Time to punish corporate criminals
Cautionary tale Clean city Investigate bridge New speaker search No end in sight
Regarding “Holding Volkswagen accountable for its breach of the public trust” (Insight, Oct. 11): Rep. Mark DeSaulnier is to be applauded for introducing legislation that strengthens criminal penalties for carmakers who attempt to game the system, thus closing a long-standing loophole in the Clean Air Act. When corporations are fined for criminal acts they simply pass the costs on to consumers. When banks, energy providers, mega polluters, financial institutions and car manufacturers are fined, the real criminals buy a “Get Out of Jail” card with our money. DeSaulnier’s proposal should be broadened to include all forms of corporate crime. When corner-office criminals run the risk of losing their yachts and sleeping on cots in jail, things will change. Consumers should not pick up the tab for multimilliondollar-plus fines. Equity should be forfeited by selling new shares in the corporation to pay the fine. Stockholders will examine the ethics of those managing the corporations and the business models they run under. Then things will change.
Ellis Goldberg, Danville
Regarding “Mayor Lee’s 5 Years changed face of S.F.” (Oct. 11): Seattle, a tech hub, views San Francisco’s housing-affordability crisis as a cautionary tale of what not to do when your small city becomes desirable to techies in Silicon Valley. It’s unaffordable to teachers, civil servants and other ordinary people. Seattle wants to maintain or keep economic diversity in its maritime and manufacturing industries, as well as keeping its vibrant arts community. San Francisco is viewed by Seattle planners as “Not the Way to Go,” a cautionary tale, not a success story to be emulated. Seattle wants to keep its soul and views San Francisco as a place that has lost its soul. How do Mayor Lee, the Planning Department, Silicon Valley and San Francisco residents plan on keeping San Francisco’s soul? Or is that a hopelessly naive question and goal?
Fiona McGregor, San Francisco
The public in the city of San Francisco is not served by the mayor and/or his administration in traffic control to provide uninhibited flow for accessibility to, from and within the city as well as freedom from the clutter of humans lying on the sidewalks and traffic islands shouting and intimidating. Uniformed police and traffic cops should be allowed to return to the streets of the city, and the sidewalks should be cleared and cleaned. The city should be returned to what it was and what it was meant to be: a place to be enjoyed — safe, clean and free of garbage.
Thomas Harbinson, San Francisco
Surely there are many who would like to see a high-level, transparent investigation into the Bay Bridge project. The whole process should be investigated to ensure we never see a repeat. It doesn’t take an engineer to know that building a bridge in an earthquake zone necessitates that it be first of all safe, which surely means using proven technology. Secondly, it should be designed and built by highly experienced companies. Did we see those fundamental steps in the Bay Bridge project? Unfortunately not. From what I read, it seems that appearance and uniqueness were put before safety, functionality and cost. How was that allowed to happen, who made the decisions and can they explain why they did so? I read about another concern with the main cables rusting and the difficulty to simply access the problem areas. Technology currently being adopted globally to minimize the problem was not used because it was deemed to be unproven.
John Moore, Petaluma
With the current leadership void among Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, I say we the people go bold and pick a leader for them. I hereby nominate Malala Yousafzai for speaker of the House. If she can survive being shot by the Taliban, she’s more than qualified to deal with angry Tea Partyers.
Nicole Bilotti, San Francisco
Gov. Jerry Brown understands Prop. 13 and why he won’t alter it. Democrats have never met a tax they did not like. In fact, many would feel right at home in socialist Europe where high taxes and spending are part of the norm. So once you start to chip away at the Prop. 13 foundation, where does it stop? There are plenty of taxes in California, and now the state Democrats want to make Brown’s temporary Prop. 30 taxes permanent. Where does it end?
Andrew Smith, Santa Rosa