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Zoning restrictions
driving Bay Area exodus

Yesterday I ran into a friend who I hadn’t seen in fifteen years. We had a nice little catch-up at the end of which he said, “I’m only going to be here another couple of months. I’m moving to the East Coast to be near my kids; one more parent whose kids can’t afford to live here.”

A friend of 20 years told me tonight that she was going to be moving. “We would have moved ages ago, but our roots are here.” Both she and her spouse are Bay Area-born and bred. “But it’s just so awful here now. You know how it used to be good here?”

I do. And I know what ruined it: R1 zoning. R1 is the main driver of inequity of all kinds. R1 has destroyed culture and community. It has exacerbated the homeless crisis. R1 zoning is criminal. Pass SB 9.

Deborah Goldeen
Palo Alto

If recall threatens,
let lieutenant step in

It is disgusting that people with money and without morals have bought themselves another recall election.

We know what happened last time. We got an Austrian pinup boy with an illegitimate son hidden somewhere the media couldn’t find him. California was made into a national laughingstock.

It is ridiculous to have a recall and a new election on the same day. The governorship of California is too important to elect someone who has not campaigned for the office enough for the people of California to know who he or she is and how they would govern if elected.

There is a solution. If somehow the governor is recalled, the lieutenant governor should serve out the remainder of his term.

If the America-hating GOP manages to threaten Newsom with defeat, he should resign the day before the election and allow the lieutenant governor to be sworn in. Then they would be the laughingstock.

Michael Lutter
Santa Clara

During Afghanistan exit
will we do right by allies?

The “guns of August” will be silenced when American forces leave Afghanistan, but will the Taliban continue to wield their guns and other weapons at the Afghanis who risked their lives to help American combat troops or will we have rescued them in time?

We didn’t rescue the Vietnamese in the 1970s or the Kurds in Syria in 2019. I wonder if we will do the right thing this time.

Patricia Andrews
San Jose

Column turns blind eye
to true defiling of flag

There are two groups disrespecting the flag. They are making us look bad to the rest of the world, especially China. They are making it look like we Americans don’t really believe in democracy. One group turned their heads while the national anthem was performed at an exhibition soccer game. The other group, many carrying flags, stormed our nation’s Capitol, while Congress was in session. Their goal was nullifying a presidential election. Several people died. Which one makes us look worse?

In his July 11 piece “Athletes protesting U.S. flag playing into China’s hands,” (Page A13) Marc Thiessen never mentioned the assault on the Capitol, the most significant attack on our system of government since the Civil War, a single time. I’m sure if the women’s soccer team had invaded the Capitol, fought with police and threatened to hang the vice president he would have brought it up.

Bill Hildebrand
San Jose

Court must explain how
laws protect democracy

In the face of numerous state legislatures’ blatant attacks on voting rights, one begins to wonder whether the U.S. Supreme Court is a white supremacist institution. I would think that Chief Justice Roberts and his colleagues should by now have found ways to inform state politicians that, although establishing election rules is, by and large, a function of the states, there are limits to the narrowing of the rights of citizenship in the manner now so avidly pursued by Republican state lawmakers.

The worrisome election “innovations” that are proposed include measures that would allow partisan officials to overrule ballot counts; would give much more power to partisan election “observers,” to the point of hovering over ballot counters, poll workers or voters; and would severely punish minor infractions of election procedures.

Justices of the Supreme Court: Explain how these bizarre measures protect democracy. Make yourselves heard.

Allen Carroll
San Jose

Real equality would show
American exceptionalism

It’s time for us to show the world what American exceptionalism really means.

Sure, we have figured out how to send people to the moon, built the internet and invented miracle drugs, but it’s time to demonstrate true exceptionalism by demonstrating our ability to build a country where everyone, independent of their race, ethnicity or culture, will be treated the same under our laws and national policies.

It’s important for the world to know this can be done — and we are the ones to do it.

Garey Johnson
Redwood City