Public Comment

AC TRANSIT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last Monday at 3 p.m. I stood at the bus stop on the corner of Durant and Dana along with four others. A route 51 bus approached and did not stop to pick up those of us waiting at the stop. It went by, crossed Dana and then stopped briefly on the corner opposite the bus stop, but did not wait long enough for me to reach the bus. The bus did not appear to be too full to pick up passengers. I waited 15 minutes for the next bus, although buses on the 51 route are supposed to run 10 minutes apart at that time of day on weekdays. I waited a total of 20 minutes for the bus. I told the driver on the next bus what had happened, and that I was really ticked off. She agreed that she would be, too. I live near Ashby and College, and I could have walked to that destination in less time than it took to wait and ride to there by bus. If the use of public transportation rather than private cars is to be encouraged, AC transit will have to improve its performance. 

Malcolm Zaretsky 

• 

CIVIL RIGHTS LEGACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a nutshell, here’s the obliterating insight about racism in America: It caused the South to go Republican when threatened by civil rights; plus, it caused white evangelists, in turn, to go Republican, when threatened by civil rights. And this then led to Bush who is bringing on a different kind of Armageddon; not the religious kind, but, more frighteningly, economic.  

Robert Blau 

• 

IN PRAISE OF NEW STREETLIGHTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Reader Rita Maran gingerly wrote a recent letter praising our new green garbage bins, so I’d like to follow her lead to praise another Berkeley winner. I’m referring to our new countdown sigsignals at intersections. Not only do they tell pedestrians how quickly they can relieve their impatience, but more importantly I think they make me a safer driver. I no longer have to guess whether the green light will disappear at the last minute, leaving me in a twilight zone of an instant decision to slam on the brakes (a bit dangerous, that) or go-for-broke. I trust they will result in fewer traffic accidents (and fewer photo-tickets) at intersections. Whoever in city hall proposed their installation deserves a nice letter to Santa. I’ll be glad to sign it. 

Victor Herbert 

• 

DOWNTOWN SERVICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Well, I guess La Editora has now killed one of the last supposed attractions to downtown Berkeley by sending all the voyeurs instead down to Parker Street (“where she averted her eyes,”and thereafter concluded that they do it in cars in Berkeley as everywhere else, not on sidewalks). 

I haven’t experienced any streetside problems at Berkeley’s center lately, having only ventured there to go to its City Hall during my Marin Avenue lawsuit and a few times more recently to get my bicycle back from two bike shops—unfixed, successfully getting a refund from one of them, along with a claim that mountain bikes should not be shifted at speeds less than 9 mph. But hey, Albany and Oakland did no better; so I had to go all the way to Lafayette to get the job done right. The problems downtown are off the street—the usual commercial ones, not ones that are off the wall. 

No bookstore there anymore; not even any competition to Safeway, in the form of other ordinary grocery supermarkets, in the whole of Berkeley. Safeway thinks people should be club members just to buy food. I shop mostly from El Cerrito north, an area of practical reality, where Lucky finally junked the club-signup nonsense. 

I’ve heard that when the sidewalks downtown are found to actually not provide any free eye-averting entertainment, there are ways to spend money there if you want to pay for formal entertainment. Not me. 

Perhaps they should daylight Strawberry Creek....and then hire a beaver family to compete with Martinez’s show. I might go down there once to look at that, but I’d rather walk amongst the trees just outside Berkeley—you know, the non-people-bearing species of oaks and other trees that grow in neighboring regions. 

Raymond A. Chamberlin 

• 

COMMONS FOR NONE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The passage last week of the Public Commons for Everyone Initiative was an Orwellian assault by the city administration aimed at the down and out in Berkeley. For the city bureaucracy, in the very same week, to have announced with contemptuously short notice the closing of the last public swimming pool for the midwinter holiday season puts them even deeper in Orwell’s debt.  

It is dispiriting to have to re-open the campaign to save Berkeley’s public pools for everyone so soon after the outrageous treatment of Yassir Chadly, the gracious Master of the Pools, and the recent round of closures. This is an unprecedented dereliction by Berkeley’s managers, looking for line items to axe, of the responsibility owed to the health and well-being of its residents, and to the livelihoods and dignity of its employees. Ironically, if the city management was honest about the “bottom line”—an obscene calculus, to be sure—they would be forced to acknowledge the net benefits of swimming for the city accounts, owing to the alleviated burden on emergency rooms, the fire brigade, social services and so forth. 

If we lived in a community that truly honored the waters, sweet and salt, in city and bay, on which our lives and life together depend, and that obligation is now surely upon us, the closing of the last public pool—a cinderblock apology though it may be for the glory of the hammans of North Africa that were Yassir Chadly’s birthright—would be recognized as a grave moment for our city, in the midst of extravagant private waste. Just as the closing of the last public library would mark, and would be recognized by all to mark, the death of Berkeley as a home for those still committed to an ample life in common. 

Iain A. Boal 

• 

SALARY DISCLOSURES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I certainly hope that the Daily Planet will take advantage of the recent California Supreme Court ruling that salaries paid to city employees are public information to obtain and publish this information for the city of Berkeley. 

Marilyn S. Talcott 

• 

HOMELESS VETERANS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“Support our troops.” How often have we heard this Bush administration mantra whenever Congress or the public demands Iraq funding accountability or an Iraq withdrawal timeline? Yet, once the troops become veterans, too often they are woefully neglected. In a 2006 survey, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimated that 26 percent of homeless people are veterans. VA further estimated that at least 195,827 veterans are homeless in the United States and 49,724 in California. This is a conservative estimate. This VA survey estimated the number of homeless veterans at 7,800 in Northern California (Martinez, Oakland and Sacramento), and 2,626 of these classified as “chronically homeless.” The VA defines “chronically homeless” as an individual with a disabling condition who has been continually homeless for a year or more or has had four or more episodes of homelessness over the past three years. 

The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 89,553 to 467,877 veterans were at risk of homelessness, meaning that they were below the poverty level and paying more than 50 percent of household income on rent. 

Homelessness is rising among veterans because of high living costs, the lack of adequate funds, and many are struggling with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse, exacerbated by a lack of support systems. 

The VA has been severely criticized for diagnosing wounded veterans with a personality disorder, instead of PTSD, thus denying them disability pay and medical benefits. In the past six years, more than 22,500 soldiers have been suspiciously dismissed with personality disorders, rather than PTSD. By doing so, the military is saving an estimated $8 billion in disability pay and an estimated $4.5 billion in medical care over their lifetimes. (These figures are from “How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits” by Joshua Kors, citing Harvard professor Linda Bilmes’ study, in April 9 The Nation). How many homeless veterans, discharged for personality disorders rather than PTSD, would be off the homeless roles if they had disability pay and VA medical care? While not every homeless veteran was misdiagnosed with with a personality disorder rather than PTSD, it seems obvious that the VA could do more to reach its stated “goal to provide excellence in patient care, veterans’ benefits and customer satisfaction.” 

Passage of the HUD appropriations bill would be a modest start. It includes $75 million for nearly 7,500 HUD-VA Supported Housing vouchers for homeless and disabled veterans. Unfortunately, President Bush has threatened to veto this bill because it exceeds his spending request. It is shameful that we can spend $473.4-plus billion conducting the Iraq war, but not an additional $75 million for war casualties. 

Ralph E. Stone 

San Francisco 

• 

EDUCATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Leaders in our educational system draw their salaries from public taxes. I am sure they would like to give back to the community the best possible education for their children. Therefore, we need leaders who can motivate students from every economic level, hire dedicated instructors, include parents as partners in the education of their children, get direct information on teachers and students by unannounced visits and open hearings, prevent favoritism and nepotism. Such inspired and responsive leaders will secure the future of our great country. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

THE SURGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Carolyn Lockheed’s page one Sunday Chronicle analysis on the Iraq occupation—despite its broader concerns about long-term problems—suggests that the U.S. military surge is succeeding on some level. Ms. Lockheed may not even be aware that she is the latest victim of the spin doctors who got us into Iraq. With a different perspective, Damien Cave reports in Sunday’s New York Times that there is a growing sense that Iraq has slipped to new depths of lawlessness as “some American officials estimate that as much as a third of what they spend on Iraqi contracts and grants ends up unaccounted for or stolen, with a portion going to Shiite or Sunni militias.” How? Corruption is what is driving this political-military machine, even beyond the bad and murderous policy. Our government’s policy is to feed it to create ruthless surrogates—as in Iraq so in Pakistan, so in Egypt, so in Israel, so in Palestine. Talk of success really means acceptance of this ever deeper erosion of our values and democracy here and elsewhere. That is even worse than “failure.”  

Marc Sapir 

• 

SUPERSTITION ANYONE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Strange coincidence indeed: Ever since UC’s coach Tedford had been quoted as saying, in reference the oak trees at the stadium, “that’s what we have chainsaws for,” Cal football team’s fortunes went down. Coincidence or not, be careful what you say—arrogance bestows its own “rewards.” 

Jurgen Aust 

• 

ALLEGATION OF ANTI-SEMITISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Cynthia McKinney for president (broached in a recent letter)? Would the Green Party be comfortable running an anti-Semitic candidate? The letter writer should remember that the enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend. E.g. Sr. Chavez of Venezuela, another outspoken anti-Semite. 

Dick Bagwell 

• 

DELLUMS’ POLICING POLICIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor makes Mayor Dellums’ new police policies appear to be a strong reaction to a crime situation that has Oakland rated the fourth most dangerous city in the nation. 

How sad. The city is sinking in violence and the mayor rearranges the deck chairs of Police Department command. Oakland needs bold new initiatives. One would be to declare that, irrespective of federal law, marijuana will be legalized and regulated in the city, and proper dispensation will be administered by the young men now living as outlaws. But to even talk of that would be “radical” and Dellums and others of our “liberal” political establishment can barely be “progressive,” much less respond to problems with what is needed, i.e. radical and even revolutionary measures. 

Ted Vincent 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The problem with the current Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) proposal is that it is a square peg that the transportation professionals continue to try to force into a round hole. There is the possibility of getting millions of dollars for a transportation project in the East Bay. AC Transit has latched onto BRT as the perfect way to spend this money. This is top-down planning. The Telegraph to International Blvd. route appears on paper to be a great idea. So the steamroller starts rolling.  

Once the people who live, work, and own businesses in the path of the project learned of it, they tried to express their concerns to the transportation professionals. So far their concerns have been ignored, downplayed, and stifled one way or another. The most recent example is Steve Geller’s dismissal of Doug Buckwald’s information about the Emerald Express in Eugene, Ore. It turns out that the Emerald Express implementation is not comparable to what is proposed for BRT. But Mr. Geller sweeps away all the points Mr. Buckwald raised, concluding that “…perhaps Berkeley could work on fixing the flaws in our BRT plan and go on to have Eugene’s BRT success.” (See letter printed Nov. 27.) In other words, regardless of the concerns raised, we should proceed with BRT in the hope that it will succeed, even though the facts that suggest that it will not. 

The Berkeley and AC Transit professionals continue to tell us that we need BRT if we are to have a chance of meeting Berkeley’s goal of a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gases. But the non-professionals—locals who live near, work along and use Telegraph Ave. and are familiar with its traffic patterns—are convinced that if any of the “build” BRT alternatives is approved and Telegraph Ave. is reduced to one lane in each direction for all traffic except for the BRT express buses and emergency vehicles, the resulting gridlock will generate far more greenhouse gases than is saved by the small reduction in auto traffic promised in the EIR. Two experts, one an AC Transit bus driver (letters printed Nov. 2 and Nov. 16) and a former Research Engineer from the UCB Institute of Transportation Studies (commentary published Sept. 28) agree with the neighbors. But so far none of the Berkeley and AC Transit professionals appear to be listening and the steamroller keeps rolling.  

What we need is an open forum where the BRT proposal can be evaluated in an evenhanded way. The answer to this problem is not all or nothing. We need to find the best elements of the BRT proposal, implement them, and drop those parts of the proposal that will make traffic worse. I continue to be reminded that we are told to “Share the road.” This goes for buses as well as bicycles and cars. 

Mary Oram