Central Valley’s Growth Has Been Breathtaking

In “A Bumper Crop of Bad Air in San Joaquin Valley” (Dec. 8), retired state Sen. Dan McCorquodale laments how only City Council members and county supervisors were allowed to be on the San Joaquin Valley’s air district board. Here’s his quote: “By filling up the board with only elected officials, the cause of clean air was lost right there. It guaranteed that the only voices heard were those of industry and business.”

Wow, a politician admits that elected officials do not represent the interests of the people. Instead, they represent the interests of industry and business -- the corporations that give them millions of dollars in campaign contributions. We’re talking about Republicans and Democrats, folks. And we’re not talking just about Washington; in this case it was City Council members and county supervisors. Anyone still wondering why voter turnout is so low?

Katie Sweeney

Los Angeles

*

It is difficult for me to understand why anyone is surprised that the powers that be in the San Joaquin Valley keep planning and building without taking any account of the air that no one can breathe. The majority of the developers and the majority of the farmers in the valley are good Reagan Republicans. For those of you who do not remember the Reagan years, he is the one who had a secretary of the Interior named James Watt. Watt believed that it didn’t matter what we do to the environment because “my responsibility is to follow the Scriptures, which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns.”

When I moved here in 1978 from Norwalk, I could see the Sierra Nevada from my bedroom window nearly every day. Now I am lucky to be able to do so three or four days a month. I would love to do my part by using public transportation, but there is virtually no such thing into Fresno from the small town where I live, about 12 miles away.

Elaine Frei

Sanger, Calif.