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Pajaro residents deserve
an actual repair to levee
The Pajaro River flood is the right case of closing the barn door after the horse leaves.
This river has flooded quite a few occasions in years previous inundating Pajaro and Watsonville but nothing substantial was carried out to the levee apart from minimal restore consisting of rock and filth. Apathy and indifference prevailed till The Mercury Information and different media retailers introduced the plight of the residents to gentle and now the ball is hopefully rolling to rectify the issue completely.
Sadly, disparity is clear concerning Pajaro. To forestall this from occurring once more, the offending levee wants concrete embankments just like a canal or aqueduct. Additionally, new improvement within the type of retail similar to Walmart will give it an enormous employment increase and complement the agricultural jobs.
The Pajaro residents are the salt of the earth and agriculture is the center of the valley.
Gary V. Plomp
Gilroy
Federal coverage arrange
SVB for failure
Silicon Valley Financial institution partly contributed to its failure by shopping for too many secure securities when rates of interest had been low. Had charges remained low and inflation subdued, SVB might have bought these securities to cowl mortgage losses.
However when the Fed belatedly raised charges to struggle inflation, it elevated defaults amongst SVB’s debtors that SVB might solely cowl by promoting its low-interest-rate securities at a loss. However they had been in good firm with the chairman of the Federal Reserve, who thought inflation and charges would stay low regardless of extremely inflationary authorities spending.
What the times of near-zero charges and extreme authorities spending gave with one hand, it took away with inflation and better charges that harm everybody from customers to corporations and banks.
Ed Kahl
Woodside
Irresponsible SVB
have to be accountable
Re: “SVB’s story mirrors tech’s booms and busts” (Web page A1, March 19).
Silicon Valley Financial institution, which was established within the early Nineteen Eighties, disappeared in a spectacular trend just lately, after a run on deposits, surprising the banking business, rocking the U.S. economic system, and disrupting world markets.
The financial institution, which centered on the know-how sector, was born out of a poker sport between two tennis buddies, Bob Medearis and Invoice Biggerstaff, and their shut mates, together with a Lockheed engineer and a Memorex government, who all chipped in $10,000 every. Sadly, mismanagement was rampant within the final 9 months, the place the financial institution was left with out a head of threat administration. Whereas different banks diversified their portfolios to hedge in opposition to altering tides, Silicon Valley Financial institution “guess” large on rates of interest staying low.
That is the kind of conduct that corporations have to be held accountable for. Silicon Valley Financial institution must be liquidated or bought by extra accountable custodians.
Grant Cozzi
San Jose
Apple, county should do
extra to accommodate academics
Re: “Trainer housing on Apple-owned website?” (Web page A1, March 9).
In response to Marisa Kendall’s article on trainer housing, at first look, it's thrilling to listen to that there's new trainer housing coming to Cupertino. But, the housing won't be constructed for a number of years.
Within the Cupertino Unified College District, the entry-level trainer wage with a BA diploma is just $70,925, in comparison with the $73,103 talked about within the article. This, mixed with the greater than $3,000 common month-to-month lease in Cupertino, solely turns into extra dismal, making lease account for greater than 50% of academics’ month-to-month incomes. Actually, the Milpitas Unified College District even requested households to lease out rooms of their properties to academics due to academics leaving the realm on account of unaffordable housing.
Apple ought to assist fund the venture as Meta did for Palo Alto. Additionally, the county must step up securing funding; in any other case, we could threat having extra academics depart the realm.
Joshua Chinn
San Jose
Altering faculty life
imperils Greek system
I've direct expertise with how Greek life has modified over time as a member of a sorority, and it's evident that this once-popular establishment is dwindling.
The evolving views and beliefs of school college students are one issue on this. These days, many younger individuals select a university expertise that's extra accessible and assorted than the unique, closed-off world of fraternities and sororities. Greek life has a adverse popularity on account of misconceptions. Faculties and universities are actually scrutinizing and regulating Greek life extra intently due to this. Greek life has been impacted by the expansion of social media and on-line boards, which have made it troublesome for college students to really feel accepted by their friends.
All of this has led to the demise of Greek life. It stays to be seen if these organizations will be capable to adapt and flourish within the shifting social local weather of school life.
Abigail Bernal
San Jose