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Publisher’s View: Generosity Pandemic

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The Population Bomb, written by Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne Ehrlich, in 1968, predicted that overpopulation-induced global famines would boil up well before the end of the 20th Century.  At the time Earth had 3.5 billion inhabitants. Since then population has doubled, to 7.8 billion.  While there have been localized…

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Publisher’s View: April Fools’…!?

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Over the years I’ve periodically encountered cheek kissers; people whose preferred greeting consists of a series of puckered lipped head maneuvers. When I was younger the kissers were usually someone’s girlfriend, a “glamourous” White girl from Seattle or Los Angeles who pronounced “Nicaragua” as if ordering a fancy cocktail and blurted out “Guatemala” so that…

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Rapa Nui

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Last month I was privileged to travel to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. The isle is a speck in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, 2,190 miles from the Chilean coast.  The Pitcairn Islands are 1,290 miles away; Tahiti, 2,700 miles distant.  It’s one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands, with perhaps…

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Publisher’s View: Keep the Presses Rolling!

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Last month’s front-page editorial announced that the View would fold on its 50th anniversary, August 2020, unless new revenues sources can be secured. Readers responded with a plethora of ideas, and not a small amount of money, including contributions that ranged from $50 to $500.   One thought, if acted upon, would ensure the paper’s…

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Aging

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“It went by so fast,” my 80-something father exclaimed, when I told him my daughter would be attending college in the fall. “Yeah,” I said. “I know.” In a year and a quarter, I’ll turn 60, an unimaginable age to my younger self. Sixty was when people started preparing for retirement, purchasing the necessary plaid…

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Publisher’s View: Transformation

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Each of us is born into a beautifully flawed world, though the balance differs depending on individual circumstances.  Some of us, emerging newly slick from the womb, are welcomed into a family full of hugs, smiles, and material well-being.  Others are left cold on the table, confronted with immediate, wrenching, long-term physical, emotional, and spiritual…

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Publisher’s View: Housing

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A more than 20 percent increase in San Francisco’s property tax roll, combined with a state program, the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund, which shifts a portion of “excess” local property taxes to public school systems in each California county, has showered $415 million of unexpected revenues on the City.  The windfall is indicative of San…

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Publisher’s View: Supervisor

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San Francisco elects its supervisors by district, rather than citywide, so they’re closer to neighborhood people and issues.  The hope is that district supervisors will be chosen by voters who know their character, with a mandate to advance community interests.  With almost 73,000 residents, District 10 is one the City’s most complex jurisdictions. Although taken…

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Publisher’s View: September 11, 2001

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Last summer I visited the painfully exquisite 9/11 Memorial & Museum, in lower Manhattan.  Through a carefully constructed flow of architecture, images, sounds, and objects, the institution skillfully recreates that terrible September morning and its immediate aftermath.  I walked past burnt fire engines and video loops of planes smashing into the World Trade Towers.  An…

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Publisher’s View: Architecture

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A couple of years ago my wife, Debbie, and I joined a tour of Lower Haight homes built more than a century ago.  Mostly Victorians, their facades were exquisite in ways San Franciscans sometimes forget to appreciate:  carefully crafted moldings, vibrant color contrasts, one-of-a-kind windows.  Their painted faces create a festive public sphere, like a…

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Publisher’s View: John B. Anderson

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Late last year, John B. Anderson died at the age of 95.  Anderson, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, unsuccessfully ran for his party’s nomination for the presidency in 1980.  When he failed in that quest he launched an independent campaign for the office, ultimately securing almost seven percent of the national vote. I first…

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Publisher’s View: Boring

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“Ugh, I don’t want to go there!” my 16-year-old daughter, Sara, exclaimed.  “It’s so boring!” We were on one of our frequent meandering drives in and around San Francisco, a favorite Sara activity.  She loves to wheel around freshly found neighborhoods, especially those with long, lovely, boulevards: Lincoln, Folsom, Twin Peaks.  While I enjoy these…

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Publisher’s View: Cyber-Stranger Danger

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No parent would willingly allow a stranger to enter their home, slip down the hallway unseen, enter their child’s bedroom, closing the door softly behind them.  Yet that’s exactly what’s happening through the portals of mobile devices, all too often leading to actual physical encounters arranged through such applications as Tinder, Snapchat, and texting. Nine…

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