Dear Editor: In your pages, Supervisor Mark Farrell writes that the Board of Supervisors should not weigh in on matters of national interest that have local effect [“From Our Supervisor’s Chambers: The role of local government,” February 2012]. Sadly, our current economic crisis has much to do with our disastrous foreign policy. Were those funds spent on the military (which includes billions of dollars in military aid to dictatorships) to be channeled into education, we would have less of a problem.
These debates take hours because people “on the right” benefit from the current system. If these resolutions had no actual effect, then why would moderates invest such enormous effort in fighting them? A blanket solution would be to end all such proclamations and declarations, but this would prove unpopular with legislators accustomed to using them to curry favor with their constituents.
If Supervisor Farrell is really interested in improving the lives of San Franciscans – not just the one percent of the one percent he appears to represent – then he should be working actively to mitigate the negative effects of the America’s Cup sellout; end discriminatory nonresident fees in Golden Gate Park and at Coit Tower; and stop both the horrendous office building that his buddies at the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society want to put into Golden Gate Park as well as the Astroturfing and stadiumization of the soccer fields
at Ocean Beach. And that is just the tip of the iceberg!
Harry S. Pariser, Inner Sunset
Dear Editor: Thank you to Bruce Bellingham for his informative article, “Some residents reluctant to support entertainment permit for local bar” [February 2012]. Marina residents ought to be more vocal about what kind of neighborhood we want. In mid-February, Fort Mason Center hosted WekSos WekFest IV – a seedy car show catering to street racers. Walking along Marina Green that Sunday morning, I genuinely felt unsafe. It was like a scene straight out of The Fast and the Furious. Between the heavy smell of marijuana in the air and the loud music blaring out of each speeding car, my weekly trip to the farmers’ market turned into a nightmare. Marina residents deserve better and are certainly justified in wanting to keep rowdy crowds away from our community.
Trent Niles, the Marina
