Good reasons to question golf course purchase
Thanks to IJ columnist Dick Spotswood for taking the cover off the purchase of the San Geronimo Golf Course. How can those supervisors look in the mirror and feel they have made the best use of our money for the benefit of the citizens of Marin?
SPAWN has done a great job in getting what it wants. My compliments to SPAWN. However, its position that this property is the last hope for survival of salmon is beyond absurd.
There are hundreds of miles of coastline from California to Washington. Salmon will not be extinct if they do not get to swim in the creek in the San Geronimo Golf Course.
Additionally, it would be far less expensive to preserve the creek for the salmon with the golf course in operation than it would be to spend the millions to buy the course then preserve the creek.
— Bill Hess, Greenbrae
eBikes should stay off open space trails
I’ve seen them on the trails the last two years. They are bikes with electric motors and they should be accurately called what they are — “motorbikes.”
I’ve been mountain biking and hiking since the mid-’70s and the number of users has grown including out-of-county weekenders and group rides, along with the accompanying increase in conflicts, but the experience is still very peaceful and beautiful.
Let’s make that the goal. I can’t think of a bigger threat than allowing motorbikes and their oblivious riders on the trails.
Even the recent front-page article about their consideration announces to people around the Bay Area to come on over. And when they are officially allowed — and they will be — bike shops, advocacy groups, social media and the news media will spread the word and they will be coming.
Think about the eBike rental companies that will spring up for tourists. How is this going to be managed well? Yes, I’m over 60 and still ride every week, and if I am unable to hit the trails someday due to physical limitations, I will be heartbroken.
But I’ll figure something out. But motorbikes must not be allowed “unlimited” access.
Listen, we have to be fair — and also have to appease the but-what-about-me advocacy groups and the impending legal actions from Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit-chasers, so at least restrict them to a few select fire roads and to within a mile of parking lots or trailheads or something.
Otherwise, what’s the point of hitting the trails?
— Brad Bramy, San Rafael
Bridge shuttle a cheaper solution for bikes
In a time of great financial scarcity in the public sector, plans to build a bike lane on the Richmond bridge borders on insanity. A movable barricade, similar to the one used on the Golden Gate Bridge, would force a reduction in the width of each of the three lanes that now exist, and cost a lot of money.
A reasonable solution would be to establish a shuttle service for bikers. The shuttles could be designed to carry a number of bicycles at one time. The cost would be a fraction in comparison to building the barricade.
This would allow for a convenient method of getting bicyclists across the bridge, without inhibiting the ability to improve commuting traffic.
If the shuttle system proves successful on the Richmond bridge it could be implemented on other bridges spanning the San Francisco Bay.
This would enhance the ability of bicyclists around the entire Bay Area to easily get where they would like to go at very little cost.
— John H. Robbins, Novato
When a president’s character counted
Once upon a time, paying off a porn star after an adulterous affair would have been the kind of a scandal that brings down a president. That time was only five years ago.
In a 2011 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, 70 percent of white evangelical voters insisted that “character counts” in a public official. Only five years later, during the 2016 election, the number of evangelicals who felt that character counts in a politician had shrunk to 28 percent.
When did God change His mind on that, and why?
— Charles Kelly, Fairfax
