San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
S.F. housing effort better than many cities
Regarding “S.F. to miss state housing deadline, jeopardizing local planning control” (San Francisco, SFChronicle.com, Nov. 20): The California Department of Housing and Community Development threatened to decertify San Francisco’s housing element, its plan for development, in an Oct. 25 mandate. While cities that have historically shirked their fair share of developing affordable and market-rate housing should be held accountable, San Francisco is not one of these bad actors.
The city overproduced its market-rate housing goals by 150%, having built more than 19,000 units in the state’s last Regional Housing Needs Allocation cycle. And while all jurisdictions are woefully behind on building affordable housing, San Francisco has done better than others. The Council of Community Housing Organizations’ nonprofit developers have built a significant share of the more than 7,900 units of low-income and moderate-income housing during these past eight years.
It makes no sense to punish the city by decertifying its housing element and denying the resources for affordable housing that our developers will need to reach the goals mandated by the state.
Building of market-rate housing will rebound one day
— but these units won’t meet the housing needs of our BIPOC, working class and vulnerable communities who are shut out of the housing market.
John Avalos, executive director; Li Lovett, communications director; Charlie Sciammas, policy director; Council of Community Housing Organizations, San Francisco
EVs not so green
California is mandating that all new cars sold in the state be
zero-emission by 2035. However, what most people don’t talk about is the hidden harms that electric vehicles bring to the environment and people.
The transportation and production of the batteries used in electric vehicles, more carbon emissions are created than when manufacturing traditional internal combustion engines, studies show.
On top of the environmental risks, the mining of cobalt,
lithium and other materials used in electric vehicle batteries destroys the environment and creates unsafe conditions for the workers, who are often children, according to Amnesty International.
I encourage California policymakers to reconsider if we are willing to destroy the health of others and the environments of other countries to save our own.
Regarding “Six decades after JFK’s assassination, Dealey Plaza is as haunting as ever” (Open Forum, SFChronicle .com, Nov. 22): Millions of pages have been written about the flaws in the Warren Commission’s report on John F. Kennedy’s assassination, so I was shocked to read the casual way in which the author dismissed any speculation about a conspiracy or multiple shooters.
Instead of the “credible photographic or physical evidence” he demands from others, he claims that the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository “is where, no doubt in my mind, Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that killed the president and wounded Governor Connally.” No doubt in his mind?
I am not an expert, and I won’t try to refute his so-called facts, but on the 60th anniversary of the event, to state so casually that Oswald did the deed alone is staggeringly ingenuous.
I point the author to the meticulously investigated, “Last Second in Dallas,” by Josiah Thompson, as just one of the many well-researched books on the topic that may put a small doubt in his mind.