Humane Society event successful

Editor:

We are pleased to announce a successful event of the Humane Society of Alameda. On Sept. 26, the Humane Society hosted a "Free Shot" event for dogs and cats at Pet Food Express on Blanding Avenue. Arranged by the humane society, the event was sponsored by V.I.P. Pet Vaccinations and Pet Food Express.

More than 200 dogs and cats were vaccinated.

The Humane Society has held this clinic each September for the past six years, both at Littlejohn Park and at the location on Blanding Avenue, but this was the largest turnout yet.

A television cameraman from Channel 5 was on hand and filmed the event. He also interviewed the Humane Society's president, Carmen Lasar, who spoke on the groups' activities.

Look for this interview on Pets Around the Bay on Channel 5.

- Ruth Brown, Humane Society of Alameda

Janitors concerned about toxic cleaners

Editor:

As an Alameda resident and father of a third grader, I was upset by what I learned from local janitors who were distributing leaflets outside of the Safeway supermarket at Shore Center last Wednesday.

According to the janitors, Safeway, Lucky and other leading supermarkets use strong, toxic chemicals to clean the stores, which give janitors health problems including nosebleeds and skin rashes.

If these chemicals can cause these kind of reactions in the workers who use them every day, I don't think they should be used at all near food that I buy for my family. As a customer, I fully support the janitors' call for supermarkets to adopt "green-cleaning" standards including nontoxic chemicals, better safety training and equipment, and fair wages and benefits for the workers. Supermarkets should be good neighbors and adopt these standards.

- Eric Lerner

Educate the public on the plan

The Alameda Sun received a copy of the following letter:

An Open Letter to Mayor Johnson and Council Members:

Alamedans for Alameda Point Revitalization is a citizen committee advocating for the revitalization of Alameda Point. Part of our advocacy includes ensuring that the revitalization of Alameda Point remains consistent with the objectives stated by the community and set forth in the city's own plans.

At the Oct. 20 city council meeting, the mayor requested a briefing on the Alameda Point Development Election Report. It was also revealed that the city and SunCal have been negotiating areas of concern. We feel it is imperative that the council makes every effort to educate the public on this process.

The initiative will go before the voters sometime in 2010. Public discussions about the negotiations with SunCal need to happen sooner rather than later so that everyone in the city can evaluate for themselves the merits of this plan. This initiative will decide the future of Alameda Point, which has sat underutilized and blighted for far too long. We have all been through this process for long enough to know that there is still much work ahead of us. It would be important that the city grasp the urgency of the situation with a thorough, public discussion.

- Doug Siden, President, Alamedans for Alameda Point Revitalization

Rebutting the officials

Editor:

I respectfully disagree with the members of the Alameda City Council, namely, Beverly Johnson, Doug deHaan, Lena Tam, Marie Gilmore and Frank Matarrese's joint effort to discourage support of the recall on three school board members ("Council urges 'no' vote on school recall," Oct. 15) who failed to perform their official duties on education.

Firstly, they claimed that the recall is costly so it should not be held. Their argument not only is a falsehood to circumvent voters' rights but also the equivalent of a Public Jobs Security Act for the public officials. When was the last time that a recall was cheap?

Secondly, they claimed that the funding of the recall will come out of the school district, and conveniently blamed it squarely on the sponsors and supporters. If these three school board members did not foolishly vote for this socializing and indoctrinating school curriculum supplement that targets our very young children ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade, would there be a recall? If they understood that the money will come out of the classroom, shouldn't they take immediate corrective action to reverse course? They didn't and they blamed you, the concerned parents.

Thirdly, they claimed that AUSD already has an anti-bullying curriculum but now wants to add a supplement to include anti-gay bullying. Why do we need to create a special group for special treatment targeting our very young children? Finally, they claimed that they strongly support the rights of parents to teach their own values to their children, but they also believe that every child has the right to attend school in a safe environment.

My dear public officials, haven't our schools been safe? It's either you support the rights of parents or the three school board members who voted for this anti-parental-right new school curriculum which doesn't even give the parents the rights to opt out. Of course, they don't want to address that and they labeled the opposing parents as intolerable.

The recall process must go forward. Current and future parents, don't give up your rights. The damage may be irreversible if we wait until the next general election.

- Sunny Chung

Don't forget the veterans

Editor:

I am over 70 years old and my heart aches and longs for my father even today. I never knew him and do not have any memory of him. My mother told us that he was called to war, leaving her to care for three small children. He never came back.

A VA hospital and columbarium fit very well at the former Alameda Naval Air Station. We owe our veterans a place to heal mind and body; a place to visit with family; a place to remember loved ones.

Growing up I never had a marker to remember my father; no place to light a candle for him. Our veterans need our thanks, support and appreciation. Because of them we all enjoy freedom and peace.

Let us join our hearts and minds here in Alameda so any family member a soldier leaves behind has a place of love, support and appreciation.

- Jovita Herrera

SunCal to shop local?

Editor:

I keep reading these silly little ads in your silly little paper about the concept of "shopping locally" and supporting local merchants.

I'm not sure if I really saw this or not, but I thought the Chamber of Commerce was spearheading this motion, but haven't seen any follow through, really.

I just wonder what the city had in mind when they signed up with SunCal. Did they make certain that local business people would benefit off this development? The Alameda Point development is the largest this city will probably ever see, and as far as I can tell, no one in Alameda stands to benefit financially from this development.

I don't get it. Here we have this tremendous asset that could easily benefit contractors, realty companies, eateries that could have exclusive deals to provide food to Point workers, traffic consultants, landscapers, the list could go on and on.

Will SunCal be forced to prefer local businesses for fulfilling its needs on the Point, or are we expected to employ a bunch of SunCal cronies, and ship all the benefit of this development to other communities? It sure seems like everything in the initiative is geared to benefit SunCal, while nothing benefits our intrepid local business people.

Will the Point merely be the place where more competition arrives to take another slice of the market away from local business people? Has anyone thought about how this will impact our local economy, or is it all just backroom dealings and greasy palms?

In actuality I blame the city's elected officials and staff for getting us embroiled in this mess without considering every detail about how it will impact those who already have a vested interest in the community.

- Coho Jerkins

Friends of the Library thanks

Editor:

The Friends of the Alameda Free Library would like to thank those who helped make our October Sale at the Alameda Point Al DeWitt O Club our most successful sale ever. The Friends is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds for the Library. The money raised from our semi-annual used book sales are used to fund library programs such as the children's, teen and adult reading programs throughout the year.

Our thanks go to those who donated materials for the sale and those who came to the sale and bought them; the Alameda Recreation and Parks Department for the use of the O Club - especially Deana Huie for her aid throughout the sale and Steve Zecher for so ably setting up the Club for our use; the "Monday Crew" who over the past 6 months sorted, priced, boxed, and moved over 1,000 boxes of donated books and audio/video material from the Library to our storage site; the Coast Guard personnel and other volunteers who spent Thursday moving those 1,000 boxes from storage to the O Club and distributing them to the appropriate tables for the sale. Without their able-bodied assistance, the logistics of such a move and the sale would have been impossible; the many volunteers who spent Friday morning unpacking and displaying the material on tables; and those volunteers who helped in various capacities during the three days of the sale. Their assistance in keeping tables neat and organized and providing courteous customer assistance greatly contributed to the success of our October Sale.

- Gertrude Woods Adair Jorgensen John Kennedy Co-Chairs, Book Sale Committee

HOMES endorses AlPo Specific Plan

Editor:

HOMES is a citizens group that has been advocating for environmentally sustainable, mixed-use, transit-oriented development at Alameda Point since 2003. We believe the Revitalize Alameda Point Specific Plan fulfills these objectives as well as the community vision for Alameda Point. We understand the Revital-ize Alameda Point Initiative must be approved by the voters of Alameda and that the mayor has concerns over this Initiative.

Therefore, we were extremely interested to hear at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast on October 22 the interim city manager speak of a city "contingency plan" should the Initiative fail.

Since the voters will determine the future of Alameda Point through this initiative, we need to know what the city's contingency plans are should the initiative fail.

We were pleased by the commitment to transparency on the issue of negotiations between the city and SunCal shown by the council at its Oct. 20th meeting. In this spirit, we ask that we be informed about the city's contingency plans.

- Joan Konrad