Letters for May 23, 2019

Sheriffs vs. judiciary

Re “Lawlessness” (letters, May 9):

This item is chilling. The sheriffs in at least six Nevada counties decided not to enforce laws slated to start in January of 2020 that provide for gun background checks in conjunction with gun purchases. “They can decide for themselves whether laws are constitutional” goes the purported reasoning. The sheriffs involved in such an ill-conceived move are not carrying out their oaths to support and uphold the duly-passed laws of the state, and if these planned actions are carried out, they are setting a dangerous trend that may well enable various sheriffs to decide which laws they will enforce on any topic.

The co-equal branches of our government deserve to have their designated functions respected, and not subject to the hubris and short-sighted decisions of people who claim to know what is constitutional and what is not. Predictability, safety and continuity are but three of the probable victims of such efforts, not to mention the legal exposure that such deliberately unenforced laws could lead to. Please voters, bear such actions in mind when elections come around!

M. Goodenough

Stateline

City council inertia

Re “At this rate” (news, May 9):

Mark Smallhouse, the legal representative for Erica Mirich and Sean Martin—the “landlords” that he is so quick to defend against Brooke Noble’s life-altering dilemma—failed to mention that their employer “Truckee Meadows Tomorrow” is a non-profit organization whose goal is “the quality of life improvement for all populations in the greater Truckee Meadows region.” Their website claims “TMT’s community indicators highlight whether the region should care or allocate resources to a particular issue, eg., affordable housing or homelessness.”

What is really disconcerting is the City Council’s stance, pretending not to know what’s going on. “Their hands are tied” my ass. They’re creating a serious homelessness problem akin to San Francisco/Los Angeles and soon we too will be knee deep in needles and feces. Brooke, the Verdi area is so beautiful, who needs midtown?

Susan L’Angelle

Reno

Lime letter

Re “Sour bikes” (editorial, April 11):

The “sour” (grapes) part is in the editorial’s viewpoint. I never heard of “hundreds of bike thefts” by Burners before.

Sure, LimeBike was irresponsible, geeky-trash, but that’s a lot of today’s techno startups. They did get some of the process wrong. Bike lanes are needed, but so is connectivity. Just look at a number of (some much larger) cities with thriving bike-sharing programs (different colors). The concept is a good one—many more people have phones than can tote a bike. Transit here is sketched thin.

I saw a LimeBike being torched while a large group of Burner-costumed folks enjoyed themselves at a Fourth St. location. Why is the item so despised?

Guess what? Plenty of perfectly good (and lighter weight) bikes get scrapped for money all the time here. That’s just “Reno” for ya. Also, I rescued a lame bike and donated it to the Reno Bike Project.

RN&R is holier-than-thou on this topic.

Steve Klutter

Sun Valley

Local link

Re “Gold mining and violence” (guest comment, May 2):

I applaud the RN&R for its coverage on May 2 of the activities of Kappes, Cassiday and Associates (KCA) in Guatemala. KCA is a Reno-based mining company that is suing the government of Guatemala for $300 million in an effort to force Guatemala to allow KCA to reopen a gold mine which the Guatemalan government had closed because it was contaminating Guatemala’s water. Environmental activists in Guatemala have been killed. On May 13 Amnesty International sent out an urgent action appeal on behalf of Quelvin Jimenez, a Guatemalan environmental lawyer who has been receiving death threats—threats which have increased in the past month. Investigations of previous attacks remain pending, and the police have yet to enforce security measures ordered by the public prosecutor’s office to protect Jimenez. The president and CEO of KCA is Daniel Kappes, a trustee of the UNR Foundation. Kappes needs to end his wrong doing.

Sharon Fritsch

Chico