Search
Close this search box.
Happy Birthday to us! Try 6 months of unlimited local news for $2.

Letters to the Editor Week of April 27, 2022

Editor,

What happened to spell check? The Cascadia Daily News can avoid the “sheriff” single/double consonant confusion by using the older term, shire reeve. And that the shire reeve’s domain is a “shrievalty” as in the Shrievalty of Whatcom. Unfortunately, that raises another issue of vowel usage, “ie” and “ee.”  

Dick Conoboy

Bellingham

Editor,

Glaringly left out of the essay (Guest Commentary: Have ‘The Conversation’ about end-of-life decisions, CDN April 13) was the absolute control over truly end-of-life decisions, such as assisted suicide, for all patients by the Roman Catholic-controlled healthcare system currently solely owned by PeaceHealth and national Roman Catholic health corporations. Roman Catholic dogma is imposed on all patients.

All of it restricts end-of-life and reproductive decisions to those approved by the Church. Patient religious preferences or non-religious beliefs are not allowed. Long past time to rid our secular legal system of all religious restrictions on basic human rights. Including the right for each individual to make any decision about the creation or ending of life. This nation’s legal and law systems have too long bowed to religion in violation of individual human rights.

The national Constitution and every subsequent state constitution provides those individual human rights. The only religious restriction is to allow each individual to choose their own religion or belief system.  Nothing in any of them allows the religious corporations to impose their dogma on all patients.  

Unfortunately, the cowards responsible for the legal and law systems have allowed this denial of individual human rights to be negated through religious corporate exemptions. Expanded to absolute control over all individual patients within the health care systems.

Time to end this travesty.

Richard Morgan

Bellingham

Editor,

I read with amusement the April 13, 2022 below-the-fold article how “residents protest a sidewalk” on quiet Donovan Street. They revolted, it states, because the history of this place, quote, from a four-year resident of this neighborhood, has never had a sidewalk. They don’t seem bothered by a giant boxy four-plex being squeezed into the neighborhood, where there once was a single-family house. They didn’t seem upset by precedent and science when Padden Creek had an alleyway and lot above the creek filled with concrete and asphalted over adding more, much more, impervious surface. They are unconcerned that deer and wildlife are now cut off from habitual corridors, they are not bothered by the noise and land disturbance from high-end builders gentrifying this neighborhood. They are hopping mad there are laws to make city streets safer, but were absent when the fish-bearing Padden Creek was being negatively affected by development for profit. They don’t seem to find the irony in a tiny house on their street built by volunteer Habitat for Humanity workers, sold weeks ago, for over $800,000. Seems like what they are interested in and supportive of is a rise in their house values by having kids shooting hoops in the street.

Cutting trees above a creek and leveling houses is A-OK but a sidewalk, well that is just too far!

LL Brakke

Bellingham

Editor,

I wanted to comment on the situation the residents of the Eldridge neighborhood are dealing with. I can’t blame them for trying to slow down the traffic themselves.  For a little street cred; I have been bike commuting through that area for over 25 years. I did a quick calculation and I come up with over 5,200 round trips made through the area. I get passed at least three or four times a week by vehicles going over 50 mph. There needs to be something done on Eldridge to slow things down! 

The city should allow the TIP (Transportation Improvement Program) to be a flexible instrument. If the neighborhoods need to have things readdressed because of safety concerns, there should be a mechanism for that.  

A few years back when the Bike and Ped master plan was being put together the idea of turning Monroe street (which roughly parallels Eldridge) into a bicycle corridor was talked about. You can find a lot of information about those if you look up the term online, but basically bicycle boulevards attempt to achieve several goals: discouragement of non-local motor vehicle traffic, low speed limits, low motor-vehicle traffic volumes. There are many of these just north of us in Vancouver, British Columbia.

I mention this because the article in this paper referred to the future plan of removing street parking and putting in bike lanes on Eldridge. In my opinion, removing the cars will give the feel of a wider street and almost encourage an increase in the average speed of the through traffic. What the neighbors there over the weekend tried to do was spot on, create a bump out that narrows the roadway. The traffic pros call this a traffic calming device. The City of Bellingham has been doing this downtown. Think of the corners where they have bumped out the curb to narrow the road forcing traffic to slow down.  

City of Bellingham leaders; Please do what you can to make that area safer. You have lots of tools in your box.

Gary P. Malick

Bellingham

Editor,

This is TERRIBLE, City of Bellingham!

While what the neighbors did may have been illegal, technically, what YOU have been doing for years, standing by as if you’ve been helpless to take right action, is PERSISTENTLY IRRESPONSIBLE, and perhaps potentially literally criminally irresponsible after all this time.

Naturally, the people took the matter into their own hands because YOU HAVE REFUSED. A woman has no legs, and you do NOTHING other than to destroy the neighborhood’s own actual RESPONSIBLE self-protective actions.

Roger “Raj” Sussman

Fairhaven

Latest stories

CDN photogs, Canadian Navy laughs, foreign assistance and Fairhaven's loss
Updated March 27, 2024 1:00 p.m.
Why can't we have 'nice things?' Allow us to project a few into the universe
By Ron Judd Executive Editor
March 21, 2024 10:00 p.m.
A new policy combined with state funding will speed up Washington’s transition to all-electric school buses
By Jamie Hearn and Eric Gonzalez Alfaro Washington State Standard
March 20, 2024 10:00 p.m.

Have a news tip?

Email newstips@cascadiadaily.com or Call/Text 360-922-3092

Sign up for our free email newsletters

Preferences: