Palm Desert Council should boost its restaurants, not hamstring them
Restaurants are an important part of the fabric of Palm Desert, but like many businesses, they struggle to survive as they face higher wages, increased costs of food and inflated prices for everything from kitchenware to tablecloths. The outdoor decks that popped up to save our restaurants during COVID offered a lifeline that's still essential. Other cities had them first, but ours caught up to add an unexpected and delightful ambiance to outdoor dining all over town.
But Palm Desert City Council’s consideration to charge a “rental fee” for the space occupied by the decks feels unnecessarily burdensome and preposterous. Public streets are exactly that — public. They're funded by taxpayers and restaurants are taxpayers, too. The decks provide higher capacity, which equates to more diners, more revenue and more taxes back to the city. Isn’t that enough, already?
Street maintenance is supported by multiple streams of revenue, and in no way does council need extra cash flow for that (certainly the decks aren’t shortening the life of the asphalt beneath them). Deck safety and insurance make a lot of sense, but extra charges for the use of public space is just too grasping.
Menu prices are skyrocketing and loading on fees won’t help one bit.
Barbara Johns, Palm Desert
Dumping the demoralizing term ‘starter home’
Implied societal expectations can be crushing on the soul. Terms and ideas with no value or advantage are rampant in today’s world and it’s time we call them out and dump them.
Young people are, justifiably, discouraged when it comes to home buying. Saving for a huge down payment seems like an insurmountable task. Interest rates are high, available homes scarce and large mortgage payments loom for decades. They learned about the infamous 2008 crash; they experienced the uncertainties and fallout of the COVID years and are now all too familiar with the term inflation. Many have decided that it’s simply easier and safer to rent. The American dream of home ownership has been crushed.
Instilling the idea that society sees the first home purchase as entry-level with an expectation of an upgrade at some point is demoralizing. Purchasing a home should be accompanied by a feeling of accomplishment without a lingering cloud that something bigger and better must follow. Our younger generations deserve better. We can alleviate this entirely unnecessary pressure by eliminating this dated, nonsensical term.
Anja Walker, Twentynine Palms
Where is the common sense in the current protests?
From my 93-year-old common sense: I have been through three wars and served in the Second World War to servicemen in Hollywood canteens. Your newspaper shows a Palestinian released from Israel. Have you seen any or all of the prisoners they kidnapped Oct. 7? Hamas was the aggressor and killed many young couples and babies in the kibbutz. They won’t release those poor people being held and tortured. Where is the common sense in all of this?
And now our darling college students tearing up colleges? Where are the parents? $70,000 a year at Columbia University? The news showed many protestors are not students; they are coming onto campuses with guns, bats and tasers, some in their 40s and 50s. We all know rioters are being helped. If Hamas would cooperate and release all prisoners, there might be a chance of peace. Hamas is the aggressor and yet Israel is being blamed. Please explain this to a commonsense person.
One last comment, President Joe Biden said we must help our police officers with more protection. Well to start with, keeping Terry Clark Hughes Jr. (who had a long history of criminal activity) in prison instead of letting him out every time he broke the law — that would mean four police officers alive today. Those types of criminals don’t ever change. Throw them in the clink and throw away the key.
Roe Polito, Palm Springs
Protest war, but do it without violence
Colleges and universities should be safe places for academic achievement. They are not places where learning is disrupted because students or outsiders choose to protest our government's policies. Violent protests have no place on campus or public spaces. In fact, the recent protests of our government's policies regarding Gaza and Israel are harmful in both the short run and the long run. In the short run, students who are arrested will have an arrest record for their future and may be unhireable in certain government or private businesses. The protests will also alienate many Americans from a favorable attitude toward the Palestinian cause and harm our current administration in the 2024 elections.
Unfortunately, Netanyahu has gone about revenge in a very violent and costly human casualty way. War is wrong in all instances and innocent people pay the heaviest price. In WW2 the Allies bombed Germany and killed millions of German civilians. Protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine or in Sudan where millions of people are dying due to military conflict and in China and Myanmar minority populations are forced to flee or die in their homes. Protest war but do it without violence. Violence begets violence and has future consequences.
Michael McGinley, Palm Springs
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Desert Council should boost its restaurants, not hamstring them
