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ANTENNA VIOLATION 

Some city offices are not acting according to local ordinances. Neighbors in North Berkeley have recently discovered that the Planning Department has been violating sections of the Berkeley Telecommunications Ordinance, which states that the department must keep a map and inventory of all existing and proposed wireless telecommunication sites in the city. 

Neighbors of 1600 Shattuck Ave. are fighting antennae planned by Sprint and requested the Planning Department inventory in July 2003. The department did not have an inventory at all and only began preparing one in late July. Neigbors finally examined Aug. 18, finding it incomplete and not in compliance with the ordinance. For instance, it has no information regarding Sprint’s proposed wireless antennae at 1600 Shattuck. 

These antennae were installed without a permit in early June. The neighbors do not know whether these antennae are operating, but they tend to believe that they are. The reason is that the neighbors use an RF detector that shows power densities larger than safe levels when it is pointed toward 1600 Shattuck. Even if the antennae were not operating, the detector reveals an alarming fact: The radiation coming from Downtown Berkeley, the UC Campus, and LBNL is already beyond the safe levels. 

Shahram Shahruz 

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URBAN DESIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

After traveling to Europe and admiring its intimate, narrow streets, John Kenyon brings back one recommendation to Berkeley: Buildings on commercial streets should be set back from the sidewalk, so trees can be planted in front of them (Daily Planet, Aug. 19-21).  

Yet these setbacks would widen streets visually, giving them even less of the intimate feeling of European streets. Better alternatives are ordinary street trees or the trees-in-parking that we have on University Avenue in downtown. These narrow streets visually, giving them a more intimate feeling and slowing traffic.  

The shopping streets that Kenyon enjoyed in Europe do not have setbacks, nor do the shopping streets that people like most in the Bay Area (such as, College Avenue in Rockridge).  

In fact, New Urbanist designers, such as Andres Duany and Victor Dover, have created development codes that forbid setbacks from the sidewalk on commercial streets, to give them the feel of traditional shopping streets.  

Charles Siegel  

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FRANKLIN SCHOOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Franklin School was an excellent school about 50 years ago. Many of our children attended the school, for this area was occupied by mostly young parents at the time. 

Most of that generation of active parents are now deceased. But we have a new generation of young parents with a new generation of children. We need to maintain Franklin School, for we will certainly need it again. 

Asline R. Jones 

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BUSTAMANTE BOOSTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a Democrat who favors the recall to remove Gov. Davis for the following reasons:  

1. Davis spent $10 million of his campaign money to skew the Republican primary towards the weaker candidate, thus forfeiting his claim that the last election for governor was “fair.”  

2. After several years in which the Republican minority in the State Legislature has blocked all deficit-reducing budgets, Davis still has not shown the leadership to campaign for reducing the necessary approval majority from 67 to 55 percent.  

3. Following the energy crisis, Attorney General Bill Lockyear fought FERC and the big energy companies for restitution while Davis kept silent, unwilling to take the political risk.  

4. Cruz Bustamante has the experience and the program to lead California effectively out of this $38 billion mess.  

Bruce Joffe  

Piedmont