Opinion

Flight Paths: Here We Go Again

I'm going to have second thoughts about going to Scotts Valley fireworks next year due to the LOUD music overpowering the fireworks enjoyment. Anyone know who to contact to complain about the LOUD music during the fireworks? Preventing us from hearing the fireworks or the crowd cheering and having conversation?

The traffic moving to or from Boulder Creek through Ben Lomond and to or from Felton was insane the day before 4th of July due to tree trimming. Possibly required by PG&E. While I can understand the need to trim around electric Lines, I really don't understand doing it on that day, which brings me to the scary part. Alba Road is designated as an evacuation route. 

I would like to publicly call on the City of Scotts Valley, in organizing this year's Fourth of July fireworks, to tone down the noise level very significantly. Last year's fireworks show was beautiful, but SO loud that I ended up going inside before the show was over, it was so awful. I felt really sad about that, as I enjoy sitting on my front porch to watch the show. A number of friends shared the same experience, and also related stories about animals getting freaked out by the noise level, including one tale of a small herd of deer getting hit while fleeing in a panic. Such decibels have a negative effect on mammals' nervous systems, triggering the sequence of fight/flight responses in the body. Some people have grown to associate this with a sense of power. When we face a true threat, and our body is flooded with adrenaline, it IS powerful, and we are able to do incredible things to save ourselves and others. I have experienced this personally, so I have a real appreciation for it. However, when there is no actual threat, it is highly detrimental to our physical, emotional, and mental health to have this physiological sequence triggered; and in those instances, it is a false sense of power. Also, excitement triggers the dopamine pathway in the brain, which is integral to the processes of addiction and depression, rather than actual happiness. This is too complicated to explain in the space of this letter, yet it is a neurological reality. Moderate levels of excitement are great, yet decibel levels like what was heard in last year's fireworks show are extreme, and any pleasure that some may derive only serves to trigger unhealthy neurological processes. Thank you for considering my request.

I was surprised to learn that until the election last October, the San Lorenzo Valley Water Board had been providing funding for educational projects, and I was surprised that a few community members were upset that our newly elected directors were practicing fiscal restraint and discontinuing that practice.

I applaud this new board for immediately addressing infrastructure that has been put on the back burner too long by previous directors who were recently voted out in a landslide election. Let’s also applaud our new Directors for standing strong against those looking for big handouts of free money from SLVWD ratepayers and for ratepayers’ rights to keep costs down. SLVWD is already noticeably working more efficiently under new leadership. 

Over the past year, there has been a considerable amount of press about the lack of safety for pedestrians and cyclists in the San Lorenzo Valley. This concern needs to be extended to Scotts Valley, as well. OK, truth be told, it needs to be extended to society overall, but we’ll start locally. I live and work in Scotts Valley, and very much enjoy walking to work rather than driving. The benefits are myriad. However, in the two years that I have been living in Scotts Valley, I have nearly been hit by reckless drivers breaking the law on about 6-8 occasions. I had the right of way in all cases.  I was either in a marked crosswalk or about to step off the curb into one, with the pedestrian right-of-way sign. Last year, I was nearly killed when walking to dinner with a friend. The driver managed to stop about 24” in front of me. 24”.  My heart goes out to the family of Josh Howard. I am deeply sorry for your loss.

In his March 29 column, Mark Rosenberg suggests that Americans cannot afford to pay for the rapid transition to renewable energy needed to drastically slow the pace of climate change. In fact, we cannot afford not to. We are already paying for climate change. The increasingly frequent and intense wildfires cost Californians nearly $20 billion in 2017, and the mounting tallies from the devastating fires around the state in 2018 are certain to be higher. The Fourth National Climate Assessment released last year estimated that climate change has caused U.S. taxpayers $350 billion dollars over the past decade alone. If we continue with “business as usual”, these costs will skyrocket in coming years due to the increased health costs of heat waves and spreading tropical diseases, rebuilding our water infrastructure to adapt to the declining snowpack, building barriers to prevent flooding of low-lying coastal cities, and myriad other impacts.  Investing now to rapidly transition to a more sustainable energy base will save us large sums of money over the long-term. It seems like a sound investment to us.

My husband and I are not in favor of the Scotts Valley Town Green as it is planned. The ability to mitigate the impact on our roads and other infrastructures cannot be adequately addressed. We simply do not have enough main outlet roads to service the additional population.

I was disappointed after reading an article last week by Mark Rosenberg, titled “Can the U.S. really stop global warming?” I have serious concerns about the way several issues were framed in this piece. However, before I make these points I want to make clear my biases; I do support the Green New Deal resolution because of my firm belief that we need a plan as large scale and serious as it is to address global warming (and the economic consequences that come with it) NOW; but as I will soon show, the Green New Deal resolution is about far more than that.