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Colleges should cutrunaway spending
Re: “Students face cuts to aid” (Page A1, June 29).
Ever since the government took over much of the college loan business, colleges have been ramping up spending, which translates to much higher tuition. Administrative costs have soared, well ahead of student enrollment. Higher raises are given, and student workers have been allowed to form unions, demanding higher pay. The reasoning: If no one has to find the money upfront from their savings, they will tolerate higher tuition. Pell Grants, which are just gifts, make it worse.
The solution is simple: Colleges and universities need to radically cut back their spending so that tuition returns to an inflation-adjusted rational number. Between when I went to college and now, the price at UC Berkeley is astonishing. Stop empowering colleges to spend money, costing students too much.
Denise KalmWalnut Creek
Transit-based housingwill ruin neighborhoods
Re: “Stop watering down housing bill and pass it” (Page A6, June 27).
In a letter to the editor published June 27, Johnathan Hofer says SB 79, the state Senate bill that would allow developers to build six-story apartment and condo complexes within a half mile of any bus line, should be passed immediately with no revisions. Based on what? The idea that a person living in one of these units will walk a half mile every morning (and a half mile back later) to catch a bus to work?
That will not happen. What this poorly thought-out legislation will accomplish is to add countless new cars to the suburban commute and destroy the integrity of suburban neighborhoods throughout California. Wait a minute, it will accomplish one other thing. It will make piles of money for developers.
William GilbertLafayette
State leaders must tameinvestor-owned housing
Re: “Newsom’s demand to increase housing” (Page A1, June 28).
If lawmakers want to make housing more affordable, they need to focus not just on how fast we build but on who ends up owning what gets built.
Both home prices and rents are being warped by wealthy investors. In California, just over half of single-family homes are owner-occupied. In cities like Los Angeles, two-thirds of rentals are owned by corporate investors, not local landlords.
This concentration isn’t benign. These firms have been linked to higher prices, steeper rent hikes and increased evictions. When investors compete with working families for starter homes, it’s not a free market, it’s a rigged one.
CEQA can be improved, but lawmakers should look beyond anecdotes and confront the deeper, structural forces distorting our housing market.
Housing shouldn’t be a speculative asset. It’s a human right.
Michael MooreWalnut Creek
Why have Oaklandin airport name at all?
Re: “Airport again chooses a new name” (Page B1, June 28).
The latest name chosen by officials for the Oakland airport, Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport, is a cautionary example of what happens when one chooses a name that’s just a collection of words intended to appeal to search engines and cursory readers.
Admittedly, many airport names are simply the name of the cities they serve, and the proposed name is just that. The problem is, it’s not lyrical or memorable in any way. Perhaps if Oakland were willing to step out of the name, leaving something like San Francisco Bay Area Airport, it would sound less contrived.
Chris BrownOakland
GOP would punishpoor to benefit wealthy
Re: “Republicans reprise their push to pay for tax cuts by slashing food stamps” (Page A4, June 28).
While reading today’s article about Republicans pushing to pay for tax cuts by slashing federal food assistance for the poor, it occurred to me that the GOP’s new version of the “race” card is labeling whatever program they want to eliminate or reduce as being riddled with waste, fraud and abuse. Programs and departments they favor are, of course, extremely and efficiently well run.
The GOP would have us believe that the poorest among us having desperately needed assistance decreased is a very small price to pay for tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest Americans. Besides, it’s the poor’s own fault. They’ve chosen not to have pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, as all of our Republican legislators have.
Mark GabinConcord
Trump’s narrative hasbad ending for nation
President Trump is on track to finish his presidency with billions in personal and family wealth gains via his office. The rest of us will be strapped with an exploded national debt we will be on the hook for over generations.
Tax cuts for tips and overtime expire after the next presidential election, tax cuts for billionaires are permanent. Our most vulnerable citizens will feel the pain. We are no longer the beacon of freedom in the world.
Fox viewers, expand your views. You are being fed Trump’s narrative. He doesn’t care about you.
Jay OwenCastro Valley