“A Solution to Parking in Oakland?” Full Disclosure, 9/2
We Should Discourage Parking
I find it ironic that the Oakland City Council may be backing down
on the extension of metered parking to 8 p.m. Here, in the
environmentally friendly Bay Area, we should be a leader in progressive
green policies. People are accustomed (addicted?) to cheap or free
parking. That needs to change. Driving is of course convenient, and
easy parking is important for neighborhood businesses. But driving has
many negative impacts and “externalities,” from global climate change
all the way down to injured pedestrians, pollution from tires and oil,
the encouragement of sprawl, etc. Slowly but steadily increasing the
cost of driving may be difficult politically, but it is the right thing
to do (and not just because the city needs the money).
Stephen Knight, Oakland
Editor’s Note
Since this letter was submitted, the city council did roll back
the later hours.
“There’s No One in Charge,” Full Disclosure, 9/23
An Expensive Boondoggle
In his article on the proposed BART connector to Oakland Airport,
Robert Gammon calls AirBART “a rinky-dink airport shuttle service that
is vulnerable to bad traffic and inconvenient for families with small
children.” That may be true, but one thing he fails to point out is
that the round-trip fare on the new elevated tramway will be $12 per
person — and that’s on top of your BART fare. With those prices,
it’s likely that most families would opt to take a taxi or shuttle
service or just park at the airport. The tramway is an expensive
boondoggle, and the Port of Oakland, as well as Alameda County
residents, should say “no thanks.”
Sue Trowbridge, Alameda
Why Make a Bad System Worse?
Why do we need anything other than what we have now to get people
between BART and the Oakland Airport? AirBART may be vulnerable to bad
traffic, but so is getting to BART in the first place, and once you get
there, it takes so much time getting to the Coliseum Station from just
about anywhere else that shortening the time to get to the airport
would be significant. AirBART may be inconvenient for families with
small children, but not any more so than BART itself is. After all, the
biggest inconvenience could be transferring from BART to any sort of
shuttle, especially with children and luggage.
There are other options already: taxis and door-to-airport shuttles,
as well as being dropped off at the airport. All of these are more
convenient than taking BART to any sort of shuttle, and will almost
certainly take less time, even if one could be beamed directly to the
airport from the BART station.
Bruce De Benedictis, Oakland
Singapore Does It Right
Even prior to when I got on the BART Board (seventeen years ago) the
Oakland Airport Connector was under consideration. About sixteen years
ago, BART seriously considered the connector and conducted an extensive
study with several alternatives. One was a bus alternative. However it
was not an exclusive lane busway but one similar to the 1R and 72R
Rapid Bus that AC Transit currently operates. These lines operate in
mixed-flow, have limited stops, and signal priority. But in mixed-flow,
the volume of traffic affects the bus’ use of signal priority. Under
congested conditions, buses are not able to take full advantage of the
signal priority because many times there are so many cars lined up at
signals the buses cannot pass through in the allocated priority time
provided.
The Airport Rapid bus alternative would have encountered
considerable delays when there were events at the Coliseum. On this
study, both professor S. Lewis (who was on the BART Board at this time)
and I objected to this study, for the bus alternative did not consider
a full exclusive lane busway for it would have eliminated this signal
delay with full application of the busway. Even later studies did not
study the full use of the exclusive lane busway alternative routed
along Hegenburger Road. The airport’s advertised priority development
is to construct 5,000-6,000 cars [of] structured parking, which would
cost at least four times more than the $25 million they were
contributing. Accommodating parking would encourage auto use, the very
element that we are currently trying to minimize under the pending
problem of climate change.
In regards to funding, of this half-a-billion-dollar project, the
only beneficiary as planned would be the airport who originally
contributed only $25 million. Subsequently, the City of Oakland
contributed $19 million with a suggestion that a couple of stops be
provided along the connector’s route so that area along the route would
benefit from this project. However, the two stops are being disregarded
for presently it is planned that there will be no additional stops
other than the airport.
To add a stop with the planned automated guideway transit would cost
a couple million for it would require an elevator to accommodate the
disabled, plus stairs, added electronic controls, and perhaps a bypass,
and the added cost of maintenance after it is built. Whereas an added
stop with the busway would be a fraction of an AGT stop.
Regarding planning, I very much agree with Mayor Bates; planning and
transportation is currently being administered politically by separate
agencies and the projects they manage are not fully considered and
integrated.
Singapore has about the best transportation system in the world. The
reason is they manage to integrate their transit, road system, and land
developments. To do this, they have combined their land planning with
transportation into a single agency. Through this coordination they
have: integrated land use, town and transportation planning, developed
a comprehensive road network, applied various technologies into its
planning, controlled the number of cars in use, and instituted
congestion pricing. Through this they have developed a world-class
integrated transportation system, envied by land and transportation
planners throughout the world.
Roy Nakadegawa, former director, BART and AC Transit,
Berkeley
“The Death of Energy at 92.7,” Culture Spy, 9/23
Energy 92.7, R.I.P.
The radio industry is going through a lot of changes in the past few
years. With increased competition from the Internet, satellite radio,
iPods and other mediums, the radio industry is facing so many
challenges. Radio stations are being bought out by major media
companies and when we are turning on the radio these days, we listen to
the same thing.
The Bay Area is a place with a well-established history in radio and
has become a part of our culture. The first radio station started right
here in the Bay Area (KCBS) in 1909. Energy 92.7 (KNGY) was one of the
great radio stations. It had a weak 5,000-watt transmitter but
thousands of listeners [throughout] the bay and America. In 2009,
Energy won top dance radio station in the United States. Energy
literally had energy and it had a loyal niche of listeners. Many of the
listeners were young and a part of the gay and lesbian community of the
Bay Area. Even with the listeners and the success, Energy was not able
to make money and was sold in early September. Now, we are now stuck
with another generic Top 40 radio station that plays the same songs all
day long. This is the face of the modern radio station. The owner of
the new KREV fired all of the old KNGY staff and streams all of the
music from Las Vegas from their sister station in Las Vegas. This is
the “brilliant” idea from KREV to reduce overhead cost to none. In my
opinion, this station will last about six months and will fall like
KNGY, but with no dignity. What the media giants don’t get about the
Bay Area is we want locally hosted radio shows like KGO. We want a
radio station with its own culture like KFOG and KOIT. We want radio
stations that play locally made and produced music like KMEL. What
these new radio stations offer listeners [is] nothing. The music from
these new radio stations is like someone plugged their iPod into a
radio tower and decided to call it a radio station.
The new KREV represents the new face of radio. Now when you turn on
the radio, you can listen to the same song from the top 10 list from
over five different radio stations. Radio now has no personality, no
culture, and no soul. We will miss KNGY and the music it has brought,
and try to find other places to listen.
Donald Sakiyama, Castro Valley
“Cuts Threaten the Mission of Community Colleges,” Raising the Bar,
9/23
They Just Keep Coming
At the California community college where I have been a full-time
professor for the last ten years, morale is low. Classified staff is
getting laid off. Faculty openings are going unfilled. At least four
divisions do not have deans; these positions are being manned by
various administrators, who stop by sporadically. Last week, when I
asked for campus police presence by one of my classrooms in which there
had been an altercation, I was told by the police chief that there was
only one officer on duty, and he would come over if he had the time,
after he oversaw another class that had also had an altercation.
Meanwhile, there has been something like an 11 percent leap in
enrollment — just in time for the grave cuts to basic skills and
other classes required for transfer. I’ve heard of a counselor at one
of the state universities telling his students that they should
consider attending college out-of-state, for, if they stay within the
California system, it will take them seven years to garner all their
credits for a bachelor’s degree. If community college students’
stresses are historically high (in one of my classes, there are three
pregnant girls under twenty), you can imagine just how off-the-charts
those stresses are now. It makes me want to jump ship. Yet they’re
still coming — even as they lament the difficulties (as they
should). Community college students have been fighting against odds for
so long that, perhaps, they might be the ones to push through the
best.
Michelle Blair, Oakland
“The Lost Runner,” Feature, 10/7
Give Him a Darwin Award
Everyone loves a missing persons story that ends happily with that
person being found alive and well. Rachel Swan’s article made me wonder
why we should be happy for John Mintz. The man has no regard for
himself much less his family or society at large. His nihilistic
tendancies will certainly result in his demise ultimately. I wonder why
your publication wasted a cover and six pages of ink covering this
narcissist. He is obviously an obsessive compulsive with a death
wish. No wonder his marriage didn’t last. Look at how many times
he wanders off into wilderness areas without any preparation for the
elements and no attempt at understanding basic survival techniques. You
would think in his other crazy quest to visit every library in
California that he would spend a little time reading backwoods trail
guides and glean some tips for living like notify people of our
whereabouts, carry a GPS beacon, and a reasonable supply of food and
water. In the end, nature will get this fool. In the meantime, I
hope he finds help with his problem from a qualified mental health
professional but I doubt it. You don’t run into many good shrinks in
the wilderness in the middle of the night when you really need one. For
Mr. Mintz it will be too late.
Gus Sinks, San Bruno
What’s the Cause?
Over the past year I have read several good books on survival, most
notably Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales and The Survivors
Club by Ben Sherwood. So your article about the lost runner, John
Mintz immediately caught my attention. At the end I was perplexed by
Mr. Mintz’ behavior and began connecting the behavioral dots. My hunch
is that he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, an autistic spectrum
disorder which accounts for his odd behavior.
Ann Jennings, Albany
