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Resident input would
spur S.J. housing
Re: “San Jose’s high-density rules are killing its housing dreams” (Page A6, July 31).
Professor Wood’s sharp critique of San Jose’s General Plan rightly faults the city’s housing policies for exacerbating our current housing crisis. The city’s misguided rules allow zero flexibility for responding to market forces and preserving neighborhood character.
San Jose must transition to higher densities thoughtfully, with our residents’ voices leading the way. The novel process employed for the former Pleasant Hills Golf Course property serves as an example for future development proposals. After completing a meaningful community input process, the developer submitted a thoughtful proposal of 32 units per acre that is consistent with guidelines created through dialogue with the surrounding community.
The design is responsive to public input and respectful of our neighborhood character, financially feasible and consistent with infill development policies. The process should be used to facilitate the growth of our housing supply throughout the city.
Pat Waite
San Jose
Coffee shop lawsuit
should be tossed
Re: “Coffee shop owner fires back amid suits” (Page B1, July 31).
Thanks to Shomik Mukherjee for a balanced article on the “antisemitism” lawsuits against the Jerusalem Coffee Shop (JCS). He got only one thing wrong. The six-pointed star emblazoned on hats that two Jewish customers wore into JCS is not a “symbol of the Jewish faith.” It’s a symbol of the Israeli state, which claims to represent Jews while violating every principle of Judaism.
What kind of person would wear clothing with an Israeli flag symbol into a Palestinian-owned coffee house, at a time when Israel is committing horrible daily massacres against the Palestinian people? Only someone who wanted to create drama they could video and post online. They intended to demonize and attack the Palestinian community.
Now, Trump’s Department of Justice and two pro-Israel organizations are suing JCS for antisemitism. These lawsuits are baseless and should be thrown out of court.
David Spero
San Francisco
Morality is not top
concern of politics
Re: “Trump pronouncements an exercise in projection” (Page A6, Aug. 1).
It’s curious how evaluation of Joe Biden is predicated on Trump animus.
Irv Brenner strangely projects Donald Trump as saying Biden is evil. True, Trump has portrayed Biden as a fool and our worst ever president, but evil is sheer projection by Brenner.
The letter is emblematic of the panic liberals are feeling about the success of Trump policies compared to the failure of the Biden administration. Biden’s good intentions were overridden by policy failures exacerbated by his mental decline to the point where the country was under the control of anyone in charge of his auto-signer.
The case against Trump is based on personality and character rather than policy.
Personal morality doesn’t translate to morality-driven governance that is evaluated by intentions rather than results. Morality and compassion in government must be mitigated by a realistic evaluation of economic and political circumstances.
Fred Gutmann
Cupertino
Speak up for Gaza’s
kids — and the world’s
Day after day, news from around the world documents the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Children are dying of starvation. Trucks are loaded with food across the border, but most have not been allowed in. How do we help stop this horror?
I am the daughter of Holocaust survivors. My parents endured that horror, and raised me to do what I could to stand up for fairness — to recognize our common humanityand speak out against injustice toward any of us.
We must not look away from the preventable starvation in Gaza.
In the words of Omar El Akkad in his book “One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” “It may seem now like it’s someone else’s children, but there’s no such thing as someone else’s children.”
May we join together to speak up for them and for a world where all children may thrive.
Madelyn Hodges
Tomales
Trump has painted US
into a dangerous corner
Amid the political chaos, please remember that the most powerful man in the world (he can destroy the Earth by punching a few buttons) has painted himself into a corner.
Due to the largely contradictory interests to whom he has sold out (e.g. big money, radical evangelicals, Russia, fascists, Israel, tech moguls, Saudi Arabia), his government is extremely unpopular with real people and of course, his own base is finally accepting his possible history of pedophilia.
What does Mr. Trump typically do when he is cornered? He creates another (bigger) distraction. Did you notice he moved a nuclear naval combat group closer to Russia?
He controls the Supreme Court and Congress, and he has neutered executive branch agencies. Near as I can tell, there are only three forces still opposing him: Elon Musk, the U.S. military and those of us who have yet to be silenced.
Don Eggleston
Aptos
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