Sad future

I read the articles about urban regentrification in San Francisco and was deeply saddened by the future of this city ["A Streetcar Named Displacement," 10/19/05]. As an African American who came to San Francisco from the South, I expected the Bay Area to be more accepting of minorities and free of the prejudices that have plagued the South for so many years. I am ready to admit I was completely wrong about San Francisco.

Perhaps the San Francisco that I was thinking about died in the '70s and gave rise to this new overly judgmental, money-obsessed, cold-hearted city that is seeking to become "lily white." With all of the new things happening in the city, pretty soon San Francisco will be no different than some Midwestern city, because all of the diversity and tolerance will be gone.

The Bay Area natives who believe that their intellect and liberalism make them better than white Southerners are now seeing that they have more in common with the people they claim to despise. I also think that it is highly ironic that the best places for African Americans to live decently and make a respectable living are currently in the South. San Francisco lost its prestige of being a tolerant, liberal, and diverse city long ago, and now all it can hope for is that it will become as trendy and hip as Manhattan. As for all of the hard-working and future successful African Americans that are forced to leave the city during urban regentrification, I have one statement: See you on the East Coast.

Nicki Nelson
San Francisco

Unarmed and ready

The Bay Guardian's endorsement of Proposition H is so disgusting [10/12/05]. I am utterly astounded that this city, the city of tolerance, a virtual haven, an oasis of security for gender-preference and ethnic minorities, is actually considering turning itself into a fucking shooting gallery for out-of-towners and criminals.

Yes, come to our city! Break into our unarmed homes and rape us anally with broken beer bottles and rebar, because to them we're all just a bunch of subhuman faggots and [your favorite ethnic slur], so who cares anyway?

Yes, please, let's actually choose to disarm ourselves and, in Chris Daly's words "send a message" to all the Aryan Nation groups, criminal gangs, Islamo-fascist terrorists, and Hillside Stranglers of the world to come flocking to our city, into our homes ...

My mother and I came to this city in 1981 to escape the racism, homophobia, and bass-ackward stupidity that was the redneck Midwest. Lo and behold, the worst of them are about to be "sen[t] a message" by our city stupidvisors, by way of the Bay Guardian, and that message is that we're unarmed and ready to be hanged from the trees and dragged from the backs of pickup trucks.

Laszlo Uriel
San Francisco

Campaign special limits

Aren't you ashamed that you're endorsing the candidates for city attorney, assessor, and treasurer who refused to accept voluntary spending limitations? Now that it's once again been shown that Newsom won election by outspending Gonzalez? To make the spending limitations work, you have to give publicity to the fact that some candidates are accepting the limitations and others aren't. Why should we believe that the Bay Guardian would print any worthwhile news about the Community College Board if a sunshine ordinance were in effect, when they don't even print the news that's available to them now?

Robert Frank
San Francisco

Yes on A

I read your paper regularly because my political beliefs are generally in agreement with those of the Bay Guardian. However, I disagree with your paper's recommendation that voters oppose Proposition A, a $243 million bond measure to pay for new and improved facilities at City College of San Francisco. I understand your ideological differences with certain members of the Community College Board. Yet Prop. A is not an endorsement of any member of the board; it is a vote to support equal access to post-secondary education for all San Franciscans. It is time to put aside politics and be realistic. Without the passage of Prop. A, the reality is that students at City College are being told that San Francisco does not have money for their education.

Joe Kelleher
City College of San Francisco John Adams Campus