Look to San Jose for encampment policies

What San Jose Mayor Mahan is proposing in Monday’s paper has been on my mind over the past few months.

We have a particular homeless fellow that many on the Eastside and our police are most likely familiar with. He has been ensconced on Soquel in front of Staff of Life during the past year. The stench of human waste is overwhelming and his possessions all spread out has caused many a patron to find other ways into the store. I think about what is being tracked into the store on our feet. There is no room to pass by if you are a disabled walker.

Over the previous years he has found longterm campsites such as the Branciforte Bridge and the corner of Soquel and Seabright. I am sure this poor man has no capability of helping himself and has not or will not accept services. As per Mayor Mahan and their City Council it is time to enforce services after numerous refusals. That is the caring and passionate thing to do. And if you have no local connection, a free ride home.

— Kim Ruth, Santa Cruz

Bike thefts in SC affect downtown commerce

Bike theft in Santa Cruz is a serious problem. It affects both the theft victim and business owners. Theft is so common that people aren’t willing to risk leaving their bikes unattended even with a good bike lock. I’ve had a bike stolen and the lock was simply cut off. I’ve spoken to several neighbors who like to ride and they won’t use their bikes for errands downtown.

Whenever a homeless encampment is raided, it seems like a bike chop shop is a regular feature. I don’t know what, if anything, can be done about this problem. I doubt many business owners would be willing to allow customers to bring their bikes inside their establishments or pay to provide secure parking places for bikes but that’s what it would take to get me to come back. I’m not wild about driving downtown, dealing with traffic and parking — its much easier (and often cheaper) to just go online.

— Don Pearson, Santa Cruz

More babies? Consider first our troubled planet

“Have the baby. Have another. It will all work out.”

So says columnist Kathleen Parker (May 11), who urges us to procreate to our heart’s content. Perhaps she’s unaware that the planet is flirting with harboring 10 billion souls (and California alone is nearing the 40 million mark). Perhaps Ms. Parker is also unaware that the planet’s finite resources are dwindling; that the level of species extinctions is unprecedented; that our groundwater is being contaminated with seawater; that hothouse earth is heating up faster than was anticipated; that wars, plagues, and pestilence are part of our everyday reality; that plastics and pharmaceuticals live in our food and water, and thus in our bodies; and that the structures we build to house ourselves are only a fraction of what’s needed to house everybody.

Yes, there is enough food to feed the world, but there is such an unequal distribution of same that places like Sub-Saharan Africa never get enough to eat. Pity we can’t ask a prospective baby about what he thinks of being thrust onto this troubled planet.

— Tim Rudolph, Santa Cruz

Refuting claims about Trump’s successes

There’s a letter writer who is from Scotts Valley, but she and I live in vastly different universes. Trump’s DOGE has uncovered useless government spending? Oh yeah, all that pediatric cancer research is so wasteful. Fire 1,300 people there now! Why fly to El Salvador to support a constituent illegally deported? Even your favorite felon has said it was a mistake and then to magnify your misconception, to lie by smearing him as an MS-13 killer? Men and women now want to join the military because they have a real leader? Is that bone spurs Trump or that paragon of military genius Hegseth? And DEI? Why encourage equality in the workplace: so stupid.

To wrap up: In Biden’s first three years U.S. job growth outperformed any previous president. Household net worth rose to record $156.2 trillion by the end of 2023, from $131.4 trillion in 2020. And, as for respect around the world, we now have our allies forging new trade agreements with other countries and our President uninvited to world summit meetings.

— Susan I Stuart, Santa Cruz

An appeal for Pope Leo XIV’s intervention

As a long-lapsed Catholic and unapologetic agnostic, I don’t think in terms of God speaking through a priest, or anyone. But now, I’m hoping — even praying, secularly — that God speaks through the first U.S.-born pope, Leo XIV, and inspires him to take on the power-obsessed man in the White House trying his best to vulgarize our society and cripple our democracy.

It would be quite a contest. The champion of the poor against the billionaire who wants to incarcerate and deport the poor. The celibate against the sexual abuser. The man known for his level-headedness against the man known for his impulsiveness. The holy man with 1.4 billion constituents spread across the globe against the autocrat with 347 million constituents all in one country who fancies he’s running the world.

God, Pope Leo XIV, the U.S. could use a little divine intervention.

— Frank Gallant, Soquel