Letters

» Body Count Letters
I didn’t get much response from these letters, but a regular body count on the front page still seems like a good idea to me. It would surely get the public’s attention---and keep it---every week, reminding us that, as long as homeless people are dying on our streets, we haven’t solved the problem.

» Campaign 2000 Letters
Along with a dozen others, I ran for 5th District Supervisor in 2000 and tried---with little success---to get people interested in the homeless issue, among other things. It’s still rather shocking to me that progressives weren’t more interested in what is, after all, a life and death issue, even allowing for the fact that maybe I wasn’t the best possible messenger. In retrospect, I pinned too much of the blame on the Democratic Party, as the indifference was also typical of independent and Green Party “progressives.”

» Gavin Newsom Letters
Eventually Gavin Newsom swept in and scooped up the homeless issue that was left lying around by city progressives. Good for him. I supported him all the way, and he’s off to a brilliant start as Mayor of SF.

» Supporting Matt Letters
I supported Matt on a number of issues---he was usually right, after all---as long as I thought there was a chance he would do something---anything---about what I still think is the most important issue facing the city, homelessness. I finally had to give up on him, because I finally realized it wasn’t going to happen.

» Giving Up on Matt Letters

» Bay Guardian Letters
One of the big problems city progressives face is the severe shortcomings demonstrated by the SF Bay Guardian, the main source of leftist commentary, news, and analysis in San Francisco. The Guardian has been particularly bad over the years on the homeless issue, often failing to even mention the crisis on our streets while obsessing on public power.

» Homelessness Letters
When I moved back to the city in 1995, I was shocked at the sheer numbers of the homeless on the streets. I first lived in SF in 1961, and I can testify to the fact that mass homelessness on city streets is a relatively recent phenomenon. I suspect that part of the political inertia we’ve seen on the issue is because a whole generation of city dwellers has grown up with the implicit belief that mass homelessness is the normal state of affairs in SF. It’s not, but that’s another consequence of the liberal-left’s political negligence on the issue.

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