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Homelessness needscomprehensive solution
I think that a recent opinion column on homelessness (“California homelessness is dire. Here’s how you can help,” Page A6, Dec. 6) misses the mark by being too simplistic, by saying that building more housing is the “only way to get out of this problem.”
What good does the construction of a new market-rate apartment complex, like the new The Grant in Concord, do to help? That complex will soon, reportedly, open and offer more than 200 new units at an average monthly rent of about $3,500. Neither the homeless nor working-class households will be able to afford those units.
Sure, additional subsidized housing, with services, will help when it comes to roofs over heads, but for many of the homeless, available housing is only one of many factors to get them off the street.
George FulmoreEmeryville
Women in federallockup need safeguards
Re. “Woman describes sexual abuse by warden at Dublin federal prison,” Page A1, Nov. 29:
Injustice continues to grow within the federal justice system. Stop allowing women to be sexually exploited while in prison.
An article you published Nov. 29 described incidents of sexual exploitation at federal facilities in Dublin. When women are incarcerated, they should not fall victim to sexual abuse. There should be a process that protects them. This is a direct violation of their constitutional rights.
Sexual exploitation comes in many forms, including being controlled by a person or a group. An appropriate measure is to move this issue forward to our official legislative body and move past being in shock but take action.
The East Bay Times is a great platform, thank you for bringing awareness to the exploitation of these victimized women. Let’s continue the advocacy.
Tracy LoftinFremont
Supervisors OK’denvironmental disaster
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors has approved the Spieker “Diablo Glen” development for Walnut Creek’s 30-acre Seven Hills Ranch, next to Heather Farm Park.
If you put all of the proposal’s planned retaining walls end to end you would get a 1 1/2-mile-long retaining wall, half over 10 feet tall, with several single sections over 20 feet high.
This is a development proposal in search of a flat location and the Seven Hills Ranch location is not flat. It is in fact very hilly, so the developer must make it flat by excavating and leveling 17,000 dump trucks worth of soil and bedrock and then using extensive, tall retaining walls to hold it all back.
This proposal is an environmental disaster, with negative impacts affecting the community. It should have been rejected by the county supervisors.
Stephanie DarkWalnut Creek
Article flies in faceof effective treatments
The Functionally Fit article (Page B19, Nov. 27) was grossly biased. Each Conventional Medicine example featured a problem with one medication while Functional Medicine presented success without problems. They were also lies.
An example is high cholesterol. Statins reduce heart attack risk by 25%, not 2% as in the article. Diet and exercise are never close to 30% in the real world. A recent, very large placebo-controlled trial of cholesterol-lowering found fish oil, garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, plant sterols and red yeast rice all provided no statistical drop in cholesterol levels while statin lowered it over 20% and with no significant side effects versus placebo.
Discouraging pharmaceutical treatment for hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol is dangerous and a disservice to your readers.
Dr. Richard Terry, CardiologistMoraga
‘Achievement gap‘needs long-term plan
Dan Walters’ article “The pandemic has exacerbated ‘achievement gap’ in California” (Page A17, Dec. 4) severely underestimates the long-lasting effect of racial and economic segregation on lack of educational opportunities.
While the COVID-19 pandemic might have accentuated the gap in academic opportunities, the problem existed across the state long before. In fact, research has suggested the correlation between a financial level of a neighborhood and average students’ academic proficiency. While Walters criticized California’s lack of state-level response to school closures, it is only the tip of the iceberg. As he emphasizes in the article, there is a need for improvement in counter-pandemic measures, but the effort should not be temporary.
I argue that the state government should make a long-term plan incorporating post-pandemic dimensions rather than being too preoccupied with the negative effects of the pandemic.
Kotaro ShiraishiBerkeley
