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Walnut Creek park display
shouldn’t be new normal
Kudos to the Walnut Creek Parks people for quickly cleaning up the huge mess left at Heather Farm Park on Sunday, July 12.
Hundreds of folks barbecued, picnicked and partied, launching fireworks for hours, while their kids happily played on the slides and swings, despite the signs clearly saying the playground was closed, due to COVID19. Social distancing and masks were largely ignored.
Police were called about the loud fireworks, but none were ever seen, leaving people to wonder why. Fireworks were heard late into the evening.
I’m all for having fun, but come on. Is this our new “normal”?
Sam Van Zandt
Walnut Creek
Where is the enforcement
of Alameda County rules?
Is it any wonder that Alameda County has more than 7,100 cases with an almost daily increase in triple digits?
Order of the Health Officer of Alameda County No. 20-13 requires the use of masks and social distancing among other criteria yet when, out of necessity, I have to enter big box hardware stores, grocery stores and Costco I inevitably observe some employees of these stores wearing their masks below their noses and not observing social distancing. These employees come into contact with hundreds of customers a day.
Where is the enforcement of the Alameda County Health Officer order? Why aren’t these corporations fined?
This disease is no joke. Even some of those who have recovered have suffered irreversible damage to a number of organs. The longer the county delays in enforcing Order 20-13, the greater the number of infections and deaths this county will experience.
Ron Locatelli
Castro Valley
Union City should report
on cost-cutting actions
Thanks to Joseph Geha for his report on the possibility of two tax measures on the Nov. 3, 2020, ballot (“Officials mulling tax measures for November ballot,” July 14).
The city hired an outside expert who submitted a Management Audit Report to the city on April 25, 2019. This report has detailed sections on financial stability and provided comments on potential cost reduction strategies. It outlines 10 “cost reduction options for consideration and further analysis” that could save millions if acted upon.
We know that the city closed a fire station (not justified) but do not know what happened to the other items listed. It is only prudent the city should report on what has been done since receiving the report so that the residents can better appreciate what the city has done for them.
This should be done at the earliest as part of the discussions on meeting the serious financial challenge ahead.
Subru Bhat
Union City
Simple act of wearing
a mask shows you care
Nothing says I care and want this wicked virus to go away better than wearing a mask. Not wearing one says the exact opposite, regardless of political affiliation.
If we want our economy to recover, our businesses to reopen and our children to return safely to school, this is by far our best option. Why is it so hard for some of us to do this simple thing, wearing a mask, and correctly, covering the nose and mouth, not dangling from a hand or around the neck?
I beg you, for all of us, it should be clear by now that we are not special snowflakes, exempt from getting this terrible illness. Let’s pull together on this and get back to a new version of normal. Wear the mask.
Sally West
Oakland
Will Stone commutation
be final straw for GOP?
Patriotic American citizens clinging to the hope that our representative democracy can be resurrected in the upcoming election are buoyed by the thought that Republicans will be repelled by the commutation of Roger Stone. After all, when criminals like Stone and Michael Flynn are allowed to go free because they are allies of the president, but criminals like Michael Cohen, who testified against the president, are returned fromhouse arrest to jail, it is clear America has become one of those third world, strong-man dictatorships.
Surely Republicans will rebel.
Regrettably, it appears President Donald Trump’s “base” will not let such nuances disturb their rapture with their “dear leader”. After all, if the smell of more than 100,000 dead Americans, unnecessarily caused by the worst handling of the pandemic by any industrialized nation, doesn’t bother them, a little Mafioso stench in the White House is but a trifle.
Douglas McClelland
Brentwood
