Letters to the editor

Editor:
We would like to inform residents of the Richmond and Sunset districts of plans to build a soccer complex with bright sports lighting in the western end of Golden Gate Park. This project will convert the existing grassy soccer fields into artificial turf fields, brightly lighted until 10 p.m. every night. It will change the western edge of the park from a pastoral retreat to a more urbanized space. Potential impacts include an increase in traffic in the park and the neighborhoods, decreased parking at Ocean Beach, degraded wildlife habitat, decreased night sky darkness, and infringement on the wild nature of Ocean Beach.

The Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, SPEAK and the Golden Gate Park Preservation Alliance request that this project be put on hold for six months, so the issues can be investigated and people all over San Francisco can be informed of this change to their park. For more information, go to the Web site at www.goldengateparkpreservation.org.
Marc Duffett President, SPEAK Katherine Howard Golden Gate Park Preservation Alliance

Editor's note: There will be a public meeting on Monday, Dec. 7, to discuss the neighborhood's concerns about a plan to replace the soccer fields at the west end of Golden Gate Park with synthetic turf and night lighting before the issue comes before the SF Recreation and Park Commission. That meeting has not been scheduled as of presstime, but could occur as soon as Dec. 17.

The public meeting will be held at the Golden Gate Park Senior Center, located at 6101 Fulton St., at 7 p.m. For more information, go to the Web site at www.sfoceanedge.org.

Editor:
We asked Muni representatives why the #18 bus serves the Palace of the Legion of Honor from five in the morning until one the following morning. Nobody would ride the #18 to the Legion of Honor before seven in the morning, probably a handful of employees, and nobody after five in the afternoon.

Yet, the #18 would go to the Legion empty for two hours in the morning and eight hours in the evening. We suggested the #18 line service discontinue and the #2-Clement should serve the Legion instead. The #2 line stops running at eight in the evening so the empty runs from eight until one the next morning would be eliminated. Moreover, passengers going downtown would not have to transfer at 33rd Avenue. The #18 could be turned back at an earlier point. We asked Muni staff to respond but the only comment we got was informal.

We were told that it didn't make sense and that we would have to find a new stop for the #18 line terminal.

With Muni now set to cut back the #2 line service that people do use, I wonder why Muni continues to serve the Legion when nobody is going there.

According to the Muni figures, during the evening hours exactly one passenger uses the Legion of Honor terminal as a destination and 10 board there. So, in the hours after six, 11 passengers use the line during the final seven hours of service.
Paul Rosenberg

Editor:
When I read former Mayor Willie Brown's comments about how his favorite clothing store, Wilkes Bashford, escaped going out of business by being purchased, Willie, in my opinion, managed to drain the shallowness of his humanity even more when he stated: "It's a relief for all of us who will have no other place in town to buy clothes."

Are there no Men's Wearhouses? No Cable Car Clothiers or Brooks Brothers?

Willie, be grateful that the public trough from which you've fed for over half a century is still there for you to buy your upscale underwear and outer raiments, which can cover a lot of things, but not your sense of self-aggrandizement.
Sanford L. Chandler