Photograph by George SakkestadContractors for the town began installing green bicycle lanes on April 6, with the first green lanes going in at the intersection of Los Gatos Boulevard and Nino Avenue. Other nearby intersections received the green stripes as well, all in an attempt to make it safer to ride bikes on the busy boulevard. The lanes will officially open April 15 at 12:30 p.m., when the town holds a ribbon cutting ceremony that the public is invited to attend. The event will showcase the lanes by having kids test them out. Refreshments will be served and children will be given Òbicycle bellsÓ as take home presents.
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Treat too busy for
dedicated bike lane
I like bike lanes. When they are dedicated to bikes and pedestrians they can enable safe and energy-efficient transportation for riders. But, when they are thrust onto heavily-trafficked routes like Treat Boulevard, bike lanes are dangerous and present unnecessary risks to riders.
That’s why I cannot comprehend why Contra Costa County is proceeding to spend $3 million to construct new bike lanes along Treat Boulevard between Main Street and Jones Road, an area that carries tens of thousands of vehicles each day.
I would like to know why, when an existing dedicated bike path, the Canal Trail, mirrors this planned route only two blocks south of Treat. The Canal Trail then links up with another dedicated trail, the Iron Horse Trail, which leads to the BART station and points north.
Stop this ill-advised, expensive and dangerous project.
Larry McEwen
Walnut Creek
CPUC proposal would
throttle new solar
Our planet is heating up and approaching a tipping point in carbon emissions. I’m proud of California’s leadership in reducing emissions, greatly aided by rooftop solar. Besides helping to slow climate change, rooftop solar has other advantages: protection against blackouts, green jobs creation and reducing the need for long-distance power lines.
The California Public Utilities Commission’s NEM3 proposal, scheduled for a vote on Dec. 15, disincentivizes new rooftop solar. If the CPUC cuts the credit for excess production made by new rooftop solar systems by 75%, as the NEM3 proposal would do, new rooftop solar adoptions would drop significantly. Other states have tried this, and new adoptions have dropped by half or more. If the CPUC cares about equity, they should work to help more people get solar, not take it away from the middle and working class.
Michael Volk
Oakland
BART striving to keep
vile graffiti at bay
Bay Area Rapid Transit is doing its part to keep ugly, hateful words off the huge columns that hold up the tracks.
I noticed recently some of the worst writing against Asians and Jewish people and hateful words about Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has worked hard to save lives against COVID-19, AIDS/HIV, etc. Yesterday they were painted over.
I spoke with a BART customer service representative and was told that they have a crew that regularly paints over the vile writings. This isn’t a small effort. The writings keep appearing, and they paint over them.
Why anyone would have such hateful thoughts is disturbing, but it is reassuring to see that they are not surviving. One day the writers will tire of it. Until then, thank you BART crew.
Virginia Kamp
Berkeley
History teaches one
can’t appease dictators
The Letter to the Editor “You can’t negotiate with dictators like Putin” (Page A6, Nov. 30) clearly explains why negotiations for peace in Ukraine could only result in gain for Vladimir Putin and in loss for the Western nations that in 2014 acquiesced to the grabbing of Crimea by the ruthless, megalomaniac dreamer of a reconstituted USSR.
Putin’s menace of nuclear war must be confronted with the assurance that retaliation for the major or minor use of nuclear weapons would be swift and devastating for Russia.
In 1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in the quest for peace, agreed with the German occupation of the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. Hitler felt emboldened and WWII soon followed. The acquiescence of the West to Putin’s annexation of Crimea mirrors that catastrophic decision of Chamberlain.
We should learn from history.
Glauco Romeo
Fremont
Let Ukraine take
fight to Russians
While Russia is losing ground previously taken from Ukraine, it is overwhelming Ukrainians with massive attacks on power and water infrastructure.
Ukrainians are absorbing these blows with resilience and courage, but their endurance has limits. Russia has more offensive weapons, including cheap drones, than Ukraine’s expensive defense weapons. While we provide Ukraine’s defensive weapons, our supplies are running low.
China is backing Russia’s proxy war against us to deplete our ability to defend other places interesting to China. Ukraine is a far better proxy client than Afghanistan was; its troops are loyal and hard-fighting; American weapons aren’t being siphoned into enemy hands.
Russia must be forced to withdraw back to its original borders before our war supplies are depleted. We must allow Ukraine to use our weapons offensively, to knock out Russian supply lines, military storage depots, command posts and launching platforms.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont