Weakening CEQA is wrong path to housing

Re: “Bills are taking aim at land use” (Page A1, April 20).

Legislators in Sacramento are trying to use the housing shortage as an excuse for weakening the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A proposed bill, SB 607, would roll back environmental review requirements for nearly all building projects, including freeways, airports, dams, railyards, shopping centers, sports complexes, power plants, prisons and mining operations.

The bill’s supporters claim SB 607 will make it easier to review “infill housing,” which means building homes in already developed areas. But infill housing in cities already gets special treatment under CEQA and doesn’t have to go through the usual environmental review process. Instead, this bill would make it easier for almost any project to avoid environmental review.

That’s why my organization, Green Foothills, opposes SB 607.

— Lisa Liddle, board vice president, Green Foothills, Los Gatos

Maternal mortality is crisis in Sierra Leone

Every day, women in Sierra Leone risk their lives to bring a new life into the world. Sadly, the act of giving birth becomes fatal, ending their life. Even with some progress, Sierra Leone remains one of the countries with the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. This is an international emergency that needs immediate attention.

There are myriad causes for these deaths: insufficient access to qualified health care workers, economic hardship and inherent gender inequity. The majority of these women reside far away from health care providers, making them more susceptible to death.

According to the National Institutes of Health, “obstetric hemorrhage was the leading cause of maternal death (39.4%), followed by hypertensive disorders (15.8%) and pregnancy-related infections (10.1%).” We call for decisive action from the government, foreign partners and society. Maternal mortality is a human rights and national dignity problem, not merely a health one.

— Melanie Soo

Millbrae

Letter writer must have missed joke

Re: “Tariff strategy was built on another lie” (Page A8, April 13).

Larry Guernsey berates economist and Trump adviser Peter Navarro for citing “a supposed economic expert named ‘Ron Vara’ … a made-up person, a bald-faced lie … based on a fraud, like much else in this administration.”

But surely it is obvious that “Ron Vara” is an anagram of “Navarro” and that Peter Navarro was having some (rare) fun.

It’s an old literary device. One of the characters in “Lolita” is “Vivian Darkbloom,” an anagram of its author, Vladimir Nabokov; and Dan Brown’s “O, Draconian Devil” and “Oh, lame saint” turn out to be Leonardo Da Vinci and The Mona Lisa.

— Peter Brodie, San Jose