The Riverside Press-Enterprise
California's housing crisis
Re “Housing sites said not to be practical” (May 8): Most Southern California cities are being threatened with penalties for not allocating land to meet the state’s goal of adding 2.5 million more homes over the next eight years. Nobody seems to be asking a simple question: Where will the water come from to service all of the new housing already under construction, forget about another couple million? We are faced with another summer of water use restrictions. There are barely enough water resources available to supply current residents and apparently the government has no plans to fix the problem. On top of this, the PUC and other agencies are warning that there will be a shortage of electric power this summer. There should be a moratorium on new residential construction until the state deals with and solves these problems.
— Jack Sultze, Claremont
Newsom's gas rebate
Re:”newsom: Legislature plan delays checks until October” (May 7):
I have lived in California all of my life. Upsettingly, I have seen it go from a place where you could thrive no matter your socioeconomic status to a place where politicians have pitted the haves and the have nots against each other. There is no equity anymore, it has been replaced with divisiveness. What does my income have to do with the gas taxes that Newsom has imposed on all of us? The pain at the pump is everyone’s pain! We keep reading that California is flush with money. Then give some of it back now.
— Ellen Ilyasoff, Northridge
California's high-speed rail project and the big money
The people of California voted in favor of Prop. 1A in 2008 and gave birth to the current boondoggle. As the newspaper correctly stated in an editorial May 10, there is no completion date, and the project is estimated to cost three times the original cost.
It has taken 14 years for any legislative leaders to question whether the money spigot should be turned off and the project scrapped. Gov. Newsom has known the project is doomed to fail, and has said so, yet he keeps the money flowing. Unbelievable. Even if the project was completed on time and at budget, it would not likely be profitable. Amtrak has been in existence since 1971 and has been a drain on taxpayers ever since.
— Rick Hofmann, Dana Point