Under no circumstances should the Watsonville Municipal Airport be the sacrificial lamb for low income housing or other types of development!
Watsonville Mayor Eduardo Montesino states: “A playground for rich people to have an airplane.” Not only is this a reckless, erroneous comment, it also hints of discrimination.
I do feel that there are other viable alternatives to closing a runway and as Councilman Casey Clark stated, low income housing doesn’t contribute to the tax base.
The City Council should focus less on politics and more on attracting commercial development on W. Beach Street, Lee Road, Freedom Boulevard or Riverside Drive. Residents are currently shopping elsewhere and taking tax dollars with them.
Gary V. Plomp
Gilroy
Gary – Your letter is offensive. It’s typical of the wealthy to NOT want any low-income people around. That’s okay Gary – but how will you explain your bias against those less fortunate than you – to your Creator? I need to make this clear – I am NOT religious & religion has nothing to do with what I’m going to share with you. My reason for not being in any religion is – I had many years of experiences going to church. I was in foster care & we had to go to church at least 3 times a week. At the young age of 14 – I learned all about Hypocrisy in church. I watched as churchgoers came into the church, greeted each other warmly, often times with a hug. THEN – I watched and listened as those very same “warm” greeters – said things like – “He had an affair.” “He embezzled from his company.” “She had a child out of wedlock.” “He abuses his wife and kids” and on, and on, and on. Constant two-faced backstabbing! It was a good lesson for me to learn at a young age! So, I am NOT coming to you as a religious person – because I do NOT believe in any religions. I DO, however, KNOW that God is our Creator and we are obligated to answer His questions when we leave this realm & go up to the other realm. I “KNOW” this to be true because in 1949 I was born with a Veil of skin over my face. It’s a very rare Blessing from God & The Spirit World. The Veil is called a “Caul” and we are known as “Caul bearers.” (Jonus Salk, Sigmund Freud, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Andrew Jackson Davis, and a few others are known Caul bearers.) Because I was born with The Veil – I have easy access to The Spirit World. I KNOW things others don’t & I KNOW that we are supposed to LOVE each other, help each other, care about each other. We are supposed to be KIND, CARING, LOVING, ACCEPTING, UNDERSTANDING, PEACEFUL, etc. We are supposed to have EMPATHY & COMPASSION for each other. ALL OF US are sent DOWN here to “Do Good” for others – NOT just for ourselves! We are expected to CARE about others – not just ourselves – that’s selfish. FYI – we don’t “die.” We are SO MUCH MORE than just this physical body. When it’s our time, we leave this physical body, with all it’s diseases, mental and physical problems, down here. Then our Soul & Spirit move UP to the other realm where we are greeted with SO MUCH LOVE. When we get there, we have to admit to all the wrong we did, and then we are assigned lessons to learn. YOU, GARY, were Blessed with financial comfort – not everyone is Blessed with the Almighty Dollar Bill. It’s a test that you seem to be failing. Not just you – ALL wealthy people will definitely have to answer for their lack of caring, lack of empathy, lack of compassion and you WILL have to ADMIT to all of it. You WILL have to answer to GOD for your prejudice against those less fortunate than you. Eventually we all come back here, and our new life is affected by the things we did in our previous life. Some call it Karma. So – when you are Blessed in THIS life with financial comfort, but you don’t show Love, Empathy & Compassion for those less fortunate than you, you will NOT be Blessed with financial comfort in your next life. So, Gary – there WILL come a day in your next life when YOU won’t have financial comfort and YOU will be ignored by wealthy people. YOU will feel the sting of being unwanted just because you are less fortunate than others. It’s a lesson you WILL have to learn! I wish you well Gary, and I do hope you will read this message, and, re-read it, and re-read it. You can laugh & shake your head – but I know what I’m talking about. I’m a very old soul – been down here many times before. My cardiologist, who knows about my Veil, tells me I’m an “earth angel” because I get sent down here in times of strife – like now. My job is to spread LOVE, KINDNESS, PEACE, COMPASSION, EMPATHY, etc. to everyone and THAT’S why I try to do each & every day!
Linda, I don’t know what planet you are from, but it certainly is not the one I live on. Gary simple gave his opinion about not making changes to an airport that could impact the safety to the people that use it as part of busy business lives or for their personal recreational enjoyment. The airport has been an important part of Watsonville history. Born in Watsonville in 1935 and graduated WUHS 1954.
David Gallegos
I agree with Gary. We have the only airport in Santa Cruz county and trying again to build low income housing on it is nuts.
Watsonville has in progress two or three low income housing projectsw in building process and we must never endanger our treasured airport for housing or business. If there is a vote on it, I will along with everyone I know, vote NO on it. It’s not a rich vs poor thing as Lynda wants to tag it. There are many businesses who use the airport to ship out goods mfg and grown here in Watsonville and Santa Cruz county. Keep our airport an airport and stop the nonsense of building houses on the runway.
It’s been too long since the Loma Prieta earthquake, when the airport’s importance was clear. It helped get emergency services into south county for all of us.