Letters: Voters can give El Cerrito the library it deserves

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Voters can give city
library it deserves

Re: “Library is bustling, but cracks showing” (Page B1, July 16).

Thanks to reporter Katie Lauer for documenting the need for a new library in El Cerrito:

• The library is over 75 years old and the structure contains hazardous materials.

• It’s seismically unsafe and sits near the Hayward Fault.

• The building isn’t fully accessible to elderly and disabled people.

• The library isn’t large enough to serve residents, including seniors, students and community groups.

Advocates have a plan for a new library that will triple the current footprint and save taxpayers $10 million by partnering with BART’s new El Cerrito Plaza Station.

Now we need to ask the voters. Nearly 8,000 residents voted for a new library in 2016; only 2,000 signatures are needed to put this proposal on the ballot. El Cerrito deserves a new library, and El Cerrito residents can vote to make it happen.

Michelle Fadelli
El Cerrito

New bike lanes would be
redundant, ineffective

Contra Costa County and the city of Walnut Creek are planning to construct bike lanes on Treat Boulevard between North Main Street and Jones Road. This $6 million project will carve out bike lanes along three blocks of a road that carries over 40,000 vehicles a day.

These lanes are redundant in that they duplicate the existing Canal Trail dedicated to both bicycles and pedestrians, which is two blocks south of the proposed path and connects directly to the Iron Horse Trail with access to the Pleasant Hill BART station. The eastern end of the proposed path abuts, but does not connect with, the trail, which is elevated as it crosses Treat Boulevard. At the west end, the proposed bike lanes offer no dedicated paths either north or south along Main Street and only a narrow, unprotected bike path further west along congested Geary Road.

Larry McEwen
Walnut Creek

Rodeo is mostly
a form of domination

Re: “Rodeo’s treatment of animals condemns us” (Page A6, July 24).

I share the concerns expressed by M. Hogan.

Rodeo is condemned for its inherent cruelty by nearly every animal welfare organization on the planet. Working ranch hands never routinely rode bulls, rode bareback, wrestled steers or practiced calf roping (terrified babies) as a timed event. Nor did they put flank straps on the animals or work them over in the holding chutes with “hotshots,” kicks and slaps — some “sport.”

True “sport” involves willing, evenly-matched participants — rodeo does not qualify. Rather, rodeo is mostly hype, a macho exercise in domination.

The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales) outlawed all of rodeo back in 1934. Can the rest of the world be far behind?

Eric Mills
Coordinator, Action for Animals
Oakland

Speak out against
the horrors in Gaza

I commend U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, for his consistent calls for a ceasefire and restoration of funding to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, as well as his recent comment that Israel’s forced starvation of civilians is not acceptable by any standard of morality. I also appreciate Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s label of terrorism for Israel’s bombing of the Holy Family Church (the last remaining Catholic church in Gaza) and the beating to death by Israeli settlers of American citizen Saif Musallet while visiting family in the West Bank.

Still, the United States supports these acts through unlimited supplies of weapons and money for Israel and blocks any attempts by others to respect Judaism’s teachings and stop granting complete impunity to Israel for these terrorist acts.

Genocide, terrorism and deliberately starving children used to be unacceptable. Please talk with your friends, family and legislators to make it so again.

Elizabeth Fisher
Pleasant Hill

Expand effort against
vector-borne disease

There is a threat to public health caused by increased tick-borne and mosquito-transmitted diseases across the country. The Kay Hagan Tick Act Reauthorization (S 2294 / HR 4348) offers a vital opportunity to strengthen and expand the infrastructure necessary to combat the growing threat posed by vector-borne disease by:

• Supporting state health departments and extending CDC grants to state and local health departments, which are vital for data collection and analysis, supporting early detection and diagnosis, improving treatment and raising awareness.

• Continuing the National Public Health Strategy, which directs the Department of Health and Human Services to continue the efforts.

• Reauthorizing regional centers of excellence. These centers are leading scientific efforts in surveillance, prevention and response to vector-borne diseases, and funding is set to expire this year.

Our elected officials in the U.S. House and Senate must act and reauthorize for the betterment of public health.

Subru Bhat
Trustee, Alameda Mosquito Control Abatement District
Union City