An unsafe city
EDITOR: An RV with people living in it is parked next to my home. Residents in this neighborhood have to have a permit to park, but someone can live in their vehicle if they are, or claim to be, homeless.
I have owned my house in the Luther Burbank Gardens historic neighborhood for 30 years, in which time the neighborhood has gone downhill severely because of drugs and street people.
People all around Santa Rosa are suffering because Santa Rosa does not appear to prioritize residents who pay taxes and support the city. In the Luther Burbank Gardens area, crime is high, with any item left in a backyard at risk of being stolen. Syringes can be found lying around and human feces are everywhere.
Property values in Luther Burbank Gardens as well as in other parts of Santa Rosa will go down. Who wants to buy a house with homeless people parked next to it? It appears that the city believes homeless people have more rights than other residents. Residents no longer feel safe in their own homes.
LISA SHIFFRIN
Santa Rosa
Mental health and teens
EDITOR: Louis Ganzler and Amie Carter blamed social media for a youth mental health crisis (“Social media drives teen mental health crisis,” Close to Home, Aug. 21). As a teacher for 22 years and a parent, I can agree social media is a major contributor. But we are forgetting another factor: parents.
During the pandemic, we were told to stay home and teach from a computer, use slide decks, Google classroom, Instagram and many more programs. We used games like Kahoot and Flipgrid for videos. We introduced new curriculum using links, YouTube videos and EdPuzzle. We asked students to be online, participate, do homework and send it back virtually. Didn’t we ask them to use these for a year or longer? Why is social media to blame? Why don’t you ask where are the parents?
The media blames us (teachers) when parents should take responsibility. Let’s not blankly blame social media, because it was a tool we asked students to use. Let’s talk about how parents can help their students, and talk to counselors and talk about their feelings of isolation and how they worry about the future.
SUSAN EDWARDS
Los Alamitos
Air travel and climate
EDITOR: Restricting sale of vehicles that use fossil fuels is a step in the right direction. But there are hundreds of planes flying overhead spewing exhaust, and no one says a word about developing electric airplanes. I would like to see a statistic comparing vehicle exhaust with airplane exhaust. Cars are probably not a large part of the problem.
JUDY WATTEN
Kenwood
Put lives first
EDITOR: I am disappointed that Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t sign the bill allowing safe injection sites in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles. This is a blatantly political decision to appease detractors and help Newsom’s aspirations. While safe consumption sites aren’t a fix for the addiction epidemic, they are a proven method to reduce overdose deaths and increase access to treatment.
My son, Sam, died of fentanyl overdose in 2020. With a safe consumption site, he might be alive today.
Geoffrey Lawrence of the Reason Foundation says, “Results from other countries have shown that safe injection sites lead to a reduction in overdose deaths and transmission rates of infectious disease and an increase in the number of individuals seeking addiction recovery.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 107,375 people in the U.S. died of overdoses or drug poisoning in 2021. Fentanyl is now the No. 1 cause of death for Americans ages 18-45. Overdose deaths in 2021 exceeded homicides by 306%. This is a national epidemic affecting an entire generation.
All solutions need to be studied and implemented. We need to protect our loved ones with increased access to treatment and end the stigma of the disease of addiction. We need leaders and policies to address this epidemic, not cower to trends for political aspiration.
JOHN IVERSON
Windsor
GOP fearmongering
EDITOR: There’s a scene in the movie “The American President” where Michael Douglas is addressing reporters. He says something to the effect that his opponent isn’t interested in solving peoples’ problems. He’s only interested in telling them who’s to blame and making them afraid. That scene comes to mind more and more frequently. Republicans are masters at making people afraid while not solving anything. Donald Trump’s home gets raided with good cause, tell people that if the FBI can raid the home of a former president, what’s to stop them from doing the same to you. Well, maybe don’t be a criminal. If the Internal Revenue Service gets more employees, scare the public that there’s nothing to stop the IRS from coming after them. Um, maybe don’t cheat on your taxes. Republicans get away with crimes by fearmongering, obfuscation and misdirection. It’s past time to stop letting them get away with it.
ANNETTE FLACHMAN
Windsor
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