Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Oct. 7, 2019
Novato doesn’t need retail cannabis shops
The Novato Planning Commission recently voted to take next steps towards approving the opening of retail cannabis shops in Novato. I want to voice my strong opposition. For decades, the culture in Novato has been centered around families. Pot shops are not part of that culture. It is more important to protect the values of the community then to seek additional revenue streams for city coffers.
— Steve Eakle, Novato
Rent is way too high for what you get in Marin
Renting a place to live in Marin isn’t for the faint of heart. What is even more mind-blowing is what you get for the thousands of dollars one doles out every month.
For $4,800, one can pay rent for one month on a ramshackle two bedroom, 1.5 bath home in shady Mill Valley. Oh, the windows are the originals from 1930s, and the half bath is a toilet in a closet off the kitchen with a view of absolutely nothing. Upstairs you have no heat vents, “because heat rises.” Spider webs and mice, well that’s part of living in the country. You don’t mind that you must park on the street because there is no driveway, and it’s part of the charm of living in Mill Valley.
Ummm, no thank you.
When will renters have rights to affordable, livable housing? Marin is one of richest counties in California. Well, some folks are getting rich on the backs of others who are not provided with the opportunity to buy, or were not passed down a home or three from family members that got in the market when it was optimal and affordable. No wonder so many people drive through Marin on there way to Sonoma or Napa.
— Virginia Erwin, Sausalito
Distribution of wealth in the world is lopsided
Those who control the world’s economy and continue to accrue more wealth than ever before in history are the elite. Eight men own the same wealth as do the poorest half of the entire world. The poorest 10% increased less than $3 per year the last 23 years while the richest 1% increased 182 times as much.
Of the world’s 10 richest people, nine are white men. In 2015-2016, the world’s 10 biggest corporations collectively had revenues greater than 180 countries combined. In the United States, for the last 30 years, the growth of the bottom 50% has been zero, whereas incomes of the top 1% have grown by 300%.
Racial manipulation by white people to Make America Great Again has diverted blame away from the white elite towards the various peoples of color, for example, immigrants and undocumented workers for current conditions of the white working class. To say that the distribution of wealth today is lopsided is understated. What comes to mind is an economic crisis of another time and place that resulted in the Storming of the Bastille. The symbolic significance of the event was the revolt against the oppressive nature of the monarchy that led to its eventual fall.
What happens when history repeats itself, nobody realizes it, and this time around white people are also being challenged racially and refuse to even discuss the matter?
— Dennis Kostecki, Sausalito
United Nations speech by Thumberg was on point
In her Sept. 18 speech to the United Nations, 16-year-old Greta Thumberg, aptly underscores the severity of our environmental crisis from the perspective of the younger generation, who must suffer its effects. She cites stringent measures for keeping our planet habitable, while it is warming at increasing rates.
The right wing pundits now discredit her presentation by alleging that she has a mentally unstable condition that was used by the environmentalists to manipulate her presentation — even though her assertions are backed by now overwhelming scientific evidence.
Sadly, such misinformation has been standard procedure for this president and his pundits — which has caused unmeasurable damage to our planet’s habitability and our livelihood.
Their relentless opposition to environmental reforms — which include fabricated claims of their adverse economic effects and dismemberment of agencies chartered to protect our planet — are only some examples.
We can’t change history, but we can learn and benefit from it. If former President Jimmy Carter had been allowed to advance his farsighted environmental reforms 40 years ago, the health of our planet would be far better, and many of the badly needed reforms would already be operational.
— Robert Settgast, San Rafael