August 2008

Letters to the Editor

Boat Ramp

Dear Editor:

Thank you for the article in last month’s View on the new boat ramp that was completed near Pier 52 on San Francisco Bay. I work on Pier 50, right across the cove. I have a daily appreciation for how much the ramp was needed from witnessing the increased boat traffic in the cove.

Your article highlighted what is so great about this City and what is so terribly wrong. What is great is that some citizens, such as Corinne Woods and Betty Boatright, would not give up championing a cause which made absolute sense. What is so wrong is that it took 15 years to complete! Let’s contrast this public building project to another structure on the Bay: the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The new boat ramp is two lanes of concrete going into the Bay for 100 feet or so and a dock. The Bay Bridge is 10 lanes of roadway, 4.5 miles long, two complete suspension bridges, a massive center anchorage built into the bay 242 feet below sea level and an equally impressive cantilever section stretching to the eastern shore. Oh, and don’t forget the tunnel through Yerba Buena Island, which is the largest single bore tunnel in the world. All this Herculean effort and yet the Bay Bridge was originally constructed in a little more than three years. Three years! Why did it take five times longer to build a simple boat ramp than the entire Bay Bridge; 200 feet of roadway versus 237,600 feet of roadway?

San Francisco used to be the City that knew how. Now it is the City that knows how to…, well, you know, think about it.

Arne Hillesland

23rd Street

View Praise

Dear Editor:

I was saddened to read about the theft of papers in last month’s View. I’ve lived on the Hill for just over a year, and enjoyed reading the View each month. In a big city it’s refreshing to have a local perspective. You just don’t read stories like that of Mrs. Estelle West, “The Goat Lady of Potrero Hill,” in the so-called local papers.

I wanted to respond to your request for subscribers because the local nature of the paper is what I like most. I do not wish to receive the paper at home. If the View was simply delivered to my door, I would miss the opportunity to pick it up from my favorite neighborhood businesses, like Vermont Street Cleaners, Farley’s Cafe, or Good Life Grocery.

Just as freedom is not free, neither is a free press. I wanted to let you know how much I value your efforts, and that you can count on “a set of eyes waiting to read” the View each month.

Tom Keegan

Kansas and 20th streets

Too Loud

Dear Editor:
Why are obscenely loud motorcycles allowed to destroy every Sunday along 17th Street around Potrero Hill? The motorcycles keep going up and down the street, never to any destination, or they sit there and rev their engines. This goes on for many hours every Sunday. It’s as if they’re all trying to outdo one another for having the loudest most obnoxious sound spew out of their machines. I can hear them from well over 10 to 15 blocks away as they are constantly parading around the northern section of the Hill.
Why does this continue to go on every weekend? Why aren’t more people bothered by this annoying destruction of civility and peace? What’s wrong with these people who need attention from every person within a mile radius? This is a pure example of arrested development in supposedly grown up adults.

James
Potrero Hill Resident

Leaching, not Leeching

Dear Editor:
The word Lori Higa was looking for in last month’s article, “City’s Worst Playgrounds Get Dream Makeovers” was “leaching,” with an “a,” not another “e.” Spelled a lot like “leaking,” except the stuff is carried out dissolved in a liquid; in this case, water. There aren’t any leeches in Dolores Park that I’m aware of.

Thomas Whaples
Arkansas Street

August 2008

Letters to the Editor

This Month's Stories

On-going Features