San Rafael should support ‘undocumented neighbors’
With regard to the IJ’s headline story of Wednesday, “San Rafael quiet on immigration bill,” that may not be the thinking of other residents, as was pointed out quite clearly by statements made to the City Council.
The mayor may not see this as an issue worthy of further action, but what about the city manager and the rest of the City Council?
It falls under the category of “What kind of a city/county/country to we want to be?”
I hope they choose one of support for our doubtless many honorable undocumented neighbors.
— JoAnn Hastings, San Rafael
‘Mayor Phillips is so out of touch’
I was surprised to learn from the IJ’s June 21 story that San Rafael Mayor Gary Phillips refused to address our concerns regarding our neighbors who have been arrested by ICE and harassed by others.
But his deflection of the issue, brushing it away with two senseless statements is surprising.
Folks who have had neighbors arrested, folks who work with young school children suffering from these conditions and, as your article headlined, folks who work with employers in San Rafael all expressed negative impacts on their lives.
The mayor is the only member of the City Council who is able to place an agenda item without consultation if he so wishes. But the first reported reason that this is not a local issue is belied by those who presented themselves and by the fact that our state Senate has already passed the bill to provide protection for all state cities, counties, and public agencies.
ICE is imposing itself, forwarding policies rejected by more than four million more Californians than support those who them.
Mayor Phillips is so out of touch.
— Dan Monte, San Rafael
Advice to raise the rails is a little late
Tuesday’s Marin Voice column by Dave Hill vocating the elevation of the SMART tracks through downtown San Rafael comes a mite bit late in the process.
Certainly this had been considered, then quickly dismissed as way too costly.
Yet Mr. Hill suggests the city ought to “pay a little money” for this plan revision. And then wait for many more years while SMART constructs such an elaborate viaduct.
How ironic that the simple solution would have been to insist on SMART being a light-rail operation, not the heavy-rail imposed by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad authorities, who perceived a serious demand for freight trains in this neck of the woods.
— Hobart Bartshire, Fairfax
Overstating source of Highway 101 traffic jam
Al Dugan’s reasoning, in his latest letter to the IJ in which he argues that more workforce housing in Marin cannot impact our traffic, is utter nonsense.
He states,“commuting is only one-quarter of the use of cars,” with the rest consisting of shopping trips and the like.
Perhaps that’s literally true — short local errands might outnumber our twice-daily commutes — but Dugan ignores the difference between commuting trips and local errands.
We commute on Highway 101, but most local errands don’t require us to use the freeway. Indeed anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to go food shopping by driving south on Highway 101 in Novato at 8:00 on a weekday morning should have their head examined. People are on Highway 101 during the rush hours because they have to be — to get to work.
— David Fiol, Novato
Work to save Silveira finally paid off
Wow!!! That was my reaction when I saw the June 21 front-page article on the deal between the county and the Silveira family that continues the agricultural use of their ranch land for at least 10 more years.
About 20 years ago, when I was the conservation chair of the Sierra Club in Marin, I organized a letter-writing campaign that resulted in over 1,100 pieces of mail (from club and non-club people) calling for the continued use of the land for agricultural use.
Over the years, as time passed, I had given up hope that the campaign would be successful. But the latest news is a fantastic change from all of the bad news we are subjected to in this era … terrorist bombings, killings and for many, disappointing actions from our seat of national government.
Wow, again!!!
— Gil Deane, San Anselmo