If residential nitrogen oxide emissions make up only 6.1% of all local emissions, why is the District targeting residential emissions when industrial and commercial transportation sources are the biggest offenders? Wouldn’t it make more sense to target oil refineries or trucks? But these downstream costs will show up on our bills before you can say ecology.
The ban places an undue burden on homeowners without paying for the crushing costs. Upgrading electrical panels on older homes can cost more than $4,000, plus $3,000 for a heat pump. Add nearly $1,000 more for an electric water heater. This is not change.
And what about PG&E’s failed electric grid? It can’t keep the lights on when it’s hotter than 95 or the wind is blowing. That is if they don’t burn down your entire town.
For me the answer is simple. I am buying a new gas stove and water heater before the rules come into effect.
Lawrence Bothen, Pacifica
Save Castro
Regarding “Exclusive: SF’s Castro Theater operator raises curtain on new plans to win neighborhood support” (Heather Knight, SFChronicle.com, March 11): I appreciate Heather Knight as an important voice to observe ineptitude in San Francisco. That said, I am disappointed in her column in support of Another Planet Entertainment and the damage it wants to do to the Castro Theater.
I disagree that there are no heroes and villains in this story. If Another Planet wants to rip out the orchestra seats and sloping floor, then the best movie theater in the world is no longer a movie theater, it’s actually a villain.
Knight is disingenuous when he quotes Peter Pastreich, the creator of the Castro Theater Conservancy, in such a way as to make it appear to the organization that the seats and the floor are no big deal. See the Castro Theater Conservancy website. It supports orchestra seats and sloping floors, as do many important filmmakers around the world, including our own George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.
The Castro Theater is the best cinema in the world, but much more than that. It is a sacred space that must not be violated.
David G. Fink, San Francisco
Life is not a game
The University of Alabama men’s basketball program is another example of greed being more important than people’s lives.
We do not know how many Alabama basketball players may have been present during a fatal shooting and who may have brought or known the gun used in the killing. Were any of the players partially responsible? We do not know. Were any of the players traumatized by the shooting? We do not know.
We know that No.1 Alabama entered the NCAA Basketball Tournament with these players in its lineup, a true demonstration of March Madness.
Mitchell Goldman, Richmond
