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Schilling’s mother asks captors for compassion 

Carol Schilling, mother of Jeffrey Schilling, held captive in the Philippines, sent the following letter to the Daily Planet which she said she planned to read over Radio Manila on Tuesday. 

I have received reports that the Abu Sayyaf have threatened my son's life again. I am very distressed by this latest threat. I want to talk with my son.    

Jeffrey, I love you and I am praying for your protection and for your deliverance from this terrible ordeal. Hold fast to your belief in God.  

 Know that Ivy also loves you very much. Your friends and family are praying for your safety and for your immediate return to us. God bless you and keep you safe from harm.  

People of the Philippines, I know that many people have already suffered and died from the conflict in the Southern Philippines. I do not understand the politics of this situation. I had hoped that recent troop withdrawals would bring about a resolution to this crisis, both for the people of Mindanao and for my son.   I oppose killing people for any reason. My personal spiritual belief is for peace. I believe that God wants us to love one another.  

Abu Sabaya, I call upon you and the Abu Sayyaf to spare my son. He has already suffered tremendously at your hands.   There is nothing to be gained from harming Jeffrey. Please release him immediately. In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Most Compassionate, I call upon you to show mercy and compassion to Jeffrey by releasing him safely and unharmed.  

Carol Schilling 

Oakland 

Still venues for good cinema - use or lose them 

Editor: 

Rita Wilson is right on the mark about supporting the Fine Arts Cinema. She should have added the Pacific Film Archive too. Having started the U.C. Theatre, I will miss it as much as anyone but I feel Berkeley is lucky to still have two of the most adventurous venues for film and video operating in the country.  

It isn’t enough to tell people how much one admires a theater and its programming. You must attend regularly and bring your friends. Take chances on something different. And the local media needs to know you want to read more about non-traditional programs while the theaters are still open. If only some of the energy spent writing countless words about the loss of the U.C. Theatre would have been expended on the movies playing there, the place might have survived. 

Gary Meyer 

Berkeley 

Return the UC Theater to local control 

The Daily Planet received this letter addressed to Mayor Shirley Dean, written before the March 29 closure of the UC Theater. 

I write as one who has enjoyed many hundreds of films of all sorts at UC Theatre since Gary Meyer started 25 years ago to show different double bills every night. 

It will be a great loss to Berkeley culture and to all those who love movies as art as well as entertainment should the UC Theatre close. I hope the city will support the effort to return the UC Theatre to local ownership and the great tradition it established for varied film programming over the past 25 years, so that we may continue to see films new and old, American and foreign, feature films and documentaries, local, low-budget, and great old Hollywood films of earlier decades--on the big screen and in the company of others who love this art form. 

Charlene M. Woodcock 

Berkeley 

Culture doesn’t kill pedestrians, autos do 

Editor: 

The Zack Wald quotes in the 3/28/01 Planet article on the Council’s discussion of the need for increase enforcement of traffic laws, could be dismissed as the nonsense they are if it were not for the existing situation. Automobiles on Berkeley’s streets are killing people. Wald suggests that relief will come only by creating “... a vision of how they want to … share the right of way. The long term goal should be a change in the culture…” His statement implies that the current culture is one that supports pedestrian death in our streets by cars. The culture didn’t kill the pedestrians, autos disobeying existing laws did. Wald attempts to minimize the impact of increased enforcement. The mere presence of a police car drastically changes the behavior of drivers, clearly it is effective. Wald also makes a silly comparison with success in other cities of programs that only succeed when you combine engineering, and education with enforcement. Wald desperately needs to do his homework; if he had he would find that cities of similar size have double the number of traffic officers as Berkeley. Berkeley’s unique features such as the barriers and our high level of congestion suggests that Berkeley may require more traffic enforcement than normal.  

Before we jump on Wald’s new vision bandwagon, we should remember what we learned in high school: we cannot abandon existing state and federal laws. Thus to create a less restrictive “vision,” may challenge Berkeley’s ability to receive State and Federal transportation funding. Berkeley will improve safety for all the community by enforcement of existing law. Courteous drivers, driving at the speed limit, yielding to pedestrians, cyclists observing the “rules of the road” as required by the California Vehicle Code, will help protect the Pedestrians using the crosswalk, rather than risking their lives. Safer streets benefit us all, even the motorists.  

While no one can argue with the value of engineering and education as components of the traffic safety issue, we should remember that for the almost 25 years I have lived in Berkeley, there has been a full time traffic engineer, and that the need for education was the immediate response by the city traffic engineer to the tragic death that occurred when Sharon Spencer was killed in her wheel chair, in a crosswalk, by a car. That was almost 1 and one-half years ago.  

Zack Wald’s silly generalizations are insulting because they trivialize the lives of the people that have died on Berkeley’s streets. Enforcement will change the automotive behavior that takes lives. Given the increasing occurrence lethal and other accidents, The Berkeley City Council is creating a Budget where they decide who dies.  

John Cecil 

Berkeley 

Where’s the principal’s principles? 

Editor: 

What is this? The high school principal brings in a simulator so the kids can practice gunning down a whole bunch of people? I’m disgusted – if this is an example of Mr. Lynch’s judgement, we need to start looking for a new principal right away.  

Becky O’Malley 

Berkeley 

Gaia stands tall, but not 116 feet 

Editor:  

I would be grateful for the opportunity to clarify several misrepresentations in Art Goldberg’s recent editorial regarding the Gaia building.  

The Gaia building is seven stories high, not eleven as Mr. Goldberg claims, with the roofline located at the council-approved height of 87 feet. The Gaia project includes two mezzanines: one at the first level and one at the seventh. Mezzanines are not considered stories under the city’s zoning ordinance, and both mezzanines are inside the approved 87-foot height limit. 

Per the building code, the highest point of the Gaia building, at the top of its elevator tower, is 107 feet high, not 116 feet as claimed by Goldberg. This height is required to provide elevator access to the roof deck and management offices – as required by the American with Disabilities Act, and is allowed under the zoning ordinance and the building code. The determination of maximum building height doesn’t include accessory structures such as elevator towers.  

The Gaia building was granted two additional floors in exchange for the long-term guarantee of a cultural use at the building’s ground level. Contrary to Mr. Goldberg’s assertion that “there is no obligation at this point that any type of cultural center will actually occupy street-level space,” the Gaia building’s ground floor space is restricted to a cultural use in perpetuity. Moreover, the ZAB must approve each subsequent cultural user in this space. Regrettably, Gaia went out of business before the Gaia cultural center became a reality. Nevertheless, we are happy to announce that we are currently in lease negotiations with the Shotgun Players, Poetry Flash, and other arts related users and local non-profit organizations. 

Amidst the ongoing campaign of misinformation fueled by Mr. Goldberg and others about the number of stories in Gaia and the height of the project – all conforming to the limits approved in the project almost three years ago – we sincerely hope that the public not lose sight of the big picture: The Gaia project locates 91 units of much needed new, accessible housing near transit, the UC campus, and shopping, with 19 of the 91 units for low income residents. 

Gaia’s high density, its efficient use of land, and its on-premises electric vehicle car-sharing program make it one of the more environmentally sound development projects in the city’s history. We hope that with live theater, poetry readings, a café, and other activities, it will be one of the livelier additions as well. 

Evan McDonald 

manager, Gaia Building Project Manager