Letters for March 28, 2019

Fallen oaks outrage

Re “Oak grove chainsaw massacre” (Newslines, by Evan Tuchinsky, March 14):

I am outraged by the city of Chico’s removal of healthy valley oak trees adjacent to the Chico Creek Nature Center.

There is no way to bring those trees back, but the city must work to make sure this doesn’t happen again. It is long past time for the formation of a vegetation management plan for Bidwell Park. This plan should take into consideration the management of invasive versus native species and should clarify which parts of the park are for intensive recreational activities, such as One-Mile, and which areas will be kept in their natural state.

To protect Chico from wildfires, some vegetation removal likely is necessary, both in selected parts of Bidwell Park and in places on the east side of town where there is an urban lands and wildlands interface. However, it is essential that such fire prevention measures be made in consultation with Chico’s fire chief, Cal Fire, and the City’s urban forester.

Until a vegetation management plan is adopted, the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission should adopt a temporary measure that states the urban forester must be consulted regarding any tree removal projects, and those projects must be closely supervised by city staff.

Nancy E. Park

Chico

Editor’s note: For more on this subject, see Second & Flume on opposite page.

Politics and PG&E

Re “Hashtag movement” (Greenways, by Evan Tuchinsky, March 14):

The Camp Fire was not caused by climate change. According to The New York Times, a live wire broke free of PG&E Tower 27/222, likely starting the fire. PG&E guidelines put Tower 27/222 a quarter-century beyond its useful life.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown blames climate change for the Camp Fire, and certainly the increased dryness caused by warming temperatures is a factor. However, fires at the end of the dry season are part of California’s ecosystem.

Fire investigators determined that PG&E’s equipment was responsible for 17 of the 21 major wildfires in 2017, though the Camp Fire’s cause is still under investigation.

The problem is the very cozy relationship PG&E had with Gov. Brown, who had former PG&E executives as his top aides. Also, then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris and her longtime mentor, the very powerful California Democrat and PG&E lobbyist Willie Brown, contributed to PG&E having a very lax regulatory environment.

PG&E has been allowed to focus on profits and dividends to stockholders, not on maintenance, with ratepayers paying for the costs of PG&E’s negligence.

Slowing climate change is very necessary, as is lessening the number of California wildfires by forcing PG&E to stop paying dividends and to pour profits into maintenance which will make California safer, sooner.

Lucy Cooke

Butte Valley

The problem is pensions

Re “Taxes and police” (Letters, by Martine Stillwell, March 14):

Martine Stillwell is justifiably outraged that our city’s politicians are pushing a tax increase to fix the roads after letting them fall into disrepair thus increasing the cost to repair them.

I wonder how much more outraged she would be if she knew that tens of thousands of our tax dollars are being paid to an opinion research firm to sell us that tax increase. And that doesn’t include the cost of the city bureaucracy’s staff time.

The reason for the awful condition of our infrastructure and the reason for this tax increase are the unsustainable cost of government employee compensation, especially pensions. For many years money for infrastructure repair has been siphoned off for raises and unsustainable pensions. Does she know our bureaucrats have pensions worth millions?

Yet instead of pension reform, our politicians believe that in a county with low wages, very high living expenses and a 21 percent poverty rate, the answer is to pass a tax increase that hits the poor the hardest.

I wonder if Martine and others will be outraged enough to vote in the next election against the tax increase and the politicians who push it and encourage others to do the same.

Dave Howell

Chico

Home of the Hamburgler?

As my family and I adventure out into our bustling community, we can’t help but notice our Measure K dollars hard at work. The progress is astounding, and some schools have taken on completely new looks. So new, in fact, that my husband has credited the changes thanks to Measure “KFC” as some schools’ new façades bear striking resemblances to various fast-food chains in town.

As we discussed why or how this could have happened, the most prominent question became this: Are the powers that be in the Chico Unified School District administration so vapid that they didn’t notice the grossly pronounced similarities when presented the mockups for these updated exteriors or is this some subliminal product placement conspiracy in the works? I am, honestly, not sure which is worse, but if there is a citywide vote to update these school mascots, my top pick will most certainly be the Hamburgler.

Morgan Dietz

Chico

Beware of Trump

No, Donald, it’s not “safe to go back in the water.” Just like in the movie Jaws, the shark is still out there. True, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has concluded his investigation into the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, and has not announced there was any collusion. I’m sure Trump strutted a self-congratulatory “told you so” persona to his guests at Mar-a-Lago when hearing this news, but make no mistake, we surely will continue to hear him bemoan that he has been “a victim of a witch hunt.”

However, the closing of the special prosecutor’s probe does not mean other ongoing federal and state investigations will cease. Investigations into the Trump Organization’s financial transactions and practices will continue, to include: campaign finance violations; misuse of charity foundation funds; dubious insurance practices; foreign receivables and questionable payables with inauguration committee finances; and his blatant violations of the Emoluments Clause, which prohibits his private business profiting from foreign entities.

Incorporated businesses in America refer to themselves as corporations; crime families refer to themselves as organizations. How interesting that Donald Trump has chosen to call his company the Trump Organization. How interesting most Republicans don’t care.

Roger S. Beadle

Chico

How easily Trump-worshipers get hoodwinked into believing what he says. He told his followers, “Don’t believe what you see and hear” with your own eyes and ears. Rather, believe the lies of the devil himself, as he spews forth falsehoods, blasphemy and hate at lightning speed!

Trump and his brainwashed minions want to attack socialism, a lifestyle Jesus preached as the way to the truth and the life. As Christians, we know this to be a fact, but those who confess Christ and follow Trump are either not reading their Bible or they are truly not saved or completely deceived. Just because evil people—like Hitler, Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro—abuse the word socialism, doesn’t make the word evil. Nationalism isn’t an evil word, until you put the word “white” in front of it. Trump loves white nationalism.

Beware, the Bible tells of an evil man, like Trump, who’ll deceive Christians.

Pat Johnston

Red Bluff

Bless the merrymakers

It is springtime again, when all the zanies, jesters, tricksters—and, of course, April Fools—come out to play and hopefully provoke us all to laughter. We need them. It has been a hard winter of disasters. Even the children have been marching for their lives.

One story has it that April Fools were the people who had the good sense to keep on celebrating the new year in the spring as they always had, regardless of the king’s proclamation that henceforth the new year would begin in January.

We also need to have the good sense to continue to celebrate life now, in spite of our past sorrows or feared future personal, political and planetary woes. This spring may we welcome the antics of all merrymakers who can help us heal our “delight deficiency.” We need them.

Renee Renaud

Chico