Letters to the Editor May 19

Re: the May 17 article “Arizona’s aquifers remain at risk.”

The article in today’s Star should frighten everyone. We are facing a critical water shortage in Arizona. Our biggest reservoirs are drying up. The Colorado River is running low. There is unbridled pumping out of the water in our aquifers.

Conservation must start now. The “progress” in our state, new businesses, new subdivisions (read: more new homes, new people, more infrastructure) is not sustainable without water. I call on Gov. Doug Ducey, the entire legislature, the Chamber of Commerce, the Arizona Daily Star and other civic organizations to call an immediate halt to future development until such a time as the water shortage crisis is over. Failure to take the blinders off puts Arizona at risk of becoming a desert dust bowl.

James Doyle

North side

Opposition great to water rate hikes

Everyone likes to be treated equitably. The Tucson City Council is proposing a large increase in water rates for unincorporated Pima County areas serviced by Tucson City Water. Not because it cost more to provide the service, but because they want more funding for poor areas in Tucson.

There are plenty of fixed, retired, lower-income people who also live in unincorporated Pima County who have trouble paying their bills. Increasing their water bill hundreds of dollars is significant. They pay sales taxes in the city, support city projects and nonprofits from the Art Museum, United Way, Red Cross, etc.

If the city wants these people to support Tucson, the city should treat them equitably. A city resident committee opposes it, Pima County opposes it, and businesses and residents in Tucson should oppose it. All of us want to support Tucson and make it better.

Dave Locey

Foothills

Some can’t get vaccine

Not all of us that have not been vaccinated have a choice. I believe in vaccinations, but I was a little worried about getting my COVID vaccine, due to the fact that I can’t get the flu vaccine — even so, I went to a site to get the COVID vaccine.

Two nurses and a pharmacist looked at my age (77) and problems with the flu vaccine and a severe allergy to an octreotide injection and said that it was best I not receive the COVID vaccine as it probably would make me very ill or die. It was left up to me as a final decision but was recommended I not get it.

I am not disabled nor have any other underlying conditions but decided not to get it. Please remember that there are many people who wish to get the vaccine but due to circumstances can’t receive it.

Patricia Pulido

Southeast side

Tucson roads are overbuilt

Re: the May 17 letter “RTA plan should address emissions.’

I enthusiastically agree with the letter writer complaining about more proposed asphalt for Tucson. Tucson’s roads are already so overbuilt and excessively wide that bike lanes, sidewalks and more landscaping could be added to the already existing roadbed with no need for widening.

Simply narrow the overly wide lanes and reduce the excessive number of lanes. Tucson’s roads are built like freeways, which encourages speeding and dangerous driving. No wonder pedestrians are regularly killed here. To cross an intersection is almost a mile hike to cross the two-lane left-turn lane, the six travel lanes, the middle lane and the dedicated right-turn lane, which lanes are all excessively wide.

Pavement increases the heat-island effect and destroys the desert. It is time for more environmentally aware thinking and to stop making Tucson look like a freeway-centered industrial site.

Christine Schwamberger

West side

Fauci wrong about racism

Dr. Fauci recently spoke by webcast to a graduating class at Emory University in Atlanta, wherein he injected “racism” into the COVID pandemic. He told the graduates that “many members of minority groups work in essential jobs where they might be exposed to the coronavirus.

He also said they are more likely to become infected if exposed because of medical conditions such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes or obesity.

“Almost all relate to the social determinants of health dating back to disadvantageous conditions that some people of color find themselves in from birth regarding the availability of an adequate diet, access to health care and the undeniable effects of racism in our society,” Fauci said.

I thought Obamacare, costing taxpayers over a trillion dollars, with its government subsidized “exchanges” and vast expansion of Medicaid, solved America’s health-care problems for the “disadvantaged.”

What Fauci and other liberals fail to understand are cultural and personal behavioral reasons for unhealthy lifestyles that lead to health issues for some minorities. Not any systematic racism.

Anita Flores

East side

Republicans’ focus: returning to power

Pity the poor GOP politician. Donald Trump’s disapproval rating among American adults stands at 59.6% versus an approval rating of 37.0% which represents his diehard base.

Despite the low number, few GOP candidates could expect to win an election without the support of Trump’s base.

Therefore, they must “support” Trump and his lie that the election was fraudulent. That lie provides another advantage that is to “strengthen” the voting system by limiting mail-in balloting and taking other actions to disenfranchise primarily Democratic voters.

With climate change, discrimination, economic disparity and other issues that matter, the GOP politicians offer little except a focus on clawing back to power.

The attacks on Congresswoman Liz Cheney, one of the few who still have integrity, are shameful and disgusting. The GOP is no longer. It is just the Old Party.

Michael Mount

Foothills

Why Texas doesn’t have much of a wall

Re: “Trump’s AZ wall works,” May 18.

The letter writer correctly notes that more than 200 miles of border wall have been built in Arizona while only 51 miles have been built on the much longer Texas border. Litigation by “anti-wallers” may have played a role, but a bigger obstacle is the fact that most border land in the Lone Star State is privately owned.

Right of way was not an issue in AZ where most border land is federally owned. In Texas, right of way must be negotiated with each of several hundred private landowners. The government can exercise its right of eminent domain, but property owners can go to court if they refuse to accept the government’s offered price, a process that can take months or years. A Texas border wall may be built, but it won’t be any time soon.

William Thornton

Midtown