Features

It seems even in Berkeley McCarthy-like tactics are alive and well. Because Andrea Prichett has the temerity to note the many-layered nuances of the issues of drugs and crime and their relationship to poverty, racism and injustice, her job is threatened by one of the plaintiffs in the small claims court suit telephoning her place of employment. It is naïve and disingenuous to ignore the direct relationship that these issues play to the situation involving Mrs. Moore and her home, and we stand with Andre a and Daily Planet Executive Editor Becky O’Malley for courageously addressing them. 

South Berkeley has been a neighborhood of long-term, working-class residents who care for their community and for each other. It has also been a neighborhood characterized by poverty and its accompanying ills of unemployment, drugs and crime. All of this was there when newer, often white and more affluent residents moved in as gentrification has proceeded. It is incumbent upon those who move into such neighborhoods to become aware of what’s going on around them and to acknowledge the dynamics and strengths of the existing community. 

We live in an urban environment, and as such many of us have been victims of crime. No one deserves to be a victim or to live in fear. However there are other crimes as well that have taken their toll—crimes like poverty, racism and health disparities. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina graphically revealed continuing inequities in our society which must be addressed. Failure to recogn ize the wider context in which neighborhood crime occurs leads to shallow and ineffective solutions. Putting a senior citizen who has lived in her home for over 60 years out on the street will not resolve the issues of drugs and crime. 

We can prove ourselves to be smarter, more inclusive and more compassionate than to pursue narrow, short-sighted solutions to these problems. We can then be truly called “enablers”—enablers of jobs, justice and progress. 

Unless there is a genuine attempt to involve all segments of the community in pursuing solutions to these very real problems, there will be no peace because justice is sought only for a few. 

Linda Olivenbaum speaks on behalf of Berkeley Citizens Action’s Steering Committee.˜›