Editorials

DOWNTOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Rob Wrenn’s commentary on traffic in Berkeley (“Taking Away Parking Did Not Increase Europe’s Traffic Congestion,” Daily Planet, April 9-12) can be summarized in one phrase: cars bad, pedestrians and cyclists good. It doesn’t, however, address a rather fundamental issue, which is what the nature of downtown Berkeley really ought to be. Every time I open a copy of the Daily Planet I read an article about another Berkeley retail store closing its doors—most recently Tower Records—usually accompanied by considerable hand wringing and gnashing of teeth. The connection that people don’t seem to make—Mr. Wrenn included—is that less vehicular traffic (and parking) means lower retail sales. The simple reason for this is that people don’t like to schlep their shopping bags large distances from the stores to their cars. It’s a peculiar human trait, but not a surprising one. Consequently, if you restrict parking, or vehicular access, to the center of Berkeley, you are automatically restricting the growth and profitability of retail businesses. 

I think the Berkeley community as a whole needs to decide what sort of downtown it wants. If it wants a vibrant retail center, along the lines of Walnut Creek, it needs to provide adequate vehicular access and parking. If it wants a totally pedestrianized downtown, with nice open spaces, but small service shops and fast food parlors (which is what it is rapidly becoming), that’s fine, but don’t complain about the absence of quality retail stores. You can’t have your cake and eat it. 

Malcolm Carden 

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SOURCE OF BLIGHT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his reporting of recent losses in downtown retail business (“See’s, Gateway Closings Jolt Downtown Retail Outlook,” Daily Planet, April 2-5), Richard Brenneman states that Berkeley’s office vacancy rate is the lowest in the East Bay. This observation may be true in general, but it overlooks one important factor in the decline of Shattuck Avenue: the loss of 200 office jobs and $10 million in annual payroll at the still-vacant former premises of California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) at the corner of Bancroft Way when that organization relocated to downtown Oakland in 2001. That partly boarded-up building also housed other now-closed businesses. 

All of these businesses were driven out by the excessive rent demands of the building’s owner L.B. Reddy, currently serving a federal prison sentence for his crimes. Reddy refused to let CEB seismically upgrade the building at its own expense and exercise its option to renew the existing lease paying him $500,000 per year, unless CEB agreed to pay increased rent and employ his contractors. 

Reddy’s insatiable greed in this transaction has already cost him $1.5 million in lost rent, in addition to degrading the quality of life all over the downtown area. If Shattuck Avenue is indeed suffering from blight, the source of the blight is clear. 

Robert Denham 

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PUNKS, PIT BULLS, BUMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was saddened to read in your paper that See’s Candy is going to move its store to Emeryville— saddened but not surprised. Berkeley is a mess of punks, pit bulls, bums, drunks, and the mentally ill. Oh, and dirty, smelly sidewalks as well. Who’d want to do business here? This is pretty much what I replied when asked by a surveyor for High Tech Burritos on Shattuck if I had ever eaten there. I wonder if High Tech’s downtown location is doing poorly. I am sure one of the reasons may be the oft-noted one that Berkeleyans tend not to like chains. There are the above reasons to consider which hardly anyone expresses publicly. Why is this???? 

Millicent Wilson 

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THE PASSION 

Editors, Daily Planet, 

Mark Winokur’s commentary piece on Mel Gibson’s The Passion makes a good point (“Film shows Need for Complex Interpretation of History,” Daily Planet, April 9-12). Any filmic depiction of historic events inevitably distorts, by exaggeration or oversimplification, the “true” events, in the process replacing them in “real” history.  

Winokur calls in a lengthy analysis for a calm recognition by Jews of Jewish involvement in Jesus’ crucifixion. He points out that at least some Biblical Jews must have been offended—for various reasons—by Jesus’ ideas and behavior, and may have overtly or covertly displayed their disapproval.  

Therefore, he says, modern Jews should openly accept this as fact and cease “a determined and insistent effort to disavow any possible or significant Jewish collaboration” in that event. Present protestations by modern Jews of ancient innocence “[do]… much to alienate us from our Christian brethren and may…only exacerbate [anti-Semitism].” 

While acceding to the historic deadly outbreaks of anti-Semitism, Winokur speaks as though dealing with a moderate affliction such as flu: Inoculate against it by rational acceptance of some ill-defined ancient responsibilities, and rest easy. Excesses such as those in the film will have no effect.  

Wrong! Those very excesses demonstrate the persistence of the virus, to which millions over the world are still susceptible: “The Jews killed Christ!” In a world of complex religious schisms (Christianity itself is replete with them) where bitterness is often deep, hard, and incisive, that short mantra still can ring out clear and distinct. 

Excesses such as those in The Passion must be challenged promptly every time, as must be all expressions which carelessly impugn any entire group or class. 

Morris Berger 

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PARKING AND TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am fortunate to live in the Berkeley hills with one of the most beautiful views in the world, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. But I’m beginning to feel ignored in all the discussions about parking in Berkeley. I would happily take public transportation whenever possible, but AC Transit comes to my area only every 30 minutes, and only hourly on weekends. This is not my idea of adequate public transit. When I lived in San Francisco I could easily manage without a car; the Muni wasn’t perfect, but it had convenient routing and fairly frequent schedules. 

There is no way that we can shop for groceries, go to medical and dental appointments, go to movies or cultural events, or do anything else without using our car. Increasingly, I find that I am going to Emeryville or El Cerrito to shop because of the difficulty in finding a parking place in downtown Berkeley. Even the public garages are frequently filled. Having pedestrian zones downtown is a great idea, but we need to be able to get to the pedestrian zones if we don’t live near them. 

Jerrie Meadows 

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HONORING OUR TROOPS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

MoveOn.org sent out a message entitled “Honoring Our Troops” stating “it’s a good time to take a moment to honor the sacrifices our troops there and their families are making.” We felt it important to respond. Here’s what we said: 

“Dear friends at MoveOn, 

“Whenever we have heard others remark about the importance of supporting our troops even though one may oppose the war itself, we’ve felt a sense of unease, a kind of intuition that says that there is something inconsistent with supporting those that are conducting the war. Sure, it is Bush-Cheney and their cabal that got us into this, but it’s the regular soldiers who are firing the rockets, dropping the bombs, shooting at shadows that turn out to be children, terrorizing families, torturing prisoners, and then coming home, traumatized by the horrors they’ve seen and those they have themselves perpetrated. 

It is much better in our opinion, to honor those soldiers who have refused to fight or refused to go. They deserve our support. And in so doing, we should be encouraging all soldiers to refuse. This is an immoral war, and the soldiers who are carrying it out should be given a very clear message that their willingness to follow orders makes this war possible. 

MoveOn might consider some form of financial or legal support for any soldier who refuses to go to Iraq via a campaign similar to those you’ve undertaken to rid us of Bush. Look to the Israelis who are supporting their Rufuseniks to see how to make this happen. This is the type of action that we should all be supporting. 

Tom and Jane Kelly 

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XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Richard Clarke did nothing more than attempt to shift blame from the administration which had done nothing of any true consequence, Bill Clinton’s, to George W. Bush’s administration. His self-serving apology not only made him a hero to Democrats, it also sold thousands of books for him. It is a shame that this false apology, given under dubious circumstances, is given such high praise by George Cohen. Why didn’t Clarke make this apology months or years ago? Could it have something to do with the release of his book and his malice toward the Bush administration? Not according to Mr. Cohen. Mr. Cohen believes that Clarke is acting in a completely forthright manner. 

Never mind the contradicting testimony of Richard Clarke, where he constantly says one thing in his book and testimony and something completely different in the memos and e-mails he sent while in office. According to Mr. Cohen, Richard Clarke should be believed at face value. Like P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” 

Peter McClellan 

Sacramento 

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XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding our progress in getting the City of Berkeley to paint a crosswalk between Berkeley High School and the civic center park, we are chugging right along. Today (April 8) my daughter Ashley and I were scheduled to meet with the 2x2 committee at City Hall. What is 2x2? That’s a meeting between two City Council members and two School Board members. However, today’s meeting was canceled at the last minute. 

I had talked with various city officials earlier about how to get an initiative on the November ballot and was told that the 2x2 was a better way to go. However, the 2x2 isn’t rescheduled to meet again until May and if we wait that long, we won’t have time to collect the 2,007 signatures we need to get the crosswalk on the November ballot. Sigh. 

So this morning, a rather sleepy Ashley and I filed a petition to get the crosswalk initiative on the ballot. Next step? The city’s attorney will review our petition to see if it sez all the right stuff. THEN we will have to collect A LOT of signatures by May 31. Are you up for it? How badly do you want this crosswalk? WARM UP YOUR WRITING HAND! 

And while we are at it, perhaps we should circulate a petition to get America out of Iraq and George Bush into jail. Input? 

Jane Stillwater 

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