Page One

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CLEAN AIR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am dismayed that our City Council, which one would hope would be concerned about our air quality and the increased numbers of cases of asthma in children, voted for the cutting of more than 100 trees in the Berkeley Marina. It will be a long time before the twigs that are planted in their stead are capable of cleaning the air as effectively as the mature Monterey pines they are replacing.  

Jeanne Burdette 

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UNSAFE SIDEWALKS  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The other day I walked down the street on Ashby in Berkeley, hardly able to navigate the broken sidewalk with my cane; where my friend Fred Lupke in his power wheelchair avoided the impassable way by going out into the street and was struck by a motorist, thrown 55 feet and killed. Weeks later the sidewalk is still in need of repair. Why not create jobs hiring people to repair broken sidewalks and fill in the many potholes in the cities of Oakland and Berkeley. It worked before with the WPA project, why not again? 

Frances Breckenridge 

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SCHOOLYARD FIGHT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I believe taking the word of real estate developers with same grain of salt as one would for lawyers, politicians and those folks who always seem to call us up when we are sitting down to dinner trying to get us to buy something. I have never met this chap Patrick Kennedy nor do I have any association in any way with him, but your constant harping on this poor fellow actually has me feeling sorry for him. In my opinion Ms. O’Malley and Douglas Allen-Taylor have let this matter of Mr. Kennedy’s perhaps owing some back taxes get  

personal whereas I believe  

that in the final analysis to Mr. Kennedy this matter is about business and I doubt the $250K or whatever is going to make or break him. And if childishness was taking place in a schoolyard as opposed to what I regard as an otherwise excellent publication, I believe just about any grade school kid would recognize in fact at this point Mr. Kennedy has gotten the best you two. And I will bet you a cup of coffee at one of Berkeley’s many excellent cafes that he is sitting at home have a good old time at your expense not too worried if he is going to pay up or not. And I’ll bet you a second cup of coffee that you will refuse to print this article too. 

Steve Pardee 

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HEIGHT LIMITS  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I found it hard to believe Sharon Hudson’s claim that the Urban Land Institute says  

“primary buildings in walkable neighborhoods shall not exceed 35 feet” (Planet, Nov. 7), so I looked at their web site.  

I could not find anything about this height limit. But at the top of the list of winners of their 2003 Awards for Excellence, I found Millenium Place in Boston, two 35-story high rises with five levels of underground parking, which the ULI says “has reestablished the vitality of the surrounding streets.”  

Maybe Ms. Hudson misread the ULI's guidelines for walkable neighborhoods, and they actually said that primary  

buildings “shall not exceed 35 stories.”  

I myself believe in traditional urban design. Older European neighborhoods, with a six-story height limit for fabric buildings, are filled with vitality and are also human scale.  

We certainly don’t need  

inhuman 35-story monoliths 

like Millenium Place to create vital neighborhoods. But we obviously do need height limits greater than 35 feet to give Berkeley more vital, more pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods.  

Charles Siegel 

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OPEN SPACES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The 11/4 Editorial (Southside Needs Public Space) is spot on. Berkeley citizens need to preserve our precious, threatened public space—be it the flea market, recycling center, community gardens, or parks. We need to nudge BUSD to include adequate public open space in their redevelopment plans. I would add that Berkeley should be looking at long term planning to expand our network of parks and gardens, with multi-unit housing developers footing 

the bill. Berkeley is adding thousands of new residents with no plans for additional open space and no requirement for developers to pay for new open space. Typically, today’s multi-unit developments contain a large number of tiny units, with on-site open space requirements being reduced or exempted. This is a recipe for increased pressure on our open space network. 

Much of Berkeley’s park (and pathway) system was donated by foresightful real estate companies. Today’s developers are increasing density dramatically with no contributions to our open space system. Developers 

don’t have land to donate,  

but they could be required to contribute a substantial open space fee for each new unit  

of housing. 

In recent years, Berkeley has missed out on open space opportunities (Presentation High, Napoleon Bonaparte Byrne property) for lack of money and planning. There are still a few opportunities, albeit expensive, if the City had a funding source. 

Multi-unit developments should be allowed only if they contribute to a more livable city. Paying their way for open space is part of the solution. If readers have a personal interest in making this happen, they can contact the letter writer at sswanson@ eminentsoftware.com. 

Stephen Swanson 

President, Berkeley Partners  

for Parks (for identification only, the views expressed above may not be BPFPs)