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Don’t play politics with potholes

The Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee soon could vote on Supervisor Chris Daly’s motion to cut $37 million from the mayor’s 2007-08 budget and divert the funds to housing programs — despite the fact that the mayor’s proposed budget includes substantially more housing expenditures than in the last fiscal year. The cuts would include items that the Board of Supervisors voted to fund just several months ago, including funds to rebuild public housing, clean up streets, bring police patrols up to required levels, and preserve parks and trees. The proposed cuts would also eliminate the entire budget for refilling potholes. In addition to neglecting the condition of our streets, these cuts would eliminate dozens of jobs.

By using this method of amending the budget, the finance committee will have substantially weakened the voices of the workers and their unions in the budget process.

The past and accepted practice has been to allow the budget analyst to issue a report on the mayor’s budget. Thereafter, there has been ample opportunity for the members of the Board of Supervisors and the public to provide input and modify the budget. There are several hearings in which members of the public are encouraged to provide input. It has been a process that has been open, transparent and accessible to members of the public. The move to bypass this process, for personal and political purposes, is ill-conceived and does a great disservice to The City and its citizens.

The finance committee should reject Supervisor Daly’s motion.

Alicia D. Becerril, president

Donald A. Casper, vice president

Civil Service Commission

The City

Message for leaders

Dear supervisors of San Francisco: Grow up and govern. The citizens of San Francisco want you to put your partisan politics aside and do what is necessary to make this city as it should be, with good roads, good services, good transportation and good and safe housing. Get to work!

Joyce Kurtz

The City

Where’s due process?

Once again, Chris Daly is showing his true colors. His recent statement regarding the legal problems of his colleague, Ed Jew, indicate that Daly has no real interest in civil rights, due process or the presumption of innocence. Daly said, regarding Supervisor Jew, “He’s got to figure out how to limit his jail time at the moment.” It sounds as if Daly has convicted Ed Jew and thrown away the keys to the cell. Yet none of the contested facts has been presented; there has been no hearing, trial or sentencing. But for district elections, Daly would have never been elected. Doesn’t San Francisco deserve better?

J. Terry Abraham

The City

Save old architecture

It’s a shame when members of the Landmarks Board side with developers who insist on bulldozing the best of our notable buildings because their architects lack the vision and/or ability to incorporate them into satisfactory redevelopment plans (“Plans for extension site fuel debate,” June 11).

Architects claim it’s too expensive to adapt historic buildings for reuse and thus protect a bit of cultural history. The truth is they prefer to build on dirt, and to avoid future embarassment by the inevitable contrast between saved portions of a lovely old complex and their own featureless clunkers. I wish city planners valued our architectural heritage enough to force them back to their drawing boards.

The unattractive fortress that’s the new Jewish Community Center at Presidio Avenue and California Street replaced a beautiful center built by Arthur Brown Jr. (City Hall, Coit Tower), who created one of the most appealing buildings in the Richmond district. It would have been possible to incorporate the facade into a larger complex and reuse at least one of the buildings. But then, as now, only total demolition would satisfy the investors. I hope that officials of the city agencies that enabled this travesty cringe when they drive by it.

Patricia Cady

The City

New day in schools

Regarding the new superintendent for public schools, Carlos Garcia, let’s hope that Mr. Garcia listens well. I’ve got two concerns: As a teacher, I would ask him to stop the merry-go-round that shifts malcontents from school to school. Staff aren’t equipped to deal with the multitude of problems these children bring. Yet, all suffer as they beat and intimidate, rob and vandalize, and lie when confronted.

Moving them on to still another school solves nothing. Who do you think wants to come back to that?

As a parent, I would ask him to please tear down the wall in his office that his predecessor put up. What a potent symbol of openness that would be.

Gordon D. Robertson

The City

Err show

To all those who think the Blue Angels are so cool, you can get the same effect by putting your head next to a very large vacuum cleaner while repeating over and over the phrase "military-industrial complex."

Barry S. Eisenberg

San Francisco

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