


New SC housing project is very small housing
In line for a Mother’s Day breakfast, I talked with a woman who had been given permission to view one of the units in the new tenement on Pacific and Laurel. She said she was shocked by the small, very small square footage, with a bedroom that would accommodate only a regular-sized bed and maybe a dresser. The front room was small and the porch provided room enough for two sitting on chairs and that was it.
For $2,500, this is a rip off and oh, by the way, the bathroom was an afterthought.
Are you aware of this; as those who approved these construction projects, you should admit your mistake and do something immediately. Insist the builders create larger units by tearing down some walls. This is such a joke and an expensive one at that.
— Kathy Cheer, Santa Cruz
Walls built as barriers to hate and separation
Recently, after a surprisingly seamless border crossing into Tijuana, I was jarred by the infamous border wall towering over our car: Eighteen foot vertical steel slats fence extending into the ocean, menacing barbed wire coiled at the mid-point on the American side. Fencing originally intended for cattle, U.S. presidents bilaterally spend billions of taxpayer money to build a barrier of hate: separating loved ones, disrupting communities, destroying habitat, skyrocketing border deaths/severe injuries.
I flash back to my 2016, eyewitness tour of the West Bank, a 25-foot concrete barrier wall Palestinians label “Apartheid Wall,” flanking the car. Built with impunity by Israel while illegally annexing 10% more Palestinian land, the behemoth splits up communities, separates farmers from crops, cuts off workers from livelihood. (And Israel ignored a 2019 UN general assembly resolution citing Israel’s barrier wall in violation of international law, demanding its removal.)
Of walls, Wendy Brown, political scientist, author of “Walled states, Waning Sovereignty” astutely surmises: The cry to “Keep them out!” demonizes what’s on the outside, sanctifies what’s on the inside, and denies interdependence.
— Sheila Carrillo, Santa Cruz
Trump team is trampling due process rights
The Trump administration is trampling due process rights that are enshrined in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. A total of 238 innocent individuals were taken by the Trump administration and sent to a torture prison in El Salvador. Every one of those individuals was guaranteed due process by our Constitution. None of them have been found guilty of anything, yet they are imprisoned with no hope of being freed. They include Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an individual the Trump administration acknowledges should not have been deported. Green card holders have been swept up and detained simply for expressing their opinions, as guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Meanwhile, Stephen Miller, an adviser to Trump, has said that the president is speculating about suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional guarantee of due process and the right to challenge confinement. None of this is normal, except in an authoritarian state.
It is beyond time for each of us to stand up for the Constitution, for equal justice, and for the rights of those who are being treated unlawfully by the Trump administration.
— Kelly Menehan, Santa Cruz
Pray new pope forgives slanderers of president
To the letter writer who states that the current leader of the United States is a sexual abuser, vulgarizing our society, who wants to incarcerate and deport the poor, who compares the American president to the newly elected Pope Leo XIV and pleads for divine intervention; please pray that the pope forgives all those who slander with unchecked restraint, their harsh words drowning out the intricacies of understanding.
— Beth Ahrens-Kley, Santa Cruz
Coverage was missing of VE Day anniversary
Why on earth was there no coverage of VE (Victory in Europe) Day, which marked the end of World War II in Europe? I assure you, this was a very big deal in the United States and the world.
I hope it’s only because you are preparing a special spread on the topic and you are just a bit late in publishing it.
— Pureheart Steinbruner, Aptos