July-August 2003 RETURN TO HOME PAGE FEEDBACK

Order Books Under Cover

Editor:

I have a suggestion regarding the impending closure of Cover to Cover, and the efforts to save it [see story, front page].

If even a fraction of Noe Valleons who order books from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble ordered instead from Cover to Cover (online), it would make a huge difference to our local independent bookstore. Any new publication available from Amazon, etc., can also be ordered from Cover to Cover. Its web site is www.covertocoversf.com.

You can shop for a book through the Cover to Cover/BookSense.com system, and order it at the site. Your book can be shipped to any address, or to Cover to Cover on 24th Street, where they'll hold it for you to pick up (thus avoiding shipping charges). If you can't find the book you want at the web site, that's okay--they can still order it. Just e-mail Cover to Cover owners Mark Ezarik or Tracy Wynne with the book information--ISBN number or title and author--and they will order it for you. You can also order this way if you don't want to put your credit card online.

If you value a local bookstore, where the owners know their customers by name and book preference, please shop there instead of at the big guys.

Kathy Willems

Elizabeth Street

Vicious Dogs, Keep Out

Editor:

I love dogs. My son has one that is so very precious and loving. But we need to talk more about dogs in Noe Valley.

On a Friday in April, I was walking up 24th Street toward Douglass, outside Firefly restaurant, when I saw a lady with a black dog walk past a van with two dogs in it on the opposite side of the street. Suddenly, her dog became vicious and tried to attack the dogs in the van. She appeared startled that her dog was barking so ferociously and she could barely handle her dog on its leash. The dog then saw me and started barking even more and pulling to cross the street over toward me.

This woman has a vicious dog, and I believe this incident should have been a wakeup call for the owner. She did not get the message, though, and crossed the street and turned her dog loose in Noe Courts Park. I was afraid to go by the park as I normally do on my way home.

My point is this: Vicious dogs have no business in our neighborhood, and especially not off the leash.

A Noe Valley Resident

(Name Withheld by Request)

Building Looks Like a Refrigerator

Editor:

I'm writing about the development proposed for 3953 24th Street, across from Bell Market ["Senior Housing--the Latest Plan for the Lunny House," May 2003 Voice]. It's difficult to know where to start. The developer is plotting a five-story building that looks like the rear end of an enormous, broken refrigerator. For sheer incompatibility with Noe Valley and the surrounding 24th Street neighborhood, you couldn't ask for anything uglier. But then, the developer isn't planning to live in or anywhere near this monstrosity, so cheap construction and maximum profits may be his only concern.

Of great concern to us, the property owners in the neighborhood, is the lack of parking. I own a house a block away on Jersey Street, a once-quiet neighborhood street that is now a six-block-long parking lot for the retail customers and employees of the 24th Street merchants. The three retail outlets in the proposed development will demand parking spots for innumerable customers and employees, not to mention the residents of the six housing units planned for the site. (Yes, we know the developer is promising a covenant that will forbid the development's condominium purchasers to own automobiles--a covenant that is both unconstitutional and impossible for practical reasons to enforce.)

I have written to the Planning Department asking the bureaucrats to please not rubber-stamp this project. And I urge your readers to do the same. The Planning Department, as well as the Planning Commission, should serve the people of this city and this community by approving a project that is in keeping with the size and style of the surrounding buildings and which provides parking for its commercial tenants, their customers and employees, and for its residents and guests.

Steve Susoyev

Jersey Street

THE VOICE welcomes your letters to the editor. Write the Noe Valley Voice, 1021 Sanchez Street, San Francisco, CA 94114. Or e-mail editor@noevalleyvoice.com. Please include your name, address, and phone number. (Anonymous letters will not be considered for publication.) Be aware that letters may be edited for brevity or clarity. We look forward to hearing from you.