Tim's ignorant whining

So Tim Redmond thinks a "few million" is a good return on Jack Myers's project [In This Issue, 7/21/04]? Well, excuse me, but is Tim an investor here? Does Tim own the property in question? Did Tim have to go through the arduous process of obtaining the friggin' permits?

No, well then Tim doesn't have any say in the matter, and nobody appointed him to speak for "the public" either.

Capitalism is all about using other peoples' voluntarily obtained money to make more money. If Tim has any information that casts doubt on the legitimacy of Myers's funding, then let us know. Otherwise, Myers is under no obligation to fund affordable housing, transform public transportation, reduce air pollution (unless he's causing it), or any other so-called public purpose. If Tim has a problem with any of this, he can go pull his pod and vote for another jerk as ignorant of economic objective reality as himself.

"Greed" is good, as Ayn Rand correctly said many years ago.

Michael P. Hardesty

Oakland

Dead on

Your article and editorial about the Transbay Terminal project versus the 80 Natoma project were dead on!

Gerald Cauthen

Former deputy director, Transbay Joint Powers Authority,

Oakland

The horrors of Lake County

If you're going to talk about the horrors of media consolidation, instead of taking a large and relatively nonhomogeneous market (the Bay Area) as an example, why the hell don't you try Lake and Mendocino Counties ["Invasion of the Media Snatchers," 7/14/04]?

Here, virtually all the radio stations are owned and operated by something called North Coast Communications – a division of Clear Channel.

There is only one AM station in Lake County – owned by Clear Channel. There are seven FM stations available here – most owned by Clear Channel.

There are only two exceptions that I know of:

1) KZYX in the Boonville area, a nonprofit community station

2) KPFZ here in Lakeport, one of the nation's first low-power FM community stations, which is also a nonprofit.

Not only are these stations doing well, KPFZ is also filing its application to go to 1,000 watts. They get almost no support from local businesses and do not accept underwriting. Yet they are thriving here, in a rural area more famous for methamphetamine labs and marijuana growing than for "culture."

Eric Barbour

Owner, Metasonix

Senior editor, Vacuum Tube Valley

Lakeport

Better than 'Fahrenheit 9/11'

I went to see Hunting of the President despite Edward E. Crouse's self-indulgent film review, which was incredibly disappointing ["Because They Could," 7/14/04]. This is a long-overdue, relevant, and revealing documentary, maybe more important than Fahrenheit 9/11, because it tells how the radical right in this country laid the groundwork for the Bush takeover in 2000 on a false campaign of honesty and character. It tells how Kenneth Starr became the frontman for the "vast right-wing conspiracy" and spent 80 million of our tax dollars trying to dispose of a popular president. The evidence presented of the Republicans and the radical right's attempt at a government takeover in the film is compelling and frightening. It proves how easily the mainstream media can be manipulated by a well-financed and organized minority to do their bidding. And it hints at how President Clinton's self-defense distracted him from his desire to go after al-Qaeda. Crouse is so busy gloating in his review about his clever writing, he fails to put this documentary into any relevant political prospective. I expected a great deal more from a progressive paper.

Alan Segal

San Francisco

Cheap shot

It's a cheap shot to blame the neighbors for delaying the building of Dianne Feinstein Elementary School, when we were the ones blindsided by the blueprint change to include 43 teacher housing units on 40 percent of the playground ["Adding and Subtracting," 7/21/04]. Before you demean the good people of the Parkside, you need to know all the facts surrounding this derailment.

School district officials told the community that the school plans were ready for state approval and could go out to bid late in 1999 with demolition to begin in April 2000. However, in 2000 they put those plans on hold pending the development of brand-new plans to include the housing scheme, which was never part of the original design – but a new child care center was. Sadly, it got sacrificed in the delays caused by the school board's decision to build housing for the teachers instead of increasing their pay. The teachers were just as unhappy as the neighbors with this tradeoff.

We agree with Jill Wynns that we are getting a better school than originally planned and are grateful to her, the entire Board of Education, and the SFUSD for their support of this project.

Nancy Wuerfel and Daniel Ryan
Parkside 4 Kids
San Francisco