Rent control
In its discussions on affordable housing, I’m urging the Virginia Beach City Council to take renters into account. It seems that (outside of measures that would fight homelessness, which we do desperately need) much of their priorities are focused on potential homebuyers. But how can we save up to buy a home if we can’t even afford to rent in the meantime?
For an unrenovated one bedroom, one bathroom unit outside of an optimal location in the city to cost more than $1,300 is ridiculous. There will be plenty of people saying, “it’s keeping up with market prices,” but market prices have no business being this high.
My rent has increased by more than $400 in the past two years, and my job — a Virginia Beach city job — has increased in pay by cents in the same period of time. Property managers are getting away with this because no one with the power to do so wants to stop them from pricing individuals out of housing. With increases this radical, we need a radical solution, because otherwise rental housing is just going to become less and less affordable. We need limits on rental prices. We need rent control. The whole city suffers if workers have nowhere to live.
Natasha Arnold, Virginia Beach
The truth
Re “GOP lawmakers taking aim at DEI” (Feb. 11): The article, with the subtitle, “Diversity efforts now at center of political debate at state level” was on Page 10. After reading this article from beginning to end, I was deeply disheartened, overwhelmed and searching for a way our country’s citizens can survive this coming attack from white male Republicans.
They are trying to hold back the integration of mind in America. They lost the Civil War, lost “separate but equal” and now they fear that historical truth in education will threaten their status.
They fear if young people learn the full story of our origins — that includes moving indigenous people from their lands, bringing kidnapped Africans to work the land and make our country prosper, and more — that they will lose their power and prestige as the “self-made” leaders of this nation.
We all have each other. We live together in this one nation under God with liberty, and we should strive for justice for all. Let the truth set us free.
Maureen Marroni, Norfolk
Prostate cancer
I am not a medical professional; this is just my personal experience. Decades ago I began monitoring my prostate specific antigen (PSA), a blood marker for prostate cancer. It’s only one metric of a blood test.
I monitored it for 20 years while continuing to read obituaries of men dying of prostate cancer in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. In my late 70s, with my PSA below 3 and stable, my general practitioner recommended no long monitoring it. His rationale was that at my age I would die of something else. How he knew how long I would live and the cause of my death, he never said.
I continued to monitor my PSA with a urologist. It suddenly began to increase, soon reaching 18. A biopsy revealed I had moderately aggressive prostate cancer. After exploring my options, I decided to be treated at the Virginia Commonwealth University hospital in Richmond. They used a low-radiation shaped-beam to radiate my prostate at daily sessions over several weeks. After treatment my PSA is 0.5. The side effects have been minimal.
My former general practitioner was correct after all; I’m not going to die of prostate cancer. Every older man needs to routinely monitor his PSA. Nearly all men have heard this advice, but some don’t always follow through. Importantly, don’t let a doctor tell you that future monitoring of your PSA is not necessary due to your age. It’s bad medical advice. Today, you have to be your own health advocate and stay informed. It’s your life, not your doctor’s.
William Bryant, Williamsburg
Your lying eyes
The word of the week for the White House and the mainstream media: “gratuitous.” My words in response to their word, “you’re full of it.” As my mom taught me when I was just a kid, “believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.”
So the half that we all can see as plain as day is the description in the special counsel’s report of the president, an “elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties.” I can understand the White House spinning it, but the media’s job is to report and objectively tell the truth. As has been evident for years now, a large section of the media is simply the propaganda arm of the leftist Democratic Party.
Rob Levinsky, Norfolk
Paying a price
The Democratic Party decided to nominate a man who a special counsel report found to have “poor memory” as president based on his probability of beating former President Donald Trump. We are paying a heavy price for that decision, and we got the government we deserve.
Hugh Baskette, Norfolk
