Letters To The Editor

So our governor asks us not to use electricity between 5 and 9 p.m. due to overburdening the electric grid. There will be rolling brownouts throughout the state. Let’s see, 5 to 9 p.m. just happens to be when most people are home, living normal lives in their houses, apartments, condos, campers, tents, or whatever. […]

I have learned some things from years of interaction with county government officials and agency staff. Most are exceptionally capable, conscientious, cordial, and responsive. And some are prone to the very human foible of thin skin. It is also clear that as our taxes pay their salaries, they work for us in our collective best […]

Long-term and affordable residential rentals are being eradicated from SLO County, especially from the coastal zone. We must preserve those we still have. Oceano has a few left on Pier Avenue. However, their tenants are being disproportionately impacted by State Parks’ visitors. Tenants must suffer beach visitors in need of parking unlawfully using their private […]

The alert has gone out that polio has been detected in a New York water treatment plant. So, we add that to monkeypox and the ongoing COVID-19 variant. Where are we going with this? First off, it’s just the ongoing fearmongering that the federal government is engaged in to exert control over the population. The […]

It is not fair to the taxpayers of Santa Maria for our City Council and Planning Commission to give the developer of the recently approved housing on the site of the old Fallas property in Town Center West $1.25 million in incentives, when he will make millions on this project without taking money out of […]

Ken Haggard’s opinion piece from Aug. 18 titled “Growing up with guns,” like so many others, misses the point, although he does brush up against it. He says, “It never crossed our minds to actually point these weapons at anyone, much less load and shoot at a person.” It is not the change in guns, […]

During the Jan. 6 hearings, we’ve heard from former members of the Trump administration and Republican state officials about how Trump and his allies worked together to try and overthrow our democracy because the 2020 presidential election didn’t go their way. Now, they’re working to make sure all of our elections go their way in […]

Right on, Mr. Donegan (“Conservatives and guns,” Aug. 4)! When people realize that it’s the idiots behind the guns that cause the problems and the existing laws that are not properly enforced, then understanding the problems will not be changed. Plus, without the care and treatment of the mentally impaired, the problems will not be […]

I fear that the Sun/New Times and the Santa Barbara County Health Department completely missed the key underlying reason for the higher death rate among older white males in North County (“Death report highlights long-standing geographic inequities in Santa Barbara County,” July 28). Granted, poverty and access to quality health care do play a role, […]

If we’ve learned anything from the Jan. 6 hearings so far, it’s that Trump and his allies will go to any lengths to gain and stay in power. The hearings have proven that they planned, promoted, and paid for a months-long criminal conspiracy to overturn the election they knew they lost—and which ultimately ended in […]

Our county wants to improve the Oceano County Airport by adding a lounge bar, more parking, and a bigger campground for its users. The Oceano Beach Community Association (OBCA) opposes this project.  SLO County, and Oceano in particular, does not need this airport. We already have an airport 20 miles to the north, San Luis […]

Regarding your July 14 article titled “The price of housing”: We hope that the developers of the so-called Dana “Reserve” (the question remains as to what they are in fact “reserving” or “preserving”) will return to their prior top development priorities of “open space uses within the oak woodlands.”  “Do a smaller project and leave […]