Maybe the reason Ken Garcia is so glib about people being fined for leaving trash bins out is because when he looks out his window he enjoys lovely vistas (“A fine line: Garbage in, garbage out of sight,” May 30). Many of us can’t get away from the 24/7 display of other people’s trash that too often grows and overflows around bins and is kept in front of garages we know are being used as entertainment rooms, in-law apartments and junk bins. All the while two and three cars are parked on sidewalks, driveways and fronts that would otherwise be planted areas that would enhance the quality of our streets instead of diminishing them. To his snickering about people being fined for not keeping up weedy front lawns, I say yes to issuing citations for the same reason. Part of being a good neighbor is sharing the responsibility for quality of life and property values that benefit us all.

Andrea O’Leary

San Francisco

Where the buffalo roam

Each year, bison in search of snow-free habitat outside Yellowstone National Park are stopped at the park boundary and shipped to slaughter because of the perceived but unproven risk that they will transfer the disease brucellosis to livestock.

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Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer recently announced an agreement with landowners north of Yellowstone that will allow for limited numbers of bison to access lands north of the park starting next winter. That announcement is a huge step forward, but much more needs to be done in order to ensure Yellowstone’s bison are allowed to roam free outside the park in winter.

The current management plan should be updated to allow additional tolerance for bison on the north and west sides of Yellowstone and to reflect new science and recent changes in livestock management outside the park.

Gina Tomaselli

Berkeley

Adoption is ‘green’ alternative

I agree with Anita Pereira (Letters, May 28). I can see that the masses are just starting to wake up to all we humans need to do to preserve our planet. Overpopulation is a serious problem in almost ever country and it puts all of us at risk. We should keep in mind that there are many children already in the world that need a loving home to grow in.

If more people adopted children, the Earth would have an easier time getting healthy. You are truly “green” if you do not have a child. It is simple.

Shonna Sinclair

San Francisco

Which voice of the people?

If the measure to amend the state constitution stating that marriage is defined as “only between a man and a women” is defeated in November by the “voice of the people,” will that suffice for those, like letter writer Scott Abramson (Letters, May 21), who think the “voice of the people” was nullified by the Supreme Courts’ ruling on same-sex marriage?

Just wondering.

Joe Mac

San Francisco

Blanket ban not progressive

In response to your May 29th story, “Chain store legislation takes bite out of Subway,” it seems that Supervisor Tom Ammiano is running neck and neck with Supervisor Chris Daly to get the economic Dunce Cap of the Year award.

When voters passed Proposition G, they took an intelligent response to the issue of chain stores in San Francisco, in that they would be handled on a case-by-case basis. Some neighborhoods want them, while others don’t. Under Proposition G, some chain stores have been approved while others have been rejected, but each neighborhood can decide what they want.

Now Supervisor Ammiano is proposing a blanket ban on chain stores that will result in only one thing: vacant, graffiti-covered storefronts producing, not jobs and tax revenue, but crime and squalor. I fail to see what is progressive about that.

E.F. Sullivan

San Francisco

No chains, no summer jobs

Let’s connect the dots and see why summer jobs are lacking (“Competition for summer jobs heating up,” May 29).

Chain-store legislation blocks new stores and their employment opportunities. City minimum wage requires $9.36. Employers must have mandated healthcare. There’s a costly construction permit approval process for leasehold improvements of store sites.

The competition for teenagers is unskilled adults, uneducated immigrants, people with language barriers, elderly people supplementing their retirement incomes and college students.

Employers faced with a choice of an adult or a teenager with no job skills and mandated salary and benefits have to decide who can do the work to cover those basic costs and still make a profit. Additionally, the $120 million paid in small business payroll taxes could hire 6,000 minimum-wage workers.

Skewed “progressive” laws and business taxes block teenage employment by creating teenage un-employment.

Ron Getty

San Francisco

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