Letters: District 3 | Reid Hillview

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District 3 Needs
councilor who cares

Re. “City boss wants ‘break’ on tiny houses”, page B1, August 2:

Without discussing the merits of tiny homes or debating the best place to put them, I couldn’t help but notice that City Council Rep. David Cohen is fighting for District 4.

I live in District 3 and our representative on the council, Raul Peralez, has never advocated for us. His failure to protect the residents of District 3 has resulted in the placement of approximately 50% of all services and facilities to serve the homeless in our district.

Many people in the surrounding settlements are simply unable to find affordable housing. But our neighborhoods are besieged by people sleeping, urinating and defecating in the streets, acting strangely, walking around barefoot and sometimes naked.

Hopefully the next election gives us a representative like Cohen, who will demand a fair distribution of services across the city. District 3 cannot bear all the weight.

Judith Hurley
San Jose

The facts do not support
Reid Hillview closure

Re. “Urban neighborhood, no room for the airport” and “After the accident, it’s time to close Reid-Hillview”, Letters to the editor, page A6, August 2:

Mr. Estrada and Ms. Bauer, in their recent letters published August 2, clearly do not accept the basic facts about Reid Hillview Airport: (a) that the main study commissioned by the county “found that soil samples taken from Reid-Hillview San Jose Airport did not contain lead levels in excess of local, state or federal standards” (Mercury News, June 11) and (b) that the airport predates any development residential area, having been established in 1942.

While it is important to work together from all sides for the future of the airport, it is doubly important to stay focused on the facts and not spread misinformation.

Chris Verbil
Los Altos

Liz Cheney wins
a place of honor

Rep. Liz Cheney will go down as one of the most honorable women in our country’s history. Even knowing that she will most likely be removed from office, her goal as Vice Chair of the Jan. 6 Select Committee is to prove that there has never been a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. . And her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, wholeheartedly agrees.

Also, his comment that “men run the world” refers to what I think should be considered the “elephant in the room”: testosterone.

Dick Gaskill
Los Gatos

With the extremists,
violence is the same

Last week, a violent man, believed to be a resident of New Jersey, Hadi Mater, stabbed and attempted to kill Salman Rushdie, a totally innocent man, who has already been the subject of a fatwa, or order to kill, of Ayatollah Khomeini, then the extremist leader of Iran, because the Ayatollah did not like or disagreed with Rushdie’s views.

Also this week, another violent man, believed to be Ohio resident Ricky Shiffer, was shot and killed by authorities as he attempted to forcibly breach the FBI office in Cincinnati, after throwing several violent calls to arms against the FBI on social networks. He was apparently motivated by former President Trump’s extreme partisan claims about the FBI regarding the lawful execution of a warrant at Trump’s home, which Trump neither liked nor agreed with.

Tell me, what’s the difference?

David Herlich
Morgan Hill

stop advertising
prescription drugs

I believe most Americans are unaware that the United States and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world that allow prescription drug advertising to the general public via mass media. It should never be allowed and it’s a travesty. The money spent on this advertising could go a long way towards lowering prescription drug prices.

These drugs should only be advertised to licensed physicians who can prescribe them and have the knowledge to know what is best and what is right for their patients. Advertising in medical journals – but never directly to the general public – is acceptable and what used to be the law. I couldn’t even begin to estimate the amount of money spent on media advertising by pharmaceutical companies. It should be against the law.

I urge everyone to contact their congressman and implore them to change this law.

Harriet Fernandez
San Jose