LETTERS

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San Francisco, CA 94107

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SFHA's second look

The Opinion column by Alicia Schwartz [12/7/05] contains some information that needs a second look.

The San Francisco Housing Authority manages more than 6,000 units of housing in more than 50 complexes scattered throughout the City and County of San Francisco. There are over 2,000 units housing seniors and persons with disabilities in high-rise buildings, and more than 4,000 units at our family properties. Many of our properties were built in the 1940s and 1950s. Our communities sit on hundreds of acres of land with many miles of city streets and sidewalks. We currently receive slightly more than $600 a month per unit to operate and maintain our housing, regardless of the unit size. We operate in one of the most expensive housing markets in the United States. Our costs are higher than most other areas in the country, yet our income to operate and maintain our housing is based on the same formula as lower-cost areas.

Schwartz refers to a "hearing organized by tenants" working with her organization. The hearing she refers to was a Nov. 9, 2005, meeting of the Board of Supervisors' Land Use Committee. She also refers to 100 "tenants" who she states testified at this hearing. A check of the televised record of the hearing will show that only 25 speakers provided comments at the hearing. Of those 25, about 15 were actual public housing residents.

We have a cadre of skilled craftspeople who are responsible for making repairs to our buildings and grounds. They respond to requests for service from residents or to problems identified when we inspect our apartments. We respond to emergencies within 24 hours after we learn of the problem and nonemergency work is generally done within 30 days.

With much of our housing designed and constructed for a bygone era, the need to rebuild and expand low-income housing in San Francisco is obvious. The Housing Authority has land and is seeking to join with public and private partners in the development community to rebuild and revitalize areas with public housing into new and vibrant communities for low-income families. Whatever the future holds, no unit of public housing will be lost to any redevelopment endeavor.

Gregg Fortner

Executive director

San Francisco Housing Authority

Israeli Invincible

My name's Nizar Wattad, a.k.a. Ragtop of the Palestinian-Filipino-American hip-hop crew the Philistines. I am writing first to thank the Bay Guardian for running Marke B.'s article "Feeding the Fire" [12/21/05], which highlighted our friends NaR while placing their queer Arab hip-hop in the larger context of hip-hop as a force for social change.

Secondly, I wanted to note that one reference in the article is incorrect: Detroit-area artist Invincible is referred to as a "female Arab" MC. She is in fact Israeli-American, not Arab. On the other hand, she is homosexual, a bit of relevant info that I believe was left out of the article.

Thanks again for supporting Arab-American hip-hop in all its manifestations. Peace and Solidarity.

Ragtop

The Philistines

Los Angeles

Exposing Scientology

Kudos for your exposé of the New Life Center's ties to the Church (sic) of $cientology ["New Life, Old Tricks," 12/21/05]. As David Touretsky of Carnegie Mellon University – writing as a private individual – stated: The Internet is $cientology's Viet Nam. The more that we know about $cientology's attempts to insinuate itself into our lives, the less likely that $cientology will be able to entice the unwary into its insidious clutches.

James W. Glass

Fort Collins, Colo.

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