Letters

More on Measure A

    I want to offer my sincere thanks for the opportunity to write a guest piece for Alameda Magazine’s Measure A coverage. However, I also wanted to write you about concerns I have with the actual article. Your writer never actually spoke to any of the people who are actively working to amend or change Measure A. It was even stranger that the article presented, without any attribution, the positions of HOMES, an organization that was not interviewed. Stranger still, the writer chose to make vague, unattributed assertions about the concerns of non-Measure A true believers regarding issues of racism and Measure A.
    The article presented just another one-sided viewpoint.
    Unfortunately, the article perpetuates stereotypes of the amend-Measure-A side of the discussion. Are there people that believe that racism (or classism) is a key part of Measure A? Absolutely. Why weren’t they interviewed and their positions presented? It’s likely that this viewpoint is more nuanced than “all Measure A supporters are racist,” something I’ve never heard personally.
    However, in an article about a large community issue, identifying a small niche concern and playing it up as a major tenet of one side of the issue is neither fair nor just. One only need look at the opinion piece written by Helen Sause to see that the key issues of her group include neither elitism or racism.

John Knox White, Alameda

CORRECTION

    The wine club gatherings at C’era Una Volta (1332 Park St., 510-769-4828, www.ceraunavolta.us) are now on the first Wednesdays of the month, not the first Tuesdays.