirt yards, junk cars and tagging everywhere, but I digress. Most people are happy when stores, restaurants and other amenities move closer to their homes. This [usually] means less driving and more time with our families, but not so much in the northwest area. Let me explain: For years, there was only Safeway and Albertsons. Then, of course, here comes Walmart. When the Hollywood Video store closed near what is now Save Mart, we hoped for a new place to eat or shop for clothes, but instead [we got]another auto parts store. Why? There is already an auto parts store right across the street.

Well, we saw another small building was being built in the parking lot area of Walmart, a phone store. We already have a Verizon, but no [we got] another phone store along with a doughnut shop because we cannot get doughnuts at Safeway, Save Mart or Walmart. We can, but those are not $10 a dozen. OK, so nothing comes along for a while, then we see new ground being broken—please how about an Olive Garden or maybe an Outback, Applebees, anything. We finally learn it is tire shop. Why? We have Big O tires just across the street, and yes, even frigging Walmart has a tire department. I guess from now on when we see some thing being built in our neighborhood, we will just look across the street to see what we don’t already have two or more of. Thanks, city planners.

Cecelia Soper Reno

Sometimes it’s not

Re “Is hunting moral?” (Editorial, Sept. 26): I grew up hunting, not as a trophy hobby, but meat for the table. My father hunted with bow and with rifle. Today, hunters are cruel amateurs. They wound animals; they kill each other; they start fires. (Rim Fire to name one of three recent serious, hunterstarted fires in California.) People who don’t depend on wild animals for their food should not subject wild animals to being hunted down and killed. In states where game animals are overcrowding their territory and need thinning because they have no predators like wolves, they should be thinned by “professional hunters” who know what they are doing. The meat used to feed inmates. What grieves me most is hunting camps in the East and South. Hunters buy corn and set up a feeder station to draw the deer to their blind. Then they get to hunting season, they wait and slaughter them. Some half drunken “hunter” misses or wounds animals even then. “It’s a sport!” Hah, some sport. Trapping with leg irons should be against the law. Like Indians, we should be respectful and protective of wildlife for the benefit and balance of this clod of soil called Earth.

Mary Matzek Henderson

Caramel apples, yum

Re “Applecart tipping?” (News, Sept. 19):

I have a tendency to fall victim to skillful advertising and public relations campaigns. When I see “Apple,” I think innovation, green and good (with the possible exception of using laborers who are slightly underage in China). I forget that they are a money grubbing, tax avoiding, socially irresponsible corporation as are most others. Nice job of casting a little sunshine on Apple’s corporate policies and for jerking me back to a healthy state of cynicism. Apple and other corporations care nothing about you unless you happen to be a stockholder.

Larry L. Wissbeck Paonia, Colo.

No enforcement

I was crossing a crosswalk at Virginia and Thoma streets today and was nearly hit by a car that blew right by me. I was already in the middle of the crosswalk. Normally, this wouldn’t be very shocking, as this crosswalk as well as all the Virginia street crosswalks seem to constantly have problems with people yielding to pedestrians at crosswalks (unless they’re the mayor). This time though, there was a Reno police officer directly behind the vehicle. Did she hit her lights? Hell no, she just kept on cruising. Jesus, how can we expect people to stop getting run over in crosswalks when the police are too lazy to pull people over when they’re directly behind them? Justin Dunaway Reno

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This MoDern WorlD by tom tomorrow

National health insurance: Good or bad?

Asked at Michael’s Deli, 628 S. Virginia St.

Trevor Southwick

Dry cleaning worker Bad. It’s not something that I’m looking forward to. A lot of businesses, including my own, aren’t buying health care any more for the employees, and we have to find our own. And it seems like through the government, it’s just not the same quality.

Daniel Herr

Marketer You know, actually, I don’t know. I just haven’t had enough experience with it to know one way or another, and I haven’t used enough of the health care system to really provide an educated answer on it.

False equivalence

It’s pretty hard to imagine that this asinine government shutdown won’t be finished by the time this newspaper hits the newsstands. Of course, the same thing could have been said last week. So, just be aware that while the asinine government shutdown is the jumping off point for this expression of opinion, it’s only the jumping off point.

Much has been made of the idea of false equivalence with the shutdown. False equivalence, in journalism terms, is when a news source adds an opposing viewpoint on a level equal to another viewpoint expressed by a source in a story. Here’s an example that doesn’t necessarily include a bunch of traitorous assholes on Capitol Hill—although if you scratch it more than paint deep, it does emit a familiar odor.

Say 10,000 climate scientists say the Earth is warming, and it appears it is caused by humans. Then, say 50 scientists in fields other than climate say the world is warming, and it appears to be because of undersea volcanoes. Then, say a reporter at the New York Times quotes a scientist from each group. This gives the appearance of objectivity and balance to a reader who knows nothing of climate change. It gives the reader the impression that the two sides are roughly equivalent. Even if the reporter gives the 10,000 to 50 statistics, the words are what matters in the readers’ mind.

It’s a Gordian knot. If the reporter cuts the minority voice out of the story, readers and advertisers complain that the report is unbalanced, the reporter biased. Even other journalists would complain—despite the fact that other journalists have read many reports that show that often those minority opinions have corporate backers. In our climate change example, it’s petroleum companies. If the reporter points out the scientists’ conflicts of interest, those same corporate backers squeal that the reporter should have found an unbiased source to represent the minority view.

It’s public relations, folks. It’s spin. It’s a lie that’s been foisted upon the American people that a single piece of journalism can ever represent the whole truth.

It’s up to you, readers. Our democracy is based on the idea that you will read many articles about the things that matter to you. It used to be called “the marketplace of ideas,” and much First Amendment law is based on this concept.

Walter Cronkite didn’t know the truth, he was just one of the voices that offered a point of view. The government of those days offered another. Time magazine offered another. The New York Times offered another. The American people took all those different ideas and came up with our own idea of truth about Vietnam.

The Republican Party on Capitol Hill is being manipulated by a minority of paid-off lackeys. That is the reason for the shutdown. That will be the reason for another debt ceiling crisis. Please forgive our lack of a misleading opposition viewpoint. Ω Shannon Defer

Carpenter I guess that remains to be seen. First reaction, though, is it’s bad. Our rates are just going up and if seems if we’re going to be doing something like that, it should come down. Besides that, all I know so far is I’m paying more for it.

Stephen Rivas

Truck driver I think it’s good. It’s trying to help us out. I have a brother who has a pre-existing condition, and I think this definitely will help out, steer us in a direction that’ll help those people.

Pete Cladianos

Attorney I think it’s good to get more people covered. I think it’s important that people have health insurance. Having 30 million uninsured people in our country is a burden on the rest of us because they get their health care from emergency rooms. We’re paying for them, anyway. We might as well do it in a systematic and organized fashion.