Letters: Recipe for disaster | Blinded by politics | GOP hypocrisy | Local options | Kill subsidies

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BART oversight board
is recipe for disaster

Re: “Oversight committee will monitor BART extension because of cost overruns, delays” (Page A1, Oct. 21).

Due to ballooning costs and continuing delays for San Jose’s BART extension, the chair of the VTA Board of Directors has created an oversight committee covering all aspects of the project.

The committee will have one local mayor, three local council members and a county supervisor; five politicians that to the best of my knowledge have absolutely no experience with a major infrastructure project of this magnitude. Wonderful. The blind overseeing the blind. What could possibly go wrong with this approach? Stay tuned.

Tom Darby
San Jose

Oversight panel will
be blinded by politics

Re: “Oversight committee will monitor BART extension because of cost overruns, delays” (Page A1, Oct. 21).

VTA’s construction of BART SV Phase II is now 10 years behind schedule and nearly triple its original budget. In order to calm the public, an oversight committee will focus on soft costs and the use of consultants, but these aren’t the real problem.

The VTA board heavily features San Jose council members, who are beholden to any small, loud group of constituents. Local merchants don’t want the disruption of cut-and-cover construction, so we spend billions of dollars to tunnel the stations. That’s fantastically expensive and involves a complex, risky machine. The stations are narrow and seven stories underground, which makes them both more expensive and less useful.

It’s hard to get politicians to understand something when their reelection depends on not understanding it. This is not a subtle management problem. This is an obvious design problem, and VTA needs to fix it.

Adam Buchbinder
Campbell

Blaming Dems for House
chaos is hypocrisy

Re: “Democrats share blame for chaos in the House” (Page A6, Oct. 24).

In response to Jay Morrett’s claim that “Democrats share blame for chaos in House,” I’d like to know just when rank hypocrisy became a “governing” principle of the Republican Party.

Does anyone think, for a millisecond, that any Republican would have supported Nancy Pelosi in a similar situation? And, when Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party, was asked why he said ””]“I can’t imagine anybody ever even thinking of using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge” when he was president and now supports not raising it, he answered, “That’s when I was president.” This isn’t just hypocrisy. It’s bragging about hypocrisy.

So, maybe, to use Morrett’s words, “let that fact help you decide” which party is actually serious about running our government and which party is a hypocritical joke.

Steve Reynolds
Danville

Stanford and Cal have
local options for sports

Re: “Conference of Champions should fight for it’s existence” (Page A7, Oct. 20).

Victoria Jackson makes excellent points about why the Pac-12 should continue to exist for Olympic sports. Unfortunately, it’s impossible right now to put the toothpaste back into the tube.

However, for Stanford and Cal, there’s a handy solution for the scheduling dilemma Olympic sports face. Within an hour of both schools there are seven colleges with Division I sports programs. To mitigate some of the problems caused by distant conference travel, the two schools can fill their entire nonleague schedules by playing Santa Clara, Saint Mary’s, USF, UOP, UC Davis, Sacramento State and San Jose State.

Mark Carbonaro
Monterey

Don’t tax burgers;
eliminate subsidies

Re: “Taxing cheeseburgers could help save the climate” (Page A9, Oct. 22).

Taxing cheeseburgers? Given that the “T” word is anathema to many folks, let’s start instead with eliminating the U.S. food subsidies for meat and dairy, about $10.7 billion according to the article.

Eliminating these subsidies still gives people choice, and my hope is they will have a terrific incentive to learn more about the benefits, health and monetary, of incorporating cheaper, healthier plant-based meals into their diets.

Tina Morrill
San Jose