The Opinion Pages

Just a bit of weeping and gnashing of teeth accompanied the interrupted consummation of the apparent deal between local politicians and the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce last week. Mayor Bates and some council allies made a vigorous show of enacting new laws aimed at getting untidy people out of shopping districts, seemingly in return for the Chamber Political Action Commitee’s cash contributions to their re-election campaigns, but in the end nothing was enacted except concept statements, and everyone knows the devil’s in the details. -more-

A giant backyard redwood tree is felled on the summer solstice. Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan once was quoted as saying, “If you’ve seen one redwood tree, you’ve seen them all.” This was back in the 1960s, I believe, when there was a strong environmental movement to save many of the remaining pristine groves of the Coast redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) in Northern California from impending cutting. Thousands of acres of prime native habitat dominated by these towering giant trees were eventually saved. Several weeks ago one of my neighbors told me that a landowner several properties down the street had applied for a permit to cut down our local landmark redwood tree, which dominates our block. It is probably over one hundred feet high and is possibly one hundred years old. I called the telephone contact number on the public notice that was posted on the telephone pole and after leaving a couple of messages and waiting a couple of days (this is in Oakland, the city that seemingly has much trouble doing much of anything right and/or in a timely fashion…), and was told that, yes, the owner had applied for a tree-cutting permit because its roots were beginning to affect his duplex’s foundation. -more-

In this, the “Year of Health Care Reform” in California, it’s ironic that the governor in his May Revise would fail to fund a reimbursement rate increase for providers of some of the most cost-effective preventive health care in the state. The cost of such an increase—$24 million—is just a speck of the overall $104 billion state budget—especially compared to the cost of doing nothing. -more-

Although I sent an e-mail to all the Berkeley City Council members and the mayor, opposing the planned bar/restaurant at Ashby and College, it took your June 19 editorial dated to alert me to the stealth disregard of the Neighborhood Commercial Preservation Ordinance that citizens of the Elmwood worked tirelessly to get passed. The variance granted by the Zoning Adjustments Board, specifically so a watering hole can dispense hard liquor in a neighborhood that clearly opposes it, is more of the same that we are getting from the mayor and those who support his vision of asphalting all open spaces and denying the needs for parks and playgrounds in districts that need them. -more-