Priorities are skewed
Regarding “Area’s roads rated as worst” (Page One, Oct. 18): As an East Bay resident, off and on, for over half a century, I’ve never witnessed so much “infrastructure” work in progress as has been taking place over the past five years. There are orange flags and busy work crews everywhere.
This was purportedly fueled by large infusions of federal funding, intended to improve our roads and services. Unfortunately, most of this has gone to construct “bulbs,” “bots,” speed-humps, concrete islands, bike lanes, closed street barriers and mazes of paint — while our actual roads, pot-holed, with poorly mended service-digs, washboard kinks, rough seams, etc., are neglected. And now we’re told we must pay more taxes, again, to “fix” our roads. The problem doesn’t seem to be money, but skewed priorities. Vehicular passage is under assault, by transportation authorities which believe well-maintained roads are actually bad for society. Curtis Faville, Kensington
Plan for more power outages
Regarding “PG&E powers off amid fire risk PG&E cuts electricity amid dry conditions” (Page One, Oct. 15): It appears they’re darned if they do, darned if they don’t. I barely survived the Butte fire three years ago. After thousands have recently lost everything due to sparkscaused wildfires, it seems prudent to do what they can to avoid repeats in dry, windy conditions. Yes, a few days with no power is very inconvenient, but so is losing everything one owns, and perhaps dying in the process. We were without power for two days this week, and witnessed helicopters and ground crews checking out power lines before it came back. This was very reassuring and I applaud their caution. I spent about $700 for a propane generator to run our water well, refrigerator and some lights, which is a small investment in the grand scheme of things.
Admittedly, as an electrician, I didn’t have to pay to hook it up to our system, but I have done so for dozens of clients over the past few years, and everybody finds it well worthwhile. Given the new, extended fire-season reality, it makes sense to plan for more frequent power outages while hopefully avoiding catastrophic fire events. Sky Wallace, Pioneer
Sent the wrong tone
Regarding “Kounalakis is right choice” (Letters, Oct. 18): The letter on supporting Eleni Kounalakis sends the wrong tone for a lot of people. I am supporting her because of her experience and her curriculum vitae. The fact that she is a woman is incidental. I think the Democrats go wrong when they put “woman” as the main qualification. Yes, I think the tone of the debate will change with more women in power, but their qualifications are the most important, not their sex. Leonard Dorin, Lafayette
Support for the repeal
Regarding “Rent-control item lags in Bay Area, poll shows” (Page One, Oct. 18): In response to the article about repealing the CostaHawkins Act, I offer these personal observations to support the repeal. I have lived in my current rent-controlled home in San Francisco since 1991. I am a working artist. I have an affordable studio at the Hunters Point Shipyard. I am active in the local arts community. I have managed to afford to stay in San Francisco for one reason, affordable housing.
I have not been able to raise the price of my work to keep pace with local rent increases, since most locals are “house poor” but having an affordable home has allowed me to stay and work here and to enrich the local community culturally in innumerable ways. My husband worked for AT&T until he was fired five years ago. He is very active in local gay politics and the leather community. We would not have been able to stay and contribute to local politics or the diverse vibrant arts community that struggles to survive here if we didn’t have an affordable home. I calculated that over the 27 years we have lived here, we have paid our landlord’s mortgage twice. This seems like sufficient reward since the house is now worth seven times what he paid. Richard Bolingbroke, San Francisco
Activism and promotion
Regarding “Athletes discuss history of not staying in their lane” (Oct. 18): In her article about the 50th anniversary of the protest by sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the Mexico City Olympics, Chronicle columnist Ann Killion rightfully notes that “Sports has been and will continue to be a platform for activism and change.” However, a big difference between 1968 and 2018 is that corporations (like Nike) are using civil rights-minded athletes (like Colin Kaepernick) to help sell and promote their brands. Will the use of sports to promote social change be superseded by the use of sports activism to promote consumer commerce?
Demetrius McDaniel, Oakland
Repairs to transit center
Regarding “Hub’s complexity compounds risks” (Sept. 30): You have described herein (with supporting outside opinion) that the two structural cracks in the Transbay Transit Center beams are located in heat-affected zones of welds. In John King’s article, it was explained that welding was necessary because no foundry could forge those extrusions in one piece. OK, I’ll buy that. So then, why were those welds not stress relieved to recover ductility? (By the way, it was never indicated whether those were shop welds or field welds.) And from what I’ve seen so far of the proposed repair specifications, there is no call for welding stress relief at this time either! Somebody please remind me to stay away from that structure. I should hope that a qualified metallurgist is assigned to oversee the upcoming work. It is clearly evident that it was lacking on the original go-around.
Emmett Miller, Lafayette
Fix the escalator first
Regarding “Harvey Milk Plaza makeover not the right change for Castro” (Oct. 15): In the midst of all the plans, perhaps they might consider repairing the escalator on the south side entrance? It has been out for several weeks. If something simple like this can’t be addressed, why do the bells and whistles?
Cris Rosales, San Francisco
Rocky roads in the Bay Area
Now that it’s been confirmed by a Washington, D.C.-based transportation research group TRIP that our “Area’s roads (are) rated as worst” in the nation (Page One, Oct. 18), maybe this dubious achievement can be commemorated with a new Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor: Bay Area Rocky Road. Vivian Wexford,
San Francisco