Angel
New Member
I just read “Homelessness; No home — and no rest” by Lori Teresa Yearwood (Insight, Dec. 23). I am not homeless, but I am old and, due to hip replacements, I have been looking for public places to sit down and rest for the last several years. Yearwood writes about homeless people desperate to sleep. I want to add to her common sense that San Francisco should stop the cruel removal of public benches, ledges, awnings. Caught in the rain recently at Powell and Market streets, I realized that there is nothing for those who cannot run for cover.
I had an appointment at the Flood Building for which I was early so I hobbled with my walker into its lobby. This historic office building has a sweeping entrance, marble everywhere, beautiful architectural detail.
And no place to sit.
The guard admitted benches were removed to prevent the homeless from using them. All he could offer me was the narrow edge of a concrete planter box. Later I called the building manager and was told that anyone could request that a folding chair be provided. I went back and asked the guard. He said that was not true. He repeated that benches were removed to keep away the homeless.
Jacqueline Darrigrand, San Francisco
Ship Buddha to D.C.
Regarding “Enlightenment remains elusive on mystery of Buddha statue” (Page One, Dec. 25): If there is any good karma remaining in our country, then the missing replacement Buddha statue that was intended to be placed in Gump’s before its closure has now arrived in a place surely in need of enlightenment: the Oval Office.
Raneesh Patel, Foster City
Accept thy neighbor
Regarding “Solidarity with casual churchgoers” (Opinion, Dec. 24): If only E.J. Dionne Jr.’s lyrical defense of “Chreasters” — Christians who attend church services only on Christmas and Easter — would be taken to heart by regular churchgoers. Verily, even as secularization proceeds apace in our society, most Chreasters seem to feel that Christmas imparts “a picture of a cosmos capable of love.” Too bad so many devout Christians can’t be more accepting of Chreasters and other nonbelievers who demonstrate unconditional love for others through charitable endeavors and other good works.
I’m neither a Chreaster nor a Christian. Still, I pray for a day when devout souls no longer fixate on other people’s professed religious beliefs to determine their societal worth.
Kendra Strozyk, Cameron Park
Real housing solutions
Good governance is not anti-housing: I have expressed deep concerns about the CASA Compact’s overreaching, ill-conceived solutions to the Bay Area’s housing dilemma (“Anti-housing lobby persists,” editorial, Dec. 22). The compact fails to identify or propose real solutions to the causes of the current jobs/housing imbalance. It completely ignores the adverse financial impacts on public safety, schools and infrastructure that fall on local government.
It is unfortunate that such expressions are depicted as anti-housing. Rather, those of us who raise issues about the compact would not be doing our jobs if we sit quietly while the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Legislature usurp local authority with halfway solutions that will have foreseeable and severe negative consequences on our communities.
The compact strives to urbanize all small communities and destroy the unique character that each has developed. It ignores the wishes of millions of people who have worked hard and sacrificed to achieve the dream of living in a suburban community where they want to raise a family. The compact was written by a group selected by a few members of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which is tasked with planning, financing and coordinating transportation for the Bay Area. The compact is a clear overreach of that authority. It proposes $1.5 billion in new local taxes for the next 15 years, to be spent on housing by a new, expensive and unelected bureaucracy.
Failing to recognize and address what has caused the jobs/housing imbalance is plainly irresponsible (hint: it is not zoning). We need to solve those issues with due consideration for public safety, schools, water, and other infrastructure responsibilities that are carried out by elected officials.
Lynette Lee Eng, Los Altos
Note: Eng, mayor of Los Altos, says she is responding as an individual and not as a representative for the city.
Yes, we need cars
So the Chronicle would back a Big Brother control system on building new housing . Sorry, but get out of San Francisco and even low-income people drive cars. Density of housing has increased in the suburbs due to higher land costs. But if the infrastructure can’t support more people and housing, then you have gridlock on the streets. Perhaps part of the solution is for these big tech companies to cap their employment in the Bay Area as they seem to be the drivers of the huge increase in housing costs and demand.
Andrew Smith, Santa Rosa
Thank you
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/letterstoeditor/article/Letters-to-the-editor-No-refuge-from-the-rain-in-13494558.php