8
April 23, 2015
www.alamedasun.com
Alameda Sun
OPINION
Letters to the Editor
AEF salutes education
Editor:
Fourth graders at Ruby Bridges Elementary School are learning
computer programming and Academy of Alameda middle-schoolers
attended an Organizational Boot
Camp. Lincoln Middle School has
received a grant to perform wetland restoration and Encinal High
School is actively championing
civil rights.
These are just a few of the programs Alameda Education Foundation (AEF) is recognizing at its
annual Salute to Education event
on April 24. The event runs from
6 to 9 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural
Works, 2513 Blanding Ave. and
will honor the teachers, staff and
volunteers who create and sustain
the vital work in Alameda K-12
public schools.
Advance event tickets are $30
and may be purchased online at
www.AlamedaEducation.org.
I would also like to encourage residents to participate in a
fundraising raffle that helps AEF
underwrite this event. This year’s
raffle prizes include Disneyland
passes, Legoland tickets, a premium wine collection, golf and lunch
at Sequoyah Country Club, a Domaine Chandon tour and wine and
an “Around the Town” collection
of prizes from local proprietors
and donors.
Raffle tickets are $10 each or
six for $50 and may be purchased
in advance at the AEF office or at
the event. Winners need not be
present to win. For more information or to purchase raffle tickets,
email [email protected]
or call 337-7189.
— Bill Sonneman,
AEF President
Suggestions for growth
Editor:
On a recent stroll on Webster
Street, I counted 15 barber shops,
beauty shops and nail salons,
some of them right next door to
each other.
I have a tough time understanding why people open businesses in areas where several
similar businesses already exist.
I get the impression some people
are unaware of the kind of businesses in short supply on the
Main Island between Park and
Webster streets, so I’ll toss out a
few suggestions.
• Alameda badly (and I do
mean badly) needs more service
stations that offer free air and
water. I don’t know many people
who walk around with rolls of
quarters all the time.
• Alameda needs a major
motorcycle repair shop.
• Alameda could use a large
used music store the size of
Berkeley’s Amoeba and Rasputin
stores.
• The Island could also use a
major entertainment facility the
size of the Paramount Theatre in
Oakland that would attract the
kind of big name acts that perform there.
Hope this helps.
— Ken Hensley
Best ever
Editor:
“Ask Flora” is one of the best
columns I have ever read (“Dog
Advice Column Debuts this
Week,” April 9). I have been a
dog trainer and have had dogs
for more than 50 years, and I
think the advice is extremely
professional and valuable. But
the humor and writing style are
over the top.
I look forward to the next edition. Very, very well done.
— Susan Jacquelin
Looking forward
to the Fourth
Editor:
Thank you, Alameda, for inviting me and my friends to be in
your parade. I’ve had my car, the
Tinyvette, in parades before and
that was fun, but being able to do
this with like-minded fools makes
it special.
Jesse, who races the boom-box
Chevy Luv, is organizing things on
our end and he may have been serious when he says we can expect
anywhere from five to 200 LeMons
(probably just five to 10, but we
have gotten more than 200 cars
out for races) to join us.
I hear the Faster Farms (my favorite) chicken car will be there,
and also CrazyMike’s VW Scrubby,
the Overzet LeMonslimo (hopefully in full, glorious, Titanic costume), Sparky Pete’s Killer MG
Bee Zombee, the Panting Polar
Bear’s Race Rambler, a new-toLeMons Brinklin, Philipp’s dieselpowered Porsche Nein-11 and other LeMons classics from northern
California.
Evil John simply has to bring
Balto, the snowmobile-powered
Miata and Dave needs to haul over
the Sierras to get his Model T GT
here.
I’m sure the Easy 908 will make
it, and the Bernal Dad’s wagon,
and Bruce is sure to bring his
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Duck Die-Nasty MR2 over from San
Rafael for this. We’re still hoping the
Homer (a southern California car)
can make it but it’s a long drive and
they took a bit of damage at the Sonoma race last month.
Someone needs to track down
the Harley-powered Prius and bring
it. So obscene, you just have to love
it. I understand it sold recently. Yes,
someone other than Spank thought
it was a great idea.
If SpeedyCop wasn’t on the East
Coast you know he’d bring his Toyota “Cessna,” but Jay has SpeedCop’s UDC (upside-down Camaro)
stored at Sears Point so it should
be able to join us.
Judge Phil will even be flying
out from Colorado for this. It must
be nice to be a fancy-pants Car &
Driver writer with a travel budget.
Anyway, I am sure it will be a hooptie fun parade. I can’t imagine a parade like this taking place in Davis,
where I live.
— Mike Meier
Hats off to Alameda
Partners and their plan
Editor:
As a community member of
the Restoration Advisory Board, I
am concerned about the type of
development proposed for Alameda
Point and the push for redevelopment elsewhere in the city, I was
very impressed by the presentation
given by Alameda Partners on their
March 28 walk.
Overall, their approach appears
well thought out and sensitive to
the history of the base. Gone is
the push to tear everything down
and build cookie cutter homes as
happened at Bay Port for example.
In fact, the developer has selected
several architects, guaranteeing a
diversity of buildings.
The intention is to reuse many
if not all the existing buildings
in this first development phase.
I had feared that the Planning
Department and the City Council
were pushing to tear down most of
the structures, as Andrew Thomas
had indicated at one of the Council
meetings years ago. But the developers have convinced the city to
reuse them, thus creating a green
development and commemorating
the efforts of the citizenry during
World War II. This will make the
area a combination of new modern
bayside living, while giving a feel for
the historical context.
The developers have managed
to figure out how to build on the
contaminated lands very sensitively.
The Navy is not intending to clean
up the base to unrestricted use, but
allows for contamination that could
become a health hazard in the future
due to changing conditions.
To date this is the best plan
offered, and I hope the City Council
approves of it and, they’re keeping
the plane on the pedestal!
— Dale Smith
Light Morrison’s bench
Editor:
“Come on, baby, light my
bench.” That’s what Jim Morrison,
of the Doors, would be singing
today. We’ve raised the money to
restore the bench in Jackson Park,
where Morrison hung out as an
Alameda High School student. Now,
we want to illuminate the bench
once it is repaired.
If you want to light the bench
for Jim, go to Indiegogo.com, enter
“Alameda” in the box at the top,
hit “enter,” and click on Morrison’s
face. We have until May 5 to raise
$1,600. The name of anyone contributing over $500 will be inscribed on
a plaque at the bench. Thank you.
— Jim Manning
Save the Bench
Twisted address
www.thealamedan.org
Contributors
Ron Salsig, Ed Jay, JoanAnn Radu-Sinaiko,
Gil Michaels, Irene Dieter, Mike Rosati,
Mike Lano, Jeffrey R. Smith, Maurice Ramirez
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Editor:
An interesting but obscure bit
of Alameda trivia is connected with
the Navy operations center on
Clement Avenue in the old Pacific
Bridge shipyard (“Buildings Once
Part of Active Shipyard,” April 16).
That building, street address 2144
Clement Ave., is the only building in
our town, and likely one of but a few
buildings anywhere in the United
States, that violates the bedrock
American addressing convention of
putting even numbers on one side
of a street, and odd numbers on
the other.
Clement, you see, customarily
Joe Heller
A Bucket A Shower
Students write in with concerns over water conservation
Dear Readers:
Our names are Nicolas,
Mikolajek, Lauren and Elijah. We
are all in sixth grade. We like to
help our home planet as much as
possible.
This why we came up with an
idea that everyone should know
about in order to save water,
since we are currently in a severe
drought. Our idea is called “A
Bucket A Shower.”
A Bucket A Shower is something that everyone can easily do.
When you turn on the water for a
shower and wait for it to heat up,
you put a bucket where the water
is landing, and when the water is
heated up, you take the bucket
out. You can use that water to
do other things like washing the
dishes, watering the plants or
washing your car.
It takes water from 30 seconds
to one minute to heat up and two
to two and a half gallons of water
are used per minute while the
shower is running. Depending on
how many times you shower per
day, you can save about two to five
gallons per day!
The California drought is a
huge and ongoing thing, and every
one of us needs to contribute. We
haven’t had any rain lately, and we
still use so much water. The four of
us want to help out and tell everyone how to save water in such an
easy way.
Our goal is to get this in the
newspaper and spread it to the
whole county, around 5.5 million
people. If at least half of us do this,
we will still save a lot of water and
it will help the California drought.
If our idea of saving water
spread to other big cities, like
Sacramento, we could save millions of gallons of water. Even if
each person saved only a gallon a
day, the state of California could
save more than 38 million gallons
of water per day.
Right now it’s everyone’s priority to save water and help the
California drought. It doesn’t matter which method you use, whether you use our suggestion or use
another way, (like turning off the
tap while brushing your teeth),
you’re still saving water, and that’s
what counts.
Commentary
If each person
saved only a gallon a day, the
state could save
more than 38
million gallons of
water per day.
Most people will read this and
think that it’s sad that we waste
so much water, but they’ll still
not do a thing to save water. They
will keep taking long showers and
brushing their teeth with the tap
running, but those who do help
fight the drought will become
California heroes. They will make
the real difference and might
help us save water. Right now,
California’s goal is to save water!
Thank you for taking your time
to read this letter and spreading
the word of saving water.
— Nicolas, Mikolajek, Lauren
and Elijah, sixth graders,
St. Joseph’s Elementary School
Council Members Can Bring City
Closer to Fiscal Sustainability
Jim Oddie
Almost every city in California
faces significant long-term unfunded liabilities for medical benefits,
“Other Post-Employment Benefits”
(OPEB) and pensions in the California Public Employees Retirement
System (CalPERS) of its retired
workers. The liability is “unfunded”
because the city hasn’t set aside
enough money for it.
However, Alameda has been
ahead of the pack in finding solutions. On Wednesday, April 29, the
city could become one of the first
Bay Area cities to have its public
safety workers contribute to its
OPEB liability. If the City Council
agrees to the contract extensions,
the city’s $91 million OPEB liability
will be reduced by $47 million over
the next 30 years due to this partnership — all at a small cost to the
city. The alternative is for the OPEB
liability to continue to increase and
for the city to pay it alone.
This didn’t seem possible four
years ago. In 2011, the prior Council
was told that the city’s general fund
would have a deficit of nearly $21.8
million by 2015. The city’s auditor
and treasurer claimed that bankruptcy loomed and they would have
to “turn off the lights” at City Hall.
But the prior City Council and
public safety workers partnered to
work on the problem, and today the
general fund has a positive balance
of nearly $31 million. That’s a $52.7
million positive swing over the predicted doom-and-gloom scenario.
The city had an $11.4 million budget
surplus last year with a projected
$8.7 million budget surplus this year.
Recently, city financial officers
praised the structural changes and
policies that bought the city time
to address OPEB and CalPERS. We
needed that time to build a strong
financial foundation, and if you’ve
has odd address numbers on the
north side of the street and even
numbers on the south, in line with
Alameda’s other east- west streets.
But for some curious quirk of history, most likely related to redevelopment of the shipyard property
after World War II, the Navy building was given an even number and
has retained it ever since.
As a Navy man who spent many
days in that building in the course
of a 30-year career, I considered the
bollixed street number a sign of
pure Alameda uniqueness.
— David Foote
Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Not what Alameda
needs right now
Editor’s note: 2144 was the
address of the Pacific Bridge Co.,
which closed its doors on October
1, 1944. First the Naval and Marine
Corps Reserve and then the Naval
Operational Support Center took
over Pacific Bridge’s property, put
the building up across the street
and were able to keep the original
address.
Editor:
At end of the comments on traffic by Mark Greenside (“Our City
Needs Sensible Traffic Plan,” April
9), he writes that Alameda needs
slow growth, affordable housing
and a traffic plan.
He is right about slow growth,
as a fortunate Alameda homeowner
I would like to say that Greenside
is not right about affordable housing. Alameda does not need stateforced “low-cost housing.” when all
types of Alameda housing is affordable. Ask any Realtor.
Alameda is prime property and
only the most expensive homes
should be built on expensive property. The city would collect much
higher tax per parcel. That’s without a high-population drain on city
services, not to mention less auto
traffic generated from single-family
b LETTERS: Page 11
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Commentary
ever built or renovated a home
you know that you must start
with the foundation — not the
finishing touches of paint, tiling
and appliances.
The proposed contract with
public safety workers represents
another strong step forward in
solving OPEB. If the contract
extension is approved, our public safety workers will become
among the first municipal employees in the Bay Area to help a
city fund its OPEB liability.
In 2011, city leaders began
addressing escalating medical
costs for current and future employees. (The city cannot change
benefits for already retired workers.) Safety employees hired after June 2011 no longer receive
spousal medical benefits upon
retirement, which helped cut
b COUNCIL: Page 9
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