Letters to the Editor for April 25, 2013

Heller wasn’t thinking about his hometown

It was a lovely Tuesday morning in Carson City. Overnight, the temperature had dropped to 46, but it would warm up to 89 by afternoon, a bit warmer than yesterday. Tomorrow was looking to be a warm late-summer day too. A nice man in his early 30s pulled into the restaurant parking lot. He hadn’t been feeling all that well, but he managed to gather his things together and make his way into breakfast.

He ended up spending only a short time inside, just 27 seconds according to the surveillance cameras. In fact, from the time he parked his van until he returned and killed himself was only 85 seconds. His MAK 90 assault rifle and several 30-round magazines let him “get off” 79 rounds, shoot 12 people. Four died, several were maimed for life. We know Eduardo Sencion wasn’t feeling quite right. He told his family, “I should have gone to work today.” Maybe it was his paranoid schizophrenia, first diagnosed a dozen years earlier.

Five hundred and eighty-nine days after IHOP, it was a chilly, windy day in Carson City. In Washington, a Carson City native was representing us in the Senate. Unfortunately, his integrity was less than we might have hoped. He voted for the gun lobby and against us, against our kids, against Carson City. Last Wednesday, 589 days after IHOP, Dean Heller voted against background checks, voted against banning high capacity magazines, voted against banning assault weapons, voted against punishing gun traffickers. Shame on Dean Heller.

Randy Carlson

Carson City

Adding parking would cause traffic backups

Seeing the front page of the paper on April 19 was a real downer. I’ve been reading, with much dismay, on how some people want to really mess with downtown Carson City. The lovely fences have always been one of the town’s attractions. I well remember when it was time for us to walk our pups downtown in Guy Yeaman’s training class and how we felt safe with that fence between us and the traffic.

On the subject of allowing parking on the street, I can only say that will certainly force me to not travel through there. How ridiculous an idea. Has anyone who thinks it a good idea seen how many drivers attempt to park just in straight-in slots? Parallel parking would certainly slow traffic for sure while waiting for many drivers to figure out which way to move the steering wheel (and no, I’m not one of them, I’ve parallel parked easily many times on the side streets in my SUV). All of this will certainly take traffic off the street. I for one will definitely take another route when visiting friends near the Governor’s Mansion.

I realize a great deal of the parking idea is to bring more people shopping at stores on Carson Street, but have you really seen very many people that wouldn’t benefit by walking to them from a side street? Even with diminished breathing I still can manage to walk where I need to. The Board of Supervisors needs to wake up on what is appealing to the people and not spending money that could well be used elsewhere.

Judy DeRyke

Minden