Public Comment
Letters to the Editor
MODEST PROPOSAL
Editors, Daily Planet:
There is a win-win solution for Cal, the City of Berkeley, the neighborhood, and the 42 Oak trees at Memorial Stadium that are slated to be “removed.” My suggestion is for the university to build its $125 million student athlete training facility on People's Park (save one end of the garden for memories) with the 900-space parking garage underneath rather than up in the crowded stadium area by the Hayward Fault.
First, this means that the City of Berkeley and the neighborhood can drop their lawsuits against Cal. It will also save the oaks. Cal athletes won't have to worry about working out on the Hayward Fault. Combining these two projects and locating them on People’s Park will substantially reduce crime and drugs in the Telegraph area, transforming it back into the flourishing commercial area it once was. We gain 900 parking places near Telegraph to park, shop, and attend Cal events. After all these years of worrying about what to do with People's Park, Cal will finally have the courage to bring about a wonderful solution. And, most important, this will allow Berkeley's citizens to have peace in our time.
Martha Jones
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DISCONNECT
Editors, Daily Planet:
I lived in Berkeley for a short time in the sixties. Coming back a year and a half ago, I looked forward to living in the city known for its activism.
Tonight, I came home from the downtown BART station after participating in a rally to protest the escalation of troops being sent to Iraq—a rally that only drew approximately 200 people on a cold night. The average age of the participants was seniors—the tried and true protesters of previous rallies. A handful of parents with kids about 8 to 12 years were also in attendance. Hardly a young adult could be counted. I keep asking myself—why this disconnect? Why have we failed to hand the baton over to younger protestors? Do they really feel that disenfranchised with our present day government and just shrug their shoulders in disinterest or from a sense of helplessness?
I believe one of the factors of this disconnect is the fact that without present daily dining, we are missing the dramatic pictures shown on our TV sets of body bags and injured returning to our shores.
This has become a hidden war. A war that the populace can too easily dismiss. I think our efforts should now be focused on insisting that the reality be shown on our news programs. We should protest against those news agencies that refuse to broadcast and interview the injured returning from this debacle. Our next rally should be for news “truthiness.”
Alyss Dorese
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WITNESSING
Editors, Daily Planet:
Yesterday I stood in a circle of dozens at North Berkeley BART, braving the cold as long as we could to protest any escalation of the war in Iraq. While it may not have been apparent to passers-by, we were reading out loud the names of dead California soldiers and Iraqi civilians. In our frustration with Bush, many of us started yelling when people came out of BART, “Call your congresspeople! Tell them your opinions! Stop the war!,” and the like.
My dear neighbors: I am sorry for shouting at you. But I am struck that no one I knew was on that list of dead, and more than half the names of California casualties were clearly Latino. How easy it can be to turn a blind eye and go on with our lives, if we don’t let in the reality of what we’ve been supporting with our taxes. I pray that we will all take some kind of action. And I pray that as a peace movement we will find many ways to make a creative and powerful witness, one where our means are consistent with our ends.
Many thanks to all who turned out for the demonstrations yesterday.
Lisa Hubbell
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PLAZA PLAN
Editors, Daily Planet:
Despite some merchants’ worries about the idea of North Shattuck Plaza, I fail to see what negative impact this park is likely to have on their profits.
Instead of a dreary stretch of concrete in front of their stores, they would have an attractive green area with benches and trees. Where would you rather shop?
Instead of doing my errands and hurrying home, I’d have a chance to socialize with friends in a pleasant park. Where would you rather shop?
Instead of a few tiny tables, there would be comfortable space to have Saul’s sandwich or Toyo’s bento box or Masse’s sinful tart. Where would you rather eat?
There would be just as many parking places as there are now. True, sometimes I'd have to walk a further 150 feet after I park my car. (150 feet! not miles!). If I could not park along Shattuck in the same spaces that are there now, I would walk more safely from the new parking lot to one of the shops along a greensward. Elderly people could be dropped off —just as they are now, except in a pretty area.
Please note: Longs Drugs has experienced an “increase in sales” on the days when the farmers' market displaces a lot of parking spaces near the store, presumably because of increased foot traffic.
This proposed new park would be an improvement of the urban landscape—mine and the merchants’. It would be a greening of our corner of Berkeley.
Susan Klee
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BLACK OAK BOOKS
Editors, Daily Planet
As someone closely associated with Bob Baldock, and a former member of Black Oak Books’ staff, I hated to see Bob’s key role in the store written out of history as happened in your recent article. The store’s founders were not exactly as stated. The three original founders in 1983 were Bob Baldock, Bob Brown and Don Pretari. Herb Bivins was later brought in, and although Jeanne Baldock was actively involved in the store from the beginning, she did not become a shareholder until much later. Both the idea for the bookstore and its location in North Berkeley came from Bob.
The concern now is the store’s survival. I certainly hope there will be an outpouring of support for it, and that the present owners will succeed in their effort to find the right buyer, as any other outcome would be a great loss. Thank you, Daily Planet, for covering this unfolding story.
Kathleen Weaver (Baldock)
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MILO FOUNDATION
Editors, Daily Planet
I am a Berkeley resident, a small business owner and a supporter of the Milo Foundation.
I am saddened and disappointed to learn that Milo, after successful operation on Solano Avenue, has decided to leave. Why? Let’s be clear: they were forced out by a group of ‘activist’ neighbors who, in the guise of progressive politics and grass-roots organizing, were advocating for one thing: Not In My Back Yard.
I have followed this issue closely. I watched, amazed, when one so-called neighborhood activist invoked individuals who are infected with HIV, stating that such individuals were at risk from the Milo operation. As an HIV positive gay man who has visited the Milo facility, I cannot stomach such fear tactics in the name of liberal, progressive activism. “Let’s say it’s bad for queers! That’ll make the city back down!”
Shame. Shame on them, shame on the zoning board, shame on Berkeley, shame on you for staying out of the fray, shame on the counsel, shame on everyone involved. Shame on the inflexibility of the bureacracy, shame on the neighbors, shame on the business community. And, let’s be clear, Milo was good for business. It brought people to the neighborhood and those people spent money. I know—I’m one of them. I furnished my entire office from a furniture store just down the street from Milo and I have the receipts to prove it.
I am certain that Milo has not been Mary-Poppins-Practically-Perfect-in-every-way, but then, non-profit samaritans on a mission rarely are. These people truly are in it for the good of the community and yet they have been chased out of town by a mob of maligners, all because of a couple of clumps of kitty crap. Only in Berkeley would an organization that rescues countless animals, sacrafices thousands of service-hours and works daily to make our lives better, be run out of town on a rail, followed by a mob of puppy-burning progressives, hiding their torches (and property values) behind their Green Party Membership Cards and K.P.F.A. sitckers.
So, here we are. There is one less organization in Berkeley to offer crucial pet rescue services, one more organization fleeing the city for more pleasant pastures.
My question to the mayor and City Council is this: What do you plan to do now? What can you offer to Milo that will avoid NIMBY and yet retain a crucial service that our city needs? Now is the time to lead. We voted for you because was asked for that leadership—that vision. We are waiting.
Tom Swift
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COMMISSION CHANGES
Editors, Daily Planet
I think we all agree that the primary objective in defining commissioner eligibility should be expertise. As an employer I use similar performance-based measures for selecting among job applicants. This has proven to be the only way to get skilled and motivated people.
What I have not yet heard is a logical case being made for these newly proposed criteria. How many other cities place similar limits on their commission appointees? None that I know of. Has anyone cited specific examples of commissioners who sit on multiple boards or have served for more than the maximum period who are not experts in their commission's field? I have not seen such examples cited by Capitelli or other proponents. To say that this smells of a hidden agenda would be an understatement.
In my opinion, the quality of Berkeley government and the honesty of city staff is at an all time low. Do we really want to continue following the lead of cities like Richmond and Oakland?
C. Carpenter
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XXXXXXXXXXX
Editors, Daily PlanetWhile reading J. Douglas Allen-Taylor (01-12-07) piece entitled something about Oakland density I seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere during the read. I could tell, because I found myself in the midst of stuff about murders and politics that just may have led elsewhere.
Coincidentally, I used to live in the Adam's Point neighborhood the author cites. And in a building with less parking spaces than units. So I know firsthand about some of that issue, there. Parking did get a bit... shall we say "competitive". Also coincidentally, I happen to currently live "in the 80's" of Oakland, which the author also highlights. But I live at the other end of the 80's, up by Macarthur Blvd. instead of down near International. It's not so dense right around here, really. Traffic is mostly just fine, other than when that whole Castlemont to-and-fro school action is going on, that is. But they're also sprucing up the Boulevard around there nicely. And a buncha' new homes, condos and the like have recently gone in just blocks away, without seeming to precipate critical density just yet.
And parking is relatively plentiful, really.
The building I'm in now not only has way more offstreet parking spaces than are needed or wanted (most are empty) but there's usually room right out at the curb, too. And this is on a block with well over 100 homes, in apartments and houses.
But then, street parking incurs another danger, if not quite murder (around here, other things risk that quite more). Why, just the other day one person got a bright, dayglo sticker plastered on their windshield for, allegedly, parking for more than 24 hours in the same spot. How diligent of parking control is that? It wasn't even true. Must be a crack team, so to speak.
The vehicle owner was a bit distraught about that, since they'd only recently had the same vehicle mysteriously vanish from a different street... for the same reason. It had been towed. For parking technically too long like that in a not-dense parking area not-begging for spaces.
Of course, this incurred the usual pocket-gouge for the towing and the stowing -- once they figured out what had happened to the car and realized it wasn't stolen, after all. That was probably good for adding another day's stowage charge, right there. Then there was some curious $70 additional charge. Some sort of bureaucratese termed "fee" or another. Pretty expensive parking in the spacious, available zone around here. For some reason.
And the vehicle had been moved to the current spot, in order to avoid getting that dayglo sticker plastered on it for being in the spot it had been parked. Just can't win for law-abiding anymore, it seems.
What does all this have to do with urban density? I'm not sure, frankly. Just as I wasn't when reading Douglas-Taylor's thing, all told. But, hey, at least this might be about something more people can relate to, or are experiencing, than murder. Let's hope so, regarding the latter, while hoping not, regarding what immediately precedes it.
Christopher Kohler
