THE HAIGHT NEEDS HELP

Editor -- Thanks, Ken Garcia, for a good column on the Haight Street
neighborhood decay. Perhaps your headline should have read ``City Hall
Ignores Downward Spiral of S.F.'s Infamous Haight St.''

When John Hooper couldn't get police involvement or City Hall help, he did
it himself -- organized a neighborhood posse, cleaned out the underbrush
and the under-the-brush-users of needles and condoms and bottles of booze,
dragged all the junk out into the open and then said, ``Come and get it.''
Then the garbage trucks rolled up. Then the police started getting
involved.

Why not now? When the streets are filthy and overrun with ``our kids'' --
dirty, uncaring thugs filled with hate and drugs. Where's the mayor? He's
been up there . . . he's seen the place . . . Why doesn't he get some
action in that neighborhood? Or is China Basin the only neighborhood he can
focus on now?

The Haight neighborhood needs help. Help from the top. Buena Vista Park
deserves better care from the city that used to know how.

PAT BLACK
Portola Valley

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)