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Derby Street vote bad news for youth 

It is unbelievable to me that the City Council rejected a proposal to expand the environmental review process for a children baseball field. Why is the City Council afraid of compromise? 

Ms. Shirek said “the hardball field might be rented to adults.” There is no “adult” baseball league in Berkeley. “Hardball” has underhanded connotations. This is baseball. It is a game played by the children of Berkeley. 

How can City Council members be against Prop. 21, and then deny the city’s only public high school a playing field? Why are you demonizing youth by dismissing baseball as “hardball?” 

How can City Council members who know the difficulties of being a student at Berkeley High, especially this past year, turn around and deny these students a playing field? 

How could you as responsible adults even consider a plan for a playing field that has an open street running through the middle? Or even consider keeping an open street between a school building and playing fields? 

This is not the city of Berkeley’s money, it is the BUSD’s money. This is not the Ecology Center’s land or the Farmers’ Market land, this is the BUSD’s land. 

When this field is built more than 15 teams at Berkeley High will have space to play during the school year, and, in the summer, city recreational teams can use the space. What a service it would be to the children of this city to have another space to play. 

Dianne Ruyffelaere 

Berkeley 

Chandler was a true visionary 

Tertius Chandler, whose death the Berkeley Daily Planet reported on June 3-4, was an original thinker with visionary ideas about social progress as well as in history. He wrote about cities and their populations since ancient times. His booklet “The Tax We Need” shows why land rent is the best source of public finance. His masterpiece was “Chandler’s Half Encyclopedia,” 1,600 pages of text on history, biography, and many topics, all done on a typewriter. His original ideas on history included Zeus as an actual king and Moses as the adviser to the Egyptian pharaoh Ikhnaton. He also wrote about little-known kingdoms in Africa and the Americas. We have much to learn from him, and he should be remembered as an important Berkeley historian and social reformer. 

Fred Foldvary  

Berkeley 

Field would be bad news for neighbors 

I have a big opposition to the East Campus Ballfield. People that want the ballfield are people who don’t live in the neighborhood. There are a few who want in the neighborhood, not many. I would like to see someone (if they have a space in their neighborhood) to put a ballfield there. Anybody??? I didn’t think so. I have my stance because I am a child who likes the Farmers’ Market and I used to work there. Also I live in the neighborhood and would not want (aside to public housing, Iceland, a big walkway, and a alternative high school) a big ballfield. 

Rio Bauce 

Berkeley 

Protect trees on University Avenue 

The public should realize that the “installation” of “urban friendly trees” on University Avenue includes at some point the wholesale removal of the existing tulip poplars, an aspect of the UA Strategic Plan which was never allowed public discussion as the written record proves. These most graceful street trees, which have survived decades of difficult living, deserve community protection. 

Carol Denney 

Berkeley