“Michael Schumann’s Human Interest,” Music, 5/13
Jazz Is Today’s Rock
Jazz musicians aren’t exactly trying to “stave off extinction.” Jazz
is today’s rock. The truly inventive musicians, such as Michael
Coleman, are working in it. The lack of coverage of jazz and the
tendency of jazz writers to ignore any mode of jazz but the workhorses
and any performers but the mainstream are why jazz suffers. But even
so, jazz is thriving, though largely in the smaller venues and at
private house parties.
David Kaye, San Francisco
“Graywater Systems Gain Ground,” Eco Watch, 5/13
Not the Greatest Investment
I hate to be one to throw a bucket of cold water on Eco Watch’s
enthusiastic report on the graywater systems being offered by
WaterSprout, but I think most consumers with an eye on the bottom line
will discover these systems require too much cash upfront to deliver a
reasonable return on investment. This is why the cheaper, non-code
compliant (illegal) graywater systems are proliferating — some
owners seem to be willing to trade off health and safety concerns for
low cost.
Everyone agrees that saving water is important, even critical, and
an all-around good thing to do for the planet. Here’s how I do the
math: Using WaterSprout’s numbers, a homeowner with a family of four
can conserve approximately 14,000 gallons of water a year by harvesting
and storing rainwater, filtering it with sand, and distributing it to
the garden — all at an average cost of $7,000.00. The average
cost of water for EBMUD users these days is $10.37 for every 748
gallons of water used. This system will save the average homeowner
$194.00 per year on their water bill, and pay for itself in just about
36 years. A 36-year return on investment will not be very compelling
for most homeowners.
How about this example instead: A homeowner with a family of four
replaces their 2.5gpm shower head with a new eco-friendly 1.59gpm
shower head. The latest products from folks like Evolve make a great
shower head, as do others. In this example, using EBMUD’s average time
estimate of an 8.9 minute shower length per person, the family of four
will save 11,825 gallons of water per year, and will save $164.00 on
their water bill! The Lunt Marymor Company sells the Evolve shower head
for $45.00 — return on investment — less than 4 months.
Just to drive the point home, let’s say the same family also
replaces their old 3.5 gallon flush toilet with a new eco-friendly 1.28
gallon flush HET (High Energy Technology) model. They’re going to save
approximately 19,447 gallons of water per year and knock another
$270.00 off their water bill — not to mention the $150.00 rebate
that EBMUD will contribute toward the cost of the new toilet purchase.
Toilets and installation costs vary from plumber to plumber, but this
water strategy is bound to break even in less than two years.
I think graywater is great, but it should be obvious that replacing
shower heads and toilets is way more cost efficient and represents the
“low hanging fruit” in green plumbing technology.
If your readers want to calculate how much money they can save on
their own water bills by upgrading to eco-friendly shower heads and
toilets, they can use the “Water Savings Calculator” found at LuntMarymor.com/green.html.
Leigh Marymor, certified green builder, Lunt Marymore,
Emeryville
“The Marijuana Tipping Point,” Seven Days, 5/13
A Smoky Slippery Slope
First, it was the argument that gay marriages would bring a
bonanza in tax money to California in marriage licenses and gay
tourism; now, it is the legalization of marijuana. I have a better
idea: Legalize robbery. The more money the robber gets in a holdup, the
more money the state gets in taxes. Also, taxing stealed cars, the
robber keeps the car after paying the taxes to the state. Imagine the
amount of money that’d be saved in police services. Since we’re at it,
let’s also legalize the “Interspecies Marriage Act” that would allow a
woman to marry her dog or a man to marry his goat. Another bonanza of
tax money for the state!
It is this bunch of cowardly and degenerate politicians from the Bay
Area, as well as the constituents who elect them to serve in
Sacramento, who are coming with this kind of nutty proposals, like the
ones in the May 19 election, because of their cowardliness to
tax the corporations that do business in California.
Leo T. West, San Leandro
Better Than Alcohol
If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms,
marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been
shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive
properties of tobacco. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if
abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and
ineffective as deterrents.
The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican
immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the
American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires
homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans
did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal
bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.
Marijuana prohibition has failed miserably. The US has higher rates
of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally
available to adults over 18. The only clear winners in the war on
marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians
who’ve built careers confusing drug prohibition’s collateral damage
with a relatively harmless plant.
The following Virginia Law Review article provides a good overview
of the cultural roots of marijuana legislation: http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/vlr/vlrtoc.htm
United Nations drug stats: http://www.unodc.org/
July 2008 World Health Organization survey study: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-
document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050141&ct=1&SESSID=f69045006b9979c06919d5e9fb373b0b
A comparative analysis of US vs. European rates of drug use can be
found at:
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf.
MTF is funded with US government grants
Comparative analysis of US vs. Dutch rates of drug use: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm
Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy,
Washington, DC
Don’t Cage Me, Man
A sane and moral argument to continue caging humans for using the
plant cannabis (kaneh bosm/marijuana) doesn’t exist. Caging humans for
using cannabis can only be rationalized based upon personality
disorders associated with bigotry, racism, or discrimination. It’s time
to RE-legalize cannabis throughout North America.
Stan White, Dillon, Colorado
Miscellaneous Letters
A Shocker
Thinking public, please read Berkeley Council Item 16 for June 2,
2009, the Audit of the City’s facilities leasing “system”
(nonsystem is more accurate). It is a shocker.
The City of Berkeley owns about 100 properties valued at over $100
million. As of 2001, it leased out 9 properties to other entities
and 15 properties were leased to the city from other
entities. The current leasing figures are unknown and likely
unknowable.
Despite “directives” and moneys from council and city manager, since
about 2002, to institute centralized management and oversight of all
leasing-related activities (inventory, negotiation, insurance, etc.),
this has been blatantly ignored. Nevertheless, there is a
full-time real property administrator plus the equivalent of at least 5
FTEs working on leasing in a chaotic fashion. There is no complete
inventory of city properties, no complete inventory of city leases, no
oversight of lease negotiations, and not even a complete set of all
leases. The city may be losing millions of dollars due to this
disorganization in addition to paying staff of questionable
competence.Â
I suggest that the city discipline/terminate all persons who are
responsible for this situation and consider contracting out the entire
lease management program to a competent professional organization that
can actually be held accountable.
I thank the city auditor for this eye-opening report.Â
 Barbara Gilbert, Berkeley
Mourning Our Historians
This has been a difficult and emotional time for those of us who
knew Archie Green, Him Mark Lai, and Ron Takaki, all passing away these
past few weeks. They are three giants who brought light into the human,
neglected histories of our vital American heritage. In the 1980s, when
I was director of the Maritime Humanities Center of the San Francisco
Bay Area, Archie Green became a member of the board of directors. He
had pioneered the study of Laborlore that probed the folk lives of men
and women who sustain the lifeblood of our industries. The center
celebrated the life and labor at sea and shore. Through Festivals of
the Sea, public forums, lectures, and films at the Maritime Museum and
Jack London Square, Archie contributed his insight and expertise.His
insightful studies of coal miners, longshoremen, pile drivers, and
seafarers made him a natural supporter of the center. He was the major
force behind the establishment of the American Folklife Center in the
Library of Congress. The Maritime Humanities Center is honored to have
tape recordings of his interactions with longshoremen and seafarers at
its many panel discussions. Our holdings will be taken over by the
library at Chapel Hill in the near future.
Him Mark Lai, who I met when I was a board member of the Chinese
Historical Society of America in the 1980s, was an indefatigable
researcher into the lives of Chinese Americans. He was the co-editor of
seminal studies, two Syllabi on Chinese in California, the other, in
America, 1969 and 1971. Other editors are/were alike superb scholars,
Philip P. Choy, whose latest is The Architecture of San Francisco
Chinatown, and Thomas Chinn, who passed away some time ago. Mark and
Phil taught those courses at San Francisco State, the first time
anywhere. Mark’s optimism influenced many a young researcher. I always
believed the word “impossible” was not in his vocabulary, and his
numerous studies on the hidden history of our American ethos are
legacies to that end.
Ron Takaki’s writings give incredible insight into the dynamics of
ethnicity in American society. When I taught at Laney College in the
1990s, I attended his seminars on American Cultures at UCB. The
seminars gave birth to innumerable courses, attended by instructors
from campuses throughout California. His writings helped to spur other
budding scholars into the field. Although not always mentioned in
listings of his works, I will always prize my copy of the lovely,
powerful study, Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii. Ron
revolutionized the way higher education embraced ethnic cultures. All
were dear, extraordinary people. Their demise is a painful loss to our
country, especially the San Francisco Bay Area.
Robert Schwendinger, Berkeley
Correction
In the June 3 music pick on Nancy Wilson, we misstated when she
signed with Capitol Records. It was during the 1960s.
