Will we see a wall of warehouses from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea?
Imagine a wall of warehouses
I live in Cathedral City, but Frank Tysen's column and Jerry Marshak's letter in The Desert Sun regarding the Palm Springs City Council changing the zoning ordinance are downright scary.
Yes, the warehouses have come right up to Beaumont's borders and the Moreno Valley area is awash with them. But on a recent weekend, I had occasion to go to the Riverside National Cemetery, and once you turn south on the 215 it is, OMG, a horror to behold.
Miles of those huge warehouses stretch across the horizon as far as you can see. If you haven't traveled this route recently, please do — and the Palm Springs council members should be ordered to do so.
If these members believe this is OK to behold here in our valley, they should be ordered to move next to them and endure not only the traffic, etc., but the horror of looking at them for the rest of our lives.
We have adjusted to the windmills and some solar farms (which are land surfaced and are hard to see), but huge warehouses are another matter. If you think there will only be a few, I'll bet in five years they will be wall to wall clear to the Salton Sea.
If we are going to have to endure these, the best suggestion I have is that there be a rule that every one of these half-mile-square mega-tops be covered in acres of solar panels so there will be some benefit to the local populace.
Dennis Sieting, Cathedral City
Make the unvaccinated pay for their own medical care
We could soon have approval for anyone over 6 months old to receive free COVID vaccinations. Already, anyone over 5 years old can.
In spite of this, many have been unwilling to be vaccinated.
In a recent Desert Sun edition (front page, Jan. 26), it was disclosed 541 Coachella Valley residents died of COVID-related issues last year. And 505 of those who tragically died — 93% — were unvaccinated.
In Canada, the province of Quebec has instituted a significant tax on all unvaccinated residents to pay for part of the cost of caring for them. Since then, the vaccination rate has jumped significantly.
Great idea. I propose having people pay personally for a portion of the cost of hospitalization if they are unvaccinated. I believe vaccination rates would increase dramatically. Our best opportunity to return to a normal life is widespread vaccination.
Walter Keating, Indio
Time to rename everything
Further on the proposal to remove the statue of Frank Bogert:
It's time to rename our states. Most of the East Coast states, such as New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas were named after people or places in Great Britain, who we defeated twice after they invaded us.
Many of the Midwestern states such as Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and the Dakotas were named after Indian tribes or locations that we stole. Many of the Western states such as California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, which are named in Spanish, were stolen by us from Mexico.
How about Washington? That's a no brainier.
The problem is what do we name the states? We can't name them after animals because we either enslave or eat them all. We can't name them after people because everyone has either disagreed with or offended someone.
My suggestion is that we name each state with a number — say 1, 2, 3 ... 50 — with each depending on when they joined the union. In the case of the original 13 states, they could play games of HORSE or poker to determine the order. As a result, no one would have an excuse to be offended, except for those who cannot count to 50.
George Orwell would be proud.
Sam Winett, Palm Desert
Screen reading not good for the eyes
In response to the letter by Nancy Ferguson, I'd like to add one more reason for not wanting the newspaper online.
Using computer screens for a long time is bad for the eyes. I already wear trifocals and am an avid reader.
The computer screen tires my eyes so much more quickly, and after years of computer use at work as an RN, my eyes can't tolerate it. And I'm sending this by cell phone, so we're not too old — just smarter to protect our eyes.
Claudia Ferguson, Cathedral City
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: A wall of warehouses from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea?
