Home Depot's cheap crap

As a longtime San Francisco resident, homeowner, carpenter, and building contractor, I was disappointed to learn that the Board of Supervisors approved the Home Depot project on Bayshore Boulevard. There have been many criticisms expressed about the massive project that promises to alter the San Francisco landscape, but I wanted to voice my opposition on somewhat different grounds.

The result of the Home Depotization of building supplies is a degradation of products, a trend that would have a widespread effect on a city that prides itself on both historic architecture, preservation, and top-notch renovations. Home Depot regularly introduces new products, in the never-ending hunt for profit, that are of thinner gauge, contain plastic guts, all the while maintaining the appearance of familiar products. I hear this lament almost every day from specialized suppliers and the related tradesman, from locksmiths to sheet-metal suppliers to plumbers and electricians.

Recently, I was at a job installing simple round galvanized rain down-spout material and was short one length. So I asked a colleague, already heading to Home Depot, to pick up a length, figuring this is the ultimate standardized product. What came back was substandard, thinner gauge, which tends to rust faster and dent easier, resulting in leaks and rot. Of course, I only noticed this difference because I'm a veteran of the trade. A novice – your typical Home Depot customer – lacks the experience to compare products.

Much like Wal-Mart, Home Depot has grown so mammoth that the company dictates the quality and price of the product to the manufacturer.

To be sure, San Franciscans require improved access to high-quality hardware and lumber products, but Home Depot will only make it more difficult to preserve the unique architectural character of this city.

Peter Bull

San Francisco

Just say no

What part of "no" do the nostalgic Navy veterans who wish to bring the battleship Iowa to San Francisco not understand? The Board of Supervisors torpedoed the idea once already by a vote of eight to three, yet the insistent vets are bringing their ludicrously "updated" proposal again after the first of the year.

Barry Eisenberg

San Francisco

Studio Z's sound

I was glad to see that somebody noticed, and cared to mention, all the work that has been put into improving Studio Z ["Secrets and Lies," 12/14/05]. But I have to ask, why the snub on the sound system? I have been the head sound engineer at Studio Z for just over a year and have worked incredibly hard to improve the reputation the club had for "bad sound." This bad rep was something I walked into blindly as a new sound engineer in town (having moved to SF from Chicago) and have had to confront and overcome from day one of my tenure at Studio Z.

Since I took the helm, on Nov. 2 of last year, I have mixed on several different sound systems at Studio Z, including Opus Audio, Bag End, and the system that is currently in place, the "old one." We also have had many events that brought in their own sound systems including Function-1, Meyer, JBL, etc. All of these different sound systems being at minimal industry standard, to the state of the art. My point here is that I have heard and worked on many sound systems in that room, and despite its appearance, the current sound system at Studio Z is one of the better that I have heard.

I will be honest in saying that if I (and the owners of the club) had our way, we would have a brand-new, top-of-the-line sound system at Studio Z. Hopefully that day is not too far away; however, until that time comes, I will continue to make the system that we currently have rock, and I will continue to work diligently to prove that it isn't just the system that makes a show sound good and that Studio Z, despite it's previous reputation, can still be one of the coolest independent venues in San Francisco.

Michael Casey (a.k.a. "Harp Da' Knobs")

Head sound engineer, Studio Z

San Francisco

For the record

In "Going Local" (12/7/05), we misspelled the name and e-mail address for the holiday greeting cards designed by schoolchildren. The name of the line is MARCHe 4th Productions, and the correct e-mail contact is rmorganjones@marche4thproductions.com.

In the winter Bars and Clubs column "Secrets and Lies" (12/14/05), podcaster Joseph Fenity's name was spelled incorrectly.