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More Oakland airport
assessment needed
Re: “Airport expansion will move forward” (Page A1, March 22).
Despite downturns in passenger traffic at Oakland International Airport after COVID, the Port of Oakland is determined to expand it, building an additional terminal with 16 new gates. This expansion would enable increased numbers of flights each day over East and West Oakland, adding to the heavy air pollution and sound pollution already burdening these disadvantaged communities. The Port of Oakland board recently agreed to this expansion.
The Stop OAK Expansion Coalition has sued the Port Authority to stop expansion efforts until a thorough environmental assessment is performed, including careful analysis of the expansion’s health impacts in these communities, especially on children. It should also realistically examine the alternative of not undertaking the expansion, which is required in all environmental impact assessments.
For the sake of environmental justice, Mayor-elect Barbara Lee and other city officials should require a new, complete environmental assessment before allowing the expansion.
Susan Wright
Oakland
Trump running hostile
takeover of U.S.
The president governs by decree, also known as executive order, ignores court rulings, threatens his critics, including public officials and the press, and wants to annex other countries. Government departments dedicated to health and welfare are decimated. Science is debunked. Books are banned from libraries. A renowned museum is ordered to rewrite history. Without due process, immigrants are sent to foreign gulags. The majority of Congress is complicit in all the changes.
The country is the United States, but we’re not in a constitutional crisis; it’s a hostile takeover.
Karen Lee Cohen
Walnut Creek
Trump is playing
reverse Robin Hood
The downsizing of federal government departments by the Department of Government Efficiency, run by multibillionaire Elon Musk, was done with little if any thought as to whether these departments were benefiting the public.
It seems more like it was an attempt by the Trump administration to cut back on government programs that they don’t agree with philosophically, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration that work tirelessly to keep us healthy and prepare for future pandemics. There were more than 280,000 layoffs. Most of the resulting dollar savings will be earmarked to finance upcoming tax cuts that will disproportionately go to upper-income taxpayers, many of whom donated to Trump’s presidential campaign.
The result of all of this is that we have a combination of government-legalized bribery and reverse Robin Hood.
Arthur Straus
Walnut Creek
Consumers owe unions
thanks for derailing bill
Re: “Big Oil’s unlikely allies: unions” (Page B1, April 28).
We consumers owe a big thanks to the labor unions who shot down another bad idea from Big Government to allow victims of wildfires and other climate disasters to sue the oil companies for causing climate change. Had this legislation passed, the oil companies would have had to raise their prices or lay off workers to pay the costs of the lawsuits.
The last thing California consumers need is higher energy costs, which are already among the highest in the U.S. It’s not surprising that environmental groups supported the legislation, as they’ve never cared about the costs their policies impose on consumers. Disappointing is the absence of any pro-consumer groups opposing the legislation. The group quoted in the article, Consumer Watchdog, has never been a friend of consumers, and is the same group that supported state policies resulting in many homeowners in fire-threat areas being unable to buy fire insurance.
Dick Patterson
El Cerrito
The left isn’t immune
from bias, antisemitism
Re: “Trump’s concern for Jews is a smokescreen” (Page A7, May 1).
Michelle Goldberg undermines the moral integrity of her commentary by downplaying the intensity and pervasiveness of anti-Jewish prejudice and discrimination on the left and the inequalities and injustices that result.
Antisemitism exists across the political spectrum and American society. It is possible and necessary to defend the civil rights of minorities and democratic values, as Goldberg intends, without abdicating responsibility to address the significant antisemitism on the left. Jewish people face it with disturbing regularity in many different contexts — from the workplace to our communities and schools and universities, and particularly in the Bay Area.
Racism, sexism, anti-Jewish bigotry and other forms of discrimination exist on the left. We should never be satisfied with arguments that imply that being merely less discriminatory is sufficient ethically and politically. It is not. We must address all discrimination, including antisemitism, vigorously, trusting those who report discrimination and showing allyship and support.
Noam Schimmel
Berkeley
Tax the rich instead
of closing libraries
Re: “Budget crisis will test Lee’s unifier claims” (Page A6, April 30).
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I go to different libraries in Oakland to read books on indigenous peoples. I also go on the computer to look up information on indigenous peoples. When I need help, I ask the library staff.
They are public employees whom columnist Daniel Borenstein, in his April 30 column, likes to vilify as the causes of the budget crisis in Oakland when he questions Mayor-elect Barbara Lee’s striving to unify this city. He wants her to cut programs like the library to fix the budget, but not to go after billionaires who rigged the system.
Oakland needs to come together and does not need Borenstein stoking division by blaming public employees instead of billionaires for the budget crisis.
Billy Trice
Oakland