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Letter obsessed using usual tactics 

Editor: 

Richard Register’s declaration, “I am not a rabbit” (Letters, Sept. 22) will someday sound as hollow as Richard Nixon’s similar post-Watergate protestation, “I am not a crook.” 

Mr. Register is indulging in his usual obsessions (jamming 15-story buildings into Berkeley’s slim downtown) and his usual tactics (viciously attacking anyone who won’t follow him into his looking-glass world – which is pretty much everyone).  

His target this time was Carrie Olson, a fine City Council candidate in District 5. Ms. Olson simply proposes to defend our downtown’s existing, well-thought-out zoning against Mr. Register’s wild schemes, which have no basis in reality and no constituency in Berkeley. 

A day earlier, Mr. Register – or the out-of-town developers for whom he fronts – rented most of a Daily Planet page to attack two wonderful sitting Council members, plus one of the city’s most distinguished volunteer commissioners. 

As for the commissioner, Mr. Register has been crying “Off with his head!” for years, but still can’t even spell his name correctly – let alone understand his wisdom. 

Mr. Register should stop assailing good people, and get back in touch with his inner rabbit. It is time he recognized that Berkeley’s future does not lie upward, in some hubristic Gotham City of shadowy, phallic spires.  

Instead, we Deep Ecologists affirm that it lies downward: in high-density underground housing projects nestled snugly in Mother Earth’s womb.  

To paraphrase another Nixonism: Someday, Mr. Register, we shall all be rabbits. Go ask Alice. 

Morlock Chaillot 

Facilitator, Deep Ecologists’ Gaian Alliance 

Berkeley 

More southside housing would improve area 

Editor: 

The future of Berkeley’s Southside is at a critical point. The response we take today to the draft Southside Plan will determine whether the collaborative efforts of numerous neighborhood groups and the city are ever realized.  

The drafted Southside Plan discussed at the last Planning Commission meeting is the winning outcome of a collaborative working group process among neighborhood groups and the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Huge amounts of time and effort by students and neighbors improved the Southside Plan from the original draft.  

The result: a consensus that the Southside needs more housing (permanently affordable and market rate) in order to improve safety, congestion, vibrancy, and diversity.  

It would be a waste if this plan does not result in the desired outcomes due to delays within the Planning Commission, barriers in the review process, and ambiguous loophole language. 

Next week’s “Transportation, Housing and the Environment” Election Forum for Berkeley City Council Candidates provides Berkeley residents with another opportunity to ensure that this successful planning effort is actually implemented.  

This forum will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, at Berkeley Community Media. How will City Council candidates ensure that the spirit of the Southside Plan is manifest in the physical environment, rather than languishing on paper? 

All the groups that effectively worked together to build a consensus around the draft Southside Plan hope not to allow vague language and ambiguous definitions to nullify Berkeley’s collaborative vision for the Southside. 

Rachel Hiatt 

Students for a Livable Southside 

Berkeley