“Food-Free Zone?” News, 1/21
A Blessed Brunch
I live in Austin and my daughter lives in Berkeley close to Wat
Mongkolratanaram Thai Temple. A visit with my daughter is not complete
without a Sunday morning visit to the Thai Temple. We love the food and
the community. I also love their garden, which is so meticulously kept
and is so spiritually evocative. Bless the hands that tend it. Sunday
mornings at the Thai Temple breakfast are so special to our family and
embody the true meaning of community. When my mother and sister came to
visit my daughter all the way from Beirut, Lebanon we took them there.
It was an experience like no other. We made some wonderful memories
there and every visit to the Temple is an opportunity to create new
memories and visit old remembrances of wonderful meals we had with
loved ones who are no longer with us. I pray and hope that this
tradition with all its wonderful blessings can be preserved. The
neighbors are to be commended for their tolerance and I hope that they
are able to share in the blessings. With love.
Diana HajAli, Austin, Texas
Neighborly Love for Thai Temple
I was disappointed by the subtly slanted story your reporter Rachel
Swan recently published about the Thai Temple’s Sunday gatherings. She
implies that “neighbors” are opposed to the smell of their food, the
people that gather there, and the fact that some of them park in the
neighborhood, while only “devotees,” mostly from far away, approve of
and defend them. In fact, many near neighbors, few of them Buddhists,
support their activities and have gone on record to confirm this, while
only a small but vocal minority are opposed. I’ve lived two blocks from
there for more than thirty years, and I’ve been delighted with this
wonderful addition to our neighborhood. Sure, every once in a while the
odors of exotic spices waft my way — their food smells great! I
don’t understand why diesel trucks can idle for hours in front of my
house spewing toxic fumes with no consequences whatever, but if I can
smell food cooking once a week it’s a big issue.
In such a supposedly tolerant city, we should show a little more
openness to other people’s customs. I’ve travelled in Thailand, and
restaurants as such don’t exist, except in big cities. Instead, people
gather outdoors and small food stands provide various things for them
to eat, cooking them on the spot. The social space provided this way
performs a vital function in Thai society, where families gather,
friends meet, children play, and the life of the community is renewed.
The Thai Temple, as the cultural as well as religious nexus of the
local Thai community, attempts to recreate this important zone of
communication on a weekly basis, and also provides an opening to the
rest of us to join in. In this it has been fairly successful, despite a
lack of encouragement from Berkeley officialdom and open hostility from
a few xenophobes.
I hope that our municipal rulers can somehow be made to understand
that regulations intended to suppress illegal business operations
should not be applied to a nonprofit group that makes such an
outstanding contribution to our city. The donations given for the food
support a range of activities like dance classes, language lessons,
music, and other cultural benefits that far outweigh any putative harm
caused. There’s little likelihood that the city will step in with
funding to replace this donation stream, so stopping the Sunday brunch
would likely result in their elimination. After all, even in the depths
of Prohibition, churches were still allowed to serve wine to their
congregants. It doesn’t seem like nearly as big a deal to allow the
Thai Temple to continue providing delicious and healthy food to people
without harassment from officialdom. And while we’re at it, we should
let them build their spire — I’m sure it will be beautiful, like
their front entrance, which amazes me every time I pass by.
Andrew Werby, Berkeley
“Who’s Killing the Plug-In Hybrid?” Feature, 1/14
Electric Isn’t Clean
I haven’t read the reports by the staff or board of the CARB. I also
do not want to stand in the way of research and innovation. However,
the notion of the cleanliness of electrically powered vehicles is
misguided. While the car itself produces little pollution, the
electrical energy does not grow on trees. Electrical energy must be
created in a power plant. And in California, most of that energy is
generated by burning coal, which produces a lot of pollution including
carbon dioxide (in large quantities). If we use the electrical energy
to power our cars, then we need to create more to power our lights,
appliances, technological gadgets, electrical heaters etc. And in order
to do that, we have to burn more fossil fuel.
Gabriel Ross, Oakland
Miscellaneous Letters
Save the Arts
As Executive Director of the oldest youth orchestra in California, I
am concerned about the negative portrayal of the value of the arts in
discussions about government bailouts. The nonprofit arts sector
employs many dedicated, hardworking people who earn very low wages for
the level of work they produce. Nonprofit arts education organizations
supplement programs which have been depleted by lack of support in the
California schools. These programs are vital for our children, and for
the health of our cultural heritage.
As Congress considers the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
the arts and culture sector must be included. The arts are essential to
the health and vitality of our communities. They enhance community
development; spur urban renewal; attract new businesses; draw tourism
dollars; and create an environment that attracts skilled, educated
workers and builds a robust 21st-century workforce.
Nonprofit arts organizations are proud members of the business
community — employing people locally, purchasing goods and
services within the community, and involved in the marketing and
promotion of their cities. In fact, there are more full-time jobs
supported by the nonprofit arts than are in accounting, public safety
officers, even lawyers and just slightly fewer than elementary school
teachers.
According to Americans for the Arts, a $50 million investment to the
National Endowment for the Arts will provide critical funding to
save14,422 jobs from being lost in the US economy. This is based on the
ability of the NEA to leverage $7 in additional support through local,
state, and private donations, for every $1 in NEA support.
There are approximately 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations, which
spend $63.1 billion annually. Without an economic stimulus for the
nonprofit arts industry, experts expect about 10 percent of these
organizations (ranging from large arts institutions like museums and
orchestras to small community-based organizations in suburban, urban,
and rural areas) to shut their doors in 2009 — a loss of 260,000
jobs.
In a report released in mid-January, the National Governor’s
Association stated, “Arts and culture are important to state economies.
Arts and culture-related industries, also known as ‘creative
industries,’ provide direct economic benefits to states and
communities: They create jobs, attract investments, generate tax
revenues, and stimulate local economies through tourism and consumer
purchases.”
Then-NEA Chairman Dana Gioia issued the following statement prior to
his departure, “Arts organizations have been hit enormously hard by the
current recession. They’ve seen their support drop from corporations,
foundations, and municipalities. This infusion of funds will help
sustain them, their staffs, and the artists they employ. We are hopeful
that Congress and the new administration will support this important
investment.”
Wendy Howe, Executive Director, Young People’s Symphony
Orchestra, Berkeley
Correction
In our February 11 music story “Nights of Death,” we mistakenly
stated that the Uptown club was starting a new goth night in response
to the “Death Rock Dive Bar” at the Stork Club. According to Uptown
owner Larry Trujillo, the new “Shadow Society” night was spawned from
their “Black Widows Gothic Strip” review nights, which pre-date “Death
Rock Dive Bar.”
