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Letters to the Editor
RENTAL LAWS
Editors, Daily Planet:
Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association president Dan Metzger’s commentary critical of the Berkeley City Council’s current parcel tax ballot measure proposal contained one very serious error (“CENA Gives Qualified ‘No” to Proposed Tax Hike,” Daily Planet, Nov. 4-6).
In his op-ed article, Mr.Metzger states that rental property owners “cannot pass on any proposed parcel tax increase” to Berkeley renters.
In fact, under the City of Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance program, property tax increases—along with over a dozen other city, county and utility taxes, fees, assessments, etc,—are passed through to Berkeley renters as part of the “Annual General Adjustment” regulation. The AGA is the yearly citywide rent increase granted by the rent board to cover rental property operating expenses.
Under the AGA regulation, all City of Berkeley parcel tax and assessment increases—for libraries, schools, parks, fire, sewer, etc.—are included as part of the yearly AGA formulation.
Chris Kavanagh
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SMALL SCHOOLS
Editors, Daily Planet:
Over 30 years ago my son entered Berkeley High and was overwhelmed by its size. Then he joined Agora, a small school within the high school. Agora was devoted to the creative arts. There he found a group of friends and an education.
Nancy Ward
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CHALLENGING W.
Editors, Daily Planet:
When the fire broke out in California, Davis was out there on the front lines, putting his money where his mouth is. Schwarzenegger was not. Some leaders are courageous, some are merely dime store cowboys.
Who among the Democratic candidates would be brave enough to go over to Iraq, talk with our troops and work to get them safely home?
Kucinich would. Braun. Clark. Sharpton. Kerry. Gephardt. Who else? Graham would have gone. Clinton, Gore—they would have. Jimmy Carter? FDR would have been there, wheelchair and all.
George Bush—the Commander in Chief of our armed forces—is definitely brave enough to attend hundreds if not thousands of Republican fundraisers on our time clock. He’s obviously brave enough to tell the whoppers that sent our troops to war. But is he brave enough to actually go to Iraq and see firsthand the human suffering and devastation that he alone has created?
And is he brave enough to attend the funeral of even one American G.I.?
Jane Stillwater
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NO NEW TAXES
An open letter to Councilmember Wozniak:
Thank you for being a voice of reason regarding the upcoming ballot measure to once again raise our hefty property taxes. I would like to see a proposal to close city offices one day a month, as Oakland is doing, to save money. Furthermore, highly paid union employees could have the choice of giving up a portion of their generous salaries and benefits or face layoffs.
Recently the City of Berkeley agreed to give Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS) a cash advance of $100,000 despite their irresponsible use of unqualified persons to do their bookkeeping and accounting which led to a fiscal nightmare. They also used up a $300,000 line of credit because “they didn’t want to let anyone go.” Yet, their union employees rejected future pay raises to keep things afloat. Will Berkeley ever be reimbursed the $100,000 advance? I doubt it. Most likely nonprofit BOSS is not paying Berkeley special taxes and fees in common with many or all Berkeley nonprofits, however irresponsibly managed.
I am beginning to understand how Berkeley works. The progressive left stays in power by demonizing the small mom and pop landlords, which helps to win the vote of the students and others benefiting by rent control. Students are often highly idealistic and can afford to be since they never have to “foot the bill.” At the same time, multimillionaire developers like Patrick Kennedy get special breaks saving him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Low income homeowners get exemptions from many taxes, which leaves struggling homeowners stuck with the bill.
On an end note, using the appeal that we must pass the tax increase in order to keep our fire stations open is just too transparent and an underhanded way to take advantage of a tragedy in drought-parched Southern California. Thanks again,
Robin Wright
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SUPPORT THE FCTC
Editors, Daily Planet:
In the midst of strife and division, the nations of the world have come together at the World Health Assembly’s 2003 meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, and unanimously adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)—a groundbreaking treaty aiming to curb the global tobacco epidemic which claims nearly five million lives worldwide each year. Although the FCTC has received 192 signatories, it must be ratified by 40 countries by June, 2004 in order for it to become international law. Should this happen, the FCTC will take measures to protect global public health, including: banning tobacco advertising and promotion; full disclosure of ingredients in tobacco products; and monitoring of tobacco transnationals’ political influence.
As an intern with the City of Berkeley Tobacco Prevention Program, I urge your readership to take action and contact Senators Feinstein and Boxer, urging them to publicly support the FCTC, and to demand the Bush administration sign the treaty, so that the Senate can ratify it.
Laura Miller
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RECOMMENDATION
Editors, Daily Planet:
If you care about international politics, run don’t walk to see The Revolution Will Not Be Televised at the Shattuck in downtown Berkeley. This amazing documentary was shot in the middle of the (ultimately unsuccessful) right-wing coup last year to oust popularly elected Pres. Chavez of Venezuela. You’ll not only be enlightened and informed—you’ll be in suspense!
Rhoda Slanger
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ANARCHY AND BOREDOM
Editors, Daily Planet:
Becky O’Malley may be correct that “anybody with an ounce of anarchism in their blood” felt a kind of clandestine joy at the very public mini-scandal that erupted in San Francisco with “Chris Daly’s one-day coup” earlier in the month (“Muttering in the Ranks,” Daily Planet, Oct. 28-30). If that’s true, it must also be true that anybody with more than an ounce would find the whole thing totally boring—if they paid any attention to it at all. Similarly, the recent governor’s recall election, which was a media delight was ultimately forgotten in the wake of other media events: the firestorms and the impending trial of Scott Peterson.
These days, the average person of voting age who is interested in the electoral process must know—almost intuitively—that elections are bought and sold by the same people who buy and sell the politicians (and who are becoming the same people who own the electronic voting machines). The policies pursued by elected officials are the ones that never get on ballots (or if they are, their effects are either curtailed or canceled by judges); cabinet posts, judgeships, and the other critical executive appointments have been removed from the electorate from the beginning of the independent (from England) American political process. This process isn’t corrupt; to be corrupted, the system had to have been previously based on justice.
Anarchism is not just some emotionally based system of morality (despite the ignorant self parodies of most modern day anarchists), a kind of common sense impolite liberalism. Anarchists have consistently been opposed to the electoral shell game, and for plenty of good reasons. The rivalries in the San Francisco city government are as relevant to the lives of anarchists as the medieval arguments about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Those who are interested will find plenty to talk about; those for whom such things are annoying distractions from living will act accordingly.
If it is humiliating to be ruled by politicians, how much more humiliating is it to choose them?
C. Boles
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CORRECTION CORRECTION
Editors, Daily Planet:
Justin Azadivar’s Nov. 4 letter to the editor is even more sloppy and irresponsible than the article he condemns.
Azadivar states that the article about the recently charged Berkeley students “contained several irresponsible errors”, and yet he can only point out two, not several at all. Of the two errors actually cited, the first is merely a wrong date, and even Azadivar admits it’s a “mere technical” error. And his second “error” is not an error at all, but just a suspicion on Azadivar’s part. He argues that the estimate of more than 4,000 student at the rally where the three were arrested is not true. Azadivar has no proof of this. He does not point to any source that counters that estimate. He just feels that you cannot trust the rally organizers who provided the estimate.
Two does not equal several. Suspicion does not equal an error. I’d say the definition of irresponsible is condemning a story without backing up the claims.
Sherman Boyson
