Let employers relocate

Regarding “Solution to traffic jams: 24-hour work culture” (Insight, June 24): You’re kidding, right? How will it improve family quality of life when mothers and fathers work opposing shifts so that children experience their parents as passing ships in the night?

Not to mention, this does not solve the bigger problems of air pollution and road wear resulting from the excessive commute miles driven. Nor can we simply build enough to house every family on the Peninsula; the Peninsula is a finite space and Manhattan-izing it will destroy the quality of life that residents value. No, legislating high-rises and 24-hour work schedules are not the answer. The jobs-housing formula has two variables: jobs and housing. Right now, we don’t have a housing shortage, we have a jobs overage. Too many huge employers have become geographically over-concentrated.

The Peninsula is at full employment and employers are having trouble getting workers to move here. A smart employer would relocate to a region where their employees can raise families and maintain a higher quality of life and work-life balance, minus the commute. This employer relocation should be the free-market response to the current over-concentration of jobs.

Kristin Mercer, Belmont

Offer more vacation time

Perhaps the real solution to growing freeway congestion in the Bay Area is not in having 5 or 10 percent of the workforce working on weekends or at night, but rather by having all employees working fewer hours overall.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, American workers typically have only 10-14 days of vacation time per year, versus 30 vacation days annually for those in European countries.

There’s something to be said for finding a proper balance between work time and family time. Rather than singularly focusing on amassing profits, corporate America should offer workers more leisure time (and better wages) to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Annabelle Devereaux, San Francisco

Ill-conceived initiative

Regarding “Rent control expansion appears headed to ballot” (Page One, June 23): If the ill-conceived, deceptively titled Affordable Housing Act initiative passes, it will only serve to exacerbate the rental housing situation. Construction of new market-rate rental units will stop.

Many owners of apartment buildings, especially small two-, four-, or six-unit buildings, will empty the buildings and sell the rental units as condominiums or to tenants-in-common. There will be fewer rental units on the market. The problem was caused by several factors. California’s elected and appointed leaders throughout the state failed in their responsibilities to use best practices to address the housing situation. Years of underdevelopment while the population was rising led to scarcity of rental units, which led to more competition for the existing apartments, which led to higher rental prices.

Other examples are the byzantine planning and building codes like those in San Francisco that greatly increase the cost of new construction and updating existing buildings, thus raising the rental prices. If passed, this absurd ballot initiative will not cure the situation.

Howard Epstein, San Francisco

Hacking autonomous vehicles

I have had my credit card hacked and exchanged four times this year already. And you are going to trust “self-driving” cars? Even if these dangerous cars are being renamed autonomous vehicles, they are going to be dangerous machines on our streets and not justifiable until the technology cannot be hacked. That technology has not been invented.

Heidi Mueller, San Francisco

Recognize LGBTQ rights

Regarding “A dazzling mix of sun, rainbows” (Page One, June 25): Thank you for the frontpage coverage of the annual Pride Parade.

As someone who is a lesbian, I’m thankful to live in an area that values and celebrates diversity.

Our narrow-minded president refused to issue a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month (which his more open-minded predecessor did), and cruelly seeks to curtail the rights of the LGBTQ community. The time and energy that he and his supporters spend trying to marginalize us would be better spent trying to ensure that our nation is a place where all citizens — regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation — are treated equally.

Francine Tompkins-Oliviera, Berkeley

Politics has become tribal

It’s clear that divisions over politics have always existed among Americans since the inception of the U.S. However in past decades, political parties realized that to govern, both parties needed to work together.

Unfortunately, those days have passed, as in the U.S., apparently along with other numerous developed countries, politics has become nationalistic and tribal in nature. Their way or the highway.

Our president has pushed this phenomenon, by using language, and actions to strengthen his base and spread the divisions between the parties. We now have Congress ceasing to attempt any bipartisan laws.

Both parties are gambling on getting control of Congress in 2018. It is unfortunate that the midterms are in many ways turning into who can sink lower in denigrating the other. Trust me, using President Trump’s tactics will not drain the swamp. They will only put you in the swamp with him. And he will always win. Democrats cannot assume using a hate campaign against our president, or his allies, will accomplish anything.

Steve Roditti, San Francisco