Letters to the Editor

Editor:
I am appalled at (John Lee's) statement that protected tenants depreciate property values and create a stigma (September 2009). As a senior in a four-unit building, it is I who tries to maintain the owner's property, removing stacks of junk mail and making sure garbage bins are retrieved on collection day. Young people grouped together to be able to afford outrageous rents are hardly inclined to do so.

Emanating from a culture which reveres the aged, your statement must have your ancestors spinning in their graves.
Alex von Hauffe

Editor:
For the surrounding neighborhoods, this year's 2009 Outside Lands Concert was a definite improvement over 2008. Staff from the SF Recreation and Park Department (RPD) met with several neighborhood organizations during the planning phases of the concert and the open dialogue between the department and the community helped to mitigate some of the problems typically associated with large events in the park (traffic, parking, public notification, park access, landscape protection).

This year, Friday's concert was much too loud. The noise of tuning, etc. started well before concert time and caused hundreds of residents to call the hotline to complain. In response, in-field adjustments were made by Saturday noon, and that day's and Sunday's concerts were much quieter.

We hope that RPD will continue to work with the community in the coming year, and that a specific decibel limit requirement will be set and strictly adhered to for 2010. In preparation for the 2010 Outside Lands Concert, the public is invited to voice their suggestions, praise or concerns. Let the department know what they did well and what they can do better next year at a meeting sponsored by the Planning Association for the Richmond (sfpar.org) on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m., at the Richmond Recreation Center, located at 251 18th Ave.
PAR Parks Committee

Editor:
I thought it might be important for our neighborhood paper to highlight the hardships that our students as well as faculty, lecturers and staff are experiencing at San Francisco State University this fall due to the budget crisis. I think it is critical that the public be informed about what is happening at one of the largest public universities in the Bay Area.

So many classes were cut campus-wide, along with the lecturers who used to teach them, that students are now scrambling to get into whatever classes they possibly can. I am a lecturer in the biology department (one of the lucky few that still has a job), and all of my classes have been packed. My human biology course was enrolled with 160 students and an additional 100 students showed up to try and get in. The room only holds 160 seats, so students were everywhere, on the tables, sitting in the aisles, spilling out the front and side doors, and on the floor near my feet where I was lecturing.

I can only let in students if others drop out, so I get e-mails every hour asking to be on the wait-list, explaining their specific stories about why they desperately need to add the course.

Many students receive financial aid and will not be able to continue their education unless they have enough units. Since there are no available openings in any of the classes they need for their majors, they take classes that don't help them get through their degree and just prolong their time at SFSU.

I have sixth year seniors still trying to get into the entry level biology classes that are prerequisites for upper division courses. One student itemized what he is paying to remain at school - more than $3,000 (including books) to be enrolled in only half the number of units he needs. Many students are dropping out of school just for this reason. Others are taking out even more loans and/or working full time while attending school.

We also have a lot of international students who will be sent back to their country if they do not get the required amount of units needed to stay in the program.

It breaks my heart and I wish I could help them all but we're limited by the number of classes we can offer, which has been seriously cut since we are not getting as much funding from the state. The public needs to be aware that the California State University System is providing an incredible service to our state and therefore should be a top priority for funding. We are training the next generation of workers, which benefits our economy and communities.

At SFSU, we offer one of the most affordable means of getting undergraduate and graduate degrees and we educate more minorities than any university in the area. Where will the majority of our elementary, middle and high school children go when the cost of a public education is placed out of reach for the average family? If the tuition was already raised by 30 percent this year and the students are still not getting their classes, what will the costs be 10 years from now?

We need more public support from the community that we serve. Hopefully if enough concerned citizens express their outrage about what is going on with budget cuts the politicians in Sacramento will start to listen. This goes for all of our public schools.

Funding is being cut on every level of education, and it's not fair to the next generation.
Heather Murdock