Letters to the editor

Editor,

I’ve noticed several letters to the editor about the "Open Space Vote” over the last few weeks, but I haven’t seen any letters from people who will be impacted by the initiative.

I live on Valota St., and my home will be subject to the regulations of the Open Space Vote (or Measure W) if it passes.

The groups who created this initiative made a big mistake. They gathered signatures and qualified an initiative for the ballot without understanding the impact on individual homeowners. I’m absolutely certain they didn’t mean to include me and my neighbors in the scope of this initiative (our homes are not "open space”), but that doesn’t matter. We are in this, whether we like it or not.

The groups insist we can do anything under the new regulations that we could do previously. This is misleading, at best. I have spoken with representatives from these groups, and they have no answer to what this will mean for the value of my home. Indeed, several experts I have spoken with believe it will have a significant financial impact on the value of my property and the properties of my neighbors.

One of the most difficult things about this is that I’m a long time Sierra Club, Forests Forever and Sempervirens Fund member. It has really surprised and disappointed me how these environmental groups seem to care little about people like us, the collateral damage. Telling us not to worry doesn’t help us. We know better. They know better. Repeating the ‘talking point’ over and over does not make it true.

Please don’t reward these groups for their mistake. Please hold them accountable for lack of care they have shown for your fellow citizens of Redwood City. Please vote "No” on Redwood City Measure W.

You can ensure a citywide vote on Cargill land development by voting for Measure V without impacting me, my neighbors and more than 40 other properties in the city.

Mark Fassett

Redwood City

Unequal treatment of Iran

Editor,

With his letter from the Daily Journal’s Aug. 20 edition, Don Havis paints a picture of Iran that would be more understandable if it came from the Iranian government itself. Havis’ defense of Iran’s nuclear program flies in the face of the words of Iran’s own president.

In a political world immersed in lies, there is no mistaking the explicit words of genocide from Iran’s president, concerning Israel only for now. This week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "germ of corruption” that will be "removed soon.”

Apparently this latest atrocity from the mouth of the little dictator is part of an effort to defuse criticism by hard-liners over recent remarks made by a high-level official who said Iranians were "friends of all people in the world — even of Israelis.”

Havis can wear his blinders all he wants, but one can only fool some of the people all of the time. The Iranian government is currently one of the most evil regimes on the planet, and is only entitled to equal treatment once it stops issuing official threats of death and destruction to peace-loving nations.

Desmond Tuck

San Mateo