Your comments on new homes, reopening schools, staying sane

There were plenty of comments by Appeal Facebook friends this past week, including this short back-and-forth concerning the Sutter

County Planning Commission’s approval of a new subdivision near Sutter:

– Kimberly Contreras: We will pay a heavy price in this state someday if we continue to cover our precious farm land with homes. Especially low density housing. Large lot building must be a thing of the past. This is a tragedy for future generations.

– Kurt Gaston: We have got to solve the homeless crisis somehow. People can’t afford to live. What do you propose instead?

– Kimberly Contreras: … well not 1- and 2-acre ranches! And without food we will all suffer in the future. How stupid can we be? Building needs to be done in the foothills in high density or not at all. California is the breadbasket of the nation. We must preserve it! Even if that means there is no growth.

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Will area schools re-open for in-class instruction? We asked readers, “Should they open? Is it practical for them to open?”

– Chantel Cloyd: I was all for the kids going back to school a few weeks ago but now that they are shutting California back down again I have different feelings. They are going to shut down all our businesses and still force our kids to go to school and risk getting sick? ...

– Gail Costa-haggard: People want to reopen schools because of their work. School is NOT meant to be child care! I will keep My kids home and safe. ...

– Teri Silva: … it’s not child care. I’m not a teacher; that’s not my profession! I am still working full time; is my 1st grader supposed to just stay home alone and hopefully learn, while I’m working to pay my mortgage and buy food? I am a single parent, so according to you I should quit my job to teach my kid and become homeless? Or send him to daycare and they should teach him? But if kids can go to daycare why not school?

– Regina Boswell Kosinski: If they open, they’ll just end up reclosing and going online based on the strict guidelines the state has in place. They might as well put all efforts into online learning instead of making the teachers and staff jump through hoops for nothing. Spend any funds on assistance for the kids that need Wifi and laptops.

– Brandee Houillon: If they would be able to keep the 6 foot distance in class, I think it could be possible. But considering there are 35+ students in each class, I wouldn’t count on it.

– Kristina Candy: Until the people who make these decisions can safely meet in person to decide to send staff and kids back to school, probably shouldn’t be sending kids back to school. Expand virtual learning. Have set class times online like you would in person. Call attendance.

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Finally, we asked readers how they’re doing: “Politics, a pandemic, cultural strife, face masks vs. no face masks, school openings, AND the economy … Feeling stressed? … What’s eating you? And what are you doing about it?”

– Scott Northrup: What bothers me the most is the people who are making these issues political. A virus is not “liberal” or “conservative”; neither is racial inequality. I have many conservative family and friends that are all over the “color” spectrum, that are just as enraged with police brutality and racial violence as my family and friends that are liberals. …

– Christine Daugherty: I go to church and sing! – Kaylene Renee Rector-baysinger: Going to the pool relieves my stress!

– Tillman Bryant: I wear a mask when I go in a business or store; tired of being looked at like I have a third eye in my forehead and a unicorn.

– Carrie Logan: I have been camping as much as possible. Went for 10 days last month, and am currently camping now, for 7 days.

– Kimberly Contreras: I will eat in outdoor restaurants, order take-out as much as possible, order on-line as much as possible to help companies keep going, fill my growler at the local brewery, buy wine and spirits from wineries and distilleries. ...

– Joseph Moye: I am fighting the stress with bike riding. I have a backpack full of sidewalk chalk and I ride throughout Yuba Sutter area drawing pictures at homes and businesses to brighten their day. I am also using my scrolling finger to quickly scan past all of the inflammatory rhetoric. Social Media is toxic in large quantities.