Editor:
I love so many things about living here on the Coast, including the laid-back attitude most folks have about most things. It’s lovely. Yet, I suggest that there should be limits to what we put up with. I believe:
• We deserve reliable transportation to and from the city, as there are many people whose jobs and health rely on it.
• Year after year, we should not have to put up with a predictable summer water shortage. Can’t our leaders make a commitment to the needed investment to secure a reliable volume of water?
• It is not an unreasonable expectation, when we pay the taxes we pay, to have a reliable garbage and recycling service. I find it atrocious that in this day and age we expect our garbage workers to manually lift up many hundreds of cans full of two weeks of garbage, in the hot summer sun or freezing winter weather. Can we not invest in getting the system automated, to the extent many other municipalities do, and have bins that can be lifted and dumped hydraulically into the truck?
• We should have roads that are quickly repaired and well maintained. The volume and velocity of traffic we now accommodate is very high. There are potholes and dips and blind intersections that guarantee accidents. And the poorly maintained and incomplete bike lanes on our highways are a fatal accident waiting to happen.
These problems are not going to go away or solve themselves. With the trends of smokier summers in the Interior, and more people able to live on the Coast and work remotely, I think it is reasonable to assume the demand for essential services will accelerate.
We need to ensure our elected officials act on these issues.
Steve Mitten, Roberts Creek