Defeat Prop. J

Thank you for the enlightening article on Proposition J, the Workforce Housing Initiative ["The Great Housing Hoax," 2/11/04]. The Rincon Hill and First and Folsom developments, along with this initiative, signal an alarming trend. They claim to provide lower-cost housing, but at what cost to this 49 square miles that we call home? Once again the "Manhattanization" of San Francisco seems to be the agenda of large corporate interests and the direction of the Planning Department. I fear that clauses in Prop. J will allow developers to intrude into our neighborhoods, demolishing our rent-controlled buildings. As a preservationist, I fear that many recent laws, such as the demolition ban on large apartment buildings and the capital-improvement pass-throughs, which allow large buildings 10 years to recapture improvements while small buildings must wait 20 years, will lead to the demolition of our smaller historic Victorian building stock. Once new larger buildings are allowed into the neighborhoods, the quaint Victorians, which are under rent control and expensive to maintain, will be vulnerable. It is inevitable that this city will grow, but we must demand slow, well-thought-out planning with major community input. Please don't be duped by developers with modest promises of lower-cost housing while they earn windfalls through greater density. We must defeat Prop. J and send it back to the drawing board until the developers pay their fair share and the people of San Francisco have a say in the future of this great city.

Jim Siegel

San Francisco

Daly's demolition

Sup. Chris Daly's bill passed by the Board of Supervisors to forbid the demolition of apartments of over 20 units of usable housing means that the thousands of people living in unreinforced masonry buildings that are uneconomical to retrofit are condemned to perish in the next earthquake. The owners will not be able to tear down the unsafe buildings in order to build safe structures.

The impetus for this was a plan to tear down a 370-unit building of older units and replace it with 1,400 new units, a net gain of 1,030 units. Have we no housing shortage? Don't we want the city to do more for our safety than place plaques in the entrance of our apartment buildings saying that the structure is unsafe?

James Keefer

San Francisco

Lantos vs. Khanna

I have lived in the Bay Area for 25 years, which encompasses the time Tom Lantos has represented my district ["The Ro Factor," 2/11/04]. During this period, Mr. Lantos has worked tirelessly to add thousands of acres of scenic and fragile land to our Bay Area nature preserves. I understand Ro Khanna moved into this district a few months ago. I hope he too will come to appreciate the beauty of our locale and the work of Congressman Lantos to preserve and enhance it.

Scott Abramsom

San Mateo

Oppress me!

I think I figured out why the local radical fringe groups are so against Mayor Gavin Newsom.

The man openly supports LGBT rights, and makes a point of including transgender rights! He's in favor of a woman's right to choose and medical marijuana. He is the first mayor in years to seriously tackle the issue of chronic homelessness.

And now, he says that gay marriage in California begins in San Francisco! Of all the nerve! No wonder Ammiano and Gonzalez are up in arms against him!!! As a gay man, I find the Mayor's stand on these issues terrifying! I want to be oppressed!!!

We have to get rid of Newsom now before he destroys our lives!!!

David Nahmod

San Francisco

Another approach to prostitution

There is decades of research done by hundreds of people around the world that has demonstrated the legalization approach to prostitution increases the industry, increases child prostitution and makes it harder for officials to combat, increases street prostitution, increases STDs, increases gang activity, and does not make local law enforcement respect prostitutes' rights any more than before ["Hookers Unite!," 1/28/04].

Please, I urge you to check out some of the peer-reviewed research on the failure of legalization trials in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and the Netherlands. Also, please investigate the incredible success of Sweden's 1999 decriminalization law, which has produced fantastic results in reducing harm to women and children with a multifaceted approach that even prostitutes who disagree with the new law say has produced positive results for them.

If nothing else, please try to hold onto the truth that there is no such thing as risk-free sex; hospitals take great care dealing with human fluids because of the high risk factor for transmission. Condoms fail even when used perfectly and don't stop genital warts, a leading cause of cervical cancer.

S.M. Berg

Coleader, Sexual Health Activist Group