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Let city clerk join city manager 

The city manager has a new job in Tucson. The city clerk had one once in Santa Cruz but reneged, taking her job back with this foolish city. Let’s make sure Jim Keene leaves for good. Maybe he can eventually get Sherry Kelly down there also. 

Keene was only known for filling this city with fancy, expensive parking meters as just another city trying to support itself on parking meters but with nothing downtown to entice parking. Like many Berkeley residents, I do my shopping out of town. 

Six years ago I communicated with my city councilperson and the mayor, on the latter’s suggestion. I felt the public needed access to merely a hard-copy subject index of the full complement of Berkeley’s written law. Woolley and Dean were in full agreement with this effort, which city staff also wanted in CD-ROM form. Kelly made a huge project of this limited task, hassling the vendor on the job for several years. Thereafter, Chris Mead of the city’s Information Systems finally got an ordinances-codified updated version of this work available to the public on the Web five years after I first discussed the matter with City Hall! 

But now, nearly a year later, Berkeley’s indexing scheme on the Web, unlike other cities’, cannot be searched down to a reasonable amount of text. Check it; search with “gasoline engine” to find a code subsection the City refuses to enforce – prohibition of gasoline-engine leaf blowers. This subject is only found in the last of 14 paragraphs of Municipal Code Subsection 13.40.070, a text block containing 1,296 words. Several calls have not budged Mead on this. 

Ten years of our city politicians’ games did away with most of our branch county court. Now you can’t even sue customers to get them downtown. 

During the five years of Kelly’s tail-dragging, I asked Keene to put her on schedule. His response was a one-liner saying he would “take (my concern) into consideration.” My return one-liner, at this point, is: “Good riddance and may your other half bake in the Arizona sun.” 

Raymond A. Chamberlin 

Berkeley 

Tenant encounters rental problems 

What happened to last in first out? Back in 1988 the apartment building I lived in was for sale. The owner that purchased the building decided he wanted to move the building, I was the last tenant to move in, so I was the first tenant to move out. I was given a 30-day notice, and my 2-year-old daughter and me were asked to move with no place to go. I was and still am a single mom with a now 13-year-old daughter. I now live at 3028 Deakin St. in Berkeley. My neighbor of seven years was given a 30-day notice because the owner’s son needs to occupy the unit, and she pays the least rent. There are tenants in the complex that have been there a shorter time than she is, and they don’t have any children. I think they should have to move like I did. She is a single mom with a young child; she can’t afford $1,000 to $2,000 rents in Berkeley or the rising house markets in Berkeley. My concern is for her and her child! I was also told by the landlord that our building will be going up for sale soon, so who’s next? My child and me? I really think there should be some set rules in the city of Berkeley since this is an ongoing problem. 

Jessica Fletcher 

Berkeley 

Someone needs geography lesson 

“Last October, responsibility for the Caspian Region and Central Asia was transferred to the US Central Command.” (SF Chronicle, 7 June 2000). 

Say again? “Since September 1997, U.S. troops have engaged in a series of Central Asian training missions with their counterparts from Kzakstan, Kyrghystan, and Uzbekistan” thanks to the blessings of the CIA, Ms. Albright, and quite a few oil companies, according to a feature story and map in The Chron’s “Open Forum” section, written by Robert Bruce Ware, an authority on “Islam and ethnic policies in the region”; he is a professor at Southern Illinois U. 

Say again? Since when has the “Eurasian Crescent” been our responsibility? Drawn to scale, the map sweeps Georgia (Russia) clear around to India; on a scale of one inch to 500 miles, Israel is one-eighth of an inch! 

Say again? While we thank The Chron for telling us all about our new “command,” have the Russians been told? After all the Caspian region is in Russia; at least it was the last time I looked at a map. 

George Kauffman 

Berkeley 

Kennedy’s project is way too tall 

Mr. Kennedy’s capacity for misrepresentation is staggering. What he referred to as a “fifth-story penthouse” in your June 12th article on the 2700 San Pablo Avenue project, is actually an entire fifth floor – as revealed at the June 12th’s Design Review meeting! Moreover, he cannot truthfully imagine himself to have addressed “95 percent of what the neighbors object to” – for months concerned neighbors have repeatedly made their central objection clear: the building is too high for the surrounding one- and two-story buildings. It needs to be scaled back to two to three stories. As for the so-called “citizen vigilantes” (a nice example of civic dialogue) he describes as secretly opposing low-income housing, listen up, Mr. Kennedy: let it be 100 percent affordable housing – just make it lower and less dense! For all Mr. Kennedy’s moralizing about affordable housing, he continues to dance around the exact number to be included. Is he wringing his hands over just five units (or is it 10?) out of 48? And just how much public funding is he looking for? 

But then, perhaps Piedmont-resident Mr. Kennedy has nothing to fear from such disingenuous remarks. Maybe he is reassured by the Planning Staff’s apparent support for his project and the nearly deaf ear turned to neighbor’s key concern about the project. Could folks want San Pablo canyonized with four- to five-story buildings? It is possible Mr. Kennedy has found a congenial environment in which to build more or less as he chooses, riding roughshod over the targeted communities. I hope not. But other neighborhoods should take note. 

Howie “just vigilant” Muir 

Berkeley 

Arterial roads are designed for traffic 

I was amused to read Anne Marselis Whyte’s “Perspective” piece in the Monday, June 12, Daily Planet. Like many neighborhood people, she is confused about the role of arterial streets in Berkeley. Berkeley very properly and effectively protects neighborhoods by diverting traffic onto arterial streets, including College Avenue. But that must mean greater traffic on those arterials. 

Her claim of 40 mph speeds on College is exaggerated. I drive the street most days and can assure her that speeds above 30 mph are rare, though a 35 mph speed limit on arterials is probably appropriate. I have never noticed a truck or bus speeding in the way she describes. 

In my opinion, residents had better just accept the fact that arterials in Berkeley carry a lot of traffic. Adding stop signs will increase the congestion. Of course the speed limit on these streets should be obeyed, but traffic levels usually mean there is not much risk of speeding on streets like College Avenue. 

Anthony Thompson 

Berkeley