Letters to the Editor
3-24-06

THE STENCH OF POLITICS

Editors, Daily Planet:

I urge you come November to vote out the incompetence. Linda Maio, Zelda Bronstein, and those on the Zoning Adjustments Board who are pushing the current West Berkeley plan of “saving the last of the industrial jobs.” The City of Berkeley does have the power to make Pacific Steel clean up its act once and for all. Stop trying to pass on the responsibility on to The Bay Area Air Quality Management District. It is called rezoning and shutting Pacific Steel down! Six hundred jobs lost to the thousands of us who also live and work in this neighborhood who breathe in their toxic second hand smoke on a daily basis. We pay taxes as well!

Pacific Steel will never clean up its act. It is a dinosaur facility that no longer belongs in an urban densely populated environment. Pacific Steel will just drag things along for as long as possible in the name of self preservation. The owners of Pacific Steel are more then likely just laughing at us and thinking to themselves, “We made it through this before, let them throw law suites at us. We can pay a small fine or two, how about another air quality study that will keep them quiet for a little while. Besides we have Ignacio De La Fuente representing us. He will take care the heat and do some good PR work.” According to Ignacio De La Fuente, “That plant has been there 70 years and that plant has done everything to reduce emissions. This is a responsible company that has put in numerous resources to improve the quality of life for workers and for people who live in the community.” What BS! Enough with the Berkeley hypocrisy!

How can our mayor call it a “green city” when we get smoked out of our backyards on a daily basis?

- Patrick Traynor


SEVEN BLOCKS, GREEN MULE

Editors, Daily Planet:

Lately I’ve been working the phones and crashing cafes seeking wisdom from people in all corners of Berkeley politics. Connecting the dots. Cleanaircoalition.net is waiting for Pacific Steel Casting (PSC) to respond by the end of the month to our counter demand letter that requires the ancient foundry to devise toxic chemical and community health testing programs ignored by the infamous December 2005 back-room settlement with play pal BAAQMD.

Now Linda Maio wants to talk with me?

We need to keep our citizen band antennas on PSC. PSC’s carbon bed absorption technology for Plant No. 3 has been placed on a “fast track” hearing schedule by the Planning Department. The public has been by-passed before in this arena and needs to know much more before a permit is considered. What emission sources are abated at PSC and which ones are not? What about particulates? Bay Area Air Quality Management District records show that the carbon bed technology currently utilized in Plant #2 has not limited the complaints to that part of PSC’s operations. Those who attended the 1999-2000 Odor Abatement Hearing remember Round One all to well. Let’s get it right this time! Track this process and come ready to ask Planning Dept. staff tough questions. Find a wealth of PSC information at westberkeleyalliance.org.

There are many other issues in District 1—from our stalled AMTRAK station rehab to toxic playing fields and polluting incinerators; sidewalks filled with day laborerss and term limits; an in-fill and Rapid Bus Transit plan waiting to cruise into San Pablo Avenue. Not to mention Tom Bates’ interest in bringing auto dealers to our choking highway edge and the insidious challenge to overturn current manufacturing zoning areas in the West Berkeley Plan (WBP). One politico just whispered to me that the old WBP will be put out of its misery and re-crafted soon. But to who’s benefit?

Everybody is bitching and moaning at me about how ungreen Berkeley is—especially as the toxic grunge and back door deals fly through our burnt-pot-handled atmosphere in District 1. “Green Berkeley,” they ask? Yah, I don’t see it either! But through my work with small towns and neighborhoods over the years, I would define green planning and design as an integrated, holistic, participatory process that champions public noticing, long-range schedules, periodic evaluation and rigorous debate from start to finish. Built for the people, by the people; sustainable. Let’s see what “fast track” really means down at the city Planning Department in the days ahead.

Lots of coffee and egos still to go.

- Willi Paul