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Treat addiction, mental
illness to help homeless
Re: “Politicians keep shifting blame on homelessness” (Page A9, May 12).
The title of Dan Walters’ piece on homelessness is apt, but then Walters makes a similar error in shifting blame by attributing the problem to “high living costs, particularly housing.” You can’t solve a problem if you don’t understand the root cause.
A more accurate picture is that homelessness is primarily due to untreated mental illness and drug addiction. Adopting a more rigorous approach to directly treating these two root causes will do far more good than building more housing.
Brian Suckow
Palo Alto
Bill won’t help
stop retail theft
If there was ever a bill that underscores the folly of one-party rule, SB 1446 is it.
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In a thinly disguised attempt to reduce retail theft by severely limiting unmanned self-checkout stations at large grocery and drug stores, SB 1446 serves no real purpose other than to force retail establishments to create totally unnecessary union jobs in a blatant effort to bolster the Democratic Party’s voting bloc.
This bill won’t prevent shoplifting — shoplifters don’t go through checkout lines — they grab merchandise and duck out the nearest exit. It will, however, definitely increase everyone’s grocery bill because who do you think is going to absorb the cost of these needless, make-work hires?
C’mon Sacramento, get off the micro-management bandwagon and let retailers run their businesses the way that suits them and their customers best. Stop the vote pandering and do what the voters really elected you to do.
Nick Cochran
San Jose
