Opinion

There’s plenty of blame to go around in the Berkeley Housing Authority situation. A friend of a friend took a job there briefly a few years ago, after a successful career at similar agencies elsewhere, and left quickly after describing the organization to my friend as “sneaky, underhanded and dysfunctional.” An elderly tenant whose rent is supplemented with a Section 8 certificate says that her landlord successfully claimed that she hadn’t paid her rent when she actually had, and therefore he collected double rent for at least several months. Others complain that even though they had Section 8 certificates they were never able to get into Berkeley apartments because vacancies always went to friends of staff. -more-

San Francisco Opera General Manager David Gockley himself summed it up best in an interview with Daniel Wakin in Saturday’s New York Times: “Our business doesn’t work that way,” he said in a telephone interview. “It has been nobly color-blind over recent decades, and I certainly haven’t worked that way, and my record bears that out.” -more-

HOUSING DIRECTOR -more-

The UC infatuation with the BP con game grant goes on despite many comments, letters and op-ed articles in papers and magazines pointing out that fermentation of biofuel crops releases much carbon dioxide needlessly before getting the fuel and leaves much unused biomass in cellulose and lignin. This money would be much better used to find how to get solar energy combined with a catalyst to split water getting hydrogen, the clean fuel. Also the money could be doing much more in maximizing a pyrolysis process to make charcoal from our already harvested biofuel crops, our organic wastes. Their disposal costs many billions a year, while allowing, especially in composting, the recycling of trapped carbon back to the environment as carbon dioxide. Now in Naples, Italy, a major problem of no more disposal space for wastes is making a major ugly mess, which other cities may soon be snarled in, if we do not recognize those wastes can be utilized to get energy and some carbon removal. -more-

I am writing to comment on some of the issues raised by the so-called Public Commons for Everyone Initiative on the City Council agenda for Tuesday evening. Without my belaboring the ironic and Orwellian implications of using the term “commons,” what concerns me most is the disproportionate emphasis on coming up with new laws rather than bringing community and city resources to bear directly on the issue of problematic street behavior. Has anyone analyzed how many taxpayer dollars would go to pay for the staff time of members of the city attorney and city manager’s offices to come up with new laws? We could be spending those funds on pragmatic solutions, such as instituting true community policing, funding peer counselors to work on the streets, and increasing services to address the real mental health and substance abuse issues that cause most of the problems. -more-

Thank you, Daily Planet, for publishing Madeline Smith Moore’s June 8 testimonial, “Why I’m a Racist.” I appreciate her honesty and accuracy. The article also deserved to be published in a paper that all too often (whether intentionally or subconsciously) reinforces the sensibilities of many of its privileged white liberal readers. Perhaps ironically, as one of those readers, I not only agree with the vast majority of Moore’s sentiments, but also hope to prevent the story’s content from being distorted, diluted, or forgotten. I am, unfortunately, socialized to be white (that makes me a racist). Yet I support the message that racism is real, all-pervasive, and experiences of it need to be heard, respected and acted on. I also apologize for, and in the future should avoid, needing a person of color to start and participate in this antiracist conversation. -more-

HOPE BRIGGS -more-

As one of the most prolific Black saxophonists in the country, born and raised in Oakland, I’m ashamed of the hostility and triviality that has been directed toward SUSAN MUSCARELLA and the Yoshi’s establishment by Black musicians in the Bay Area. -more-

As I see it, the recent public questioning of the hiring and operating practices of the Jazzschool in Berkeley by prominent jazz artists and their supporters living in the San Francisco Bay Area is long overdue. Here is just one local example of how the actions of self-appointed authorities on this cultural art form are marginalizing the musicians who are the direct connection to and inheritors of the legacy. This is being done by trivializing the dedication and level of artistic achievement of our resident musicians who were and are members of the real jazz community here, which existed long before all of these exclusive so-called jazz festivals and schools. -more-

On Tuesday night, the Berkeley City Council will consider a project that could bring a restaurant with a bar and lounge on the scale of Spenger’s to the Elmwood. But there would be one crucial difference—it wouldn’t have any parking. -more-

When we consider global warming, most of us know we must change our fuel-guzzling ways, not continue them with the UC-BP (British Petroleum) biofuels project. Here is a protest song about UC-BP recycled from the song “Simple Gifts”: -more-

AC Transit’s proposed bus rapid transit (BRT) is just a bad idea. Here is why: -more-

I want to weigh in on behalf of the vast majority of Berkeley citizens who voted a resounding yes on Measure G this past election. Voters said we want the city and its businesses and residents to comprehensively and effectively address the issue of climate change and energy policy. That means addressing this extremely important issue in many different ways, from the efficiency of individual buildings, to how we power, heat, and cool our homes, to how we get from place to place within Berkeley and the greater Bay Area. When it comes to transportation, this means viable alternatives to the private automobile, including bikes, walking, and transit. -more-