Latest news with #MorroBayCityCouncil
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lack of parking makes flying out of SLO dicey
I am very glad to have our San Luis Obispo airport become busier, adding more flight options. However, the parking availability has not kept up with the passenger growth. Recently, my wife had a 6 a.m. flight and arrived at 5 a.m. to find all the four parking lots already full! She drove around and finally found someone pulling out of a space, but was by then nearly late for her flight. Are there plans for more parking at SBP? Please expedite! Ed Cox Nipomo Thank you for covering events at our school boards on the transgender rights front, educating the public on our laws, the economic impacts and how federal and state governments work. Conservative Christians have misled the public into believing that a female athlete's right to safety was violated when the opposite is true. They have gotten away with this because it has been a long time since we were inside a school locker room. We assume they are like they were when we were in school; one open room with lockers in rows. No privacy for anyone. No adults around if someone bullied or shamed you. Time to pull the curtains back and let the public see the facilities at AG high. The public needs to meet the adults who are present in these spaces protecting our kids. We need to hear more about current policies and staff members already in place who support all students having both access and safety. I hope that's The Tribune's next Reality Check. We can't have a community-based discussion on protecting our kids without all the facts. Jennifer Stover Founder of Caring Adults of Lucia Mar, C.A.L.M. My husband and I moved to SLO a couple of years ago. We were lured in by the beauty of the area and the kindness of the people. Now I am starting to wonder if that's a facade, given the hateful and intolerant discussions at the Lucia Mar Unified School District and the recent decision by the Morro Bay City Council to allow hatred to permeate a town we used to visit weekly. When we moved here, the Nazis, apparently from another county, were spreading their racist ideology, and it was wonderful to band with others to stand against them. Now a number of local residents seems to be more aligned with a racist, misogynistic president than the laws that have been laid down by California. As someone who grew up in Texas, I never imagined I would find this repugnant reminder of the home I wanted to escape from here on the Central Coast of California. I am hopeful that stores in these communities will have Pride and transgender flags year-round so those of us who believe in justice, compassion and human decency can shop with a conscience. Lauren Ornelas San Luis Obispo Currently the federal government spends about $7 trillion a year but only takes in about $5 trillion, thus going into deficit by about $2 trillion. The really bad thing is that this deficit has been added to for decades and is now reaching an astounding national debt of $37 trillion dollars. That $37 trillion is borrowed dollars that we pay interest on to the tune of nearly $2 trillion a year. So, we've been spending money for government programs and services that we could never quite afford. I may not like it, but I understand that the Republican president and Republican-controlled Congress feel the need to cut back and save. What I can't excuse is that, while cutting programs that benefit the poor, they are reducing taxes to benefit their supporters. And here's the kicker: The Republican's 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill will actually be making the deficit worse not better. Frank Merrill Morro Bay The Martin Luther King Jr. High School Memorial Scholarship Fund, now in its 56th, year honored 16 high school seniors with scholarships that will support them as their pursue their dreams. Their possibilities are limitless, thanks to our community's generosity. Mary Matakovich, board president San Luis Obispo I've been driving an electric car for almost 10 years, and love it. But sales of EVs in California are not rising fast enough to reach our goals. Surveys say that the primary reason people don't buy an EV is 'range anxiety.' But having gone 10 years down the EV road, my range anxiety is now almost non-existent. Why? High-speed chargers are ubiquitous across California. Tesla has placed superchargers about 100 miles apart on major highways, and by the end of this year, nearly all EVs will be able to charge at many of the Tesla charging stations. Furthermore, Electrify America and ChargePoint are working to place chargers every 30-50 miles apart on major highways. True, it takes a bit longer to charge my battery (20 minutes) than to fill up a gas tank, but honestly, I appreciate the extra time. It gives me a chance to stretch my legs, walk around, maybe have a bite to eat. I also feel better about spewing less pollution and carbon dioxide into the air, while I save significant money on fuel and maintenance. So let your range anxiety chill out; we're living in an EV-friendly world now. Don Gaede San Luis Obispo
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Morro Bay Council decision on Pride flag ‘erases progress'
When I joined the chorus of those speaking out against the Morro Bay City Council's resolution to rewrite the city's flagpole policy — effectively banning the flying of commemorative flags, most notably the LGBTQIA+ Pride flag — I was hopeful that our impassioned words would spark something in their hearts or minds. What I saw instead were blank expressions from five council members who already had their minds made up. They weren't open to new ideas or perspectives; they were just focused on finishing public comment. The council's unanimous decision to pass the resolution erases progress. It tells us the council isn't as open as it claims to be. It tells us the values we try to instill in our children — inclusivity, empathy, acceptance —don't matter to city leaders. And it tells visitors, 'We want your money, but you aren't really welcome here.' The council thinks the revised policy is 'neutral' and that the city's flagpole shouldn't be used to 'divide' people. To those who spoke about how the flag makes them feel safer as a queer person in a small town, it is anything but neutral. Adopting this resolution says a lot about the council, but I can assure you their actions do not represent the values of most of our community. I implore every business in Morro Bay to display a Pride flag next month to show the LGBTQIA+ community just how much they're loved and supported. Piper Fedrow Morro Bay Meathead Movers is taking the wrong path in trying to defend itself from a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Recent presidential pardons suggest that sponsoring a table at a Mar-a- Lago fundraiser or donating to one of President Trumps PAC's will do the trick, probably for a lot less than the fine. Since nobody's actually in jail or convicted, it may take as little as a $100,000 bribe, uh, donation to do the trick, rather than the $500,000 to $1 million most federal felons have to pay. Or they could go through an intermediary — a lobbyist, for example. With clear immunity granted by the Supreme Court, Mr Trump can basically pardon anyone as long as he sits in the Oval Office and gets what he wants from you. Michael Morin Los Osos I was dismayed to learn that the Morro Bay City Council had voted to cease the environmental study, which I understand is about 96% complete, for a proposed roundabout to our busy intersection at the Highway 41/ Main Street /Highway 1 intersection. I recently returned from a visit to New Zealand where roundabouts were utilized extensively to keep the traffic moving at many, many busy intersections. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to see how effective and efficient the traffic flowed through them, as well as many examples here in California as well. I ask our MB City Council members to reconsider their vote before the Tuesday meeting and change their vote and instruct staff to complete the report so the public may have their input. Carrie Filler Morro Bay As a former member of the Morro Bay City Council, I urge our current council to follow established process in considering the roundabout project at Highway 41, Main Street and Highway 1. The April 22 vote by the council majority of Jeff Eckles, Zara Landrum and Carla Wixom to forgo proper governmental process and abruptly stop the project's development with 96% of the environmental study already complete plus $12 million in one-time funding secured is an end run around the citizens. From personal experience, I know council members may not like what they hear from the public. But, as leaders, they are obligated, at the very least, to complete each step in a project's process to ensure all voices are represented. I respectfully ask for a council majority to vote ASAP to complete the 4% of work remaining on the environmental study then move on to the design phase, which guarantees opportunities for robust community engagement to ensure a safety-first approach to the expert-recommended roundabout. Christine Johnson Morro Bay Thank you to The Tribune for the straightforward and factual account of the Morro Bay roundabout proposal. The publicity it generated revealed a glaring disconnect between members of the council majority (3-2) who hold on to the idea that a conventional intersection is safer than a roundabout and the research of trained professional civil engineers. The council may be persuaded to allow a closer look at this particular locale by approving completion of the environmental study. I hope they do. Carol Swain Morro Bay Regarding May 5 letters to the editor: These people crying about Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong not signing a protest letter need to be addressed. Trump is not taking away their freedom of speech. In the same way we would not give money to a homeless person if we knew they were going to spend it on alcohol and cigarettes, we should not give money to universities if they are going to spend it on programs that violate our core principles. The universities are free to say and do whatever they want, just not with taxpayer money. Jody Langford Templeton Here's to the university students who are standing up to protest the genocide in Gaza and the USA's role in creating it. These students have the courage and moral stature we should all be exhibiting. We are complicit in America's moral degredation, looking the other way as thousands of Gazans have been killed and are still being killed with our bombs, and as the Gazan people are starved and driven from one hopeless camp to the next. We have allowed hospitals and schools to be blown to bits, while the pathetic survivors are desperate in their efforts to find shelter, water, fuel, and even places to bury their their dead. Our media can downplay all of this, but the world knows what evil we have unleashed, and American history will add this chapter to what we have done to make 'America the Beautiful' a tragic farce. Bert Bender Atascadero
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SLO County man drew a bayonet during public comment, police said. Now he's in jail
A Morro Bay man was arrested Wednesday after he unsheathed a 20-inch-long World War II bayonet during public comment at the Morro Bay City Council meeting the night before. Kiernan Cottle, 28, is a regular at Morro Bay City Council meetings. He often performs theatrical speeches at public comment about international politics or the city's response to homelessness. At Tuesday's meeting, however, he gave the room an even more dramatic show. After stepping up to the podium and giving a short introduction, he unrolled a towel to reveal a sheathed bayonet. The nearly 2-foot-long blade, which attaches to the end of a rifle for hand-to-hand fighting, belonged to his grandfather, a decorated World War II veteran, he said. 'I do not know how many of our brothers lost their lives to this blade on the banks of the Rhine, but it would not have been many — as Grandpa was a sharpshooter,' he said. 'Grandpa committed unforgivable sins to defend the world against a madness that nearly destroyed the very land that gave rise to it.' Cottle then unsheathed the blade. 'As a child, when this blade was placed in my hands and I was told what had been done with it, I was told that it was a weapon no longer. The war was won, we no longer had need of tools to kill,' he said, holding the blade above his head. 'This was forevermore to be an agricultural implement. Not a bayonet, but a machete. In my hands, many an unwarranted shrub gave way to new life with this blade.' He then made comments about people wearing 'pink triangles,' which could be a reference to gay and transgender people sent to Nazi concentration camps. They were forced to wear an inverted pink triangle on their uniforms, according to the National Center for Lesbian Rights. 'I have been lied to every day of my life — forgetting about the sins of stuffing our neighbors in camps,' Cottle said. 'I know that those who were liberated and found to be wearing pink triangles were usually thrown straight back to the dogs.' Cottle said his personal hero was the British mathematician Alan Turing, who decoded the German cipher machine Enigma for the Allied Forces during World War II. Turing's contributions to the war effort did not protect him from homophobia, however. In 1952, he was convicted of 'gross indecency' for engaging in a relationship with a man from Manchester — causing him to be stripped of his security clearance and forced to undergo hormone therapy, according to the CIA. 'Countless lives saved and an end to the war, and his government repaid him with torture,' Cottle said. 'As I diligently sanded and oiled this blade, I did not consider that it may once again shed the blood of fascists. Rather, I turned my mind to the potential for happiness that I was being forced to risk my life for.' 'I've spent my life being taught that it was wrong for me to want to be loved,' he added. On Monday, Cottle wrote a stanza from the song 'Dead Cops/America's So Straight' by MDC in chalk on his driveway, he said. His neighbors then hosed the chalk away. 'When I refused to engage in dialogue with them after the fact, my neighbors started hurling insults at me. The last thing she said was, 'you f---ing h--o,'' Cottle said. He then sheathed the blade, the chink of metal echoing in the microphone. Cottle then rolled the bayonet in his towel and sat down in the audience. When Mayor Carla Wixom paused the meeting to talk to city staff, Cottle walked out of the building. Morro Bay Police Department Cmdr. Tony Mosqueda watched the incident unfold at the meeting. 'I heard the gasps, and I could tell people were shocked,' he said. In the moment, Mosqueda did not consider Cottle's behavior to be a threat to public safety, he said. 'It appeared that he was using it as a prop for his speech, and there weren't any immediate threats to anybody in the building,' he said. Mosqueda followed Cottle out of the building after his speech and told him to take the weapon home. 'There was nothing negative from him after,' Mosqueda said. On Wednesday, the Morro Bay Police Department interviewed the City Council members and further investigated Cottle. Police then arrested Cottle on Wednesday for violating California Penal Code 171B(a3), which prohibits people from bringing a knife longer than 4 inches to a public building or meeting, Mosqueda said. As of Thursday afternoon, Cottle was held at the San Luis Obispo County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail, according to the jail booking log.
