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Letters to the Editor
A MODEL PROPOSAL
Editors, Daily Planet:
John Kenyon’s attack (May 16-19 edition) on Patrick Kennedy’s proposed project at University and Martin Luther King Jr., Way reflects the knee-jerk, anti-development attitude that Berkeley voters rejected last fall when they soundly defeated Measure P.
Here we have a developer interested in transforming one of the most pedestrian-unfriendly locales in the city into a site with 190 apartments and ground-floor retail. Kenyon’s hostile attitude toward the developer answers his own question as to why Patrick Kennedy is increasingly the only individual willing to take on such projects — there are many other cities where one can build housing without facing the delays and demonization that has become part and parcel of the Berkeley public approval process.
Kennedy’s proposed project is precisely the type Berkeley needs. It provides housing near transit, eliminates an unsightly corner parking lot, enhances neighborhood safety and creates desperately needed construction jobs. Kenyon’s claim that the proposed apartments “would drive any middle-class hill dweller into claustrophobic despair” is revealing. It has been years since the middle class could afford to buy or rent in the Berkeley hills, and the city’s lack of newly built apartments means even fewer housing opportunities for this income group. Mayor Bates should use Kennedy’s latest proposal as a model for how housing can move forward in Berkeley.
Randy Shaw
Berkeley
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ANSWERS NEEDED
Editors, Daily Planet:
I was drawn to the picture of Kevin Lee Freeman on last Friday’s cover. Could this have been the man I had been passing on my way to work each morning at 7 a.m.? Is this the man who was sleeping neatly in an alcove of a storefront on Northside, or gathering his almost nonexistent possessions, leaving no sign that he was ever there? Is this the slightly built man who didn’t ask for money, but smiled?
I am looking at his face now on my kitchen table, his eyes full of human expression. His horrible death at Santa Rita is indefensible. He had an alcohol problem and was caged with a homicidal maniac.
How did this happen? A full investigation is in order. I need an answer for Kevin and for myself. We all do, so that it never happens again.
Merle Burnick
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BY THE NUMBERS
Editors, Daily Planet:
Subsidizing ferries, as envisioned by state bills SB 915 and SB 916, is a bad deal on both environmental and economic grounds. Since Paul Kamen writes that he’d agree “if [my] numbers were accurate” (Letters to the Editor, May 9-12 edition), let me demonstrate that they are:
As for ferries being big polluters, my source is a July 2002 federally funded study of Bay Area transit options. Researchers at the CALSTART consortium found that a fleet of ferries meeting even the cleanest U.S. standards would generate more air pollution than trains or buses meeting the highest standards for their respective vehicles. And ferries would induce further pollution because passengers (most of whom don’t live near the water) would typically drive to ferry terminals. You can read or download the report at the following Web site: http://www.calstart.org/papers/Ferry%20Report.pdf.
More revealing are ferry advocates’ own numbers about energy efficiency, a good indication of different transportation modes’ impacts on global warming. Ferries use an average 6,297 British thermal units (BTU) of fuel per passenger mile traveled, vastly more than buses (at 660), commuter rail (at 102), light rail (at 91) or BART (at 68). Ferries are even more fuelish than private cars, which average 5,321. That’s according to the April 2003 draft environmental report by the Water Transit Authority (WTA) — the regional agency established to advocate for expanded ferry operations.
Finally, Mr. Kamen quotes WTA figures purporting to show that ferry costs per rider aren’t really higher than BART’s because of BART’s high capital costs. Unfortunately, these comparisons are misleading — and are concocted to justify the WTA’s preordained conclusion of “more ferries” — because BART’s main capital investments (tracks, tunnel and stations) have already been made. Incrementally expanding BART service (running more trains, adding back some of the cars BART has sidetracked to save money or even buying new cars) would cost relatively little per rider, compared with the capital cost of buying new ferry boats.
And BART is relatively expensive transit. Incrementally expanding bus service (running more buses, adding new routes or just saving current AC Transit routes from looming major cutbacks) would cost still less.
Tom Brown
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ACT NOW FOR 2004
Editors, Daily Planet:
The article on Howard Dean’s presidential candidacy is timely. All those who have been deeply dismayed by Bush administration policies that are damaging education, the economy, the environment, foreign relations and world security should inform themselves about Dean’s constructive platform and values.
Given the amount of money likely to be spent toward electing Bush (not re-electing, as 3.4 million more of us voted for Gore and Nader than for Bush in 2000) and toward undermining the democratic process, as we saw in Florida in 2000, we need to begin now to organize for the 2004 election, register new voters and make sure qualified voters participate in the democratic process.
Charlene M. Woodcock
Editors, Daily Planet:
First I want to thank David Scharfenberg for his thoughtful and well-written article on May 20 regarding the status of contract negotiations between Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) and the unions representing classified employees. This is not an easy subject to understand and we appreciate his efforts to be accurate and clear.
On behalf of the Operations and Support Unit staff represented by Stationary Engineers, Local 39, AFL-CIO, I want to add some comments. The issue of capping what the district pays for health care is not fully understood by talking about co-pays and deductibles that people pay when they get medical or dental care. Everyone pays those who has health coverage and they’re going up for all of us all the time. This is especially true for prescription drug coverage, which has increased at nearly double the rate of all other health care expenditures.
The critical issue is that the district is saying it will pay a specified number of dollars for a health care period. After that, all increases in the premium will come out of each employee’s pocket each month, whether they use their health coverage or not. That’s an absolute, permanent monthly cut in pay with no cap.
If such a cap were in place, employees could start paying about $60-plus a month plus all deductibles and co-pays within the year. Even if an employee or his family members never went to the doctor or the dentist they could receive a $60-plus cut in pay, and every time health care costs were increased, that amount/cut in pay would increase without any limit. That is the issue that brought us to an impasse.
In addition, the district proposed a number of reductions in long-standing conditions of employment that were simply unacceptable. Tina Brier, BUSD chief negotiator, reportedly says that the district would withdraw those if the unions would accept the cap. That is an accurate description of the type of bargaining the district engaged in. They put obnoxious, unacceptable takeaways on the table in an effort to blackmail the unions into accepting a permanent cut in pay while offering no salary increases for the second year in a row.
That’s why we couldn’t get anywhere with BUSD. Hopefully a mediator will be able to explain to them what’s necessary to reach an agreement. We look forward to that process.
Stephanie Allan
Business Representative
Stationary Engineers, Local 39
Editors, Daily Planet:
The swallowtail butterfly caterpillars in fennel are not only black-green-and-yellow striped, beautiful and camouflaged, but also fun.
If you tap their backs gently with your finger, two bright orange toy-like horns pop up on their heads. They then act like the dragon in a Chinese New Year’s parade. Even the newborns, cleverly disguised as black-and-white bird droppings, know this trick.
Warning: Don’t overdo it. They need to return to their true work, munching fennel so that they can become gorgeous butterflies.
Ruth Bird
Editors, Daily Planet:
It is time to stop pretending.
Let us stop pretending that our national government and our national economy are anything except crimes against humanity.
Let us stop pretending that the Bush administration was surprised by the Sept. 11 attacks. People within our national government helped with the attacks. The evidence against the Bush administration is damning and available at hundreds of Web sites. A good place to start is www.911pi.com.
The national security apparatus was given repeated and specific warnings of the coming attacks. Instead of protecting people in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration stepped directly into war mode. A pre-planned war on Afghanistan was seamlessly presented as the answer to those terrible attacks.
Let us stop pretending that the Sept. 11 attacks justified a war on Iraq, or that the Bush administration was worried about weapons of mass destruction. The war on Iraq was criminal and should be treated as such in world court.
Let us stop pretending that a globalized free trade economy is healthy. Such an economy concentrates power and wealth in the hands of the few. It strips from local communities the power to govern themselves. Indeed the free-trade economy functions to enslave workers in many countries.
Let us stop pretending that our mainstream media sources, NPR included, are anything but corporate mouthpieces. All of this pretending would not be possible if our journalism outlets acted independently and with integrity.
Most importantly, let us stop pretending that we can do nothing in the face of this great political and corporate power. For only when we pretend that we are powerless do we become powerless.
To be certain there is much we can do.
We can choose community markets over corporate markets. We can buy our food from local producers. The nature of our food economy alone has profound implications on global power structures.
We can use less energy. We can act out of compassion instead of greed. We can pay attention only to honest media outlets.
We can fight for democracy.
Let us admit that government “by the people, for the people” has never truly occurred in this nation’s history. Yet let us also understand that the extent to which we actively reach for this ideal is the extent to which we realize another world that is possible.
George Palen
