Letters

Building In An Uproar

I’m calling on behalf of everybody in my building. We are very, very disappointed in the cover of the Reader today (“I Had the Rocket Launcher,” December 17). This violence… Kids see this, teenagers see this — this is the wrong kind of cover on the Reader. It has really upset us, and I told them that I would call to tell you this.

• Name Withheld
• via phone

Friendship, No Demands

Re “Sheep and Goats” (and Cats), December 17, First Presbyterian Church, Third and Date. Excellent article about a great church. I’m in their “other” congregation, which gets a meal Sundays at 2:00 p.m. This church has a great sensitivity to the feelings of the poor, making it a top pick in the reality department. They even cater to us “cats.” Sheep like being herded, goats oppose it, and herded cats will bite you or poop on your bed.

There’s no demand that you become Christian or face the sentence of eternal imprisonment in hell. The leaders run blogs. Good blogs. They care a lot about how well they’re doing. Today (Sunday, December 20), they asked me for an evaluation from outside of Judeo-Christianity. I rate them third among all Christian denominations in public service, behind only the Salvation Army and the United Methodists. Kitty likes. Try this church if you’re very independent. Might make you purr.

• John Kitchin
• via email

Cream Just For The Fat Cats

Mr. Bauder exposed the mayor’s and council’s corrupt practice of appointing lobbyists to important committees (“Lobbyists Rule,” “City Lights,” December 17). These appointees have one goal: to enrich themselves and their employers. Of course, the mayor and council will tell you they are devoted to helping the City.

Downtown redevelopment is an example of how the City uses property tax to build stadiums, unneeded hotels, and vacant condominiums, while our police department and fire department have their budgets cut. Redevelopment is supposed to improve the city; instead, it has robbed us of income that should have been used for public safety.

In fact, the city charter says public safety is the council’s first priority. The council ignores this and makes downtown construction its first priority. The rest of the city will subsidize downtown’s need for police and fire protection. The current budget admits that response times for police calls and medical rescue will be slower. How many people will die from these budget cuts? But this doesn’t matter as long as each councilmember keeps redevelopment money in his or her district.

Basically, redevelopment, which was originally supposed to clear slums, has been transformed into a subsidy for developers of hotels and condos.

• Mel Shapiro
• via email

Kids Get No Union Benefit

Thank you, Ernie Grimm, for your great cover article “Gompers Takes a Bow,” December 10. It shows unmistakably that the real obstacle to improving our education system is teacher unions. They protect the incompetent, fight local control and innovation, and exist only to feather their own nest. They also use thuggery and the San Diego School Board to force their views on captive parents and children in poor neighborhoods. It is no wonder that minority parents are the ones most aware of the damage done by teacher unions.

• Bob Spaulding
• San Diego

Interesting, Unreadable

I thought that “Play the Sneaky Development Game” (“City Lights,” December 3) was interesting with a catchy title but just too hard to read. The article was not organized well. The picture of Ron Roberts was on the wrong page. It was better to have the article than not to have it, but it wasn’t written like one you wanted to read.

• Name Withheld
• by Request
• via email