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The Daily Planet received this letter to Mayor Shirley Dean and City Councilmembers: 

This letter is in support of the General Plan Section T 35 for improving parking in downtown Berkeley.  

Most people agree that the automobile creates unwanted congestion, pollution, road rage etc. and that something should be done about it. But we have not yet been moved to seriously consider alternatives as we continue to dream of the perfect parking place, preferably within 20 yards of our destination. 

Why don’t we use the creativity of the very arts community that is lobbying so aggressively for increased parking to rally our citizens to use alternate means of transportation. If only those people who cannot walk, ride bicycles or take public transportation were to use the existing garages, we would have no shortage of space. And for those who must drive we can work on making satellite parking attractive. 

For the last dozen years I have been working with artists in downtown Berkeley, organizing concerts, exhibitions and performances of every imaginable sort as director of the Berkeley Store Gallery and the Berkeley Arts Festival. I have a good idea of the kind of ingenuity, enthusiasm, playfulness and good will that abound here. With the support of the entire arts community we could put Berkeley on the map as a model for “How to Make Downtown More People Friendly and Learn to Love the Bus.” 

To kick off the campaign I propose a performance piece in which we conduct a survey of people on the treadmills at the YMCA to compare how many miles they have run with the miles they drove to get to the Y. 

Bonnie Hughes 

Berkeley