Ballot argument against Proposition F (preventing fire station closures)

I will be adding some italics and boldface to this argument as I did
with Proposition A.

    <<< Starchild >>>

         Sorry for lagging on getting my arguments posted. Here's the
argument against the measure mandating the city to keep firehouses
fully open.

Yours in liberty,
    <<< Starchild >>>

“Some fire stations only respond to a couple calls a day, mostly simple
medical calls, to which they usually send an engine with four
firefighters – only one of whom has paramedic training. And these
stations stay open even though one city study found a nearby station
could answer those calls in the same four-minute response time.”
-Bay Guardian, June 30, 2004

Controller Ed Harrington reported that up to six stations could be
closed without affecting response times. The only beneficiaries of the
wasteful status quo are well-paid fire department employees. That’s why
some of them are trying to scare the public into passing Proposition F.

But Proposition F is about paycheck safety, not public safety.

“Change is something that is not in the cards for the fire department.
If there’s going to be change, it needs to be forced on them.”
-Retired firefighter Jim Corrigan (18-year SFFD veteran)

“We have made the conscious decision as a society to significantly
increase the cost of construction to promote safety (including fire
safety). At some point we should be able to reap the dividend of that
investment by spending less on putting out fires.”
-Gabriel Metcalf, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association

If the city is prohibited from making responsible, money-saving changes
to its fire department which have been made in other cities and
recommended by numerous studies, less money will be available for
things like:

• education
• health care
• arts funding
• tree-planting
• senior programs
• youth programs
• street maintenance
• libraries
• parks
• public transit
• pedestrian safety
• bicycle lanes

San Francisco needs every one of its firehouses about as much as the
U.S. needs every one of its military bases. Please vote NO on F.

Starchild
Outreach Director, San Francisco Libertarian Party

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