Discussions about Highway 1 traffic continue while Foodie File gets some appreciation.
Closer Look
Re: “Jammed.html” (Cover, May 29): The traffic on Highway 1 is fundamentally a land use and housing issue, not an issue of transportation infrastructure or mobility options. Because there is insufficient housing in the City of Santa Cruz to accommodate households from all income brackets, especially at the lower end, many individuals buy and rent homes and apartments outside of the city's limits and then commute long distances to work. This travel demand could be better handled if people were able to live closer to where they work in the first place, as they would have options of walking, bicycling, and taking transit as alternative modes of transportation—all of which would reduce the pressure on Highway 1.
Justin Mikale Meek
Santa Cruz
Mr. Meek is a senior planner for the City of Marina and teaches urban and regional planning at San Jose State. — Editor
Median Income
Re: “Lane Change” (Briefs, June 5): Micah Posner thinks we should contemplate poverty while we’re driving? Don Lane is concerned that the new median law is attempting to limit panhandling? Well, why on earth not limit panhandling? Who isn’t sick of the constant shakedown for the mythical “spare change”? Seriously, who actually has extra money sitting around they can’t figure out what to do with? I work downtown, and every day I pass a never-ending gauntlet of folks harassing me for cash. Perhaps it’s a free speech issue to allow them to do so, but where is my right to not be harassed every afternoon just because I want to go to the post office or the library? Can we all recollect for a moment that our only industry in this town is tourism? Do the tourists come here to admire our seedy underbelly, collect used syringes, and pass out the extra cash they’ve saved up to needy strangers lying on our sidewalks? If that’s all they wind up encountering here, you can bet they won’t be back, and our reputation as a pleasant tourist destination goes further down the tubes, taking their tourism dollars with it. We should be channeling our energy (and extra cash) into funding legitimate programs to help the homeless, not championing their right to mooch on the median strip.
Veronica Garrett
Santa Cruz
FROM THE WEB
There Will Be Treats
Re: Foodie File.html (June 5): Gayle is the BEST. I am so grateful to live in a place that is home to both her and Joe. I gave them my first-born, who still dreams of Gayle's, and who will never stop eating there. TREATS! (Savory treats for me.)
Also, their cookbook, “The Village Baker's Wife,” is a keepsake. Lemon bars and mushroom turnovers in my own home, yahooooooo!
Tana Butler
Unique Greek
Re: Foodie File.html (May 29): I'm Christos from Greece. I spent the fall of 2010 at Santa Cruz, which is when I met Vasili, and his beautiful family. I'll never forget them, the Greek tavern, and especially Vasili. He is a friend forever, one of the very few, the most generous and kindhearted person I've ever met. Thank you Vasili…for everything.
Christos Vlachos
