Public Comment

IGNACIO  

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Ron Dellums’ great vision for Oakland is identical to that of the person I hope will be our next mayor, Ignacio De LaFuente. I’ve wondered just what we’ve missed that, now, it’s said, it requires our long absent/retired former representative to stop lobbying for private interests, show us the way, and save us. 

Who’s missed that education, healthcare, economic progress, and criminality are inextricably intertwined? Oakland’s City Council, led by De LaFuente, regularly wrestles with the relationship in debates ranging from the school system to sideshows to the Port of Oakland. Ignacio’s led and encouraged collaboration among residents, NGOs, government agencies, and city departments notably the federal, state, regional and county agencies dealing with crime, education, and transportation. 

Who’s missed seeing that all residents have a stake and say in what happens in our future, and why government inefficiency can be tolerated no more than corporate welfare or criminal violence? We who’ve lived in Oakland the past decade, braving the street crooks and the boardroom crooks, know that Ignacio has worked diligently to overcome the cards we’ve been dealt and effect the “better world” vision we share. 

It’ll become more obvious that the best candidate for Mayor is the guy who’s been here living with and working for us, and that the only thing we’ve missed is the sleight of hand pushing voters to another messiah. 

Patrick K. McCullough  

• 

TELEGRAPH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Replacing Cody’s with a Walgreens?? Shame on Tom Bates for continuing his sell out of Berkeley. We have already lost much of the Shattuck Business district to chain stores. Jupiter, Alko’s, Berkeley Games, The Capoiera Cafe, Razan’s Kitchen and other locals are all that’s distinguishing Berkeley from a strip mall in Iowa. We do not want Telegraph Ave sold to corporate giants! 

That Tom Bates will grovel for the tax revenue of chain stores as he bends over to give UC access to 23 city-hall-sized pieces of tax free Berkeley property in our downtown, is both hypocritical and stupid. If we encourage and support small local business, Berkeley will benefit not only from tax revenues, but from profits that will be reinvested in our community rather than lining a distant corporate bottom line. 

And this is not just the responsibility of our local government. Think about every purchase you make. If you buy your book at Pegasus Books instead of giving your money to the Barnes and Noble chainstore across the street, that money will stay in our community! If we shopped at Cody’s instead of Amazon books, it wouldn’t be closing. Our local businesses are precious and need our support. Think before you shop! 

It is great to give some positive attention to Telegraph Ave. Attracting and supporting small local businesses (what’s happening with the Book Zoo?), planter boxes, lessening traffic, services for people in need, how about rent control for businesses, all can be helpful. But a strip mall by getting rid of any regulations that may hinder chain stores is an insult to the vision of Fred Cody, and bad planning. 

Cyndi Johnson 

P.S. The Green Machine is an oxymoron! Pay some locals to push a broom and you’ll get them off the sidewalk and purchasing in the stores instead of sending all that city money to the machine company. We’ll be a lot more likely to shop on the Ave if we are not insulted by being run over by a loud, polluting machine!  

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BOOK BUSINESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With all due respect to the comments of the owner of Amoeba Records, that landlords are jacking up rents on Telegraph Avenue, and that is contributing to business closures there, Cody’s building is owned by Andy Ross, so rent played no part in his departure. Mr. Ross made a business decision to open another major bookstore on Fourth Street, thereby shifting a significant portion of the new-book buying business in Berkeley from south campus to West Berkeley. With no huge increases in population to support another major bookstore in Berkeley, just where did Mr. Ross expect his business to come from, if not substantially from the customers who patronized the Telegraph Avenue store? 

This conscious decision to move has to be considered a major part of the lessening of customers and foot traffic on Telegraph Avenue, where a good portion of the people who visited went because Cody’s was there. Now that Mr. Ross has staked his claim in an area away from the intellectual heart of Berkeley, he has left that heart stranded without a major new-book bookstore for an area that not only depends on one, but will now suffer tremendously intellectually because somebody in his selfish greed thought more bucks could be made elsewhere, to hell with the cultural consequences. 

I work on the Berkeley campus and have spent literally thousands of dollars in Cody’s, but I live in San Francisco, where Mr. Ross has recently opened another store. Because of my anger at his irresponsibility, I will not step foot inside his store in Union Square. 

Alan Collins 

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VIEW FROM KENSINGTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How Berkeley can you get? How ironic can you get? Here’s City Council person Kris Worthington calling for a rally to “save” Cody’s and support other businesses on Telegraph Ave.  

Talk about chutzpah! It should not be lost on readers that Worthington and fellow Berkeley pols Linda Maio and Dona Spring have long helped perpetuate the climate of crime and fear that has for years diminished Telegraph’s commerce by sanctioning the bad behavior of the miscreants who hang out on the Ave.  

Voters, don’t let Worthington’s current spin on saving Cody’s dull your memories to his role in maintaining the disaster that is Telegraph Ave. Accordingly, those who wish to one day see a regeneration of Telegraph should in the next election give Worthington, Maio and Spring their walking papers. 

Dan Spitzer 

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SAVE CODY’S 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Please help save Cody’s. Or else generations of Cal students and Berkeley citizens will never know a decent bookstore. 

Mary Pugh 

Senta Pugh Chamberlain 

• 

MAYOR’S LPO DETAILS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Now that the mayor’s office has released actual markup language for the approved-in-principle revision of Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, we have had the chance to see just how many devils are hiding in the details. Though there really aren’t many points of disagreement still embedded, one of the devils-in-residence has been quite a surprise. 

The new ordinance would, for the first time, allow the Landmarks Preservation Commission to have initial authority to approve or deny the demolition of a designated city landmark or structure of merit—something preservationists have long desired as a seemingly natural part of the LPC’s scope. But the markup language goes even further by allowing, as a criterion to explicitly justify such demolitions, a “weighing of interests.” This would require the LPC to look not only at the value and current condition of a historic resource, but also to look at the potential virtues of a project proposed to replace that resource. Doing so would allow the LPC to approve a demolition if it found that “The proposed project is necessary to achieve an important public policy and and the expected benefit to the public substantially outweighs the detriment it will cause to [historic] resources.”  

Even ardent preservationists will concede that, on rare occasions, such a hard judgment call might need to be made by the city in favor of a demolition. But such “weighing” has been—and should properly remain—the responsibility of the city council, not the LPC. Only the council has the scope of oversight to decide on the basis of what’s best for the city as a whole, and it has the authority to act on an appeal from any LPC decision. The LPC has been established as an advocacy commission, and in its other deliberations it is expressly charged to look only at the historic merits of each resource that comes in front of it, and not to consider whether a proposed project would produce a better or worse result. 

This unfortunate provision was not among the draft ordinances forwarded to the Council by either the LPC or the Planning Commission, nor had it been requested by the Council. Questioned by the LPC on where the “weighing” language came from, Planning Director Dan Marks, responsible for the draft, simply said, “I just chose to put it in.” For a would-be “community consensus” draft, such unrequested creativity on the part of city staff seems especially out of place. 

Fortunately this unneeded language can be cleanly removed—without doubt what the mayor’s office should do even before the council again takes up the ordinance at a public hearing on July 11. That exorcism, and a bit more needed cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, can still give us a new LPO that the entire city will whole-heartedly support. 

Alan Tobey is a Berkeley citizen who has closely followed the revision of the LPO since the beginning of 2004. 

• 

PROPOSITION 81: YES 

Please vote YES on state Proposition 81 on the June 6 primary ballot.  

A YES vote on Prop 81 is a vote for the future of Berkeley’s West Branch Library and its patrons.  

The community that utilizes the West Branch includes many low-income families, recent immigrants and English language learners. The current conditions at West Branch are hindering its ability to adequately serve this diverse community. Built in 1923, West Branch is an early 20th Century building trying to serve a population with 21st Century needs. Visit West Branch and see for yourselves. It’s located at 1125 University Avenue.  

Prop 81 will not increase your local taxes. Funding will come from the state general fund. It is a bond measure that will help renovate libraries all over California. Priority will be given to projects that came close, but were not supported by the last round of state funding (Proposition 14). Our West Branch Library is one of those. If Prop 81 passes, the state would pay for 65% and local governments 35% of the cost of renovating libraries. Berkeley voters have already approved this city’s portion of the funding for a renovated West Branch.  

The money could only be spent on infrastructure, not personnel, administration or operating costs. That would mean a new Library Learning Center to teach students, parents and teachers to make the most of the Library’s resources. A Family Literacy Center would help young children learn to read and keep them reading. West Branch is also the home of Berkeley Reads, the library’s literacy program. Passage of Prop 81 means Berkeley Reads teaches more and more adult learners to read and write English, learn computer skills, get jobs and succeed in school.  

More information on Prop 81 is available at yesforlibraries.com.  

A vote for Proposition 81 is a vote for Berkeley’s much-loved and much-used West Branch, its patrons, wonderful staff and our city itself. VOTE YES ON PROPOSITION 81!!  

Sincerely,  

Linda Schacht Gage  

President,  

Berkeley Public Library Foundation  

Amy Roth,  

President,  

Friends of the Berkeley Public Library  

• 

POLITICS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The editorial “Remembering the Cost of War” in the May 26-29 issue of the Daily Planet was incisive and true until the last sentence. 

The easy thing would be to leave it to the political process that has served to keep the plutocrats in power. Since the 2000 election, it should be clear that those in power won’t yield power; as far as they are concerned, they are the only legitimate rulers here, and the rest of the world must bow down to them, too. Don’t expect them to honor˜or even allow˜any election that might depose them. Whatever it takes˜crooked voting machines, insufficient voting machines, purging voter rolls, or canceling elections˜they’ll help “God” keep them in power. 

The Democrats are pretty slavish in their support of the republican agenda; witness its leadership’s reluctance to discuss impeachment, though it’s a popular idea; witness http://www.davidswanson.org/  

What it will take is a movement in the streets that forces the administration to step down.  

The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime! www.worldcantwait.net 

I got my whole life to do something, and that’s not very long 

Ani Difranco 

• 

RHYME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Here’s tip of my hat to the Planet, 

And how well that you woman and man it. 

With your editors’ labors 

and letters by neighbors, 

Your paper’s so good, they should ban it. 

Ove Ofteness 

• 

DELLUMS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Randy Shaw (Charon Attack machine Targets Ron Dellums) employs a rather despicable technique to attack the SF Chronicle. He appears to believe that if you say something long enough, people will begin to believe what you say has some merit. Shaw keeps repeating that the Chronicle editorial writers were somehow duplicitous in asserting that Dellums lacks municipal government experience and that his approach to dealing with the myriad problems currently confronting the people of Oakland is utopian. Instead of repeating these statements ad nauseam, it would better serve the electorate if Randy Shaw were to provide some factual data as to Dellums prior municipal government experience or substantive reasons for believing that Dellums promise for Oakland is indeed other than utopian. Why not tell all of us, for example, where Dellums proposes to go to raise the money required to accomplish what he promises to do if elected Mayor of Oakland? 

Irving Gershenberg 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Ron Dellums’ great vision for Oakland is identical to that of the person I hope will be our next mayor, Ignacio De LaFuente. I’ve wondered just what we’ve missed that, now, it’s said, it requires our long absent/retired former representative to stop lobbying for private interests, show us the way, and save us. 

Who’s missed that education, healthcare, economic progress, and criminality are inextricably intertwined? Oakland’s City Council, led by De LaFuente, regularly wrestles with the relationship in debates ranging from the school system to sideshows to the Port of Oakland. Ignacio’s led and encouraged collaboration among residents, NGO’s, government agencies, and city departments ˆ notably the federal, state, regional and county agencies dealing with crime, education, and transportation. 

Who’s missed seeing that all residents have a stake and say in what happens in our future, and why government inefficiency can be tolerated no more than corporate welfare or criminal violence? We who’ve lived in Oakland the past decade, braving the street crooks and the boardroom crooks, know that Ignacio has worked diligently to overcome the cards we’ve been dealt and effect the „better world‰ vision we share. 

It’ll become more obvious that the best candidate for Mayor is the guy who’s been here living with and working for us, and that the only thing we’ve missed is the sleight of hand pushing voters to another messiah. 

Patrick K. McCullough 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I hear there is a proposal to require credentialing for pre-school caregivers. I know we all believe in credentialing, but we need to know what skills are most important for pre-school caregivers. The most important skill is sensitivity to the unspoken needs of a child. The second most important skill is the heart to give a child open 

attention even when the caregiver is stressed or worn out. The desire to reach out to the community for support is another important skill. Along with these skills, the pre-school caregiver certainly needs to know the developmental stages of the child and tested techniques for providing children challenges and opportunities. But the ability to make a child feel secure is essential. Pre-school caregivers should be selected not only on the basis of their credentials but also for their capacity for nourishing human relations. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

David Altschul employs a familiar tactic used by the apologists for Israel’s indefensible policies. He ignores every specific, documented criticism of Israel and reiterates all the old nonsense about “the Arabs” being solely responsible for the Palestinian conflict. This does not square with the meticulous research of Israeli historians like Tom Segev and Avi Shlaim which show the original Zionist antagonism towards the native Arabs as well Israeli belligerence towards the Arab states from the beginning. The Palestinians were never “nonexistent” to use Altschul’s repellent version of holocaust denial and the PLO did distinguish between Jews and Zionists, whom are not all identical. Altschul’s selective reading of the Arab media is not impressive, Al-Jazzera has had the freest, best investigative reporting of 

any media outlet in the Middle East. Women are required to sit in the back of the Orthodox synagogues in Israel, Reform and Conservative Jews have considerably less freedom of religion. Israel does have some courageous media outlets and they are constantly being censored by the Israeli government. Altschul overlooks the history of Israeli aid to Hamas as a counterbalance to the secular PLO. As he overlooks the horrible occupation that gave rise to the Hamas victory. Altschul’s “arguments” for Israeli policies parallel those former apologists for apartheid South Africa who would proclaim the superiority of that regime to those of the rest of Africa as if that mitigated the horrors of apartheid. 

Kris Martinsen 

Fundamentalist Christians have a long history of using out-of-context quotes from the Bible to justify hatred against gays, lesbians, and whosoever else they might be demonizing. They are on shaky ground. 

There are very few references of homosexuality in the Bible. Most explicitly are those in Leviticus. Leviticus is the book of the Bible which was used to justify slavery. Leviticus says that you can eat locusts, but not shellfish. How about bug salad for dinner  

As for the the tale of Sodom, all reputable scholars agree that it is a parable about mistreating strangers, not a warning about where to stick your rod and tackle. 

Jesus does not once say “hate gays”. Quite to the contrary, he says ‘Love Your Neighbors’. Paul mentions gays a couple times, but even that only brings the total number of Bible quotes to a half-dozen or so. 

Gay-bashers haven’t got a leg to stand on. 

Ron Lowe Grass Valley 

In their respective May 26 letters, both David M. Wilson and John Blankenship (”Correcting Chris” and “Condo Response”) criticize me for suggesting that a coordinated, “calibrated campaign” is now underway seeking to dismantle Berkeley’s long-established condominium conversion public policy. 

With all due respect to both gentleman, rather than the term “calibrated campaign”, perhaps “interesting coincidence” would be more appropriate: two pro-conversion op-ed commentaries published several weeks apart, and then the recent launch of a pro-conversion ballot measure petition campaign.  

Reasonable people may disagree but this series of events strikes me, again, as a very interesting coincidence. 

The proposed ballot measure would allow the annual conversion of hundreds and hundreds of existing affordable rental units across Berkeley into condominiums. 

In a complaint directed at me, Mr. Blankenship states that he does “not belong to the Berkeley Property Owners Association” (BPOA). At absolutely no point in my May 23 letter did I state that Mr. Blankenship is a BPOA member.  

Rather, what I stated was that Mr. Blankenship’s op-ed commentary happened to appear at the same time as the recent launch of a petition campaign that includes individuals belonging to or associated with BPOA members. 

Briefly, to respond to Michael Katz’s May 26 commentary assailing the David Brower/Oxford Plaza development (”Brower Center: Over-Hyped”), it is remarkable that Mr. Katz completely omitted any mention of Oxford Plaza’s unprecedented housing component: 96 units of housing----every single unit affordable----with half designed exclusively for work force families (two and three bedroom units). 

Contrary to Mr. Katz’s unfortunate misrepresentations, the Brower/Oxford development will be world class in caliber, designed as one of the “greenest” structures in the nation, and will include very sizable outdoor and indoor public space.  

With respect to parking, the city only agreed to allow this development to move forward if the existing number of city-operated parking spaces was replaced underground. The Brower/Oxford development will be a magnificent asset for Berkeley’s ongoing downtown revitalization. 

Chris Kavanagh 

I would like to clarify just a few of Mr. Katz’s misstatements that relate to the David Brower Center: 

The Brower Center: Mr. Katz’s editorial begins by acknowledging that the Brower Center/Oxford Plaza development project is indeed two separate projects, The David Brower Center (non-profit offices/conference facilities/restaurant/gallery) and Oxford Plaza (affordable family housing), but the ensuing torrent of mischaracterization fails to distinguish between the two projects. The distinction is quite important because each of these worthy projects has separate ownership, developers, management, mission, and financing. 

Psuedo-ecological name: Really? The Brower Center project was discussed with and approved by David Brower himself before his death in 2000. Ken Brower, David’s oldest son, is a board member of the David Brower Center, which is the project’s non-profit owner. Shirley Richardson Brower, Executive Director of the South Berkeley YMCA, has appeared at numerous times at public events to speak in support of the Brower Center. Indeed, all Brower family members are in full public support of the project. 

Greenwash by making exaggerated claims: The Brower Center is on track to be built at a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Standard, the highest possible Green Design standard established and monitored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The USGBC is an independent certifying authority and there are only a handful of LEED Platinum buildings in the entire USA. Please visit www.browercenter.org for detailed information about the innovative green design features planned for the David Brower Center. 

Land for free: An offer was made to purchase the property from the city, in which case the city would have had cash but no parking lot, and no control over the development. The City Council decided instead to retain control through a Development and Disposition Agreement (DDA) that has resulted in attracting over $22 million of downtown investment for the Brower Center alone ($10 Million of private philanthropic donations, which leverage $12 million in conventional financing, tax credit financing, and program related loans from Foundations) while also creating employment opportunities, conference facilities that support the entire non-profit sector, and a vibrant center that will attract international attention while serving the progressive non-profit community through the coming decades, plus Oxford Plaza’s 96 units of sorely needed, cost-effective affordable/workforce family housing. In addition, the city also gets to keep its parking lot. Mr. Katz seems to believe that just having a parking lot is a better deal. 

Greedy developers: Mr. Katz characterizes the Brower Center owners as greedy developers pulling hidden strings for their own enrichment. So who are these demons? The building owner is the David Brower Center 501c(3) non-profit, which in turn is controlled by its Board of Directors. A visit to www.browercenter.org will give interested parties the complete list of board members and their biographies. What you will find are dedicated individuals who have devoted their working lives to improving environmental and social conditions for the whole community, which includes Mr. Katz. Apparently the few computer keystrokes required to call up that website were beyond the effort or imagination of Mr. Katz. 

The mission of the David Brower Center is to inspire and nurture current generations of activists and to build a foundation for future generations. That’s what we agreed with David Brower to do, and that is what we are building. Building for the future. 

Sincerely, 

Peter K. Buckley 

Chairman 

David Brower Center 

Back in Berkeley briefly after a 20-year hiatus, I’m surprised at a lot of what I see and hear in my hometown, but nothing is quite as peculiar to me as the Berkeley Daily Planet’s unloving coverage of the Oxford Plaza/David Brower Center. Most recent case in point: Michael Katz’s 5/26 commentary “Brower Center: Over-Hyped, Over-Sized, Over-Budget.” I hope someone else will educate Mr. Katz about the facts of the DBC. Let me just correct his interpretation of its namesake. 

Katz heard him, once, yet he’s happy to speak for David Brower. He asserts that if he were to see what’s going on, Brower would “spin in his grave like a wind turbine”; what’s more, building the David Brower Center would “forever exile the Archdruid’s pesky, uncompromising spirit from his birthplace.” 

Now, I listened to my Dad a LOT over our 50 years together, and I can tell you he was proud and flattered at the prospect of having his name on such a Berkeley building. And even with another’s name on it, he would be excited about this innovative structure designed to create and support a dynamic fusion of green and for-profit groups, diverse local and distant communities, cool things to do˜all under a LEED platinum roof. His enthusiasm for good urban design was almost as keen as his love of wildness. And, living for the moment in his house (where his ashes sit quietly, I assure you), it appears to me that far from being exiled, Dave Brower’s spirit is vigorous in Berkeley˜particularly in the people working so hard to make the Brower Center a reality in the face of ill-informed and mean-spirited commentaries like Michael Katz’s. 

Sincerely, 

Barbara Brower