Hello!: Popular backlahs against Berkeley

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>This story was put on local tv news about a month ago(?), early
>October or whenever the Afghanistan bombing started. The main group
>who claimed there would be a boycott was the local Chamber of
>Commerce. But at least one council member and the Mayor dismissed the
>claim. It was just bullshit anyway. Some minor tiff between the
>Chamber of Commerce and the City---they've been at each other for
>years. For example the City has all kinds of regulations on outdoor
>advertising that the CC hates and is constantly claiming such
>regulations hurt the `economy', blah, blah, blah. The CC and Real
>Estate board pushed a local roll back of the rent control system here
>about ten years ago claiming property values were being
>destroyed. That worked unfortunately. But most of their noise is just
>noise.
>
>Meanwhile, the city council or city manager's office negotiated some
>kind of deal with the University for UCB to pay part of the clean-up
>and policing expenses for damage in expected protests. None as far as
>I know have gone marching down the main drags trashing windows---but who
>knows, hope springs eternal. The usual targets for abuse are the
>national franchises like McD, BurgerKing, Gap, Walgreen's, etc. A
>fair number of local businesses are left alone---a few are protected
>by the local demos---mainly the local book stores.
>
>The only real boycott that would be effective is if outlying middle
>class shoppers stayed away from coming to Berkeley. But the streets
>are as crowded with traffic and weekend shopping as usual, so the
>Chamber of Commerce is talking out its ass. The CC represents about
>the only formal Republican mouthpiece in the city and they are always
>up to no good.
>
>The city council was also voting a measure of support for our local
>Congresswoman, Barbara Lee who was the only No vote against Bush's
>extended war powers bill in the US Congress. So the Chamber of
>Commerce was also trying to signal national Republican organizations
>to put pressure on the city---as a backhanded way of eroding Lee's
>local support. It didn't work, or hasn't so far.
>
>So, I would suspect the source of the story as possibly picking up a
>very minor, local, and old story here and engaging in some kind of
>editorializing for its own readership.
>
>Chuck Grimes

I sent a letter to the Mayor & City Council of Berkeley, which I 
cc'ed to LBO-talk as well.  I received the following reply 
immediately:

At 8:50 AM -0800 11/9/01, Spring, Dona wrote:
>Delivered-To: orb-furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
>From: "Spring, Dona" <DSpring at ci.berkeley.ca.us>
>Sender: "Holland, Nancy" <NHolland at ci.berkeley.ca.us>
>To: "'Yoshie Furuhashi'" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>Subject: RE: In Defense of the Beautiful City of Berkeley!
>Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 08:50:18 -0800
>
>Thank you so much for writing of your support for the Berkeley City
>Council's majority decision to write a letter to our elected officials
>asking for deescalation of war in the Middle East.  Could you please send
>your excellent letter to the following newspaper e-mail addresses:
>
>letters at sfchronicle.com; editor at angnewspapers.com; editor at dailycal.org;
>voice at cctimes.com; opinion at berkeleydailyplanet.net; wcletters at cctimes.com;
>info at eastbayexpress.com

So, it appears that Councilwoman Spring is feeling like she could use 
our support in the war of public relations.  If you write a letter in 
support of the Berkeley resolution to stop the bombing ASAP, please 
cc it to the above newspapers as requested.
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Anti-War Organizing in Columbus Covered by the Media: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/media.html>