Seagull protections not cause of collapse of Wharf

The collapse of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf on Dec. 23 has nothing to do with seagulls.

I’m troubled by the deliberate misinformation from spokespersons who chose to exchange the truth for an opportunity to scapegoat local Don’t Morph The Wharf activists: the collapse was an event over which Don’t Morph The Wharf has neither control nor culpability.

I urge city folks who care about the wharf to examine the online Santa Cruz City Council meeting transcripts and Don’t Morph The Wharf court filings and rulings before forming an opinion about who — if anyone — is to blame.

— Barbara Wright, Santa Cruz

Don’t demonize CEQA and Coastal Commission

Let us see who we can blame for the horrific destruction of the end of the much loved historic Santa Cruz Wharf.

Let’s blame climate change. While we’re at it, let’s blame the Coastal Commission, even though it provided a constrained option to do work even during bird nesting season.

No wait … let’s blame Don’t Morph the Wharf (which never asked the city to not upgrade and maintain the wharf). Better yet let’s blame the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Last, but not least, let’s blame the sea birds!

Anyone who cares about the environment must challenge the recent and growing call to gut CEQA and the Coastal Commission.

Why do we have Save OUR Whales and Save OUR Sea Otters and Save OUR Marine Mammals plastered all over the beautiful new Metro buses … and then demonize environmental regulations that are responsible for the health and biodiversity of the ocean when those regulations and environmental laws get in the way of money-making commercial developments and tourism?

— Jean Brocklebank, Santa Cruz

A reminder of Jan. 6 and Donald Trump’s record

As we go through the anniversary of Jan. 6, a quick reminder to you Trump fans out there: Trump would have been convicted in the second impeachment trial if only the vote had taken place before Trump left office, as 13 senators critical of Trump said they voted against his conviction because they no longer had the constitutional jurisdiction to convict a former president.

So it was only the timing of the vote that prevented him from being convicted, which would have disqualified him from ever holding office again.

But as usual, Republicans overlooked this in electing him president.

The next step? Trump pardoning his violent supporters that he sent to break into the Capitol to stop the counting of votes.

Might as well overlook that too, as we have with Trump University, Trump charities, his taking top secret documents and hiding them, assaulting women, cooking his books, pressuring officials to change the results of an election, etc.

After all, Republicans not only overlook these things, but apparently admire him for them.

— Phil Hormel, Scotts Valley

Proposed development would ruin neighborhood

We moved to the Hidden Glen neighborhood five years ago. My wife and I wanted a safe, peaceful, wilderness-adjacent place where we could raise our kids safely. Hidden Glen was absolutely a dream come true — near Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, with a beautiful common area in the center, and plenty of room to run around.

The proposed Haven development would ruin a lot of the things we love about our neighborhood:

• The peaceful “spur” (dead end of Spreading Oak) is a safe place where our kids have learned to ride bikes … this would transform into a high traffic area.

• Our neighborhood only has one spot of ingress and egress, which allows us to keep it safer … the new development would open this up and make it a lot less safe.

• We already have problems with non-neighborhood folks trying to use our beautiful community pool and common area. The chance of this going up dramatically is quite high if 157 units go in next door to our 60 units.

This development would dramatically lower our quality of life.

— Kurt Schwarz, Scotts Valley