Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Sept. 16, 2025

Marin’s new carpool-lane hours are causing issues

I’ve been getting up early to travel northbound on Highway 101 before the carpool-lane restriction begins at 7 a.m. each weekday. On Sept. 8, it was changed to 5 a.m. and it is causing me problems. On top of that, for my return trip southbound, which used to have no restrictions in the afternoon, the new rule allowing only high-occupancy vehicles extends from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Based on my experience, I think this will cause traffic congestion and create safety issues for off-peak driving times. I hope this can be changed back. If not, I will be forced to move away or start riding a motorcycle so I can split the lanes while hoping I never get hit.

— Jacques Roth, San Rafael

Killing federal minimum wage not the answer now

In the Another View commentary published Sept. 8 with the headline “Fewer teens working, more missing out on skills needed to succeed,” Rachel Greszler did well to identify a problem, but I think the solution described was from a politically “right wing” extremist viewpoint.

In my view, she seems to be encouraging the elimination of a federal minimum wage and the reduction of employee benefits. These two policies barely enable adult citizens in the lower economic strata to earn a living. Greszler appears to be implying that they be taken away from all to assist a small portion of the population.

Surely other approaches to the main problem exist, such as identifying workers who are 18 and under and are dependents as a special class of worker with reduced wage constraints. As the saying goes, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

— Chuck Jones, Larkspur

We must balance idealism and pragmatism right now

Gov. Gavin Newsom has made mistakes, like all of us. He would probably agree with that statement. It’s clear to me that Newsom has presidential aspirations, as do several others. I cannot fault him for that. As has been said in these pages, we need to be active in finding candidates for president, whether it be Newsom or someone else.

I believe Newsom wants to go back to independent commissions to stop gerrymandering in California and nationwide, once the current crisis is behind us. How the commissions operate is a whole other matter that we need to consider.

We are clearly in crisis now when it comes to redistricting. If we insist on staying with the so-called moral high ground, while many politically “red” states follow the lead of the Texas governor, I believe we are ceding a yet greater majority of the House of Representatives to President Donald Trump and his followers.

We cannot know with certainty what the future will hold, though I speculate the electorate will ultimately realize that the results of Trump’s actions have not benefited them personally.

If the majority of House Republicans is significantly reduced, through approaches like Newsom’s, then just a few Republicans, deciding to defect, might help put some legislative brakes on what I consider Trump’s most outrageous decrees, even though the “checks and balances” concept does not appear to be in Trump’s lexicon.

My mailbox has contained several flyers asking us to reject Newsom’s plan. The sponsors of these messages no doubt include well-meaning idealistic Democrats who are too readily ignoring the need for a dose of pragmatism in dealing with the here and now. We should be able to be both idealistic and pragmatic as needed.

— Art Reiss, Greenbrae

Impressionable youth learning from Trump

I believe President Donald Trump is forcing many destructive things upon America, but the least talked about for me is his obviously negative role-modeling for impressionable young people.

Since George Washington was in office, the youth in America and worldwide have looked to the president of the United States to be a positive role model. Not all presidents have done this well, but in my opinion, none have been as detrimental as our current president.

From Trump, I think that the youth of America is learning to lie, steal, bully, obfuscate, blame, curse publicly, treat women as objects, defame others to cover his own failings and disparage people who are non-White, poor, with disabilities or in need. These negative behaviors are observed or reported daily.

If for no other reason than his bad influence on young people that I say, the sooner Trump is no longer in a leadership role the better. In the meantime, I think everyone should strive to counteract his impact by demonstrating the opposite traits.

— Alice Cochran, San Rafael