| | Published March 8th, 2017
| Letters to the Editor
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Chess Club Needs Some Mates
Dear Editor,
I recommend your readers to a chess club started at the Orinda Community Center for any interested. This is a free club for those wanting play chess. They meet every Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m. Age 8 - 10 years to senior citizens like myself are welcome.
The club needs the help of more members to keep it sustained as not everyone can attend every week. If you enjoy the mind challenge of playing chess or interested to learn how please come.
Special thanks goes to the two young women Katie and Maya who started the club as their community project.
They have sustained it through their own effort of securing the room and providing chess boards and pieces and encouraging the players.
John Nackley
Orinda, CA.
Facing Facts on Orinda
Dear Editor,
We keep reading of plans to revitalize downtown Orinda. We need to face the facts:
1) Unlike Lafayette, we are divided by the freeway;
2) Unlike Lafayette which draws shoppers from Moraga, most of our shoppers are from only Orinda;
3) Lafayette and Moraga have a combined population of slightly under 50,000 while Orinda has around 17,000, making us much less attractive to a major store like Trader Joe's wanting to locate here;
4) The theater side of town is quite walkable, but Orinda Village is spread out and much less conducive to pedestrian traffic.
Dave Sullivan
Orinda
An Open Letter to Moraga
Dear Editor,
Why did you vote for town council members? Was it because of their position on development? Was it because they seemed fiscally responsible? These are good reasons. Was it, however, because you wanted them to promote the agendas of extreme political groups? I doubt it.
And yet this is exactly what's happening. Politically extreme groups are attending town council meetings and voicing their opinions, while those of us paying the bills stay home. They are pressuring council members to adopt ordinances that promote their political agendas, while opening us up to considerable liability of which they will not share. It's a good deal for them. Why take on the risk of your agenda when you can get town council to do it for you?
To be clear, the recent issues these groups are promoting are sanctuary city and gun control. It's safe to say that these are platforms of the far left, but that is not the point. It could just as easily be mandatory school prayer. These are partisan issues that have little to no upside, but massive downside risk (lawsuits), to small local governments with very limited budgets.
We do not elect our town council members on a partisan basis. The ballot doesn't even list their political affiliations and, unless we asked them, we would likely never know. Why? Probably because we do not expect them to act in a partisan fashion as council members. Rather, we elect them for the "good reasons" stated above.
And so, it is time for those of us from the middle of the political spectrum to stand up and take notice. Attend council meetings and speak. E-mail your Council members and let them know how you feel. I'm reasonably certain the vast majority of us want them to manage our towns in a fiscally responsible manner, with cost/benefit analyses reviewed before every expenditure. Let the extremists promote their positions, but let them bear the cost and risk themselves. Otherwise, we all might find ourselves on our hands and knees, praying mandatorily, to the King of Sanctuary City, asking for our guns back.
Doug Home
Moraga
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA