Public Comment
Letters to the Editor
CITY RECEIVES ACCESS AWARD
Editors, Daily Planet:
Last week, Berkeley’s disability community celebrated the fact that Berkeley received the “Most Accessible City in the U.S.” award from the National Organization on Disability and UPS at a public reception.
More than 150 people with disabilities came together to celebrate Berkeley’s receiving this prestigious award which is a major honor for the city. This wonderful event was covered by KQED and many local newspapers, yet the Planet did not mention the event. I cannot understand why the Daily Planet failed to cover so important an honor.
Berkeley has had a significant impact on the lives of people with disabilities through the activism that started here. Susan O’Hara’s inspiring speech on the history of the Independent Living Movement chronicled the many accomplishments that people with disabilities have won in the Bay Area, and how those achievements have impacted people throughout the world.
Being the birthplace of the Independent Living Movement is one of Berkeley’s proudest accomplishments and I hope we can count on the Planet’s recognition of our community’s future accomplishments in the days ahead.
Dmitri Belser, Executive Director
Center for Accessible Technology
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RESTORATION OF MARIN FOUNTAIN
Editors, Daily Planet:
The California Park and Recreation Society’s District III Awards and Installation Banquet was held April 5 at Dublin Senior Center in Dublin. An award for Outstanding Volunteer in Parks and Recreation for the City of Berkeley was being presented to Sara Holmes.
Sara was involved in fund-raising for the restoration of the fountain in the center of the Marin Circle. Since the dedication of the fountain in 1996, she has devoted much time to the maintenance of the fountain itself, the surrounding circle and Fountain Walk. As the coordinator of an enthusiastic group of volunteers, she oversees the monthly cleanup of weeds, leaves, debris, and graffiti. Always tactful and gracious, Sara has maintained cordial relations with homeowners in the area as well as with Marc Seleznow, Director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront for the City of Berkeley, who nominated her for this recognition.
Previous articles detailing Sara’s dedication have been written by Matthew Artz and published in the Berkeley Daily Planet on March 8, 2005, and August 5, 2005. These articles are available in the newspaper’s online archives.
Working with Sara on the first Saturday of each month, the volunteer group is very appreciative of her ability to keep the group focused on necessary work while providing an opportunity for interaction amongst us all. Her attention to detail keeps the fountain an attractive asset for the neighborhood and for all the people who transit the Marin Circle every day. New volunteers are always welcome: call 526-5347.
Cynthia Wantland
Volunteer with Friends of the Fountain and Walk
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TREATMENT OF THE POOR
Editors, Daily Planet:
Mr. Roland Peterson takes half a page to assert/explain the good intentions of the merchants backing this initiative. For many years the Cheese Board, another Berkeley merchant, had a sign, a quote from an Anatole France, that said “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to beg in the streets, steal bread, or sleep under bridges.”
Mr. Peterson, Mr. Bates, members of the Chamber of Commerce and the Telegraph Business Improvement District, think about it.
Teddy Knight
P.S. I haven’t noticed the Telegraph Business Improvement District assessing itself to convert one of the vacant storefronts into a daytime drop-in center, which would get most of the problematic people off the street without the need to further criminalize eccentricity and increase our taxes city-wide to pay for the additional police presence this initiative will require.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL
Editors, Daily Planet:
In regard to Justin Lee and his assertion that East Coast middle schools are just grades seven and eight: I was in the 1991 pilot sixth grade class with Mrs. Tanner and Mr. Silberg at King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley when it was started as a result of the conditions to the Franklin and Craigmont schools after the 1989 earthquake. The decision to bring in a small group of sixth graders was probably traumatic for all of us young people, but it was one that I imagine was done with a lot of interest in what was done on the east coast. As a resident now of Washington, D.C., I am situated near two middle schools. One, an arts magnet established in 1957 is for grades five through eight; the other, a public charter school founded in 2001, has grades six through eight. Perhaps things were different when many of the Bay Area’s transplanted East Coasters decided to come west, but as their children go east—often at parents’ behest—we learn many of the things “that never happened on the east coast...” are in fact happening every day. And to Mr. Lee’s lament that his daughter is not getting the kind of kindergarten education he received: A quick online search of “Kindergarten Berkeley, CA” revealed 43 public, private, and non-profit kindergarten options in Berkeley. The only question I’ll ask is does your daughter enjoy her class as much as you enjoy complaining about it?
John E. Parman
Washington, DC
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ALAMEDA’S MEASURE A
Editors, Daily Planet:
Last November, the citizens of Alameda elected a mayor who campaigned to “Protect Measure A.” The mayor told me that she told the Planning Board to stop using their office to overthrow Measure A.
Last Monday the Planning Board appointed an ad hoc committee to set up forums to discuss overturning Measure A in all of Alameda.
Last Thursday the Planning staff hired consultants using a grant from MTC to present a “convincing” case for overturning Measure A at Alameda Point. This charge was led by the senior planning staff and the vice president of the Planning Board.
We were told by the Planning Board VP on Thursday that it was hard telling her daughter why she had to be there that evening. I should think it would be hard to tell your child that you have led the charge to overturn our density ordinance after 35 years of protecting our city from over-development.
The mayor was quoted in the newspaper as having no objections to the Planning Board discussing Measure A in the “abstract.”
Catellus has asked for the overthrow of Measure A in their proposal to be the developer at Alameda Point. If we can’t get a developer to make Measure A work then we should try one that can. The Preliminary Development plan is compliant with Measure A.
The Water Transit Authority talked about service to the UCSF medical complex being built on Catellus land south of the Pac Bell Park. Their website shows that ferry going from Harbor Bay.
AC Transit says that the percentage Alamedans who ride the bus is as high as any Bay Area community but the planning staff, not AC Transit, says that we need more density at Alameda Point. We have plenty of development on the West End to keep AC Transit happy.
We are told that Chinatown wants more density at Alameda Point in the hopes of better transit. This is in conflict with that committee’s presentation to our City Council.
Planning staff leaped at the opportunity posed by a member of the audience who proposed work-live for the existing BEQ and BOQ saying, “I can see a consensus building.”
It is all outrageous. Planning has no business using MTC money (our taxpayer money) to campaign for the overthrow of Measure A. It was admitted by their own hired consultant that we will have sufficient density to support mass transit.
Is all of this discussion in the realm of the abstract?
Jean Sweeney
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OAK-TO-NINTH REFERENDUM
Editors, Daily Planet:
Is it a coincidence that a slick 12-page mailer from Signature Properties touting the Oak-to-Ninth project arrived in Oakland mailboxes the same week that a condescending commentary from John Russo attacking the Oak-to-Ninth Referendum Committee appeared in the Montclarion? Russo’s insistence that the committee did not use the right copy of the ordinance, and that therefore voters were misled and not given correct information is bogus. The ordinance exact ordinance the Council voted on. In addition, I challenge anyone reading this with this question—have you ever read the full text of an ordinance, a ballot proposition, or a petition you have signed? Unless you are a lawyer, or a staff member who gets paid to do so, I doubt you ever have. People signed the petitions because they wanted to vote on the project. Under Russo’s interpretation, the city clerk has no responsibility to provide a correct copy of the ordinance to the citizens, who apparently are supposed to keep a lawyer on call to make sure that city employees aren’t lying to them. And the city could pretty much make anything “referendum-proof” by simply making sure that there were so many attachments that the printing costs and weight of the petitions alone would make it impossible. If voters need to have all the information in order to make an “informed decision,” then maybe the petitions should have included information about how many dollars each of our council members has accepted in campaign donations from Signature, the text of all private meetings between city staff and the developer, not to mention what promises were made, in private, to the organizations cited in Signature’s slick brochure.
If Mr. Russo is so concerned about transparency, why doesn’t he mention that he was asked by Signature that he was asked by Signature Properties’ lawyers to throw out the referendum, and that the reasons he states are the ones presented to him by Signature’s lawyers? The Referendum Committee are now being deposed by lawyers from firms that specialize in challenging citizen-initiated campaigns, paid for by the developer. It is ironic that Mr. Russo, the highest-paid official in the entire state, is backing a wealthy developer in an attempt to bankrupt citizens whose taxes pay his salary, then hiding behind buzzwords like “transparency.” It angers me that citizens are forced to spend their own money and give up their own time to fight a city government that WE are paying for, which seems hell-bent on selling every inch of this city to the lowest bidder. But don’t forget—David did beat Goliath.
Jane Powell
Oakland
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iPODS AND THE BEATLES
Editors, Daily Planet:
Unfortunately there were a number of errors in the editorial provided by Becky O’Malley regarding the Apple iPod. First, the major Apple announcement on Monday was not regarding the Beatles. It focused on the major record label EMI Music providing songs through the iTunes Music Store that are free from Digital Rights Management (DRM). The first question reporters asked after the presentation on DRM was “When are the Beatles tracks going on and will they be DRM-free?” Steve Jobs answered “I wanna know that too.” That’s all that was mentioned about the Beatles during the complete press conference. There is no mention of the Beatles in the official press release on the Apple website.
The “Yellow Submarine iPod” is purely a rumor that was propagated after some speculation from computer industry analysts on a podcast called Macbreak Weekly. This has never been confirmed either as official or unofficial from anyone at Apple.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m an Apple fan and therefore I pay more attention than the typical consumer. However, I think some basic reporting prowess would have lead Ms. O’Malley to discover the facts that she uses in the introduction to her article criticizing Apple.
As for the serial number, Apple provides a very readable serial number on the box that the iPod came in.
Dacoglu Douglas
Oakland
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FOUL JUSTICE
Editors, Daily Planet:
Our system of justice is often described as a duel before a referee called the judge and a jury responsible for choosing the winner. It may also be described as a struggle to determine which of several incompatible perceptions of a single event is the most accurate or compelling. Neither metaphor influenced Congress last fall when it legalized a special military tribunal to dispense justice among the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Last week this shameful piece of legislation bearing the toothless title The Military Commissions Act of 2006 bore fruit. David Hicks, a 31-year-old Australian, was judged a “ war criminal” as a result of proceedings that the military boasted to be “fair, legitimate and transparent.”
Overlook “legitimate and transparent” for the moment and, before considering “fair,” scan the funny side. There stood a prosecuting Lt. Colonel telling the court it was “… face to face with the enemy,” implying that young Hicks was Public Enemy Number One, whereas, in fact, the man was a high school dropout in search of adventure. We should fear those who, on our behalf, put Hicks in with the “worst of the worst” more than we fear Hicks and his ilk.
To appreciate how “fair” turned out being “foul,” consider this tribunal in the context of the Declaration of Independence in which Jefferson invites us to have “…a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.”
To be specific, Mr. Hicks was imprisoned without charge or counsel for 64 months and finally, last week, he was sentenced to nine months—less than 15 percent of time already spent in detention—and obliged to sign a statement that his jailers did not use excessive force and to promise he would not discuss their methods for one year.
Other Guantanamo detainees will come before this foul tribunal which brings to mind another Jeffersonian quote, this one about an infinitely more abhorrent injustice: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
Marvin Chachere
San Pablo
