The backstory

I read with great interest the article by Camille T. Taiara about Seniors Organizing Seniors seeking to provide a safe haven for homeless elderly people ["Sounding the Alarm," 11/23/05]. The article reported that Mel Beetle, one of the organizing seniors, and Barbara Blong, housing organizer for Senior Action Network, lamented the lack of housing and poor shelter conditions for homeless seniors.

During 2003 and '04, Blong and Beetle were the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the failed Homeless Senior Task Force, which was created by Sup. Chris Daly and supported by a unanimous Board of Supervisors. Despite its mandate by the board (resolution no. 682-02) to assess shelter conditions for homeless seniors and make recommendations to address deficiencies, including the development of a separate senior shelter, the HSTF went out of business in September 2004 without making assessments of the shelters or a recommendation for a separate senior shelter. I know about this because I closely followed the work of the HSTF and attended most of its meetings. I vehemently protested its inaction, but to no avail.

When San Francisco Chronicle columnist Joan Ryan investigated the work (or lack thereof) of the HSTF, she reported in her Sept. 2, 2004, column that the HSTF "failed" because it "bowed to fiscal and political pressure."

There is also the significant question: Why did Daly allow his task force to go out of business without making its mandated assessments and recommendations?

John M. Kelly San Francisco

Damn the dam!

The Bay Guardian is spot-on in pointing out the Commonwealth Club's omission of public power from the debate over the O'Shaugnessy dam in Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley [Editorial, 11/23/05].

What else would we expect from downtown's mouthpieces?

But I take exception to the notion that San Francisco's energy needs necessarily trump Hetch Hetchy Valley restoration, especially when the city will soon be connected north and south to the regional power grid, obviating the need to run the Potrero and Hunters Point fossil plants for peak needs.

It should be possible for the dam to be demolished and for electrical power generation to continue at close to current rates if hydro facilities are redistributed downstream in new catchments that impound water for generation in less environmentally sensitive locations.

Marc Saloman San Francisco

SFPO's progress

In the Nov. 16 editorial "Post-Peskin Progressives," you questioned the current capacity of our city's progressives to recruit candidates, build coalitions, and move an agenda forward. In the editorial, you included the San Francisco People's Organization as an organization with this potential but from whom you have not heard much lately since June 2005.

We certainly agree that progressives have a lot of work to do. For the last five months, SFPO has been working with leadership from labor, and in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color – laying the foundation for meaningful participation in local policymaking in communities that progressives have often neglected.

Since our convention, attended by 400 individuals, 40 community organizations, 10 labor unions, and 8 former or current elected officials, SFPO has taken solid steps in building solidarity and a common agenda amongst our broad and incredibly diverse coalition – which is hard work and often not visible.

This past fall, working closely with the Alliance for a Better California, SFPO contacted 2,000 voters in 13 precincts that the left often fails to reach. SFPO made early endorsement decisions on local and state propositions in August and distributed 5,000 informational pieces.

In the coming months, we will be focusing on three campaign areas central to the health and vitality of our entire city: violence prevention, antigentrification, and health care reform. We have been closely involved in the shaping of Supervisor Ammiano's initiative, introduced Nov. 22, to require all SF businesses with more than 20 employees to provide them with health coverage. In September, we brought 60 demonstrators to the Ritz to expose the Chamber of Commerce's attempts to confuse businesses about our proposal for health care expansion.

We are developing an effective and relevant communications strategy to unite current progressives and reach out to new ones. In December SFPO will launch a weekly progressive alert e-mail system to inform San Franciscans of the latest community struggles and policy battles within City Hall and the School District.

If you are interested in being part of this exciting new coalition or in learning more about SFPO, please contact us at info@sfpeople.org.

Jane Kim, president, SFPO and the SFPO Executive Board

For the record

Last week's Critic's Choice art review misstated in part the contributions of the artists Grady and Riley McFerrin. Grady painted the works on vellum illustrating aspects of the woodsman's life; Riley built the plywood frames for the paintings.