SC Homelessness Response team responds

Sometime over the past week, a small homeless encampment began growing on the sidewalk across from the Bike Church in downtown Santa Cruz. On a Thursday at 7 p.m., I alerted Jeremy Leonard of the City of Santa Cruz’s Homelessness Response team and, poof! Saturday morning the sidewalk was clean as a whistle! Jeremy also informed me of the city’s Community Request for Service Portal where residents can report encampments in addition to needles and other hazards. I was surprised how responsive our city was in addressing clearing a nuisance encampment blocking the sidewalk.

Kudos to Jeremy, Larry Imwalle and the City Manager staff in restoring faith in our local governments commitment to its citizens.

— Darius Mohsenin, Santa Cruz

Why PVUSD board needs new leadership

What I witnessed at the Sept. 25th PVUSD school board meeting was outrageous.

During public comment time, a father came to speak about how his son was being bullied. He said he emailed Board President Acosta and Board Vice President Soto a month ago asking for help but never received a response. The bullying has gotten to a point where he is considering removing his child from school.

When another father wanted to speak about his child being bullied, he was not allowed to speak due to the public comment time limit. When the father stepped to the podium to plead his case and members of the crowd requested that he be allowed to speak, President Acosta put the meeting in recess and walked out with Vice President Soto in tow. The father, desperate to be heard, continued shouting his speech to the empty seats of Acosta and Soto. Only Trustees Holm, Scow, and Student Trustee Esqueda stayed to listen.

It’s not OK to dehumanize people like that. PVUSD needs new leadership.

— Bobby Pelz, Santa Cruz, Teacher, Watsonville High School

Here’s reasons why people should dislike Trump

A letter writer last week mocked Democrats who say “I hate Trump.”

But why would people out there dislike him?

Could it because of his fraudulent businesses such as Trump University and Trump Charities? His extra-marital affairs? His sexual assault? Being a convicted felon? Trying to overthrow the results of the election? Instigating an attack on our Capitol? And so on.

Republicans who still support him despite all this say they do so based on policy.

Such as building a wall and having Mexico pay for it? Repeal-and-replace the Affordable Care Act with a non-existent plan? Increasing tariffs to such high levels that lead to higher prices for all of us?

Policies do seem to be on Trump’s mind, since at rallies he talks about stolen elections, crowd sizes, Hannibal Lecter, sharks and boat batteries, windmills causing cancer, immigrants eating people’s pets, etc., etc.

Of the tens of millions of Republicans out there, this is really the best the GOP can do for a candidate?

— Phil Hormel, Scotts Valley

Keep harmful acids away from Monterey Bay

We are so lucky to have public access to the beautiful beaches of Santa Cruz. They act as places of recreation and relaxation for so many people every day. We may lose this privilege, however, due to increasing acidification of our ocean and higher concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

What we can do to help not only ourselves but also our marine friends is to get to our goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 from acidification. To be more specific, we can each do our part to protect Monterey Bay by cutting down our individual carbon footprint and reducing the use of fossil fuels. So if we want to keep the privilege we have within Monterey Bay, we have to treat it like we do our bodies and keep the harmful acids away!

— Samuel Garrett, UCSC Cowell College, Santa Cruz

Loyalty test: Trump is no savior for anyone

Regarding comments Trump made about a loyalty test to Jews and Catholics asking for their vote in order to “ace the test” but those who don’t “need their heads examined.” Well, the only one who needs their head examined is Trump. And p.s., Trump, as to setting yourself up as the “savior of Catholics,” I already have a savior, and his name is Jesus Christ.

— Martha Dolciamore, Soquel