Letters: In-person meetings | Abandoning tenants | Oakland ballpark | CEO overpaid | Teaching history | Replacing ‘Dilbert’ | Empty offices

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In-person meetings
are good for Antioch

Re: “Despite new state law, council ends remote meetings” (Page B1, March 6).

Kudos to the responsible members of the Antioch City Council for making all of their meetings in person.

AB 2449 offers too many vague and easily abused options which deny citizens the opportunity to fully participate in their local government affairs. Remote attendees can avoid citizen opposition by hiding behind “tech issues.”

In-person allows the residents to interact and coordinate among themselves.

Cliford Sanburn
San Ramon

Supervisor’s abstention
hangs tenants out to dry

Re: “Eviction moratorium stays until end of April” (Page B1, March 2).

As Supervisor Lena Tam’s constituent, I am deeply disappointed in her abstention from the recent tenant protection vote.

The conversation about Alameda County tenant protections has centered on landlords’ concerns about the COVID-19 eviction moratorium.

But the board failed to pass protections for vulnerable tenants that had been in the works since 2018.

For the past four years, families in the unincorporated Eden Area, who have no local tenant protections, have faced uninhabitable living conditions and skyrocketing rents.

Supervisor Tam claims she “needs more data.”

The data exists: Homelessness rose 22% in Alameda County between 2019 and 2022. Without tenant protections, these numbers will rise even higher when the eviction moratorium ends.

One wonders if Supervisor Tam needs more information or an excuse to stand with landlord donors over her constituents.

Sophia DeWitt
Alameda

An Oakland ballpark
could be transformative

Our region needs positive elements.

In San Francisco, the transformation of Third Street, from just north of the Giant’s ballpark to Bayview Hunters Point (about 4 miles), is nothing short of stunning. Striking views are now open, for residents and workers alike. The entire district has become livable.

I live in Oakland and have been a property tax-paying resident for over 43 years. I have driven Third Street for the past 25-plus years for work and watched what has occurred. The benefits are spreading to the south and toward Candlestick. It is beautiful to watch.

Oakland can have the same; we deserve it. It all started with a ballpark.

Lary Heath
Oakland

PG&E’s chief executive
is vastly overpaid

The CEO of PG&E, Patricia Poppe, made $51 million in one year. It will take 127,500 homes with a $400 monthly PG&E bill just to pay one employee of PG&E.

Does it really take $51 million dollars to get someone to run a quasi-monopoly? One wonders how many miles of electrical cable could be buried with $51 million. The world is going insane.

John Briggs
Lafayette

It’s imperative that
we teach all of history

Slavery and its aftermath in our history must be taught because they were and are a constant and powerful recurring theme to be acknowledged, not a footnote to a glorious narrative.

Demagogues want to erase the topic from our collective memory while ignoring urgent matters such as social injustice, pollution, gun violence and climate change.

A free society does not ban books, even when the content makes us uncomfortable.

Richard Riffer
Berkeley

Replace ‘Dilbert’ with
something funny

Re: “‘Dilbert’ dropped after creator’s racist rant” (Page A1, Feb. 28)

Thank you for dumping Scott Adams’ “Dilbert.” Adams is blatantly racist, and his work deserves no space in the East Bay Times.

I still find “Dilbert” the best comic in the paper, and that’s another big problem. The others range from tired to insipid to ancient to cringeworthy and repulsive. We live in extremely turbulent times. The paper should be able to find comics that amuse us or skewer our national fools or shine the light where it’s dark.

Don’t just make comics less bully pulpits for racists, make them hilarious. We need some punch and we need some laughs.

Doug McKenzie
Berkeley

Empty office buildings
offer waiting solution

Re: “What will make hybrid work stick for employees?” (Page C8, March 6).

So many employees prefer working from home for many different reasons.

Instead of insisting on some sort of hybrid situation just to make use of the office buildings already built, why not resolve several of society’s problems today by converting these buildings into inexpensive housing, thereby saving on rent and upkeep for the company, keeping traffic off of our roads, which will help congestion and the environment, and providing the housing we so badly need.

State or federal funding could probably be made available, as well as tax cuts for companies that do this.

Tari Nicholson
Martinez