LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A MODEST EXPANSION OF MATRIX

The homeless population could be put to good use. Why not have them perform some of the following public services:

1. For instance, they could offer tips to tourists for park attractions off the beaten path -- functioning as park docents, if you will.

2. The city could create a fenced-in enclosure within Golden Gate Park, an environment in which the homeless could graze, play and mate in their natural habitat -- a kind of homeless zoo, which would afford the general populace an opportunity to observe the homeless from a safe distance.

3. Paint the homeless (using nontoxic paint, of course) in bright colors and use them as trail markers.

If all else fails -- and the homeless cannot be managed in a manner that is useful to the community -- why not consider following the lead of wealthy communities across the country which are gating their property in order to keep undesirables out? In a similar fashion, the park could be surrounded by a large electronic fence, and sentinels stationed at park entrances. Only those who could submit proof of residency would be admitted.

MELISSA PRICE

DISPATCH ON PROP. I

Editor -- In his column on ballot measures ("A Voters' Guide to Snake Oil, Power Grabs and Lackeys," Sunday, October 22), Jerry Roberts makes two points about Proposition I, both of them wrong.

First, he says Prop. I has "no business on the ballot" because it "makes voters sort out a long-running feud within the taxi industry." Because the current law governing taxi permits -- Proposition K of 1978 -- is a voter-passed ordinance, it can only be changed by the voters.

Most of the provisions of Prop. I are either permit-related or, according to a city attorney's opinion, otherwise come within the scope of Prop. K. That's why Prop. I is on the ballot.

Secondly, Mr. Roberts is dead wrong when he says Prop. I "would require City Hall to run a central dispatch agency for cabs." Prop. I only requires the city to adopt regulations establishing centralized dispatching. Those regulations will designate who is to run the system.

The city can, and almost certainly would, designate a private party to run it. Any decision on the city's part to run centralized dispatching would be purely discretionary. The controller's statement for Prop. I makes this clear.

Voters who follow Mr. Roberts' advice to read the voter handbook will find that Prop. I represents critically needed reform.

MARK GRUBERG

CAB DRIVER SPEAKS

Editor -- The front-page article, "S.F. Stalls Shake-up Of 911 System" (October 18), regarding the problems with our 911 system goes right to the heart of the problems we are facing with Prop. I (the bill to alter the way taxicab services are regulated).

How is the city going to pay for and provide a citywide taxi cab dispatch system when we can't even get our emergency services system correct? As drivers, we work hard to provide good radio service to our customers.

As a taxicab driver and permit holder, I am very much for a program that would be beneficial to drivers. Prop. I is not the answer. In fact, the taxicab drivers association does not support Prop. I.

Most permits are held by small-business people such as myself whose only asset is that one car. Prop. K already served to take the profitability out of permits and it financially hurt the former permit owners who invested to buy their cabs.

The current system is very fair for the average working driver. Although there is always room for change and improvement, Prop. I is definitely not the answer.

Let the cab companies run cabs and let City Hall run the city.

DAVID KIELY

YOLANDA AND O.J.

Editor -- Yolanda Saldivar is convicted of killing Selena. A terrible pity for Ms. Saldivar she didn't have a million dollars to hire Johnnie Cochran for her defense attorney.

He could have pointed out that obviously the police had had the opportunity to plant some of the evidence.

If she had had another $100,000, she could have hired an expert witness to come in and say this was the most inept, bumbling police force she'd ever seen, and another $50,000 to pay for a jury consultant to show her which prospective jurors would be most likely to not pay attention and/or understand the evidence presented to them.

Then she could be sipping pina coladas with O.J. right now, instead of awaiting sentencing.

TODD JOUFLAS

THINKING ON BOSNIA

Editor -- Jon Stewart's "Wishful Thinking About Bosnia" (Chronicle, October 22) misses two issues:

1. Milosevic, president of Serbia, started the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, sent agents into Bosnia to start genocide, coordinated missile systems that shot down O'Grady and fired at his rescue helicopters, and provided buses in July to carry Muslim boys and men to their slaughter after the Dutch NATO troops deserted eastern Bosnia.

Milosevic should be arrested, not negotiated with. Who can imagine Truman or Churchill negotiating with Hitler to partition Europe?

2. Both Dole (Republican) and Lieberman (Democrat) authored the bipartisan Senate resolution to arm and train Bosnia's army.

Historians will refer to Neville Chamberlain Clinton as an architect of the death of the U.N. and NATO.

HAL NISSLEY

EDITORS IN ORBIT

Editor -- Thank you for David Perlman's excellent story of October 19 ("Discovery of Planet Confirmed: UC team finds it circling distant star") regarding the verification of the discovery of a new planet by two members of the San Francisco State University physics and astronomy faculty.

Perhaps next time the headline writer could read the story before automatically attributing this work to a "UC Team."

JAMES C. KELLEY

POOR VS. POOR

Editor -- So Newt and Company want to take money from Medicare and give it to health care for illegal immigrants. What a blatant way to set poor American citizens against poor illegals.

It will create more hatred and racism, pitting the people at the bottom against each other. And it is a cover for where the money will really go: tax cuts for the rich.

CAROL DAVID

CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES

Editor -- Each year in the United States, hundreds of people are killed by the police under questionable circumstances. The great majority are African American and Latino men.

It therefore seems curious that the two congressional investigations of whether or not killings by police were justified were those at Ruby Ridge and Waco, where the victims were white.

HENRY L. STADLER

QUEEN OF SCOTS

Editor -- Your paper continuously refers to "Queen Elizabeth of England." This is a constant source of irritation to me. In reality, she should be referred to as the "Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."

I was born in Scotland. I am all in favor of Scotland seceding from England, where she is referred to as Queen Elizabeth II.

Inasmuch as Scotland never had a Queen Elizabeth, she should be referred to as Queen Elizabeth I of Scotland and II of England.

If we have to put up with the English, the least they can do is to give Scotland some recognition, which they have failed to do for the past few hundred years.

IVOR (SCOTTY) MORRIS