Build them, they will come
Re: the Aug. 5 letter “Road repair.”
The letter writer wondered what he was missing because the much-needed road repairs on Oracle Road were being paced by the construction of sidewalks along Oracle when he rarely sees pedestrians on a particular stretch of Oracle Road.
Perhaps there is a dearth of pedestrians because there has never been sidewalks? Chicken meet egg. Egg meet chicken.
Mark Patterson
Oro Valley
Street safety
Tucson has the distinction of ranking No. 13 nationally for pedestrian deaths. Our city streets feel, look and sound like the the Indy 500 racetrack. Speed limits are ignored and when in a hurry, drivers press the metal to the pedal. I haven’t seen a traffic policeman since before the pandemic. To those in charge, do something.
People are also reading…
Susan Freud
Midtown
More useful rain total
The daily report of rain totals taken from a gauge at the airport is almost always misleading and frustrating (except, I guess, for those living very near the airport). As a recent article about monsoon progress showed, rain amounts vary widely around the city and suburbs. While the airport seems to be having a miserable monsoon, other areas, notably parts of the Foothills, are apparently receiving hefty amounts of rain.
More useful during monsoon season would be daily totals measured at a few places in addition to the airport. Or perhaps one number, an average of several spots.
Brent Harold
Foothills
Climate activists
Re: the Aug. 15 letter “Climate activists fooling themselves.”
The answer to what climate activists understand is yes, it is known that CO2 remains in the atmosphere for decades and that other countries are still using a lot of fossil fuels. Will it end? Yes. What happens is the issue. Is the writer suggesting doing nothing?
The economics of alternative energy is comparable to fossil fuels today. If the total cost of producing CO2 was priced into fossil fuels, the economics become very favorable for alternative energy. The cost of fighting wildfires averages over $2 billion each year, and there were billions more in insurance company losses for extreme weather events in 2021. China is rapidly deploying solar and wind energy production aiming for one-third of their energy production to be renewable by 2025. Climate activists are far from being naïve. I would argue that Republicans live in distant past. Don’t Look Up!
William Jones
East side
Eliminate eyesores
The number of voter signs for recent elections seems to have quadrupled since 1984, which explains the hundreds of voter signs cluttering hundreds of our street intersections, standing askew on the medians, and trashing our neighbors’ front yards. Adding further to the disdain of voter signs. Some voters acknowledged they voted for a candidate because of their signs … they liked the looks of the candidate or voted for them because they had more signs than the other candidates. Really?
Pima County stats for the Aug. 2 election show votes from 36% of registered voters. All those signs for that few? That’s overkill! Adding more fury, signs for the November election are going up next to still standing Aug. 2 signs. There may be a handful of voters who like these signs but for the rest of us, stop this endless barrage of useless litter.
Cathey Langione
Marana
Stop hating; try being fair
The following are words that appeared in letters today, Aug. 17: Egotistical, low moral standards, heinous, flim flam man, crass comments, mendacity, deceit, denigration of our country’s basic values, lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, serial lying dictator wanna-be. Writers hating Trump and Republicans in general. Imagine carrying this hatred around in your head. For what purpose? Too bad these people don’t give us examples. Look in the mirror, read what you wrote. Try being fair. Trump’s economy did the country very good. Biden is hurting average citizens.
Gerald Jurries
Green Valley
Stop being so ‘good’ to me
Our government decided my granddaughter should go to pretend school and pretend learn for a year and a half. No worries, it was for her own good. Pete Buttigieg says if you don’t like the price of gas, buy an electric vehicle. $50,000 for a car and a charging station at the house, it’s for my own good. John Kerry says we will be done using natural gas in 10 years max. I should see about changing to electric heat, electric range and an electric water heater. It’s for my own good.
I’m reminded of the movie “Cool Hand Luke.” When Luke was given his first set of ankle chains, the warden of the prison road crew told Luke the chains would be good for him. Luke replied, “I wish you’d stop being so good to me, Cap’n.”
I wish you’d stop being so good to me, government.
Jan Wieberdink
Northwest side
Federal judge is biased
Bruce Reinhart is the federal magistrate judge in south Florida who signed off on the search warrant for Trump’s home. He is a former federal prosecutor. He has made political donations to both Obama and Jeb Bush. What is disturbing are his biased comments on social media about Trump. After Trump had criticized U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., relating to his questioning of the 2016 election results saying he did not see Trump as a legitimate president (perfectly OK for Democrats to question elections results), Trump responded citing the poor state of Lewis’ 5th district in Georgia and how he should be focused on improving that instead. Reinhart then posted on Facebook, “John Lewis is the conscience of America. Donald Trump doesn’t have the moral stature to kiss John Lewis’ feet.” In June, Reinhart disqualified himself from handling a Trump v. Clinton lawsuit related to the 2016 election citing his lack of impartiality.
Daniella Constantini
Sahuarita
Border wall
I think the idea of erecting a barrier wall in the desert on the U.S. southern border is just stupid. The terrain is inhospitable and essentially naturally impassible, There are hundreds of corpses in the Pima County morgue to prove that. The road required to build and maintain a wall makes the landscape on our side more easily traversed, not less. An unguarded wall barely delays well equipped smugglers. A guarded wall must be guarded 24/7 by three shifts of officers. Patrols are easily timed and evaded. The East German Wall failed to be impervious even with shoot-to-kill orders.
On the other hand, modern technology allows passive surveillance of 100% of the border, 100% of the time. Helicopters will easily outrun any smuggling vehicle. One can hold the arrestees and wait for mass transport to arrive. We can construct facilities to hold them as long as the law requires. No wall required, just three strands of barbed wire.
David P. Vernon
East side
Water and Pima County
Excellent research and recommendations on Arizona water are at the University of Arizona Law Library. For example, “Arizona water policy: management innovations in an urbanizing, arid region,” 2007; it is available online through the UA libraries. Moreover, there is a water resources center as part of the university library, and there is a database for water, “The Hydrologic Database,” that is the foundation for the United States Bureau of Reclamation’s Database of Record.
This and much more information is available online and at the UA library. I found this information after a very brief search on the UA library online catalog.
I recommend that the city and county contact the local libraries for information on Arizona water, that they hire a researcher to read and summarize relevant information on Arizona and Pima County water before spending money on research that has already been done.
Mary Sasse
Northeast side
Not another vote for Sinema
NPR Radio recently aired a piece regarding “Carried Interest Taxation.” I learned a lot, mostly, what a financial windfall the carried interest provision is for private equity firms. Even Donald Trump campaigned in 2016 to stop this huge tax loophole. However, just like all of Trump’s promises (except for the largest tax reductions for the wealthiest Americans), his calling for the end of carried interest tax, was just another lie.
Then, Sinema single-handedly held up President Biden’s, and the rest of the United States Senate’s, desire to finally do away with said loophole. Either she is not understanding of this giveaway to wealthy equity traders, or she is in their pocket and a recipient of thousands of dollars in donations from private equity firms.
Shame on you, Ms. Sinema. One more lie to get re-elected. We voted for you once; there won’t be a second mistake.
Robert and Terry Ryan
Midtown
Water education is lacking
Re: the Aug. 14 article “Colo. River agreement not likely by deadline.”
In the article about the Colorado River, Terry Goddard, president of the Central Arizona Project’s governing board, said the people don’t realize we are in a serious situation. The people he referenced is the public at large, meaning you.
I want to say the people (us) have had no instructions on what to do. Have we been told to water our lawns only once a week? No. Has there been a moratorium on new pools? No. Other restrictions installed to save water? No.
Those restrictions or recommendations are for us, supposedly set up by you and the other highly paid people to implement. All we read about is a new business is coming to Arizona.
Rain and snow have not replaced our yearly water supply for the past 30 years. You guys have been kicking this water shortage can down the road for that long. Now you want to study the problem.
Jose Salgado
Northeast side
Mar-a-Lago raid explanation
Re: the Aug. 16 letter “Mar-a-Lago raid.”
Due to the fact that the country is so divided, and there are so many lies being pushed, the DOJ is moving very slowly. They are dotting every “i,” and crossing every “t,” so that their case against the former president will be indisputable. Trump is pushing his people to intimidate (with force) anyone who speaks against him. That is what a Banana Republic is.
Whether you liked Trump’s presidential policies or not, I think he is trying to overthrow our democracy with his rhetorical statements and his mob boss actions. Due to the outrageous behavior of the former president, our country has had to treat him differently than other presidents. No president from our lifetime has challenged and broken our rules of law the way he has.
If character and democracy still matter, we must make that a bigger focus on who is eligible to run. Beware of those who won’t accept election results, and fact-check your info.
Elain Geary
East side
GOP primary
I find it hard to believe that an honest man like Rusty Bowers could lose his primary while election denier extremists such as Lake, Masters and Finchem could win theirs. What does that tell us about Arizona’s Republican Party?
It shows that it is still firmly in the grip of disgraced former President Trump. It also shows that the party learned almost nothing from the 2020 election. Even the Cyber Ninjas, after spending millions of dollars looking for bamboo paper, concluded that President Biden had won the Arizona presidential contest by more votes than had previously been announced.
I think all three of the above want to make voting more difficult for Arizona citizens, doing away with ballot drop boxes, early voting, mail-in voting, and requiring more ID to vote. The ultimate goal, of course, is that only Republicans will vote, assuring our trio of easy victories. With Finchem in charge of elections, those steps may not even be necessary. Watch for the big fraud.
Rick Smith
Foothills
Liz Cheney, courageous woman
Bravo, Liz Cheney. A woman with more courage than Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, who are consumed with thirst for power at any cost. McCarthy and McConnell could have ended Trump’s chances by speaking out against and continuing to do so after Jan. 6, 2021. I think Trump is a clear and present danger to our democracy. There is not much more for me to say. In 2024, even as a lifelong Democrat, I could possibly vote for Liz Cheney to become the country’s first woman president. The people need a leader be a cut above us “ordinary folks.” As an aside, the men and woman of the “Lincoln Project” truly believe in “In order to form a more perfect Union.”
Frank Montez,
veteran of 32 years
East side
