Mailbag: Flattering letter about the governor overlooks his many mistakes during the pandemic

Newport Beach resident Lynn Lorenz has fawned over Gov. Gavin Newsom in her recent letters to local media extolling how the governor has saved the health of California by his “quick and resourceful actions” regarding the COVID-19 response (“Mailbag: If you’re healthy in Newport you may want to thank Gov. Gavin Newsom,” May 26). The author is ill-informed and simply wrong.

Here are some of those “quick and resourceful actions” by Newsom:

• His March 18, 2020 letter to President Trump stating that 25.5 million Californians will be infected with COVID-19 over an eight-week period.
• His proposed expenditure of nearly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars for facemasks with a secretive Chinese company.
• His plan for 75 million taxpayer dollars for stimulus payments to undocumented immigrants.
• His politically driven, “ready, shoot, aim” myopic (literally) decision on April 30 to hard-close all Orange County beaches with inaccurate and misleading telephoto evidentiary support resulting in justified lawsuits by local cities.
• His commandeering St. Vincent Hospital and the old Sacramento ARCO Arena for the misjudged, never-to-appear COVID-19 tsunami.
• His gross miscalculation in the appropriation of 16,000 hotel and motel rooms for our homeless population.
• His joining four governors in the delusional request of Congress that it fund $1 trillion in pandemic relief for poorly managed state and local governments.

Despite the author’s blind adulation, it is clear that the governor’s “quick and resourceful actions” have been anything but.

Paul Watkins
Newport Beach

Governor harmed the economy for little reason

Gov. Gavin Newsom told Californians to stay at home in order to flatten the curve of the coronavirus outbreak in order to not overwhelm our hospitals. But hospitals in California were never overwhelmed. Emergency rooms have been largely empty, and the state’s 422 hospital ICUs are not at capacity with COVID-19 patients.

While California politicians and the news media are still hysterical over the coronavirus, it’s as if the annual seasonal flu never happened this year.

So, while this pandemic is real, so is the reality that our governor continues to extend the lockdown on several businesses. I for one will not be thanking Newsom for shutting down our state’s economy. I will not thank him for allowing liquor stores and pot shops to remain open while independent mom and pops will never open their doors again.

I will not thank Newsom when he tries to repeal Proposition 13, which will further escalate the decline of businesses in California.

If you want to stay home, that should be your own personal choice. My choice has been to support local and keep my employees off the government “dole and control” program.

Peggy V. Palmer
Newport Beach

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