I write to fully support the passage of Measure G in the city of Redlands.

When serving as the mayor of Redlands in the 1980s, our historic downtown was a priority. Enormous effort was put into preserving and protecting downtown, making it a vibrant place to work and play.

We all benefit from the what was started in those years, but there is still much to be done. Measure G will promote the opportunity to ensure that our downtown is a vibrant Hub for residents and visitors to live, work and enjoy all that Redlands has to offer, for decades to come.

Passage of Measure G will make it possible to provide desirable redevelopment in our downtown transit village.

This includes the Redlands mall, an intractable blight in our downtown.

Various owners have envisioned plans to build at the mall site only to find that it is not economically feasible to do so within the constraints of dated, inflexible measures.

“Living” legislative provisions allow the flexibility necessary to ensure the type of robust economic and lifestyle future demanded by a growing number of Redlanders today, and certainly those of the next generations.

We need to be aware that the state has enacted mandated housing legislation, and more is on the horizon.

To control our destiny in light of these new requirements, we need a way to mitigate the severity of what’s to come.

Measure G would assist in maintaining local control and decision-making regarding housing in our city.

Remember that this measure only applies to the three transit villages in our city; 5% of our cities total land.

Remember that we are operating under outdated, 30-year old growth control measures, the effects of which contributed to the near bankruptcy of our city during the Great Recession.

Our downtown is the heart of our community; it’s where we gather for dining, celebrating, shopping and more.

We should support this opportunity to take next steps in continuing the work that courageous folks took in the 80s to preserve and revitalize our downtown.

— Carole Beswick, Redlands

This election, think before you vote on the March ballot

Re “Confusing elections” (Letters, Jan. 30):

Please think before you vote.

Do not believe what those foolishly elected officials in Sacramento tell you, like how the huge gas taxes we pay were going to fix our roads. We are still waiting.

— Judith H. Atherton, Hemet

Republican tax cuts

Re “The $1 trillion deficit is here, likely to remain” (Editorial, Jan. 30):

I agree with your editorial that federal spending has been a rare bipartisan effort in Congress lately, contributing to the $1 trillion deficit.

But you fail to even mention the Trump-Republican tax cuts that benefited mainly upper income people and also contributed to the deficit as well.

Unlike the promises of the Republicans, that tax cut has not paid for itself.

We have bipartisan spending, but not bipartisan revenue because of the abominable tax cuts.

By the way, where are the tea party folks in this time of Trump’s trillion dollar budget deficits?

— Carl Martz, Redlands

The Democrats are running California into the ground

Re “States fiscal upgrade lagging” (Jan. 13):

Just as conservatives had warned eight years ago, California’s government super computer upgrade is a massive waste of taxpayer funds and resources.

The reporter likened it to America’s defeat in Vietnam. A more apt comparison would be the Democrats’ war on poverty, or their bullet train, or prison realignment, or Obamacare.

All of these boondoggles were emphatically endorsed in the free press.

Meanwhile, Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi have spent the last three years trying to overthrow the Trump administration, even as Los Angeles and San Francisco have become magnets for the homeless and illegal immigrants.

The Democrats’ contempt for the intellect of their constituents is telling.

— Dana Murray, Ontario