Ken Garcia hit the nail on the head in his commentary “Proposed affordable-housing mandates would cause more inequity than benefit” (The Examiner, Feb. 19). The City’s approach to making housing more affordable for the working class is indeed hypocritical, convoluted and counterproductive.

I must emphasize that property taxes and other government imposed fees are one of the major drivers in the cost of housing in San Francisco and other cities in California. As an example, the actual construction costs for a modest one-bedroom apartment are at least $300,000. Even with the tax limits provided by Proposition 13, the property taxes on this apartment would run $4,500 per year, or significantly more than two months rent. In addition to property taxes, The City imposes other fees and surcharges on rental properties, which further drive up the cost. The City has already received a huge windfall in increased property taxes from the real estate boom — with no corresponding increase in the quality of city services I might add — and therefore a large portion of this money should be rebated to its residents.

However, Supervisor Chris Daly, the other Board of Supervisors members and Mayor Gavin Newsom have never proposed any reduction in property taxes or any of the other city-imposed fees as a means of reducing the cost of housing. Instead of continuously issuing mandates to private developers to build affordable housing, the board and the mayor should stop imposing such a huge economic burden on builders, renters and owners in the first place.

Galen L. Dutch

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San Francisco

Muni study doesn’t get it

They spent $2 million and 18 months to form the conclusion that bus stops need to be removed (“Muni study breaks down priorities,” The Examiner, Feb. 19)? Huh? Any moron can see that when you have a bus stop on every single block the entire system is going to run like molasses. Why the hell don’t they just remove half the bus stops?

Christian P. Foote

San Francisco

Obama raised with advantages

In Michael Zonta’s letter to the editor Feb. 18 he says, “[Sen. Barack] Obama spent his young learning how to organize in the streets of Chicago,” which is incorrect information according to the books Obama has written himself.

He was born in Hawaii, spent a few years in Indonesia as a child, returned to Hawaii to be raised by his maternal grandparents and attended the very private and esteemed Punahou Academy, went on to Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years before earning his degree from Columbia in 1983 and entering Harvard Law School.

He only arrived in Chicago in 1985 — at 25 years old — hardly in his youth, to become a community organizer for three years.

How many in the working class can send their children to these private schools?

Marialice Dockus

San Francisco

Berkeley rightly triggers scorn

The city of Berkeley used to be laughed at as the city of kooks — Berserkely by the Bay. The Berkeley City Council, by unanimous vote, has finally made it official by asking the U.S. Marine recruiters to leave the city. We can no longer claim that this is the ranting of a few loud-mouth leftists; these council members were voted in by majority vote. This has lead to a congressional bill, the “Sempra Fi Act,” which has some 80 co-sponsors, to take Berkeley’s earmarked federal money, all $2.1 million of it, and give it to the Marines.

Frankly, I doubt if our present Congress, with leftist anti-military members such as Sen. Barbara Boxer and its approval rating about as low as it can go, has the guts to actually do this. I do think we should ask for visas from Berkeley residents who want to enter the United States.

Robert Parkhurst

Redwood City

The real suffering in Mideast

In the Feb. 16-17 edition of The Examiner, U.N. official John Holmes urged that Gaza’s borders be opened “to relieve the suffering” (“U.N. official declares Gaza City to be ‘grim and miserable’ place,” World). However, he did not say the Palestinians must stop the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel, to stop the killing, injuries and trauma to the Israeli civilians.

That is real suffering that needs to be relieved. This failure to criticize terrorism from Gaza is a cruel double standard.

The Egyptians could open their southern border to Gaza, where they are not being attacked with rockets, but the Egyptians must have other reasons to mistrust the Palestinians in Gaza. Could it be because the Palestinians broke down the border barriers, overpowered the border guards, and hundreds of thousands crossed the border illegally? Hamas prefers to use force, but that does not inspire opening the borders.

Norman Licht

San Carlos

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