Coit Tower is the perfect place to see amazing cityscapes, check out depression-era murals, and get mugged.
The latter is not as popular with tourists and neighbors.
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“It isn’t tourism,” said Peter Dwares, who has lived at the top of the Filbert Steps since 1978. “It is the bridge and tunnel crowd.”
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Author: dwaresgroup
A letter to the Board of Supervisors
June 16, 2010
Dear Board of Supervisors,
I am very much opposed to a Resolution condemning Israel’s continuing to keep itself safe from bombings such as those in Moslem countries occurring daily in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Question, where were Resolutions on Hamas bombing Israel, Hezbolah bombing Israel? Where were Resolutions on Congo 3 million killed, Somalia killing our military boys in the streets, Sudan/Darfur 250,000 killed, Russians killing 160 journalists in two years, Mexico 26,000 dead this year, Turkish Kurdish killings, North Koreans killing 46 South Koreans, Hindus burned alive by Moslems. Where were they?
The Turks provoked the Israelis. They knew no good would come from refusing inspection. Just sacrificing their lives for an Israeli black eye. The Turks had options; they wanted to make their point. Sadly they did.
Focus on pot holes, balancing budget, bringing in job creating private industry. That’s what we voted you in for. Foreign policy is a Federal matter.
Sincerely,
Peter Dwares, Esq.
A letter to Roger…
Dear Roger,
Actually we both want a strong America. We want to encourage individual responsibility. We want an educated America. We want to prevent expensive remedies for people if possible ( my example of two lost legs for putting off sugar diabetes treatment). We want clean air, clean water, fish in the sea, no deforestation of rain forest.
I think framing the issue as global warning is a mistake, its political. I also think the wrong messengers denigrate good messages. Gore is too political.
We want to spread Democracy. We both I think understand realities require picking and choosing.
We’d both like to get off Middle East oil (I spent an hour listening to Ambassador Richard Jones as to alternative policies I’d share with you).
We both work hard.
We like a variety of news sources.
I am less of an ideologue than you, i.e. I am a social liberal on marriage, right to choose, stem call research.
I’m for and I believe you are, heavy expenditures for early Math, Science, English.
We are for freedom of speech, gathering.
I’m torn when I’d like something done but feel we can’t afford it, i.e. free healthcare extension of Medicare however with large deductible and copay, everyone should be responsible for themselves cradle to grave.
A young man I met recently in a hospital lost both legs because of diabetes. He’s been in hospitals 90% of last two years. I imagine the cost somewhere $1-$2 million. I judge this because Sonia’s giving birth three days in hospital was $45,000. But an exam and early treatment might have prevented his loss of legs. Prevention will save lots of remedial costs. A manager of mine fell off a ladder last month while putting up Christmas lights broke his back. The bill from Hospital Corporation of America for an operation and five days in hospital was $430,000. The helicopter from Santa Cruz to San Jose, $30,000. The billing system is wrong. HCA said the bill would be reduced to $90,000 probably the insurance companies rates. Billing should be fairer/clearer.
I would like to not have to spend $600 billion to $1 trillion a year on military or wars, but it’s a fact of life.
We’d like to alleviate starvation and sickness for children, 4 billion of 6 billion in world who are poor, 2 billion have no clean water. I feel for abandoned animals.
We hate bully’s, personal and dictators.
I’m for separating investment banks from commercial banks.
What else?
Your admirer,
Peter
Re: Tad Taube and Koret Foundation – “The Koret Outrage” printed on Sunday, November 22
Letter to Editor
SF Chronicle
Dear Editor,
Re: Tad Taube and Koret Foundation – “The Koret Outrage” printed on Sunday, November 22.
I am the Founder of Pathways For Kids. Pathways brings inner city kids to businesses including Google, Ritz Carlton, US Bank, to open their eyes to the world of business possibilities. Koret Foundation at the request to Tad Taube has given us money. Our cause is neither liberal or conservative. It’s pragmatic. And our beneficiaries are economically poor, inner city most often kids of color. I knew Joe Koret. He would have liked it.
I am aware of the lawsuit against the Koret Board and Tad Taube by the widow of Joe Koret, Susan Koret. I was practicing law in the 1970’s when the Foundation was set up and represented another Koret Board member who while competitive with Tad, had a great deal of respect for his ability. I recall that Susan was a relatively recent immigrant who needed guidance and Mr. Koret specifically selected Tad to guide her.
I also remember the 70’s when Koret Corporation stock price was way down. Tad helped turn the company around, and the stock appreciated accordingly. In addition he invested in Peninsula real estate for Mr. Koret and helped build Mr. Koret’s estate. That estate went to the Foundation.
My guess is Tad and others may have advised Mr. Koret to create the Foundation as a planning method for the Estate and a way to do a good. How it did good was up to the Board. If Tad as a strong leader made decisions Susan Koret and the Hebrew Academy and a group now apparently influencing her have remorse about, it’s after the fact. Tad and the Board had been given certain discretion. A Polish Museum showing positive contributions of Jews to Poland which at times was Russian and all Yiddish speaking will be an antidote to anti Semitism for millions of visitors. Mr. Koret would have loved it. I might add there are causes any Foundation gives to that the donor may have not thought about when alive. The Board sometimes does cypres, i.e. interpreting the donor’s intent. But when you pick a leader to take over when you are gone, you buy their judgment.
The suit of course does not address all the good Koret did under Tad’s leadership, not only Jewish causes and youth, but fiscally oriented causes in line with what a businessman like Mr. Koret would espouse are a part of giving.
I believe the Foundation started with about $160 million and would not have grown to the degree it has all the while giving funding, and would not have attracted the Board members and donors it did without Tad, who has the rare capability to attract talented people.
Tad Taube along with the Koret Foundation has done a lot of good for a lot of people. Unless the money was invested well and given well by Tad and Board, the recipients would never have gotten it and many nonprofits would no longer be here, and thus Mr. Koret would not have achieved his goal. The Polish Museum is completely compatible with the wishes of the Trustor.
Distinguishing between Russia and Polish Jews is ridiculous, self serving, hair splitting under cypres doctrine.
The Polish Museum is a positive reflection of Jewish history in Poland and all of Russia and Eastern Europe by extension. Millions of non Jews and Jews will visit this museum which is a very positive thing for Jewish people and in line with what Mr. Koret would want.
Mr. Koret would say that giving under $10 million (out of hundreds of millions Tad Taube and the Board created after Mr. Koret’s death) of the Foundation’s money was well spent.
Sincerely,
Peter Dwares, Esq.
Peter Dwares on Donald Trump and The Elections
My Friends,
Trump is an amusing sometimes crude dude that intimidates people. He speaks in generalities and insults those critics who often can’t fight back because of their jobs. He’s inspiring those who are frightened by xenophobia and Iranian ICBM’s and nukes and this administration’s adding to interest costs on our long term debt of $18 trillion, soon to be $600-$800 billion out of $3 trillion collected.
He’s admired for his quickness, his success on TV and, licensing and in longevity in public eye, and getting up off the deck.
He could be a Zimbabwe dictator for life if he was born there.
I’ll take Kasich (Bush with energy, good administrator, right principles), Rubio I like his Foreign Policy, Bush (good experienced man and sensitive), Scott Walker’s resoluteness, Carly Fiorina (makes senses, great presence) or the Huck (like him on support of our allies). I voted for Bill Clinton but won’t vote for Hillary over any of the above. I’ve seen enough of her. Maybe over Rand Paul. His tendency toward isolationism is frightening.
Peter Dwares
PS. After dictating, I heard Trump being more specific on dealing with ISIS through capturing oil and I like that. But it will require US ground troops. It’s necessary. His stance on building and rounding up Mexican immigrants is impossible and will kill the South Western agricultural and construction economy.
RE: William Safire
To: Maureen Dowd
RE: William Safire
Dear Maureen,
Pleasing column on Bill Safire after his passing. I agree with you, he was a mensch. He metaphorically and in fact had rumpled dignity in his demeanor and in his columns. His were opinions worth reading. I remember him and Scotty Reston middle and Tom Wicker on left, sort of a golden age of New York Times for me.
Sincerely,
Peter Dwares
Cc: Roger Aronoff
Re: Deep Wounds In Bitter Race
March 18, 2015
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger
NY Times Publisher
Re: Deep Wounds In Bitter Race
Dear Mr. Sulzberger,
As a NY Times reader since 1963, your so called news on page 1 “Deep Wounds In Bitter Race” of Wednesday, March 18 by Isabel Kershner is embarrassing to you. The wounds are Isabel and the group she feels that should have won. Every adjective is pejorative. To young people reading this, out of approximately 165 nations, it makes Israel look like North Korea. This junk is mirrored on your editorial page where it belongs. You do an injustice to fair news. Israel’s democracy one of less than thirty in the world, has spoken. It has 27 parties; why not compliment the fact that it functions. All it’s people speak unlike anywhere else in the Middle East, Russia, China etc.
By the way, the happiest are Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and many Americans who want a strong Israel and because Jewish people should live where they want as do Arab people.
Sincerely,
Peter Dwares
BOYCOTT ISRAEL AND PERHAPS NOT GET BEST TREATMENT FOR CANCER.
To: Boycotters of Israel
BOYCOTT ISRAEL AND PERHAPS NOT GET BEST TREATMENT FOR CANCER.
A distinct possibility for those who are serious. Israel is developing major breakthroughs in this area and boycotters will not be able to access them by refusing to buy them. Instead of worrying and angering over 500,000 Jews living and creating jobs in a probable future state of Palestine, especially given 1.5 million Arabs are living in Israel and living well, boycott places that are killing a lot of people. Focus on the 200,000 dead in Syria, three million killed in Central Africa. Compare this to ten a year in the West Bank. Focus on Lebanon which could fall into revolution. Worry about the Gulf States treatment of Filipinos and Palestinians, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and treatment of Coptics, Iran and North Korea’s development of a nuclear bomb and the means to deliver it here. Focus on China’s treatment of Tibetans, Turkey for its treatment of its Kurds. Just be fair and not single out Israel who educates and creates employment for its 1.5 million Israeli Arabs, far better than do most of the Muslim countries in the region.
Remembering Bill Safire
Maureen,
Pleasing column on Bill Safire after his passing. I agree with you, he was a mensch. He metaphorically and in fact had rumpled dignity in his demeanor and in his columns. His were opinions worth reading. I remember him and Scotty Reston middle and Tom Wicker on left, sort of a golden age of New York Times for me.
Sincerely,
Peter Dwares
Cc: Roger Aronoff
RE: Boycott of Israeli companies
Dear Doctor Hawking and co-believers,
Let me make several points. Palestine is not a state. No passport is required. If it were, why should it not have 400,000 Jews, and 400,000 Christians, as Israel has 1.5 million Arab Muslims.
Boycott won’t hurt Israel. People buy its products. Some to live, given the pharmaceutical industry. If a boycott were to work, it would also hurt Israeli Arabs who work for Israeli companies and send funds to West Bank Arabs.
If boycott of Israel is what you want because Jews are living in the West Bank, why not boycott Turkey whose people have kept millions of Kurds from having a country. Boycott the Congo whose governments have killed 3 million people. Sudan for its treatment of minorities, Nigeria, Spain over its Basque population. China regarding its treatment of Tibetans. All these actions are killing, not settling of people.
You get the idea. It’s not about settlors it’s about Jews. There is no mass slaughter as there is in Syria. Or bomb explosions which Suni do to Shiites and back, or political repression like Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan.
Israeli is good fodder. Yet its citizens including its Muslims have more rights than most every Muslim in the Middle East.
I ask why should a future state of Palestine not have a protected minority of Jews and Christians. Is it because as in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Algeria the majority of Muslims (not all) can’t live with non believers?
The Turks controlled the Palestine area for centuries. It was the backward area of the Ottoman Empire. Then Jordan controlled. Now Israel. Palestine has never been a country. It’s inhabitants had chances to be recognized as such from 1948.
By the way, I sympathize with poor and downtrodden everywhere. But Israel or West Bank Jews did not cause the condition, in fact they better it by hiring Palestinians and by joint venturing with Palestinians.
Many of the Arabs came to Palestine from Yemen, Egypt, like Arafat to work for Jewish businesses. And some Muslims left Israel in 1948 after a war they started. Some still are in relocation camps in Arab countries. Why have they not been integrated like we do in the US? At the same time, an equal number of Jews were evicted from Arab countries, a quid pro quo. They have long since been resettled.
Sincerely,
Peter Dwares, Esq.