Housing and Community Development

Elections- yes. It has everything to do with elections. Ultimately, we have only ourselves to blame. We elected the representatives that allowed this to happen. Apparently, the banks invented a thoroughly unethical but legal scam and made a lot of money. They are not the first industry to do this. It is our collective responsibility to exercise vigilance (through our representatives) and temper greed through proper regulation. We did not do that. Will we learn from our mistakes?  I have a great deal of sympathy for the occupiers but I think they could use some leadership. Let us do what we can to support those with the courage and passion to call  our elected representatives attention to the urgent need for proper regulation and redress.
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A. Atkinson
A. Gordon Atkinson, Architect
San Francisco CA
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Susan Haviland AIA
Haviland Studio
Palo Alto CA
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Legal???? Then why does Charles Ferguson (producer of "Inside Job", which won an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2010) think so many of these guys should be in jail? And plenty of other people agree with Ferguson. Financial institutions didn't just con hapless people into buying houses they couldn't afford. They also knowingly sold the resulting garbage investment vehicles to their clients - and then shorted the investments themselves.

Anyway, tomorrow is National Bank Transfer Day. MoveOn.com is sponsoring Walks of Shame from bank to bank in many communities. Occupation has many forms. I don't think this movement is going away any time soon.