Halt more housing in Brisbane
Welcome to Brisbane. We are tireless, not sleepy. We evoke the Public Trust and Precautionary Principles. The dirt is former bay, subject to liquefaction, quake rubble with background levels of lead, mercury, selenium and asbestos. All other land is not-engineered, unregulated household, construction, medical or shipyard waste, with toxic chemicals poured, leaked or vaporized as decomposition byproducts for 50 plus years throughout. Brisbane incorporated to stop San Francisco from poisoning our residents and bay.
The 1980 Superfund law was enacted promising funds for cleaning up hazardous waste landfills. The California Environmental Protection Agency accepted the responsibility but sits here 30 plus years later, with a passive, “Sometime-later Cover-up Plan” that doesn’t accurately state or map the problems. Help us. What regulations do we put in place when toxins come belching out of the earth during “The Next Big One” or toxins migrate to the surface due to sea level rise?
How far away from toxic burners do you site housing? Should child care centers have blast-proof walls in the event of a tank farm accident? Our planning commission and citizens have done a remarkable job, read volumes and endured countless hours of testimony. We have to quantify how many people we are willing to put at risk.
Dana Dillworth, Brisbane
Limited growth
I fully support Brisbane and its efforts to limit its population. San Francisco should be so smart. The problem is not that we have too few houses, it’s that we have too many people. If it’s housing people want, they should move to Detroit where there are plenty of houses begging for occupants. And surely, there are other places in this vast country of ours where building houses might be appropriate. I’m not a misanthrope.
I like people in manageable amounts; one on one is especially nice. But crowds and mobs? Anybody who hasn’t noticed that there are too many people in the Bay Area, too many cars clogging the roads and that the lines are too long everywhere one goes is just sleepwalking.
Global population growth is a serious problem and limiting population to sustainable levels should be every thinking person’s priority. Where do we start? Perhaps we start in Brisbane.
Cab Covay, San Francisco
Just a regular guy
As a regular Joe American, I’m completely sold on Donald Trump despite his human frailties. We need a leader who believes in himself and in America. What the debate told me was that Hillary Clinton is a well-polished, longtime politician, and Trump is an everyman who has little understanding of the vile workings of politics. His sometimes frazzled, but genuine, responses to Clinton’s lawyerly attacks tell me that he is human and, despite his billions, he is one of us regular guys.
Pietro Costa, San Jose
Great chief justice
The passing of retired California Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas should give pause to all Californians. His stewardship, starting in the 1980s, restored the reputation of the California Supreme Court.
Prior to the appointment of Rose Bird by then and now outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown, the three most prestigious courts in the land were the U.S. Supreme Court, the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court. Former Chief Justice Bird vaporized the reputation and degraded the court.
Her ill temperament and disrespect for her colleagues and subordinates resulted in loss of civility and credibility to such a degree that in 1986, she was voted out of office along with Justices Joseph Grodin and Cruz Reynoso. The California Supreme Court under her tenure became the laughingstock of the nation. Chief Justice Lucas restored dignity and improved the morale within the court chambers and restored the reputation of the court.
His contribution should be recognized as a lasting legacy. Our state, our communities, our people owe this fine gentleman of jurisprudence a debt of gratitude. As does our outgoing governor, who was responsible for the Rose Bird debacle in the first place.
Mike McAdoo, San Francisco
Facts in the way
During the presidential debate, Donald Trump stated that he has been “endorsed by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agency.” He went on to state that this was the first time in its history that the agency has endorsed a candidate for president. The problem is Trump, you’re wrong. Again. It is a violation of the Hatch Act of 1939 for any government agency to endorse any candidate for elective office. But as we’ve all learned during his campaign, why bother with facts? They just get in the way.
Al Comolli, Millbrae
Forgotten voters
Let me get this straight. The Democrats are constantly calling Donald Trump a liar and yet House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi publicly said that the Libertarian platform “is to shut down public schools, eliminate clean air, clean water and every kind of protection in terms of regulation, dismantle Social Security and dismantle Medicare.”
Talk about lies! Maybe she needs to educate herself and also ask why so many voters are looking for alternate solutions. The two-party system that we currently have is clearly not working.
They are so focused on infighting that they forgot the people. The Millennials are sick of it along with many others. Change happens slowly, but it is needed now.
Karolinn Green, Novato
Party loyalty
Regarding Debra J. Saunders’ “You, too, could vote for Donald Trump” (Sept. 29): I understand how Republicans can vote for Donald Trump. Party loyalty goes a long way. And there are key issues for them, like the composition of the Supreme Court, that override a lot of objections.
I can’t swear to it, but I certainly hope that if a Democratic candidate were as dangerous for the country on foreign affairs as I think Trump is that I would set aside my desire to vote for “my team” and instead vote for “my country.”
Jay Chafetz, Walnut Creek