Readers’ comments: January 5, 2024

Change suggested for church’s food program
Dear editor:
I read the article under City News titled “This church Saved me,” [December 22] with great interest and compassion for the needy of our communities to have a way to make ends meet.
My travels on Towne Avenue and Foothill Boulevard on Friday mornings have shown to me the need is becoming ever greater as the line becomes longer and longer. Thusly I think there must be a better way to distribute the goods without such long lines and vehicles using costly fuel, to wait for the distribution. I suggest the church involved in the project search out help in managing the distribution.
Gerald J. Collier
Claremont

Trump must be stopped
Dear editor:
Three years ago, a violent mob, incited by then-President Trump and his allies in Congress, attacked the U.S. Capitol to try and stop the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history.
Now, three years and four indictments later, Trump is running for president again in a desperate attempt to avoid accountability. If he is reelected, his plans for a second term include weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to persecute and retaliate against his political opponents; giving license to political violence by pardoning his own crimes and the crimes of his supporters, including those committed on January 6th, and even using the military against Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. And to make sure his plan succeeds, he’ll purge the federal government of and punish anyone who doesn’t agree with him until there’s no one left to say no.
This is not the America I know. Too much is at stake for voters to allow Trump to take back power. Trump and those who enabled him must answer for their attempts to overturn the 2020 election and for the violence that followed — in the court of law and at the ballot box.
Robert Blackey
Claremont

Final cost of CUSD special election prompts incredulity
Dear editor:
The Claremont Unified School District has received the final bill from Los Angeles County for the recent special school board election in Trustee Area 4. There were several people (both online and in the pages of this paper) questioning the $273,000 election cost estimate that was given to CUSD by the county, claiming that figure was inaccurate.
Well, congratulations to those prescient people! The actual cost that must be paid by our school district came in at $490,387. You read that right. Almost a half-million dollars to satisfy the bruised ego of someone who was not selected when the school board wisely chose to appoint a person to fill the vacated school board seat rather than hold a special election.
One of the most important tasks of a school board member is to be a wise and diligent steward of the district’s resources, which are funded by our taxpayer dollars. In my nine years of serving on the school board, we remained laser focused on supporting our students with the limited resources that the state and federal funding models sent our way.
Board of Education President Bob Fass and member Alex McDonald both spoke eloquently at the December 14 school board meeting about this totally unnecessary expense that will have an impact on our students. I encourage people to listen to their remarks. CUSD, like almost the entire state, is facing declining enrollment, which in turn will mean even less money in the school district’s budget.
$490,387 of taxpayer money for a frivolous election. Shaking my head …
Nancy Treser Osgood
Claremont
Treser Osgood was a member of CUSD’s Board of Education from 2013 to 2022 and served as its president in 2016 and 2021.

Bike lanes: the saga continues
Dear editor:
I must say, the Claremont Colleges are not acquitting themselves well.
Quite astonishingly, two professors in their recent letters to the Courier, could make little in the way of a compelling case for bicycle lanes: Paul Steinberg (once) [“Study finds Claremont wants safer cycling options,” November 10] and Matt Magilke (twice) [“Bike lanes, continued,” December 15]. In addition, there were those who just can’t seem to tolerate anyone disagreeing with them. This is all a rather disappointing spectacle so far.
As people who come from higher education, the inability of professors to explain and/or make a case for their own positions is quite astonishing. If this reflects the current state of higher education, that certainly does not augur well for our future. These are, after all, the folks who are supposed to be educating the next generation. Oh, dear.
Aside from them, however, at some point we must ask ourselves, what is behind this so apparently irrational push for bicycle lanes to replace vehicle lanes? Which is what “complete streets” and “road diets” actually mean in real life, and is what the City of Claremont wants to do right now to Mountain Avenue, between Foothill Boulevard and Base Line Road.
But why? When the number of people riding bicycles is so close to statistical zero, why would our city be doing this to us? Yes, yes, I know, “the general plan.” But that is so transparently just an excuse. But an excuse to do what, exactly? To spend money? To impose a regressive anti-automobile ideology that makes no sense in any rational, logical, real world, or American liberty loving way?
So I ask the proponents of bicycle lanes, beyond an opportunity to impugn and insult those who disagree with you, seriously, what’s the real reason?
Douglas Lyon
Claremont