Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Dec. 28, 2024

Sausalito must preserve Bridgeway’s center lane

I am writing in regard to the article published Dec. 16 with the headline, “Sausalito backs plan for bicycle lanes, crosswalks.”

As a cyclist, I spoke before the Sausalito Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee to advocate for safety. Like many others who commented, I oppose eliminating Bridgeway’s center median lane for bicycle lanes. I don’t consider it a “turning lane.” It’s a critical evacuation emergency vehicle lane.

The report calls this section of road dangerous. But, considering that there have been very few cycling injuries there, I think the continuous center median lane has proven to be quite safe.

I think eliminating the center median lane will make Bridgeway much more dangerous. Vehicle drivers use it to give cyclists extra space. Keep in mind that we will still have some cyclists swinging into traffic to avoid wide or double-parked emergency vehicles, trucks and cars.

The report suggested bike lanes would improve emergency vehicle access because delivery trucks sometimes block the center median lane. But the lane is 12-feet wide. That should be enough to allow better access for emergency vehicles than a 6-foot bike lane. The center lane should provide more room for other vehicles to move out of the way and for emergency vehicles to weave between lanes.

The report understated the potential for blocked traffic. It assumes all emergency vehicles, trucks, service vehicles and autos now stopping in the center median lane will find parking spaces or leave, with nobody double parking. That’s unrealistic.

The Sausalito City Council must preserve our center median lane’s multiuse functionality.

— Dr. Roger Taylor, Sausalito

Conservation League lawsuit is disappointing

I want to commend the Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors for passing the pilot trail-sharing and e-bike projects. However, I’m extremely disappointed that the three environmental organizations, including the Marin Conservation League (I’m a member) chose to sue the project on procedural grounds based on the California Environmental Quality Act (“Marin judge issues tentative ruling in Mount Tam cycling suit,” Nov. 8).

The MMWD staff took great care in choosing pilot trails that would have the least environmental impacts, and that would allow them to collect critical information on how different trail-sharing methods could reduce impacts when they update the road-and-trail plan next year.

As an MCL member, I’m disappointed to learn that the board, as a practice, does not consult its membership on these types of decisions. It unilaterally pursued litigation that will be costly to ratepayers and limit the gathering of information critical to reducing impacts. Moreover, I’m saddened for the next generation of environmentalists who ride for our local high school mountain-bike teams.

Mountain biking is now the largest sport, by total athletes, in Marin high schools. Yet they have nowhere to train on the mountain. Kids living in central Marin have to travel long distances to train on suitable trails.

I wonder if MCL leaders and the other organizations thought about the message they are sending these young environmentalists. I think it is telling them they don’t belong. In contrast, the Sierra Club supported the pilots and trail access for mountain bikes at Sorich Park and at Briones Park in the East Bay.

I hope the environmental groups change course before they suddenly realize that the next generation of environmentalists has passed them by on a bike.

— Bill Keene, Fairfax

Jared Huffman must keep supporting Israel

I read Norman Solomon’s Marin Voice commentary imploring Rep. Jared Huffman to end his support of weapons spending for Israel with dismay (“Huffman should not support sending US weapons to Israel,” Dec. 14). I think his words are eloquent yet ignorant. He needs to think critically and question sources.

There’s a simple question he doesn’t answer: What should Israel do? Civilians are dying, which is a war crime, but the Geneva Conventions lay fault squarely at the feet of those who draw fire to civilians, not those who shoot at them. Why? Because the law does not expect victims to risk death without returning fire while terrorists shoot from behind civilians. When the enemy uses civilians as shields, which is undeniable here, they bear full culpability for their deaths.

Is Solomon suggesting Israel lay down its arms and allow rockets and terrorists to reign down on its citizens with impunity? Sorry, that’s not going to happen again, ever.

Reports show there are many terrorist organizations sponsored by Iran. I am concerned the goal is a large Islamic caliphate. From my perspective, Israel faces existential threats from Iran and its proxies. It has responded forcefully and, now, Hamas is nearly done; Hezbollah is highly degraded; Bashar al-Assad has lost power; and Iran is much weaker now. Israel is doing the world’s dirty work and making it a lot safer.

Quite to the contrary of Solomon’s pleas, I urge Huffman to increase funding for Israel so it can finish the job the world is too timid to do.

— Scott R. Greenstone, San Rafael

US needs to put stop to daylight saving time

I am writing in support of the recent Another View commentary by Mary Ellen Klas (“DOGE’s best idea yet is permanent daylight saving time,” Dec. 17). I think there is an easy and logical solution to the very “obnoxious and inconvenient twice-a-year clock change.”

It would benefit all of us to shift the time earlier by 30 minutes and be done with it. Parents wouldn’t be sending their young ones off to school in the dark quite as much and it would be a little brighter in the evening during the summer months.

If U.S. officials could get organized and do this, I think the rest of the world would likely follow suit.

— Diane Lynch, Tiburon

Deportation plan conflicts with multicultural history

I am writing in response to the letter by Tim Peterson with the headline “Trump must fix America’s immigration policy now.” He appeared to imply that America’s “sense of person, place, history (and) pride” is threatened by immigrants.

I think Peterson is using the right-wing “propaganda machine” in an attempt to lead Americans down the road of fascism.

Those who suggest there is only one true America are absurd. This has always been a multicultural country.

Anti-immigrant sentiment is not new. Immigrants have long faced prejudice. I think President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have been allowed to utilize some news outlets, certain podcasts and some social-media platforms to dupe Americans into believing that, because of immigrants, America is collapsing. Believing that Trump is “the one to fix it” is part of his ruse.

The irony is that those who share Peterson’s views on mass deportation ignore the real cause of the challenges American workers face. Instead, they should shift their anger away from immigrants and toward the very rich, who have waged war against labor unions and worked to deregulate industries.

The results of their work includes a massive wealth gap, 60% of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, and a burgeoning billionaire class (many of whom backed Trump) paying a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than most in the middle class do.

If Trump and friends successfully implement large-scale deportations, I expect severe inflation. But I also expect it won’t be properly connected to Trump’s policies and that he will be allowed to blame “left-wing boogeymen.”

— C.M. Simenstad, San Anselmo