Op-eds published by Berkeleyside in its Opinionator section this month address four different Berkeley-related issues.
Devisadaria Duchine-Khauli lives in the Library Gardens apartment building where six people died in June 2015 after a balcony collapsed. Duchine-Khauli loved living in the downtown complex when she first moved there. Since then, however, she has seen nothing but deterioration, which she has carefully chronicled. As she writes: “I’ve never experienced living in conditions such as those in Library Gardens before, but once I’d observed and experienced these incidences in short succession, I became fearful about the sustainability of the complex during an earthquake, or even El Niño.”
Martin Nicolaus has been equally fastidious in the manner in which he has lobbied for, and documented, the campaign to get better restrooms at Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Park. In an op-ed published on Jan. 19, he says the need for permanent restrooms in the waterfront park has been on the City’s agenda since at least 1977, and yet nothing has been done. He has a proposal, however.
Phil Allen, who has lived in Berkeley since 1970, and is a member of the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition and West Berkeley Neighbors, is concerned about the Landmark Preservation Commission’s decision to deny ‘The Village’ at 2556 Telegraph landmark (or related) status. In an open letter to the commission he explains why.
Meanwhile Berkeley resident Tom Miller, co-founder of the Green Cities Fund, explains why the Cuban government’s commitment of over 1 million dollars in Cuban currency to a project designed by UC Berkeley river restoration experts in Berkeley’s sister city, might be an indication of warming relations and cooperation.
If you have reactions or comments to any of these views, please share them on the individual op-eds.
Berkeleyside welcomes submissions of op-ed articles. We ask that we are given first refusal to publish. Topics should be Berkeley-related, local authors are preferred, and we don’t publish anonymous pieces. Email submissions, as Word documents or embedded in the email, to editors@berkeleyside.com. The recommended length is 500-800 words. Please include your name and a one-line bio that includes full, relevant disclosures. Berkeleyside will publish op-ed pieces at its discretion.
