Editorials

Sunday’s Solano Stroll was a typically festive Berkeley event. It started out cold and windy, but eventually the fog burned off and citizens came out to stroll in more than respectable numbers. The Planet was lucky—because we’d contributed space to the S olano merchants’ association for advertising the event, we got space across from Andronico’s to set up a table and chairs with a sunshade, where we could sit with our grandchildren and enjoy the passing throng.  

And throng they did. Easily one Planet re ader per minute stopped by our table to tell us how much they enjoy the paper. (And a few said they hate it—but they’re reading it.) We saw many people from outside Berkeley who are regular readers. One woman told us she comes all the way to 51st Street in Oakland from San Leandro to pick up every issue. Now that’s reader loyalty. Another person inquired about a mail subscription for someone in Mongolia. (We don’t know, but we’ll try to figure it out.)  

Because it was Berkeley, almost everyone voiced an opinion about what should be in the paper. All love the nature columns, without exception. Some said that though they disagree with most of the editorials, they enjoy the letters attacking the editorials. The only real complaint about the news coverage wa s that people would like even more of it. The Stroll is also in Albany, and Albany people said they’d like their Planning Commission and City Council to get the same scrutiny we give Berkeley bodies. Oakland, Richmond and El Cerrito people said the same t hing. We’re trying to increase our coverage of other cities as fast as our advertising increases, which allows us to increase our page count prudently. (The publisher has printed up some cards for readers to leave at places they do business, suggesting Pl anet advertising, and many visitors to the table took some to distribute. We’ll see if local businesses take the hint.) 

One person voiced a heartfelt plea for more news coverage of the controversy over the Willard Middle School landscaping. That was puzz ling at first, since we’ve printed so many letters pro and con that many readers must be tired of the whole thing. I suggested that enough information had been contributed to the opinion pages that the story has emerged on its own, with no intervention fr om a reporter needed, but she still wanted a news story. Why doesn’t she write her own letter, if she thinks something has been left out, I said? She didn’t want to do that, she insisted, and finally she gave me her card as she was leaving. She’s from the consulting firm which has been making the changes at Willard, and I suppose they are reluctant to have to argue the case for their work in the public forum. That’s understandable, but with limited reporting resources the Planet can’t always afford news c overage of every controversy, particularly since our literate and articulate readers do such a good job of letting other readers know what we miss. 

The November ballot has a number of revenue-raising proposals on it, and proponents would do well to study the Planet’s opinion pages if they want to know what their chances of success are. The Willard debate is emblematic of the sentiments that many public school parents have expressed in our pages, fairly or not: that the school district wants their childre n and their dollars, but not their participation or their opinions. Longtime residents still remember that the current Willard building, frequently compared to a penitentiary, replaces a gracious Mediterranean-style structure which the district chose to d emolish rather than renovate. They remember that the Telegraph frontage was ugly bare dirt for many years before parents undertook the planting. Lack of money is frequently given as the excuse for poor Berkeley Unified School District decisions like these, but sometimes that’s not the whole story. Residents also remember that BUSD “accidentally” painted over Osha Neumann’s wonderful mural on the building which houses the Willard pool (which is no longer used to teach students to swim.)  

A newspaper can’t possibly do a comprehensive job of reporting stories like these which are part of the community memory. That’s why the opinion pages of the Planet are hands down the most widely read part of the paper. Our readers’ eyes and ears are everywhere, as we are not. We make a sincere effort to print all the letters we get, and to respond to all our calls, though it’s getting harder, because we’re hearing from more of you all the time. But that’s a problem we’re delighted to have.