Trade unions and decent wages. Loosen landlord rules: PD letters

Trade unions and decent wages

EDITOR: While I’m not a fan of George F. Will, I agree with his October 27 column (“For the sake of national security, rethink college for everyone.”). In the 1970s, I worked as a welder at the Newport News Shipyard. During the years I worked there the pay wasn’t great, but I know a welder makes more these days. This was thanks to the efforts of workers who went on strike and received a contract providing decent wages and other benefits.

There is more to this story because the Newport News shipyard designers had previously gone on strike because the company’s design union was in no way their friend. By that time, I had gone through the shipyard apprentice school from welding to design.

Will has railed against unions in the past. Perhaps his ad for welder wages requires a story of how it happened.

JACOB W. BUDEWAIN

Santa Rosa

Loosen landlord rules

EDITORS: The recent “housing summit” revealed only one significant direction: greater zoning flexibility (“Housing Summit Inspires Action” October 13). While this will encourage housing development, care must be taken not to undermine the rule of law and property rights that underpin successful societies.

Not mentioned at the summit were two voluntary policy obstacles to rental housing development in California—subsidized housing requirements and over-regulation that harms landlords. While these are partly government issues, massive lobbying from cities and counties can have an impact if there is a commitment to reform.

Targeted housing subsidy mandates harm the economics of rental property development and should be reduced or eliminated. The actual data shows what has happened over the years to building rentals (or lack thereof) in California, which lags behind other states.

Excessive regulation has been exacerbated by increased state and local rent controls and eviction protections. It should be obvious that this type of anti-landlord regulation has created a politically bleak and economically bleak rental housing environment for the future. Favors risky investments? No. Evidence from the last 15 years once again shows that basic cause-and-effect economics tends to prevail in the long run.

R.G. WILLAMSON

Santa Rosa

Traffic blocking

EDITOR: Regarding bike lanes on D Street in Petaluma, I have to make this comment: I’m not opposed to bike lanes, although I don’t think they’ll be as great as some people think. The most incredibly stupid thing the city has done is to block traffic on Fifth Street without allowing traffic to pass or even turn onto Fifth Street, which will create hardship for a lot of people. You won’t help traffic by blocking it.

JOSEPH K. TINNEY

Petaluma

County contracts

EDITOR: Did The Press Democrat include in its investigation of the county’s relationship with DEMA the criteria under which the original contract was awarded? I was curious about how the county makes decisions when selecting a vendor.

I see their frequent requests for proposals via email. I wonder if the district, before issuing each RFP, develops a detailed evaluation matrix (usually an Excel spreadsheet in private practice) that assigns a weight to each criterion listed in the matrix to be used in evaluating each response.

And if so, is this matrix assessed for objectivity and completeness by an independent third party? Is the assessment assessed in a similar way? So the inevitable tendency of local officials, when distributing public funds, to channel those funds to their political allies is at least somewhat mitigated.

And if all of the above is done, finally, will these matrices, assessments, names of assessment authors and reviewers be available to the public and the press?

RON FENTON

Santa Rosa

Say no to new gas station

EDITOR: As a resident of west Santa Rosa, I am opposed to the proposal to build a gas station on Wright Road. There is absolutely no reason to build it in this location. There’s a Chevron on Stony Point Road near Highway 12 and another at the entrance to Sebastopol. Looking at the Blue Star Gas website, located between two Chevrons, I saw that they have an “on-site auto gas filling station.” It is also located on Wright Road. How does this fit into the mix? This is clearly not a gas station desert.

Didn’t Santa Rosa pass some kind of climate change resolution a few years ago? How does this stack up against adding a new gas station to an area that is two, maybe three, but no more than five minutes apart (depending on traffic)? Additionally, the proposed site is adjacent to the Joe Rodota Trail, which has seen enough problems over the past few years to not require additional congestion. Deny permission.

LAURA GONZALEZ

Santa Rosa

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