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Fremont votes to make
the vulnerable suffer
Re: “Homeless camp ban is among state’s toughest” (Page B1, Feb. 13).
I attended the Fremont City Council meeting where the council voted to criminalize homelessness, and I left appalled — not just by the decision but with how my neighbors justified it.
One resident complained about hearing an unhoused person’s dog barking. Meanwhile, in Detroit last week, two children froze to death because they had to sleep in a van.
Others cited how many decades they had lived in Fremont. An advocate pointed out that most of Fremont’s unhoused population grew up here.
The police stated they had already begun enforcement and would now start tracking data. Why wasn’t this already being tracked? If this policy is being expanded, shouldn’t we have some evidence of its effectiveness?
This decision came down to housed residents feeling uncomfortable seeing homelessness and business owners worried about losing customers. Commerce won out over compassion, and the most vulnerable members of our community will suffer for it.
Micaela Gardner
Fremont
PG&E is rich, not
the shareholders
Re: “PG&E reports profit of $2B-plus” (Page A1, Feb. 14).
I have held a small amount (less than 1,000 shares) of PG&E stock for over 30 years.
Based on many articles in the EBT, readers may think that shareholders are getting rich. This is not the case. For decades, PG&E has paid dividends of 43 cents to 50 cents per share. They stopped paying any dividends in 2019 due to huge fines they had to pay. PG&E started dividend payments again in January 2024 at the rate of 1 cent per share. One cent. Now I can afford that McDonald’s hamburger.
Profits may be high, but it’s not going to shareholders.
Tim Dewhirst
Pleasanton
Cost of PG&E’s
love is very steep
Re: “PG&E reports profit of $2B-plus” (Page A1, Feb. 14).
PG&E’s CEO Patti Poppe is signing letters to customers this Valentine’s season “with love,” while blaming them for higher rates because they have been more energy efficient and subsequently buying less power.
Her letter also says that PG&E avoided summer blackouts in 2024 due to rooftop solar energy and battery storage kicking in during peak heatwave demand. Unfortunately, she and various PG&E-paid “experts” continue to blame rooftop solar owners for driving up energy prices. Well, you can’t have your cake (avoiding blackouts) and eat it too(falsely blaming rooftop solar owners for rate hikes while they prevent blackouts). The only thing driving up rates is PG&E overbuilding transmission lines.
If Pope really loves her customers, she and PG&E would charge them affordable energy rates.
Sandy White
Fremont
Athletic field fees will
burden young families
The plan to introduce fees for the use of athletic fields is ill-advised. Older, established persons in the community can often afford fees such as these. This burden is on young families whose economics are developing.
The amenities benefit the entire community, and those like me, a 40-year resident, reared our family using these types of facilities. I would gladly pay to maintain the parks and sports fields throughout the city.
Or think out of the box. How about solar panels over parking lots? That would easily generate more money than fees.
Bob Sanchez
Pleasanton
Trump’s cuts are
destroying lives
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While Donald Trump and his inner circle gleefully dismantle all things near and dear to Democrats — education, health care, environmental protection, humanitarian aid, public radio and television, objective news media, etc.– they fail to mention something.
In their haste, the Make America Great Again team is destroying the lives of thousands of Americans who staff those entities. These people are suddenly jobless. Who knows how many will become homeless, put out on the streets by the Trump administration? What will be the true cost of this heartlessness? Never before has America seen such a mean-spirited, vengeful regime. Who’s next for the henchmen?
Jon James
Pleasanton
