Letters: Scapegoating cities won't solve California's housing crisis
Regarding 'This rich beachfront city is trying to launch an anti-housing insurgency in California' (Opinion, SFChronicle.com, May 17): Sara Libby's portrayal of Encinitas as a wealthy, heartless enclave waging an 'anti-housing insurgency' is false, inflammatory and intellectually lazy.
Encinitas is not some gilded fortress. It's a community of working families, retirees, renters, duplexes, mobile homes and apartments — hardly the caricature Libby paints. Property values have risen, but like everywhere along the California coast, that's an economic trend, not a municipal conspiracy.
To mock the city's support for a ballot measure restoring local planning authority as a 'tantrum' is insulting. Questioning Sacramento's increasingly coercive mandates isn't selfish, it's a defense of democratic governance and local context.
Encinitas has followed the law, updated its housing element and approved projects. That doesn't fit Libby's narrative, so she ignores it.
The state's housing failures won't be solved by scapegoating thoughtful communities or silencing dissent. Encinitas isn't the villain here — ideologues and lazy journalism are.
Mike Lewis, Encinitas, San Diego County
Ethnic studies is worthy
Regarding 'California's ethnic studies mandate is dead. It was never really alive to begin with' (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, May 15): Justin Ray's op-ed about the failure of California's ethnic studies mandate felt like a eulogy for a course that never had a chance.
But I don't think it's the mandate itself that failed. I think we failed to defend it.
California lawmakers passed a requirement with no teeth. School districts were told to teach 'ethnic studies,' but not what that meant or how to do it well. Educators were given no mandatory training. No protected funding. No guardrails.
That isn't just poor planning. It's sabotage dressed up like reform. This approach lets everyone feel like something good happened while ensuring nothing actually changes. It's political performance art.
A real ethnic studies course doesn't just show students different skin tones in textbooks. It teaches them how power works, how history is written and how stories are erased. And how people resist. It teaches students that the world was built by someone — and that they have a right to remake it.
Ethnic studies is not about shame. It's about accuracy. It doesn't make white students feel guilty. It makes all students feel informed. Which is kind of the point of school.
Jesse MacKinnon, Pleasant Hill
Build affordable housing
Regarding 'Controversial S.F. housing project in the Mission gets green light despite resistance' (San Francisco, SFChronicle.com, May 16): Why should a landlord be rewarded for his intransigence and failure to abide by the public interest?
Less than 20 of the 181 units proposed for the 22nd and Mission streets site would be below market rate, despite San Francisco's desperate need for more. The city should show some guts and use eminent domain to take the property over.
David Fairley, San Francisco
Don't tax Big Tech
Regarding 'Big Tech harms kids and local news. California needs to hit it with an impact tax' (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, May 18): No, California does not need to hit anything with a 'tiny tax' that will ultimately drive away more businesses from our state.
While I agree that tech can lead to mental health problems in children, I disagree that taxing tech companies is how we solve this. If anything, tax the user — that's what we do with cigarettes and sugary drinks.
The authors claim that data collection by Big Tech is driving away advertising dollars and killing local news outlets. My husband was a staff photographer for the now-defunct San Mateo County Times, and I can say with authority that the economic recession of 2008 killed many local newspapers — that was caused by predatory mortgage lending, not tech companies taking away advertising dollars.
Cassandra Palo, San Francisco
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Letters: What can Democrats do to win presidential elections again?
Regarding 'What Newsom understands about power that other California Democrats don't' (Open Forum, June 3): Stay true to values Justin Ray's op-ed reveals an ignorance of history, politics and language. He blames the Democrats for asserting 'moral clarity' and implies that they are a left party. The Democratic Party is really a centrist, capitalist party pretending to be a 'big tent.' Its failure is that, representing capitalist interests, it cannot achieve moral clarity. Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump are more popular individually than the Democratic leadership because they run on moral clarity. I despise the ruthless immorality of the fascist tendencies of Trump, but his culture war doesn't lack moral clarity. Yes, Gov. Gavin Newsom's fascism light is based upon pragmatism, but contrary to the punditry we are sold, most Americans are starving for an honest culture war with moral clarity on the side of human decency, justice, equality and history. People are sick of being fooled, including those fooled into voting for Trump and the once-upon-a-time Medicare for all champion and former vice president. Marc Sapir, Berkeley Don't be only liberal The commentary about Gov. Gavin Newsom reminds me of when I was a campus coordinator at San Jose State College in 1972 for George McGovern's presidential campaign. We all loved Sen. McGovern and believed that he would be a great president but forgot one thing: He wasn't going to win a national election. McGovern wanted to end the Vietnam War at a time when most Americans disagreed and wanted to fight communism in another country. He wanted to ensure that there was a guaranteed minimum income, which, yikes, was socialism and made it seem like that is all liberals want. Democrats must avoid being perceived as only liberal. They can do this by supporting policies such as temporarily halting Medi-Cal expansion for undocumented immigrants. That's the only way they can get some Republicans and independents to vote Democratic. Gralen Britto, Corte Madera Peace is the way Justin Ray misses the mark when he says that the Democrats should turn right to win the next election. Kamala Harris didn't lose the presidential election to Donald Trump because she was too far left; she lost because of her and former President Joe Biden's extreme pro-war policies, including Israel's siege of Gaza, according to polling by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project and YouGov. In six battleground states, 20% of previous Democratic voters polled cited Biden's policies on Gaza as the primary reason for not voting for their party, and 36% of 2020 Biden voters would have voted for Harris if she had pledged to withhold further weapons from Israel. Meanwhile, Trump campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine, and in his first term, he reached out to North Korea and did not start any wars. From former President Barack Obama's pivot to Asia, which shifted 60% of our naval forces to the region, to Democrats' endlessly pushing the red lines of Russia and China, and fear of nuclear war, a critical base of Democratic voters was lost. The Democratic Party must return to its pro-peace base to survive. Michael Wong, vice president, Veterans For Peace San Francisco chapter Work for the working class Justin Ray's op-ed seems to be endorsing the same old move-to-the-middle strategy that has brought ruin on the Democratic Party. Kamala Harris ran as a moderate — campaigning with Republican Liz Cheney, cozying up to tech billionaires, ignoring the LGBTQ community and doing nothing to separate herself from former President Joe Biden's unquestioning support for the Palestinian slaughter in Gaza. Being Republican Light is what got us into this mess. What we really need is for Democrats to return to their Franklin D. Roosevelt roots as champions of the working class. Robert Leeds, Oakland
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Want to go behind the scenes of the Chronicle Opinion section? Check out our new newsletter
Wait, don't hit delete! Yes, this is still the Opinion Central newsletter. We're just rolling out a new format to offer readers more than a collection of links. I'm Harry Mok, and starting this week on Thursdays, I'll be your guide for content from the Chronicle's Opinion section. First, a little about me. I'm the Opinion section's assistant editor and a columnist. I help edit all the stories that appear in the section, and I'm the editor who receives all of the Letters to the Editor submissions from readers. I grew up in the Sacramento area on a farm that my parents, immigrants from China, started as the family business. I didn't appreciate much of my family's history until I got off the farm and went to college at San Jose State, where I majored in journalism. I knew that having a family farm that grew Chinese vegetables was unusual. At San Jose State, I took classes in Asian American history and literature, which gave me a better understanding of how my family fit, or didn't fit, into the American story. I'm glad I've been able to document and honor that history by writing about it. My career has taken me from California to New York and back, and to the Chronicle twice. I was a copy editor at the Chronicle from 1997 to 2002, and I returned in 2016. I've been with the Opinion section as assistant editor since 2021. I've lived in San Francisco since 1996 and in the Sunset District since 2004. Some readers might be familiar with my columns about the Sunset, including the recent debate over the closure of the Upper Great Highway to cars. With the new Thursday newsletter format, I want to give you insights into what you're reading and how it came to be. Sometimes, that could be going behind-the-scenes with staff columnists or contributors to talk about their pieces or an analysis of issues of the day. Other times, I might give newsletter readers the space to weigh in. The goal is to have a deeper discourse that gets people thinking. Then, maybe you'll want to send a letter to the editor. Or you'll be motivated to research a subject to bolster an opinion or offer your personal experience for an Open Forum submission. The Chronicle's Opinion section welcomes viewpoints from all perspectives about the challenges we face and the triumphs we celebrate, hit me up. Our submissions inbox is open, and I can be reached at hmok@
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Letters: Taking Harvey Milk's name off Navy ship won't silence what he stands for
Regarding 'Trump reportedly to strip Harvey Milk name off naval vessel' (Politics, June 3): The order to remove Harvey Milk's name from a Navy ship is a stunning and shameful act of political erasure. Milk, a Navy veteran who served during the Korean War, was assassinated after becoming one of America's most courageous and pioneering LGBTQ+ civil rights leaders. To claim that his name no longer reflects 'the Navy's values' or the 'warrior ethos' is not just revisionist — it's malicious. The timing is no accident. On the first days of Pride month, this move speaks volumes about the stories the Trump administration seeks to silence. This decision is not about standards. It's about politics and an insult to every LGBTQ+ American who has served this country with honor. I am the beneficiary of Milk's groundbreaking efforts to have LGBTQ+ people treated with respect, dignity and the opportunity to love who we choose. The name Harvey Milk endures — in the hearts of those who carry his legacy forward and in every Pride flag raised this month. Jonathan Finck, San Francisco Stand with veterans On Friday, the anniversary of D-Day, I'll be in Washington, D.C., marching alongside thousands of other veterans and families at the Unite for Veterans rally. We're not showing up to make noise. We're showing up because we believe in something worth defending: the promise this country made to those who served. I served in Afghanistan as an Army infantry officer. I've spent my civilian career working to improve systems for veterans, at a Bay Area tech company and at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and I can tell you this: Undermining veteran care doesn't reduce waste, it reduces access, stability and dignity for those who earned it. The Department of Veterans Affairs is under threat. The systems veterans rely on for health care, housing and mental health are being hollowed out. At the same time, disinformation is spreading about how these systems work and who they serve. This isn't about one party or one president. It's about priorities. We've never hesitated to invest in national defense and caring for veterans is part of that commitment. So I'm standing up. And I'm asking others to do the same. Demand that this country keep its word to those who wore the uniform. George Chewning, San Francisco Train not so smart Regarding 'Enthusiasm 'sky high' as Sonoma-Marin rail service expands northward' (Bay Area, May 31): The story about SMART train reaching Windsor reads like a promo piece. A deeper look shows that the boom in ridership occurred after SMART started giving free rides to kids and seniors. And even with that incentive, it has yet to reach the 5,000 riders a day to which it aspires. SMART has been a huge boondoggle. It's a single-track rail line that runs through flood-prone fields, utilizing diesel engines, with no flexibility in case of earthquake or fire (unlike unsexy buses). The policy seems to be to build so much infrastructure that citizens will feel they must send good money after bad, but they're not consistently biting. Jean Arnold, Mendocino Learn more languages The more languages you know fluently, the better you understand your native language. I helped write courses of study for many languages. My granddaughters attended Spanish immersion classes and are now bilingual, opting to study additional languages. While I agree that English literacy should be better, students are immersed in English all day long though social media is eroding their grammar and punctuation. This is a separate battle that won't be improved by outlawing immersion classes. To improve communication and alternate ways of organizing reality, I say we should offer more immersion classes.
