A different approach?
The U.S., the richest country in the world, doesn’t have the money to provide health care and security for its citizens, even though virtually every other developed country does. Republicans continue to call for social cuts that aid the poor of our country while Democrats seem hog-tied.
So why can’t we equal other countries in providing for our citizens? Is it because we spend half of our federal budget on military? George W. Bush increased the military budget ~30 percent, and it hasn’t come down under Democratic rule.
And look what our military has achieved: Iraq and other foreign disasters. With the greatest military on Earth, we can’t win. Perhaps we need to take a different more responsible approach, helping rather than harming others, both here and abroad
Milton Saier,
Encinitas
No on B
In their latest flyer, the sponsors of Prop B claim their policy is, “clear, straightforward and uncomplicated.” Apparently they don’t want to muddy the waters by providing voters with actual facts. It’s easy to claim things are simple if one doesn’t bother to include the details that really matter. So just how uncomplicated and straightforward is Prop B?
Prop B overrides the city codes on parking, noise and alcohol.
And it leaves our City Council powerless to fix any problems that result from Prop B’s policy. Prop B proponents ignore the licensed traffic engineer’s conclusion that adding 75 additional parked cars to the area on two days of every weekend will create impacts on parking.
And what about the costly elections that will be required to fix any and all problems that arise from Prop B’s lax policy? Or the legal fees the city will have to spend to defend this inflexible, poorly written policy?
The only thing simple about Prop B is that it removes all common sense safeguards that our City Council enacted to protect the public and nearby businesses from parking and safety problems. Vote NO on Prop B
Robert Glatts,
Solana Beach
Lane diet
According to Thomas Paine: “Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.” Encinitas City Council hasn’t been reasonable in ignoring the public’s needs for transparency, clarity, and honesty in our city’s ongoing actions, and inactions.
Encinitas too often obscures facts by relying upon data, which has been demonstrated to be massaged and manipulated, to meet pre-formed conclusions.
Regarding the lane-diet on Coast Highway 101, and more traffic now diverting through residential neighborhoods and a school zone, council has depended upon traffic counts, relayed at the Dec. 5 Strategic Planning Meeting-Traffic-PART 2, including data compiled for Highway 101, Neptune and Vulcan, for the lower traffic months of October, before and after lane elimination, as well as the pre-summer months of May and April 2013, post lane-diet, only.
No before/after lane-diet measuring of traffic during peak summer or winter holiday periods was executed; the city’s choice of specific months monitored to establish traffic counts for motorists, only, is misleading.
A Jan. 3 Sharrows article in The Coast News reviews bicycle safety. Captain (Robert) Haley reiterates that cyclists, whether in a bicycle lane or Sharrows, are to ride single-file, unless passing. A new law also requires that when motorists pass bicyclists, a three-feet minimum clearance between car and bicycle is mandatory.
Since bicyclists legally must ride single-file, it’s insufficient reason existed for the city to install an 8 foot-wide bicycle lane northbound on N. Coast Highway 101 to La Costa Avenue, at the same time eliminating a lane for motorists, last February. However reasons abound not to eliminate a lane.
Reducing a major roadway, circulation element arterial to three lanes from a four-lane configuration requires a Coastal Development Permit, Specific, General Plan and Local Coastal Program Amendments, which all remain incomplete. Local commuters now experience greater challenges turning north onto Coast Highway 101; emergency response time is also further delayed.
Lynn Marr,
Leucadia
