Other Issues Letters

There are issues other than homelessness to deal with in SF, and these letters deal with some of them.

Opportunism on the Left
Published: SF Examiner
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2004
To: Editor
From: Rob Anderson
Editor:
When a minor party lacks principles, it has no reason to exist. Ralph Nader, Peter Camejo, and the Green Party have revealed themselves as just another group of opportunists trying to take advantage of a political crisis triggered by a right-wing millionaire. That Matt Gonzalez should lend his good name to this shameful process is troubling.

Get Ads Off Bus Windows
Subject: Hate to Be a Pest...
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2001
From: Rob Anderson
To: Matt Gonzalez
Matt:
…Here's a "small" issue I mentioned a few times during the campaign but I haven't heard about any action/discussion: the advertising on the sides of Muni buses. I'm sure Muni makes a lot of money on the ads, but they demonstrate management's contempt for Muni passengers. Sitting inside and looking through one of those signs, you see a beautiful city transformed into a grid, like one of those Chuck Close paintings. The moral of the story: schmucks who don't own SUVs and have to ride the bus aren't entitled to a clear view of what is supposedly their beautiful city, too. Is the amount of money Muni makes on these ads enough to justify obstructing passengers' view of their city? Is any amount of money enough to justify it?

Still Ads on the Windows (in SF Examiner, June 16, 2004)
From: Rob Anderson
Subject: Muni Advertising
Date: June 15, 2004
To: letters@sfexaminer
Editor:
It’s good that the ads on Muni buses raise much-needed revenue for the city. On the other hand, once the Muni’s deficit problems are over, we should make sure they no longer take ads that cover the windows, obstructing passengers’ view of our beautiful city. We Muni riders want to do our share in dealing with the system’s red ink, but, once the deficit is gone, we expect to enjoy an unobstructed view of our city from inside Muni buses.

Rob to Ken
Subject: Pity the Poor Middle Class
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001
From: Rob Anderson
To: Ken Garcia
Ken:
The idea that middle-income people should have some kind of right to buy a home in SF is ridiculous. I grew up in Marin, but does that mean I should have the right to buy a house in Belvedere? You neglect to mention an important factor in this whole TIC-Condo housing debate---renters! The supervisors are responding to a large chunk of constituents on this issue, people who rent and will probably never be able to buy in SF, i.e., people like me. These folks work in the hotels and restaurants, teach, drive buses and cabs, etc. The supervisors see the need to maintain a large stock of rental housing for people like us, and their political instincts are sound: we are sensitive to housing issues and we vote in large numbers. They won't be punished politically for their "arrogance" because they have a keener sense of the political realities in their districts than you do, Ken!
Speaking of housing, you would be doing a great public service if you took another look at homelessness in the city. Your columns on the homeless in the parks years ago were like floating a turd in the punchbowl of liberal SF. But we need some follow-up. Why is it that in "progressive" SF we can't deal with homelessness? The Democratic Party and the left continue to fail miserably on the issue. Instead, one gets the impression that advocates for the homeless prefer to indulge in self-righteous posturing than actually trying to solve the problem. And the mayor essentially washed his hands of the issue early in his first term when he realized that it was an issue not conducive to sound-bite solutions. We need to get the walking wounded off the streets, whether through vagrancy laws or other forms of "intervention," while providing emergency housing and services to those who can use them.

A “Replacement” is a Scab
Subject: "Replacements"
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001
From: Rob Anderson
To: letters@sfchronicle.com
Editor:
It's hard to tell from reading the Sporting Green that SF used to be a great union town. Yet all the news coverage of the strike-breaking "replacement" referees on the NFL's opening day seems to accept the legitimacy of---dare one say it?---scabs!
Scott Ostler on the "replacement" refs in yesterday's Sporting Green: "Do your best and get almost all of them right. That's good enough for football." Not good enough for any industry. The "replacement"/scabs got the most important thing wrong by helping management break a strike. Would Ostler be as philosophical if a "replacement" took his job when his union goes out on strike?

Yee is Good for the Jews
From: Rob Anderson
To: letters@sfindependent.com
Sent: Feb. 2, 2002
Subject: Yee is Good for the Jews
Editor:
Seems like the only thing Leland Yee has done rightly is hire a Jew as an aide, that is, Edmund Jew!
But seriously, folks, the moral of the Yee’s political problems seems to be that being Asian-American is not enough, that voting along ethnic lines---or gender, or sexual preference lines, for that matter---is a false path.
Besides, it’s not clear how the Asian-American political agenda differs from that of non-hyphenated Americans.

The New Union Square is Great (in SF Chronicle, Aug 3, 2002)
From: Rob Anderson
To: letters@sfchronicle.com
Sent: August 2, 2002
Subject: The New Union Square
Editor:
Tori Thompson (Letters to the Editor, Aug. 1) and other correspondents are so wrong about the new Union Square one wonders if they’re looking at some other city park. Thompson’s claim that the old Union Square “was a warm and inviting park” is laughable. In fact it was a derelict, virtually unusable space. The new Union Square is a great improvement and has probably been visited by more people already than the old Union Square was in a whole year.

The Oppressed Middle Class and Proposition R
From: Rob Anderson
To: letters@sfexaminer.com
Sent: October 23, 2002
Subject: Proposition R
Editor:
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that the city has invented a new category of the oppressed---middle class people who can’t afford to buy property in San Francisco. Boo-hoo! Where’s my hanky!
While the left obsesses on public power and the middle class whines about buying property, the army of the homeless grows on city streets. Condo-ing off rental units will only aggravate the situation, not to mention creating a housing shortage for working people who will never be able to buy here or anywhere else.

The Semantics of Progressivism
From: Rob Anderson
To: pjtips@sfexaminer.com
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 8:22 PM
Subject: Progressives
PJ:
Quite right to question what “progressive” means. My definition: A San Francisco progressive is a liberal with attitude. They like to think they are more radical than mere liberals, but they are deluded about that, as they are about many other things.
The real question progressives/liberals need to answer is this: are they going to play an obstructive role vis a vis Proposition N[Care Not Cash], or are they going to help the rest of us make it work?

Parking Meter Hysteria
From: Rob Anderson
To: letters@sfchronicle.com
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2003
Subject: A Nickel-and-Dime Idea
Editor:
The emotion and over-the-top rhetoric (“pure folly,” “ridiculous,” supervisors’ meetings are “the closest thing to a circus”) is out of proportion to the significance of the issue. Compare the parking meter editorial, for example, to the measured tone of the one the next day on the political struggle over Care Not Cash, an issue over which such emotion would be more appropriate.
And you are simply wrong on the meters-in-the-park issue: the cars are already in the park; why not make motorists pay for the privilege of driving into what you rightly call “one of the West’s greatest man-made treasures”?
Denigrating the board’s meetings as circus-like is inaccurate and demeans the political process. The present board’s meetings are conducted rationally and fairly, regardless of what one thinks of the results of the process.

Punk Progressives
From: Rob Anderson
To: letters@sfexaminer.com
Sent: October 29, 2003
Subject: Punk Progressivism
Editor:
Chris Daly is what I call a “punk progressive.” Being a Punk Progressive means never having to say you are sorry or wrong---about breaking windows during “peace” demonstrations, creating a monthly traffic jam downtown (Critical Mass), or throwing pies at public figures you don’t like.
The progressive community seems to lack mature leadership, now that Matt Gonzalez has evidently decided that he’d rather be SF’s Dude in Chief, not its mayor.

Punk Progressives Strike Again
A Letter to SF Chronicle Magazine
Editor:
Adam Werbach’s “philosophy” (The Public Good, SF Chronicle Magazine, April 4, 2004) is opportunistic and morally questionable: “Act now, apologize later when you’re trying to do something right…” The implication: as long as your heart is pure, you don’t have to worry about means and ends. Supervisor Daly’s appointment of Werbach to the PUC was a violation of the democratic process. Werbach should apologize to the people of San Francisco and resign.

Rob Anderson
San Francisco