I support leaf blower ban in Petaluma
EDITOR: I stand with Carol Crabill and Rebecca Birch. Time for action!
Blowers are bad for our health, and bad for the earth. Blowers cause noise and air pollution. Blowers affect the workers, pedestrians, day sleepers and pandemic home-bound children.
Blowers also cause air pollution -- harmful not only to workers, children and pedestrians, but also to the earth.
Many cities in Sonoma County and across the U.S. have banned gas-powered blowers, including the cities of Sonoma and Sebastopol, as well as Washington, D.C. What are we waiting for?
The laborers are in the first line of exposure, and here in Petaluma the majority are Hispanic immigrants. Stand up for social justice!
Blower noise (70-75 decibels at 50 feet) is harmful to landscape workers, pedestrians, day sleepers, home workers, children, the ill and the disabled. Blower noise hurts gardener's hearing. Hearing loss by noise is irreversible. Noise causes stress-related illnesses.
Ellen Solomon
Petaluma
Schools should open soon
EDITOR: Why haven’t our schools opened? The district has had months to plan. Perhaps school boards and county administrators should look for help to places where schools are open: Texas, Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, Montana, even France, Spain and Sweden. We are so behind other states and countries in the education of our children.
Education should be the top priority for our children and our nation. A recent editorial cartoon showed a bus full of children stopped in the middle of the road by a teachers union member holding a stop sign. This tells all. Shame on them.
Just vaccinate all the teachers and school workers, district by district, and open April 1. Bring in the children with or without masks and teach them face to face — not online. Section off gyms, auditoriums or lunch rooms if necessary to separate children.
Parents should inundate school boards, supervisors, administrators and unions with letters saying open our schools.
Margaret Kullberg
Petaluma
The decline in testing
EDITOR: Why does a person choose to be tested for COVID-19? The most obvious reason would be developing symptoms of cold or flu and wanting to rule out the coronavirus as the cause. Other reasons may include workplace requirements, medical needs like surgery, travel plans or suspected exposure.
Why would people refrain from being tested? Maybe because they feel fine, don’t need a test for work, medical or travel and have no reason to think they have been exposed.
Why are we so worried about people not getting tested? If a large number of asymptomatic people get tested just to increase test volumes, a possible outcome could be a lower percent of positive results. Should we all run out for a test? Maybe so.
However, if the health department recommends that we all get tested, they should make that crystal clear. Currently, the guidelines for getting tested aren’t easily found on their website (nor published in your paper). The last directive I recall was to save the tests for those who really need them, like health care workers.
Patrecia Graham
Petaluma
Recall Ravitch
EDITOR: I strongly encourage registered voters of Sonoma County to consider joining me and signing the petition to recall District Attorney Jill Ravitch. I’m very unhappy with the way her department handled the Andy Lopez case. I do not feel justice was served.
Sonoma County needs a district attorney who has the political courage to hold law enforcement accountable so the community can feel safe and comfortable.
I believe a recall campaign can help build trust between law enforcement and the community they are hired to serve and protect.
Segundo Alva
Cotati
One-sided winery rules
EDITOR: The county has repeatedly asked for feedback, from numerous workshops to the winery working group that met monthly in 2015, to county-sponsored community advisory councils primarily made up of wine industry reps with self-interest as their key agenda.
Community groups have worked constructively with the county for seven years, coming up with a balanced set of guidelines. It’s time to cut bait and create an ordinance that protects public safety and quality of life for residents living in neighborhoods with event centers. The wine industry naturally wants fewer regulations and more entitlements, while the residents want peace of mind, less traffic, less noise and fewer drunken drivers.
Surprisingly, at the workshop, Permit Sonoma staff said the policies would apply to new tasting rooms only. The county is responsible to the entire community when it comes to safety, environmental and quality of life concerns. Turning this process over to industry-dominated committees and lobbyists to promulgate lax regulations is a dereliction of responsibility.
Enough is enough.
Padi Selwyn
Co-chair, Preserve Rural Sonoma County
Tardy to the mission
EDITOR: How nice that Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced a new statewide coordinated “system” through which citizens will register for a COVID-19 vaccination (“State’s new vaccine system goes live,” Feb. 22). Where were he and this system at the end of December?
If I am not mistaken, it was well known by all that vaccine approvals were on their way as early as last September. Likewise, the former administration had made it clear that it was the state’s responsibility to manage all things COVID-19 related.
There should have been no question that it would fall to the governor and all the tools available to him to plan the architecture through which the vaccines, or at least clear communications to the public, would be delivered.
Having followed all this closely from the beginning, I’m appalled at the lack of planning and strategies and the incredible conflicting communications that have come from the state, county health departments and even local hospitals deemed vaccination centers.
Since January, for the most part, citizens have been left to their own abilities, devices and connections to get access to vaccinations. Gratefully, once one gets an appointment and reports to the vaccination site, the systems, personnel and volunteers have been absolutely amazing.
Colleen Pundyk
Santa Rosa