r.a.w. Books (Feature) Secret Service Agent Carter Kim Fights for Justice (in National News) APA Property Manager Sees HOPE for City Renters (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: Breath of Fire II (in Business) Time for APAs to Embrace Yao Ming (in Sports) Hot ’n’ Sour Dish: Calling All Rebel Grrrls (in A&E) Emil Amok: Tiger’s Asian Roots (in Opinion)

Lost HOPE

My San Francisco brothers and sisters, I have to tell you: The ballot measures are piling up. You should expect some 20 ballot measures come this November — that’s Propositions A through T. You should start gearing up now, educating yourselves so you don’t blow a gasket at the polls.

A number of initiatives will be engaging in the age-old battle of homeowners versus tenants. The proposed HOPE (Home Ownership for Equity) legislation is exemplary of an issue that shows the diversity of the Asian Pacific American community. HOPE proponents (the author is actually a South Asian American Realtor and SF political player — a rarity in these parts) are quick to emphasize that APAs extremely value home ownership and this legislation is one of the only ways they can get a chance at their American Dreams. Yet, talk to any number of community activists in Chinatown and the Tenderloin who have spent years fighting evictions and organizing for tenants’ rights and they will point out that the HOPE legislation would allow some 3,500 conversions a year, more than 17 times the current limit — which would reduce the rental market, therefore driving the already impossibly expensive rents even higher.

As usual, I am feeling nauseous from all the spin and I give longtime Chinatown activist the Rev. Norman Fong a call. Having already come out publicly against the measure, Norman says, “We are working to get affordable housing in rental units, and now they are trying this?” But what frustrates Norman is that the HOPE proponents are targeting immigrant communities and failing to see “the big picture” — the fact that conversions will strip tenants of any rights they once had.

Here at AsianWeek, we have a temporary solution to all your problems: Read a book. Step back for a moment from that signature gathering, picketing, scheming and mudslinging and read some poetry to your significant other, read a picture book to your five-year-old neighbor or catch up on some APA history. Our world may be a raging mess of confusion and conflict, but escape is easily found. Happy reading.