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Landlords leaving the business
Writer Joe Mac makes a good point (“Landlords have assets,” The Examiner, April 12-13) when he suggests if rent control forces a landlord to lose money the landlord should get out of the business. In fact, Supervisor Aaron Peskin says the same thing. Concerned about the loss in rental stock from conversions to TIC’s and hoping to stop it, he called a meeting in North Beach to call for ideas. When I complained that it was over-regulation of owner-occupied small properties that was the root cause, he said, “If you don’t like the way we regulate, get out of the business.” That’s exactly what we’re doing: we’re selling out to developers, which means we also lose our homes, or we, ourselves, convert to TIC’s — anything to stop losing money. Let’s all be realistic. Tenants want cheap rent. The so-called progressive supervisors want to be re-elected. Tough luck for the mom and pop landlords. Thomas Jefferson called it the tyranny of the majority. Don Gibbs Questions about Obama My 3-year-old really likes Barack Obama, but he is asking some embarrassing questions which I don’t know how to answer. If a soldier wears a flag pin, does this mean he is a hypocrite? When our minister says God bless America, does this mean he is a government stooge? What is a typical white person? Are our Mexican neighbors to blame for voter antipathy toward government? Am I bitter when I use a gun to kill a wolf about to devour the children? If I had only gone to Harvard, then I could have easily answered these questions, but they had already filled their quota of typical white guys. San Francisco Torch violence Downtown busybody James W. Haas (“City torches run for protesters,” Letters, April 14) parrots the Olympic Torch Relay Committee’s PR line, assuring that the San Francisco torch debacle prevented violence that was neither threatened nor apparent, and that spending a big chunk of SFPD overtime was the only thing that saved San Francisco from utter chaos. The only violence apparent here is in Tibet and Darfur, courtesy of Beijing. Far from symbolizing unity, our Olympic torch relay showed the world that San Francisco can enrich lazy cops while exposing the Beijing regime as a pariah. San Francisco Pink slips Many SFUSD teachers received pink slips recently due to the state budget crisis. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has approximately one month to release “Rainy Day Funds” in order to forstall the actual layoffs planned for May 15. All three schools my kids are attending are hard hit by these budget cuts — especially the elementary school which stands to lose as much as half of its teaching staff. Once the teachers are laid off, their jobs will be filled with teachers with more seniority. In the event that funds become available after May 15 and the laid-off teachers can be rehired, their positions at the schools they worked at will have already been filled. The result of the layoffs is significant turnover of teaching staff and a toxic combination of young teachers losing faith, parents resenting the district and kids losing critical links in their educational journey. Paying teacher salaries with a “Rainy Day Fund” is a sorry state of affairs, but jerking around young teachers with annual pink slips and depriving students of teachers is worse. San Francisco Social Security Social Security may find itself solvent due to the Boomers’ lack of competence. I just completed the very complicated 25-step worksheet to see what portion of my SS payments were taxable. I doubt that the up-coming Boomers will be able to complete this worksheet. Remember, Boomers were educated in the grade-inflation 1960s. Also they are not used to doing a 25-step anything. They will take the easy out and pay taxes on all their benefits. Therefore Social Security will be saved and we oldsters need not feel guilty about draining the fund. San Francisco Two Americas It is true that there are two Americas (“Two different Americas when it comes to taxes,” April 14). They are Democrats who are “tax-and-spend-and-tax” and Republicans who are spend and spend and spend and spend. From Reagan through George W. Bush, Republican presidents have cut taxes and run up huge deficits. The only president who has balanced a budget in the last 50 years is — guess who? — Bill Clinton, who practiced what the Republicans preached. Perhaps that is why they hate him so. Now, if only the Republicans in Sacramento would realize that you must tax in order to spend, California would not be in the fiscal mess we are in. San Francisco To add your voice By e-mail: letters@examiner.com By mail: Editorial Page Editor The Examiner, 450 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94105 By fax: (415) 359-2766 |
