4 Messages & Send letters to Santa Cruz Weekly, letters@santacruz.com or to Attn: Letters, 115 Cooper St., Santa Cruz, 95060. Include city and phone number or email address. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity or S E P T E M B E R 2 6 - O C TO B E R 2 , 2 0 1 2 factual inaccuracies known to us. EDITORIAL EDITOR AB3D3 >/:=>=:7 spalopoli@santacruzweekly.com EDITOR-AT-LARGE B@/17 6C97:: thukill@santacruzweekly.com STAFF WRITERS 53=@57/ >3@@G gperry@santacruzweekly.com 8/1=0 >73@13 jpierce@santacruzweekly.com @716/@2 D=< 0CA/19 richard@santacruzweekly.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 16@7AB7 A163C3@ EDITORIAL INTERN 8/<3::3 5:3/A=< :7:G AB=716344 CONTRIBUTORS @=0 0@3HA/C: ; 2/D7A ;716/3: A 5/63< 93AA:3@ 93::G :C93@ A1=BB ;/11:3::/<2 /D3@G ;=/C: E/5<3@ ART & PRODUCTION DESIGN DIRECTOR 9/@/ 0@=E< PRODUCTION OPERATIONS COORDINATOR ;3@1G >3@3H GRAPHIC DESIGNER B/07 H/@@7</193@ ilana@santacruz.com 0@/<2=< 1==C:1@/<= Desal Affects All Jim Jonesâ€™s letter of Sept. 18 about the â€œSecret of Desalâ€? is certainly as provocative as he suggested it would be. Letters that reveal secretsâ€”even if those secrets are factually incorrectâ€”usually do get folks excited. There are many errors in the Jones letter. Most glaring and most troubling is his assertion that the aquifer that is in danger of destruction by saltwater intrusion belongs solely to the Soquel Creek Water District. That aquifer is also under the City of Santa Cruz water service area, and is an important source of water for City water users, too. We all need to participate in protecting it. Jones also simply makes some stuff up. For instance, it is just incorrect to say the City Council has said, â€œDesal is the best answer. Just trust us.â€? The City Council unanimously voted to put the question of desal to the voters in our community... and the Council did that a few months BEFORE the right to vote on desal signature gatherers qualified their measure for the ballot. Of course, no provocative letter around here can do without a line like this: â€œReal estate agents, landscapers, restaurateurs, building contractors, retailers, wealthy people who own large amounts of income and commercial property county-wide: they would all suffer.â€? For provocative letters, it is always important to make sure the community â€œunderstandsâ€? that moneyed interests might get something out of the thing the letter-writer opposes. Never mind that, in a major drought, pretty much everyone would suffer and many treasured resources would suffer: your gardens and my yard and my neighborâ€™s hotel job and everyoneâ€™s parks would suffer in Santa Cruz and in mid-county if we have a serious multiyear drought. The suggestion that only midcounty has a problem is dead wrong. I have much respect for many of those in the community who question the need for desal. It is an issue that needs careful scrutiny. But arguments against desal also require similar scrutiny. It is so important that we get this rightâ€”and misleading people will not contribute to that effort. DON LANE Mayor, Santa Cruz The Party House Problem What a fantastic, clear, comprehensive and accurate article Georgia Perry wrote on Rowdy Houses (â€œSanta Cruz Guide,â€? Sept. 22) and party protocol for those students who live in town. As a 32-year resident of the West side (and UCSC employee for that time), I applaud your writing on this topic. UCSC has developed a wonderful renterâ€™s website about living in town and I hope everyone is aware of it. Re: parties, hereâ€™s some additional background: 1. Homeowners and other residents are not necessarily always upset with the students, though it may seem that way. We â€œgetâ€? that a break is welcome from studying, but we have been frustrated by landlords who live elsewhere and donâ€™t respond to weekly calls at 2 am to please intervene on noise and party trash in front yards. The landlords werenâ€™t interested in enhancing the neighborhood community even though they owned a house on the block. We had to leave messages on an answering machine that had a young kidâ€™s voice on it and sometimes heard back. Sometimes there have been assaults on women UCSC students as a result of the parties. We hate to see that. 2. The eternal Santa Cruz problem on or off campus: Parking, parking, parking. If your party guests take up the limited spots available on the street, it gets to be a challenge for nine months to return home and not find parking at 10 or 11pm. Seek creative and safe transportation solutions. 3. If you leave the party at midnight or after, please be aware that there is something about the geology here that makes voices reverberate all over the neighborhood at 2 am as you walk down the street. Wouldnâ€™t it be great if that $25,000 that UCSC spends for extra police in Fall Quarter could go instead into something positive, rather than enforcement, like enhancing the UCSC University Library collections? KAREN MOKRZYCKI Retired UCSC Librarian