Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Feb. 24, 2023

Officials should step in to help R.V. Park residents

I was appalled and saddened by the plan to evict 40 households from the R.V. Park of San Rafael (“San Rafael affordable housing site serves evictions after legal defeat,” Feb. 18). Why are we contributing to the homeless population to fill the pockets of a greedy corporation from out of county?

Marin has been mandated to create more housing units, some of which must be for low-income residents. Why are we not supporting these affordable units at mobile home parks? Neither the county nor its municipalities should support parking more units where there is no infrastructure or services.

We spend big bucks for low-income housing. I cannot believe that officials in San Rafael or Marin County are not stepping in and supporting these tenants. Thanks to the IJ for great reporting from Adrian Rodriguez and political columnist Dick Spotswood.

— Kay McCoy, Novato

Taking a closer look at spending in Novato

Eric Lucan was recently replaced on the Novato City Council because he was elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors. The City Council put out a survey asking the District 3 residents if there should be a special election or let the City Council appoint his replacement. The citizens indicated that Novato should save the money for a special election and let the City Council elect the replacement. Congratulations to new Councilmember Tim O’Connor (“Novato appoints finance director to City Council,” Feb. 17).

The following day after the appointment, I received a Novato ballot with the Measure A proposal to support schools. I don’t know the cost of this special election with only one measure, but I wish this measure had been coordinated with other recent elections.

Home-owning senior citizens are allowed to opt out of the Measure A tax proposal. I suggest that, regardless of how they vote on Measure A, seniors who exercise their right to opt out of the tax instead make a donation to School Fuel, a fund for Novato schools. If you do, you can write it off as a donation on your taxes and make a statement about spending this money on one issue.

I want to make it clear that I do feel strongly that seniors should contribute to our schools. We should all remember that younger families contribute to measures benefitting senior citizens, so we need to do the same.

— Darlene Purcell, Novato

Farmers should grow fruits, vegetables instead

The Food Not Feed Summit event recently took place in Washington, D.C. It highlighted the need for the United States to shift away from its current misguided agricultural incentive programs for farmers.

For years, large multinational agricultural companies have successfully lobbied the federal government to incentivize farmers to grow grains for animal feed to support large factory farms, rather than growing fruits and vegetables to feed their communities. The current policies have had disastrous impacts on farmer livelihoods, animal welfare and communities across the nation.

In 2019, a meager 4% of federal farm support funding went to farmers producing fruits and vegetables, compared to the 21% that went toward animal-feed and animal-derived exports. It’s not surprising that this incentive structure has made farmers turn away from fruit-and-vegetable production, despite this being the healthier and more sustainable option.

We should demand a better approach going forward. Please join me in encouraging our elected officials in Washington to enact a farm bill that will shift government subsidies away from feed grains for industrial livestock production and toward vegetables, fruits, nuts and other nutritious food. This will allow farmers to sustainably and profitably grow food for their communities.

— Johan Broen, Mill Valley

Investigation of bloody arrest must continue

Like many people in Marin, I am waiting to hear the results of the investigation following the alleged physical abuse of a man who was arrested by San Rafael Police Department officers (“San Rafael hit with claim over bloody police arrest,” Jan. 31).

Any police unit that causes an interaction with the public to escalate into a more severe situation should create deep concern about the safety and security of our community. The videos of the incident certainly caused a major shockwave.

In some ways, this community is now broken. The many “bridges” that had been built to protect all of us have yet to be restored. The actions on the video appear to be horrible and unacceptable; they seemed to be without regard for human life.

— Kevin Cook, San Rafael