Letters to the Editor for June 5, 2026

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We received several letters to the Editor this week. Click a link below to jump to that letter.

• Concerns over potential BART sales tax increase ^[2]
• Moms Demand Action: Standing against gun violence ^[3]
• A shoutout for Suffs, a musical on the American women’s suffrage movement ^[4]
• Concerns over pop-up food vendors ^[5]
• Shelter in Peace helps landlords and tenants ^[6]

Concerns over potential BART sales tax increase

To the Editor:

I am concerned by the fact that we are being asked to vote for a 0.5 % sales tax increase to subsidize BART and other transit agencies, based on what they are calling lower ridership. I think the discussion about this should include a question as to whether the Bay Area really needs 27 transit authorities, and all of the separate bureaucracies that go with it.

Here is a link to an interesting website: All Aboard Bay Area ^[7]. The headline is, “27 Transit Authorities, One Mission.” So I ask the question, why are so many separate agencies necessary? I would suggest consolidation as a way forward, far preferable than raising sales tax.

I would welcome some investigative reporting on this issue in advance of the November election, when it will likely be on the ballot.

Marilyn Pomeroy

Moms Demand Action: Standing against gun violence

To the Editor:

Every day in California, children and teenagers lose their lives to gun violence. Every. Single. Day. As a volunteer and local group leader with Moms Demand Action ^[8], I am writing to invite our Alameda community to join a national movement this weekend—Wear Orange Gun Violence Awareness Prevention Weekend, June 5-7, 2026. June is National Gun Violence Prevention Awareness Month.

Wear Orange began when friends of Hadiya Pendleton—a 15-year-old Chicago girl shot and killed just one week after performing at President Obama’s second inauguration—asked people to wear orange in her honor. Hunters wear orange to signal their presence and protect life. We wear orange to demand the same for every person in this country: the right to live.

Gun violence is not a distant problem. It follows our children to school, to parks, and into their own homes. It cuts short futures we will never get to see. And the heartbreak of it is that so much of it is preventable.

Here is how you can take action:

1. Wear orange this weekend. Put on an orange shirt, tie, scarf, or pin to show Alameda—and the world—that you believe every life deserves protection. Post a photo on social media with #WearOrange and help us spread the message.
2. If you are a gun owner, store your firearms safely. Secure storage is not a political statement—it is responsible ownership. Guns that are locked and unloaded are inaccessible to children, reduce the risk of suicide, and prevent theft. I urge every gun owner in our community to invest in a gun safe or lock today. It is one of the most powerful steps you can take to protect the people you love.
3. Get involved. Awareness is where it starts, but action is where change happens. If you want to join the fight for gun violence prevention right here in Alameda, text ORANGE to 64433 to connect with Moms Demand Action and learn how you can make a difference in our community.

This weekend, let’s fill Alameda with orange. Let’s have conversations with our neighbors. Let’s commit—together—to a future where no parent has to bury a child because of gun violence.

Our kids are worth it.

With hope and determination,
Aubyn Redmond
Volunteer and Local Group Leader, Moms Demand Action

A shoutout for Suffs, a musical on the American women’s suffrage movement

To the Editor:

Indivisible Alameda and All Rise Alameda would like to thank the Alameda Theatre and Cineplex for showing the amazing musical Suffs on Wednesday, May 27. This fabulous, free, and fierce musical tackles the seeding and growth of the suffragist movement, capturing the sacrifices, the dedication, and the constant work of women to gain women’s right to vote. Open to all, the free presentation was made available with the support of the League of Women Voters, Northern California Public Media, Great Performances, and PBS. Thank you!

For those who aren’t familiar, the suffragist movement pushed for the right to vote for women and led to the 19th Amendment, prohibiting federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote based on sex. Passed by Congress in 1919, then ratified by a single vote—never believe your vote doesn’t count—in 1920, this amendment was a massive step in a long fight for equal rights. It took another 45 years and the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to fully secure the voting rights guaranteed by the 15th and 19th amendments. It took one administration, in 2026, to strip the Voting Rights Act of any teeth, and the right to vote for women is targeted next.

If you would like to watch Suffs, it is available, for free, streaming on PBS. As always, don’t forget to “keep marching on” and VOTE!

In appreciation,

Mary Claire Neuman
All Rise Alameda

Shalom Bruhn
Indivisible Alameda

Concerns over pop-up food vendors

To the Editor:

I’m puzzled by what appears to be a conflict in Alameda’s efforts to make roadways safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Last weekend, when I saw a pop-up food vendor set up at a stop sign inside a striped public street space along Shore Line Drive. I was very surprised. How is this permitted in such a highly traffic- and pedestrian-congested thoroughfare? Or was it?

I love entrepreneurial spirit but this is not acceptable when once-wide venues are becoming increasingly narrow, leading to a new set of safety and parking related issues. We don’t need these vendors making it worse.

Kin Robles

Shelter in Peace helps landlords and tenants

To the Editor:

Imagine a local nonprofit, equally beneficial to landlords and to tenants. For the past nine years, Alameda’s Shelter in Peace ^[9] has served both groups equally well, helping over 170 individuals to secure transitional housing for between six months and the 364-day limit for transitional housing’s rent-control dispensation in the cities of Alameda and Berkeley.

Shelter in Peace (SIP) collaborates with a system of Accompaniment Organizations, submitting applications for families. SIP carefully screens and selects prospective tenants for a property and then co-signs the rental agreement with the new family and guarantees that the rent will be paid and that the family will move out on time.

SIP’s careful tenant pre-screening and co-signed rental agreements—assuring  monthly rent payments on time and in full—are boons to a property owner. So is SIP’s commitment to keep an eye on the care of the property. This commitment to respond to any property concerns expressed by the tenants extends to sponsoring the first $250 of required repairs.

SIP also ensures that the tenants commit to leaving the property at the end of their negotiated term, so there’s no need for eviction proceedings. Plus, SIP cleans the unit when the family moves out and readies it for the next rental family.

Finally, SIP maintains a list of individuals and families in need, from which appropriate new tenants can be selected when tenant(s) move out.

Benefits for tenants are equally significant. SIP serves men and women from local refugee, immigrant, low-income families, from seniors through young adults, including families with teens, toddlers, and newborns. SIP helps them to land safely, so they eventually can move on to less dependent arrangements.

In addition to co-signing the rental agreement, SIP’s Accompaniment Organizations further support tenants’ development of the knowledge and skills required in the complex transition awaiting them, providing guidance and training in matters as diverse as signing up for services and planning effective household budgets.

SIP fully furnishes the rental and watches over the property to make sure that it is cared for. As an additional support, all furniture and household amenities (cookware, dishes, etc.) are gifted to the tenants, if desired, at the end of their occupancy.

Innumerable safely sheltered nights have been secured through the compassionate collaboration of Shelter in Peace and willing property owners. An outgrowth of Welcome The Stranger, a project originally founded in Alameda, Shelter in Peace continues to seek new collaborators among property owners and those willing and able to form Accompaniment Organizations.

The need for adequate shelter among refugees, immigrants, and low-income individuals and families is perhaps insatiable. It is our hope that the condition of heart and of mind required to respond generously to their suffering is similarly so.

If you are ready to step up and play your part, please email Anna Rossi at [email protected] ^[10]. She founded both Shelter In Peace and Welcome The Stranger.

Earl Jon Rivard, Jr.
Member of the Board, Shelter in Peace, Spring 2026