POT-CLUB POLITICKING

Editor -- Hooray for a small victory for civic activism. We need more
activists like those described in the article ("Political fight looms
over pot clubs," June 30) as taking action about a pot club at 935
Howard St. How can the city let these places open unregulated and
without going through a permit process to examine their impact on
family-oriented neighborhoods?

Where was the Board of Supervisors when all these clubs were opening
up? The supervisors seem to react rather than be proactive to avoid
letting these kinds of problems get out of hand in the first place.

Where were the supervisors when these pot clubs were sprouting like
weeds? Were they arguing about issuing proclamations on national
security or the Iraq war and ignoring what was going on their own backyard?

The operators of the Howard Street club did not obtain a conditional
use permit. The conditional use process gives the community a voice.
It is our right to due process. There are 15 children under 5 on the
Howard Street block and several young teenagers. Allowing facilities
like this to operate in residential and mixed-use neighborhoods means
that San Francisco is not serious about being a more family-friendly
city. Private citizens were forced to go to the courts to shut down
the club because the city was not doing its job and did not enforce
its own policies.

Leonard J. Price

Rehabilitation neuropsychologist

San Francisco