Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor:
I enjoyed the informative article on Starr King Open Space in the July issue. I live on Kansas Street, and have been there numerous times when walking my dogs or to enjoy the view, although the height and type of grasses make it risky for dogs during the summer and poor drainage can be a problem during winter.
Too bad there was no mention in the article of the man who was the source of the Open Space’s name, Reverend Thomas Starr King, who was quite a player in the history of San Francisco and California. He is memorialized in several places, including his burial site at the Unitarian Universalist Church, which he served during the Civil War.
Mike McGirr
Kansas Street
Dear Editor:
I write to thank you for the article, “What’s in a Street Name?” by Sarah Marloff that appeared in the July View. As a retired San Francisco State University geography professor who still occasionally leads walking tours on Potrero Hill, I enjoyed reading about the loss of county names replaced by number streets.
I have two questions, and one possible answer regarding the state streets: Has anybody found a rationale for the order of the streets? So far as I can tell, the order is random: not alphabetical, not chronological, not geographic. Though with the exception of Utah, all the streets on Potrero and nearby in the Mission are named for states in existence in the 1860s (yet Massachusetts, Ohio, and Virginia were not used as names).
Why, in the middle of the state streets, do we get De Haro, named, I think, for a Potrero resident? I believe the Wackenruder Map from 1861 gives a clue. At the extreme eastern edge of Potrero there’s a short Delaware Street. Then, on the same map, between Carolina and Rhode Island streets, another Delaware. This Delaware is now De Haro. When they discovered a second Delaware it was renamed De Haro. This is just a guess, but it makes sense to me. Ironically, San Francisco no longer has a Delaware Street. Current maps show Maryland Street as the easternmost street on Potrero.
I faithfully read the View each month, picking it up at the St. Francis Fountain at 24th and York streets. I lived on the Hill from 1966 to 1970, when I bought my home in Bernal Heights with a superb view of Potrero.
Max C. Kirkeberg
Peralta Avenue
View readers who may have answers to these questions are invited to write in - Editor
Dear Editor:
David Matsuda has written some excellent first-hand accounts about the war in Iraq over the last year. Now, San Franciscans have an opportunity to do something about ending this illegal and immoral war; by voting for peace on two initiatives on our ballot this November.
The first is Proposition U, which is a simple declaration that Congress “should vote against any further funding for the deployment of United States Armed Forces in Iraq, with the exception of funds specifically earmarked to provide for their safe and orderly withdrawal.” No matter who gets elected, we must hold our politicians’ feet to the fire to end this war once and for all.
The second is Proposition V, the last one on the ballot. The school board is in the process of phasing-out and replacing the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC); The Pentagon and its allies put the initiative on the ballot to try to reverse the board’s courageous decision to get the military out of our schools. If we don’t want the politicians to use our money for illegal wars, we don’t want the high schools as recruiting devices for future Iraqs and Afghanistans.
Let’s vote peace in November.
Doris Brin Walker Roberson
Dear Editor:
A friend has been sharing recent copies of the Potrero View with me. You’re doing a super job of covering the community, and the paper looks great.
I’ve enjoyed your “Publisher’s View” columns, especially September’s. My dad, a 1932 graduate of the University of Illinois, School of Mechanical Engineering, kept a little brown notebook in the glove compartments of our 1955 Chevrolet and 1962 Chevrolet Impala. Like your dad, he kept notes about gallons purchased and miles traveled. He was an amazing man, much like your dad and grandfather. Thoughtful. Careful about money. Not seduced by consumerism. He kept his 1962 Impala until a year before he died in 1996.
John Gollin
Publisher
Northside Publications, Inc.
