Long Awaited Pickleworks Path May Finally Connect Neighborhoods in East Emeryville

Use EBI Money to Open Pickleworks Path

Opinion
The single most widely recognized barrier to walkability in Emeryville has long been seen as the ever anticipated but never arriving 'Pickleworks path' proposed to connect the Doyle/55th Street dogleg with 53rd Street.  If the path was open to the public, as backers are wont to say, a six block detour for north/south traveling bikers and pedestrians would be removed and Emeryville would move a click or two towards validation for its claim of being "a connected place".
The path, starting on the north end between two buildings at the Doyle/55th corner and opening out into a parking lot off 53rd Street connecting north Hollis area with the residences at EmeryBay Village, was formerly accessible but closed when a private developer acquired and rehabbed the 'Pickleworks' building in 1999.  At the time, the City neglected to require the developer to open the path as a condition of approval for the Pickleworks project bringing howls from residents after the popular cut through was closed and gated. The developer has since resisted all attempts by a chastened City Hall to buy the land and re-open the path.  Calls have been made from residents, including from the Tattler, for the City to acquire the land by eminent domain but where City Hall once entertained the idea years ago, the latest Emeryville Capital Improvement Program didn't even list Pickleworks as a consideration.

Looking south through the normally closed
Pickleworks gates.

This ped/bike neighborhood connection path at Pickleworks is even more important now.  With the building of the Center of 'Community' Life on 53rd Street and Emeryville children from the North Hollis residential area detouring east to busy San Pablo Avenue to get to school, the City of Emeryville, who's General Plan cover page refers to the town as "a connected place" must finally open this vital neighborhood connection.

In another area of town, Emeryville fans of walkability lost another big battle a year ago.  That's when the City Council majority amended the City's General Plan to remove a required pedestrian path connecting 45th and 47th streets east of San Pablo Avenue, after a new private school, EBI on San Pablo Avenue, appealed to be let off the hook for building the required path as a negotiated part of their Planning Department approval process for their campus construction. At the time, EBI agreed to spend the money it would have spent on the 'EBI ped path' instead on some other unidentified pedestrian improvements along San Pablo Avenue.

We say EBI should instead pay for the connection at Pickleworks.  The City has a chance with this to correct a past mistake made by the City Council when they voted to reduce pedestrian connectivity by killing the EBI path and now move to greatly improve pedestrian and bike connection in our town at Pickleworks.  Let's finally bring this important neighborhood connection.

Emery School District Contributes to the Right Wing Anti-Public School Culture

Opinion
Emeryville is trendy.  It seems like with every emerging bad public policy trend, Emeryville is right there at the front of the pack...or at least right behind the trend setters in the Bay Area. With its 'cut, shut and charter' mindset and its virtual war on teachers, the Emery Unified School District is acting the foot soldier in the right wing privatization play for America's public schools.  The Yes Magazine article below tells the sad tale of what's happening nationally, while here in Emeryville the School Board is also playing its part.   

As you read the Yes story, remember how the School District here has shut down the Ralph Hawley Middle School and now is ready to shut down Anna Yates Elementary School.  Both these school campuses could sit idle or underutilized and will be subject to take over by private charter school concerns because the law says that any underutilized surplus school district property is subject to any private charter school moving in by State sanctioned seizure.  There's no way Emery could stop this eventuality even if the District were of a mind to stop it. 
With the EBI private school already in place on San Pablo Avenue right across from the future Center of 'Community' Life and its Kindergarten through 12th grade school, combined with the former school sites as possible sites for charter schools, Emery is primed for ongoing existential threat.  Charter schools and private schools thrive by only accepting the best and the brightest students, culled from the local public schools leaving them with what's left; driving down test scores and further feeding the loop for public school abandonment and disinvestment. 

Adding to this culture of stoking privatization forces, the Emery School Board has entered into a program of wholesale teacher marginalization after the Board last year very publicly abandoned the teachers in favor of former Superintendent Debbra Lindo in the infamous Teachers Resolution dust up.  The School Board willingly destroyed their relationship with the teachers in order to support the now fired Debbra Lindo.  What's left besides teachers feeling used, abused and unsupported is a further cheapening and erosion of public good will towards teachers.  Our School Board told us in a clear and unified voice that teachers are not worth listening to.  

Insofar as the Emery School Board recalcitrance in the Lindo case has added to the chorus of right wing voices about teacher incompetence and irrelevance nation-wide and as far as the Emery School District's part in the right-wing's anti-public school, anti-teacher paradigm has seeped into the collective mind-set of the citizenry here in Emeryville with its anti-democratic school closures,  we cry foul.   Regardless of what's happening nation-wide, we want our public schools valued and our teachers supported.  They're part of the commons and we're protecting the commons from attack, be it from the City Hall/business nexus or from the School Board/cut, shut and charter nexus.  We want the Emery Unified School District to start acting more old fashioned and stop being so trendy.

Here's the Yes Magazine story:  

The Myth Behind Public School Failure

In the rush to privatize the country’s schools, corporations and politicians have decimated school budgets, replaced teaching with standardized testing, and placed the blame on teachers and students.

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by Dean Paton

posted Feb 21, 2014

Photo by hxdbzxy/Shutterstock

Until about 1980, America’s public schoolteachers were iconic everyday heroes painted with a kind of Norman Rockwell patina—generally respected because they helped most kids learn to read, write and successfully join society. Such teachers made possible at least the idea of a vibrant democracy.

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Since then, what a turnaround: We’re now told, relentlessly, that bad-apple schoolteachers have wrecked K-12 education; that their unions keep legions of incompetent educators in classrooms; that part of the solution is more private charter schools; and that teachers as well as entire schools lack accountability, which can best be remedied by more and more standardized “bubble” tests.

What led to such an ignoble fall for teachers and schools? Did public education really become so irreversibly terrible in three decades? Is there so little that’s redeemable in today’s schoolhouses?

The beginning of “reform”
To truly understand how we came to believe our educational system is broken, we need a history lesson. Rewind to 1980—when Milton Friedman, the high priest of laissez-faire economics, partnered with PBS to produce a ten-part television series called Free to Choose. He devoted one episode to the idea of school vouchers, a plan to allow families what amounted to publicly funded scholarships so their children could leave the public schools and attend private ones.

You could make a strong argument that the current campaign against public schools started with that single TV episode. To make the case for vouchers, free-market conservatives, corporate strategists, and opportunistic politicians looked for any way to build a myth that public schools were failing, that teachers (and of course their unions) were at fault, and that the cure was vouchers and privatization.

Jonathan Kozol, the author and tireless advocate for public schools, called vouchers the “single worst, most dangerous idea to have entered education discourse in my adult life.”

Armed with Friedman’s ideas, President Reagan began calling for vouchers. In 1983, his National Commission on Excellence in Education issued “A Nation At Risk,” a report that declared, “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”

It also said, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

For a document that’s had such lasting impact, “A Nation At Risk” is remarkably free of facts and solid data. Not so the Sandia Report, a little-known follow-up study commissioned by Admiral James Watkins, Reagan’s secretary of energy; it discovered that the falling test scores which caused such an uproar were really a matter of an expansion in the number of students taking the tests. In truth, standardized-test scores were going up for every economic and ethnic segment of students—it’s just that, as more and more students began taking these tests over the 20-year period of the study, this more representative sample of America’s youth better reflected the true national average. It wasn’t a teacher problem. It was a statistical misread.

The government never officially released the Sandia Report. It languished in peer-review purgatory until theJournal of Educational Research published it in 1993. Despite its hyperbole (or perhaps because of it), “A Nation At Risk” became a timely cudgel for the larger privatization movement. With Reagan and Friedman, the Nobel-Prize-winning economist, preaching that salvation would come once most government services were turned over to private entrepreneurs, the privatizers began proselytizing to get government out of everything from the post office to the public schools.

Corporations recognized privatization as a euphemism for profits. “Our schools are failing” became the slogan for those who wanted public-treasury vouchers to move money into private schools. These cries continue today.

The era of accountability
In 2001, less than a year into the presidency of George W. Bush, the federal government enacted sweeping legislation called “No Child Left Behind.” Supporters described it as a new era of accountability—based on standardized testing. The act tied federal funding for public schools to student scores on standardized tests. It also guaranteed millions in profits to corporations such as Pearson PLC, the curriculum and testing juggernaut, which made more than $1 billion in 2012 selling textbooks and bubble tests.

In 2008, the economy collapsed. State budgets were eviscerated. Schools were desperate for funding. In 2009, President Obama and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, created a program they called “Race to the Top.”

It didn’t replace No Child Left Behind; it did step in with grants to individual states for their public schools. Obama and Duncan put desperate states in competition with each other. Who got the money was determined by several factors, including which states did the best job of improving the performance of failing schools—which, in practice, frequently means replacing public schools with for-profit charter schools—and by a measure of school success based on students’ standardized-test scores that allegedly measured “progress.”

Since 2001 and No Child Left Behind, the focus of education policy makers and corporate-funded reformers has been to insist on more testing—more ways to quantify and measure the kind of education our children are getting, as well as more ways to purportedly quantify and measure the effectiveness of teachers and schools.
For a dozen or so years, this “accountability movement” was pretty much the only game in town. It used questionable, even draconian, interpretations of standardized-test results to brand schools as failures, close them, and replace them with for-profit charter schools.

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Resistance 
Finally, in early 2012, then-Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott kindled a revolt of sorts, saying publicly that high-stakes exams are a “perversion.” His sentiments quickly spread to Texas school boards, whose resolution stating that tests were “strangling education” gained support from more than 875 school districts representing more than 4.4 million Texas public-school students. Similar, if smaller, resistance to testing percolated in other communities nationally.

Then, in January 2013, teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High School announced they would refuse to give their students the Measures of Academic Progress Test—the MAP test. Despite threats of retaliation by their district, they held steadfast. By May, the district caved, telling its high schools the test was no longer mandatory.

Garfield’s boycott triggered a nationwide backlash to the “reform” that began with Friedman and the privatizers in 1980. At last, Americans from coast to coast have begun redefining the problem for what it really is: not an education crisis but a manufactured catastrophe, a facet of what Naomi Klein calls “disaster capitalism.”

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Look closely—you’ll recognize the formula: Underfund schools. Overcrowd classrooms. Mandate standardized tests sold by private-sector firms that “prove” these schools are failures. Blame teachers and their unions for awful test scores. In the bargain, weaken those unions, the largest labor organizations remaining in the United States. Push nonunion, profit-oriented charter schools as a solution.

If a Hurricane Katrina or a Great Recession comes along, all the better. Opportunities for plunder increase as schools go deeper into crisis, whether genuine or ginned up.

The reason for privatization

Chris Hedges, the former New York Times correspondent, appeared on Democracy Now! in 2012 and told host Amy Goodman the federal government spends some $600 billion a year on education—“and the corporations want it. That’s what’s happening. And that comes through charter schools. It comes through standardized testing. And it comes through breaking teachers’ unions and essentially hiring temp workers, people who have very little skills.”

Meet the New Rebels Taking Back Our Public Schools

If you doubt Hedges, at least trust Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul and capitalist extraordinaire whose Amplify corporation already is growing at a 20 percent rate, thanks to its education contracts. “When it comes to K through 12 education,” Murdoch said in a November 2010 press release, “we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching.”

Corporate-speak for, “Privatize the public schools. Now, please.”

In a land where the free market has near-religious status, that’s been the answer for a long time. And it’s always been the wrong answer. The problem with education is not bad teachers making little Johnny into a dolt. It’s about Johnny making big corporations a bundle—at the expense of the well-educated citizenry essential to democracy.

And, of course, it’s about the people and ideas now reclaiming and rejuvenating our public schools and how we all can join the uprising against the faux reformers.

---

Dean Paton wrote this article for Education Uprising, the Spring 2014 issue of YES! Magazine. Dean is executive editor of YES!

Emeryville Man Charged in Hit & Run Murder

From the Bay Area News Group:

Fremont: Murder charge for Emeryville man in crash that killed Marine

By Natalie Neysa Alund

Bay Area News Group

POSTED:   03/27/2014 02:59:16 PM PDT

Debris is spread across the intersection of Decoto Road and Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, Calif., after an early morning fatal accident between a car and a motorcycle on March 25, 2014. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)

Alexander Yohn, 23, of Emeryville, was charged with murder, vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run.

FREMONT -- Prosecutors on Thursday charged an Emeryville man with murder, gross vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run in connection with a fatal motorcycle crash that claimed the life of a U.S. Marine.

Alexander Yohn, 23, was initially arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and resisting arrest after the Tuesday morning accident.

He was scheduled to appear Thursday afternoon at the Fremont Hall of Justice to be arraigned on the new charges, said Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques. Additional charges could be filed pending the results of his toxicology report, police said.

Online jail records list Yohn's occupation as an EMT.

Police say Yohn slammed a Mini Cooper into a motorcycle driven by Lance Cpl. Andrew Silva, 23, a Union City resident who had just returned from duty overseas. Silva was married with a2-year-old son, according to a family friend.

About 1:10 a.m. Tuesday, an employee at a Taco Bell on Fremont Boulevard called police to report a drive-thru customer who appeared to be belligerent and under the influence, Bosques said. A description of the customer's vehicle -- a light blue Mini Cooper -- was sent to police.

One officer driving south on Fremont Boulevard saw the car driving at a high speed in the opposite direction, Bosques said.

The officer made a U-turn and initiated a traffic stop, but the driver failed to yield and continued traveling north on Fremont Boulevard, she said.

The Mini Cooper then struck a motorcycle on the road, slammed into a utility pole and fence and burst into flames at Fremont Boulevard and Decoto Road, police said.

Officers said Silva was thrown from the bike, which ended up in the parking lot of the Fremont Bank. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

South San Francisco resident Luis Masis, a longtime friend of the Silva family, said his son served in the Marine Corps with Silva and that he'd just returned from Afghanistan in February.

Yohn attempted to run to a nearby field, but he was caught by officers, Bosques said. After his arrest, police said, Yohn admitted to being a heroin addict and an alcoholic.

Yohn remained in jail Thursday on $150,000 bond.

Contact Natalie Neysa Alund at 510-293-2469. Follow her at Twitter.com/nataliealund.

School Site Toxins: Who Could Have Guessed?

Q: Who Could Have Guessed?
A: 101 Emeryville Citizens (None on the School Board)

Regular citizens could have guessed.
The authorities however couldn't have foreseen.

Opinion
There is a school property in town, currently the site of Anna Yates Elementary on 41st Street, which has been used as a school site for over a century, since before Emeryville was incorporated as a city.  Then there is another school property, the former Secondary School site--now the Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life site--on San Pablo Avenue, that, as anyone with any curiosity about or knowledge of Emeryville history could tell you, has been a site that housed a whole host of businesses engaged in producing nearly every kind of toxic industrial waste imaginable. When the Emery School Board obstinately decided, against the urging of 73 stakeholders, to consolidate all of Emeryville's children onto one site, WHO COULD HAVE POSSIBLY FORESEEN that there might be downsides to that decision, such as these toxins in the soil that we are now disturbing and have to handle at a cost of over $1.7 million?  And when 28 residents asked for a full environmental impact report last summer, they were rebuffed by this School Board, who assured us that there would be no significant environmental impacts of the ECCL project.

It's really such an astounding train wreck, that there isn't any joy in saying, "We told you so."

Report Finds Soil at Community Center School Site a Toxic Stew

Center of 'Community' Life Site of 
Toxic Waste Dump

Report: $1.7 Million Clean-Up Indicted

A recently released 1,062 page report on the soils at the Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life (ECCL) site reveals that the ground there is highly contaminated with numerous toxins that will need to be removed at a cost estimated as high as $1,733,467 before construction can proceed.  The report and clean-up plans, prepared by BASELINE Environmental Consulting and Millennium Consulting Associates, explains that prior industrial uses at the San Pablo Avenue site, the future home of a new high school, elementary school and community center, include a gas service station, an auto repair shop, a rubber material manufacturing plant, a plastic molding works, a spray painting facility, clothes press and cleaners, an auto wrecking yard and a motor coach facility, and that these prior users of the site have left behind numerous toxic substances in the soil that constitute a health hazard.

Identified toxins in the soil include carcinogens such as metallic lead, arsenic, volatile organic compounds (VOC's), high levels of pesticides and enough flammable methane to pose an "explosion hazard".  A more complete list is included at the bottom of this story.   

Some of the toxic material permeating the site is especially hazardous for young children BASELINE noted, raising the concern about the Emery School District moving the elementary school children to the toxic site after the planned closing of the existing Anna Yates Elementary School on 41st Street, a location that has no record of any industrial uses in it's history.  Records indicate the existing Anna Yates site has had a school on it continuously since 1886, before Emeryville was even incorporated as a town.

The majority of the toxic waste on the ECCL site is centered on the north east corner near 53rd Street and San Pablo Avenue where the most of the previous industrial activity took place, the same location of the future community center and elementary school part of the ECCL project it should be noted.

The District has indicated they will pay to dig up and truck the toxic waste off the site as the report suggests but they haven't yet committed to a specific plan in the BASELINE report.  There is an alternate less costly solution the report notes, that would leave behind large quantities of toxic material entombing it under a plastic "vapor barrier" beneath the school and community center.  

The City of Emeryville it should be noted, set a precedent for leaving toxic waste at development sites in town when the City Council majority selected a similar solution for the 'Transit' Center on Horton Street in January approving a less costly clean-up allowing Wareham Development to save money by leaving behind copious quantities of toxic waste on the site under the proposed building also beneath a vapor barrier.  That solution will require a much more rigorous on-going monitoring regimen than would have been required with a full clean-up.  Also at the ECCL site, if the School District chooses the less costly solution, the District will be on the hook for implementing a monitoring program in perpetuity.  The less costly plan is estimated to cost the District some $1.3 million. 

A School District official told the Tattler anonymously there is money set aside for contingencies that will go towards the toxic soil remediation on the site but he refused to say how much for the record.

Public Comment Period

There is a public comment period on this removal plan currently running until April 20, 2014.  Citizens are urged to contact the School Board or attend a Board meeting to make their views on this matter known.  For those wishing to encourage the Board to pursue the full clean-up alternative recommended in this report, that plan is referred to as "Alternative 3." "Alternative 2" is the less costly solution (at least initially) that would leave toxins on the school and community center site at a savings of some $400,000.

         .                .                .                .

Hazardous Toxins at the ECCL Site

The specific substances found include lead, arsenic, petroleum hydrocarbons, organochlorine pesticides (“OCPs”), volatile organic compounds ("VOCs"), and methane. The report details the potentially harmful health effects of these substances:

Lead
Metallic lead is particularly hazardous for young children. It causes brain damage leading to permanent learning difficulties and loss of cognitive function especially for those of elementary school age.  From the report:
"Lead is a toxic metal and a suspected carcinogen... Lead can impair the nervous system, affecting hearing, vision, and muscle control.  It is toxic to lungs, kidneys, blood, and heart... Exposure in children can cause irreversible learning deficits, mental retardation, weight loss, weakness, anemia, cognitive dysfunction, and delayed neurological and physical development." pp. 35-36.

"Lead was detected in 35 soil samples at concentrations above the DTSC’s action level of 80 mg/kg (DTSC, 2009).  The highest concentration of lead detected on‐Site was 2,700 mg/kg... Therefore, soil on‐Site that contains concentrations of lead above 80 mg/kg poses a potential health risk for Site occupants." p. 41. (That's right. One soil sample contained nearly 34 times as much lead as is allowed by California's Department of Toxic Substances Control ("DTSC").)

Arsenic
"Arsenic is one of the most toxic elements that can be found.  Humans may be exposed to arsenic through food, water, and air.  Exposure may also occur through skin contact with soil or water that contains arsenic.  Exposure to inorganic arsenic can cause various health effects, such as irritation of the stomach and intestines, decreased production of red and white blood cells, skin changes and lung irritation. It is suggested that the uptake of significant amounts of inorganic arsenic can intensify the chances of cancer development, especially the chances of development of skin cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, and lymphatic cancer. A very high exposure to inorganic arsenic can cause infertility and miscarriages with women, and it can cause skin disturbances, declined resistance to infections, heart disruptions, and brain damage with both men and women. Inorganic arsenic is regulated as a carcinogen." p. 36.

"Arsenic was detected in two soil samples collected... at concentrations above the Site‐specific background level of 15 mg/kg.  Therefore, soil on‐Site that contains arsenic above background levels poses a potential health risk for Site occupants." p. 41.

Pesticides - Dieldrin
"Dieldrin was used extensively as an insecticide on crops such as corn and cotton from the 1950s until 1970. The U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled all uses of dieldrin, as well as aldrin (a structurally similar pesticide) in 1970. In 1972, however, U.S. EPA approved aldrin and dieldrin for killing termites. Use of aldrin and dieldrin to control termites continued until 1987 when the manufacturer voluntarily canceled the registration for use in controlling termites.

People exposed to large amounts of dieldrin experienced convulsions, some had kidney damage, and some died.  Exposure to moderate levels of dieldrin led to headaches, dizziness, irritability, vomiting, or uncontrollable muscle movements. Some sensitive people seemed to have developed an autoimmunity in which dieldrin caused the body to destroy its own blood cells. Results from animal studies showed that dieldrin caused similar effects on the nervous system and on the kidneys to those seen in people. Additional effects on the liver and immune system were also observed in animal studies. More recent data suggest that children may differ from adults in their susceptibility to health effects from dieldrin exposure and may increase children’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. The U.S. EPA has classified dieldrin as probable human carcinogen based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in animals." p. 36.

Pesticides - Heptachlor Epoxide 
"Heptachlor epoxide is created when a substance called heptachlor is released to the environment and mixes with oxygen.  Between the 1960s and 1970s heptachlor was used to kill termites found in the home and farmers used it to kill insects found on farm crops, especially corn crops.  In the late 1970s, the use of heptachlor was phased out.  By 1988, the commercial sale of heptachlor was banned in the United States.  The use of heptachlor is restricted to controlling fire ants in power transformers.  There is very little information available about the short‐term exposure to high doses of heptachlor epoxide to humans.  But animal studies show that heptachlor epoxide is very toxic to humans and animals.  Animals that were fed high levels of heptachlor during a short period of time experienced tremors and convulsions.  Not much information is available about the health effects on humans from long‐term exposure to heptachlor epoxide.  But animal studies suggest that long‐term exposure can affect the liver. The U.S. EPA has classified heptachlor as probable human carcinogen based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in animals." p. 37.

"The total excess lifetime cancer risk from dermal contact and soil ingestion" due to chemicals such as dieldrin an heptachlor epoxide at the ECCL site was determined to be five times the acceptable risk level. p. 47.

Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons ("TPH")
"Total petroleum hydrocarbons is a term used to describe a large family of several hundred chemical compounds that originally come from crude oil... some of the more well‐known constituents of TPH‐mo polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons are naphthalene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(a) anthracene, and dibenzo(a,h)anthracene. Some of the TPH compounds can affect the human central nervous system or cause headaches and dizziness at high concentrations in the air. Other TPH compounds can cause effects on the blood, immune system, lungs, skin, and eyes. Animal studies have shown effects on the lungs, central nervous system, liver, and kidney from exposure to TPH compounds. Some TPH compounds have also been shown to affect reproduction and the developing fetus in animals.  Other TPH compounds, such as benzo[a]pyrene, could possibly be carcinogenic to humans." p. 37.

"The health hazards from dermal contact and soil ingestion posed by the" TPH compound levels found on site "indicates that the presence of contamination may pose a significant non‐cancer threat to human health." p. 48.

Volatile Organic Compounds ("VOCs") - Benzene
"Benzene, a volatile organic chemical, is a clear, colorless aromatic liquid.  It is highly flammable... Acute (short‐term) inhalation exposure of humans to benzene may cause drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, as well as eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation, and, at high levels, unconsciousness.  Chronic (long‐term) inhalation exposure has caused various disorders in the blood, including reduced numbers of red blood cells and aplastic anemia, in occupational settings.  Reproductive effects have been reported for women exposed by inhalation to high levels, and adverse effects on the developing fetus have been observed in animal tests.  Increased incidences of leukemia (cancer of the tissues that form white blood cells) have been observed in humans occupationally exposed to benzene.  The U.S. EPA has classified benzene as known human carcinogen for all routes of exposure." pp. 37-38.

Volatile Organic Compounds ("VOCs") - Vinyl Chloride
"Most vinyl chloride is used to make polyvinyl chloride (“PVC”) plastic and vinyl products... Acute (short‐term) exposure to high levels of vinyl chloride in air has resulted in central nervous system effects (“CNS”), such as dizziness, drowsiness, and headaches in humans.  Chronic (long‐term) exposure to vinyl chloride through inhalation and oral exposure in humans has resulted in liver damage.  Cancer is a major concern from exposure to vinyl chloride via inhalation, as vinyl chloride exposure has been shown to increase the risk of a rare form of liver cancer in humans. EPA has classified vinyl chloride as a human carcinogen." p. 38.

"The total excess lifetime cancer risk from exposure to VOCs in indoor air posed by" chemicals such as benzene and vinyl chloride was determined to be 4.5 times the acceptable risk level. p. 47.

Methane
"Methane is non‐toxic but may represent a health risk from explosion or asphyxiation if allowed to accumulate in enclosed spaces.  Methane is explosive between the LEL of 5 percent by volume and the Upper Explosive Limit (“UEL”) of 15 percent by volume.  If potentially explosive gas levels are detected, an imminent and substantial danger may exist.  If the concentration of methane becomes extremely high, the oxygen content of the air may become oxygen deprived. Asphyxia may result if the oxygen concentration is reduced to below about 16 percent by displacement..." p. 38.

"Elevated methane levels were detected in the subsurface within the northeastern corner of the Site... The lower explosion limit for methane is 53,000 ppmv or 5 percent. The maximum methane concentration detected in the soil gas at the Site was 83,000 ppmv... indicating the methane may represent a health risk." p. 48. (That's right. Methane was found at levels nearly twice as high as is necessary for it to EXPLODE.)

City Hall Releases Charter City Revenue Numbers

Emeryville Left $21 Million on the Table

News Analysis
A  debate has begun at City Hall about an Emeryville 'charter city' ballot initiative that would enable the City to capture real estate transfer fees, a "leaking" of revenue says Mayor Jac Asher.  If it were a charter city and charged what the City of Alameda charges, Emeryville would have net some $21 million more than it did between 2009 and February 2014 according to the City.

The idea, first floated by Mayor Asher in her State of the City address last January proposes to change the governing system of Emeryville from what it is now, a 'general law city'; a form of governance dictated by laws ensconced at Sacramento, to a charter city; more of a local control governance system.  The main reason Ms Asher sees value in becoming a charter city is that legal designation allows for the people of Emeryville to decide by a ballot initiative, about imposing a real estate transfer tax, like neighboring cities do.  The tax, would impose a percentage fee for real estate transfers based on the selling price per $1000 dollars of value.

At a March 18th City Council meeting power point presentation prepared by the City Clerk's office, the Council heard about how Emeryville neighbor cities have been receiving millions of dollars, mostly paid by businesses, because they are charter cities and they impose transfer fees.   Emeryville does receive a small pittance for transfers (the most it can charge as a general law city); now pegged at $.55 per $1000 of value.  Neighbor Alameda, a charter city, charges $12 per $1000.  Other neighbors, all charter cities, charge similar amounts; Berkeley and Oakland both charge $15 per $1000 on the high side while Hayward charges $4.50, the lowest of neighboring cities.  The fees draw money these cities use to make up for the loss of revenue provided by their respective redevelopment agencies after Sacramento shut the agencies down state wide two years ago.

The numbers for comparison, Emeryville vs neighboring cities:
Property transfer revenue 2009-Feb 2014

• Alameda     $29,219,563
• Berkeley & Oakland   $36,555,112
• Hayward   $10,849,190
• Emeryville  1,178,867

Here's a breakdown of recent major property sales in Emeryville. The first number is what the City received at $.55 and what we would have received if we charged $12 per $1000 value (the same as Alameda and less than Berkeley or Oakland).

Recent major property sales, what was paid to City Hall vs what would be paid:

• 1900-2200 Powell:  at $.55 is $75,000...at $12 would be $1.638 million
• East Bay Bridge Center:    $69,000... would be  $833,000
• Bay Street Mall:   $35,000...would be $771,000
• 6529 Hollis (Clif Bar):   $34,000....would be $749,000 
• 1800 Powell:   $18,000.... would be $394,000
• Woodfin Suites:   $18,000... would be $394,000
• Novartis:   $61,000...would be $1.352 million

Between 2009 and February 2014, Emeryville had $1.838 billion in property sales which net $1.1 million in revenue.  If Emeryville charged in transfer fees what Alameda charges, that same $1.838 billion in sales would have net more than $22 million.... a loss of almost $21 million for the people of Emeryville.

City Council Moves 'Charter City' Idea Forward

Tonight the City Council voted unanimously to start a process that could lead to a November ballot initiative permitting voters to decide if Emeryville should become a charter city; an alternate style of municipal governance that increases local control at the expense of Sacramento.  The idea was first broached in January at the State of the City annual address by Mayor Jac Asher.  Mayor Asher says by becoming a charter city, Emeryville voters could decide if a real estate transfer tax should be imposed, offsetting the major loss of funds Emeryville has experienced in the wake of Sacramento rescinding the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency.

Even though all five Council members ultimately voted to instruct the City Staff to bring a specific charter city proposal for their consideration at a future meeting, Councilman Kurt Brinkman struggled with the idea at first, "The City has been run well with the current structure" he lamented.  Further, he added, if real estate transfer taxes are increased it would cause inequity, "It's not fair that renters don't have to pay this fee" he said.  Such a tax would be on the backs of residents Mr Brinkman said, albeit homeowners and only those selling their homes and leaving Emeryville.  The City Clerk noted home sales are a small percentage of real estate transfers in Emeryville (businesses being the lion's share) and if the people decide to raise the tax, it could be possible to craft a ballot initiative to carve out most homeowners by exempting properties less than a set amount.  The Council instructed the staff to present several specific proposals for their consideration at the future meeting.

Mayor Asher stressed the importance of getting our fiscal house in order after the demise of the Redevelopment Agency.   She stressed the fact that neighboring cities have become charter cities,  imposing transfer taxes to fill voids in their budgets after their redevelopment agencies were taken away.  Ms Asher called a transfer tax a "new economic tool" to help Emeryville move forward as our neighbors have done.

Still No Sign of the Tattler 'Rapid Response Team'

School District Spent $17,000... So

Where's the Tattler 'Rapid Response Team'?

Opinion/Follow-Up
Where's the Emeryville Tattler negative story Rapid Response Team?  We, the people of Emeryville  paid for it, so where the hell is it?
Early last year, the Emery School Board was so addled by negative stories about their roll out, some might say steamrolling, of the school rebuild project known as the Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life (ECCL), they sought relief...not by ceasing their program of quashing citizen dissent, the main source of the negative press, but instead by paying for a public relations consultant to among other things, contain and incapacitate the Emeryville Tattler.  The consultant recommended the District impanel an Emeryville Tattler negative story "Rapid Response Team" to make sure they remain in control of the debate frame about ECCL and not the Tattler.


The School District paid San Francisco corporate consulting firm Davis and Associates $17,000 to produce the Center of 'Community' Life Three Year Strategic Communications Plan as a result of citizen criticisms about lack of transparency surrounding ECCL.  A central tenet of the plan is the recommendation that the District set up the Rapid Response Team and the Tattler is called out by name as the District's main nemesis.

Since the District retained Davis and Associates last year, the Tattler has kept up with the negative stories about the Center of 'Community' Life as they have been warranted as news has come to light, however the people of Emeryville have not received the benefit of the Rapid Response Team.  At least not yet.  The District has continued on with their 'our way or the highway' approach to building the ECCL, and as a steady stream of elected officials and high level staff proponents of the ECCL have sought the exits, the Tattler has kept up with the reporting but there's been nary a whiff of the Rapid Response Team.

We want to know where is this team?  What are they waiting for?  "Rapid" in this case may be just hyperbole.  Maybe the whole thing has been a ploy, meant to intimidate.  We're not intimidated.  The people of Emeryville paid good money for this public relations advise and we like to think it wasn't money wasted.
Come on Emery!  You're not supposed to let story after story go unanswered.  The Tattler is supposed to be nipped in the bud, cut off at the knee caps.  We're unimpressed we must say, with your response so far.

Corporate Donations to Our Schools? Pixar (& others) Ain't Feelin' It

In Emeryville, Corporate 'Generosity'
is Not Really Generosity

When It's Done, It's Done To Help Themselves

News Analysis

Q:  How much money did Pixar donate to Emeryville schools last year?
A:  Goose egg!

Corporations commonly donate money to needy causes in the communities where they're located.  It's an effective way for them to remove the taint of all the negative impacts associated with their presence for members of the community.   Emeryville, having been transformed into a corporate mecca over the last 20 years should be awash in donations for causes like education (the perennial corporate favorite) then right?  Wrong.
Corporations here start out giving to the schools, very visible giving usually when they need something from City Hall.  After whatever favors are granted and they no longer need us for anything however, corporate philanthropy commonly slows to a trickle or even stops altogether.  In the Emeryville world of corporate generosity, giving is seen as a means to an end.

Corporations like to foster community good will towards themselves by such indiscreet giving.  Sometimes their City Council sycophants will do the PR work and loudly proclaim the corporate generosity.  Of these, Pixar/Disney, with its $42 billion revenue in 2012 is notable.
It's common knowledge in Emeryville that Pixar is extremely generous to our schools; offering mentoring, screenings of their new films for fundraising and lots of money.  Everybody knows they give a lot to our schools, right?  One would expect them to, after all they're a multi-billion dollar corporation with a child-centric raison d'etre,  taking up a huge percentage of land in our town.  How much money do you think they donated last year?  The answer is zero.  Plus the film screening fundraisers have stopped all together.  Pixar's donations to the schools, started out robust as they sought to expand their campus a few years ago but since then the much ballyhooed spigot has quietly been turned off.

Pixar gave Emeryville schools 

zero last year

Back in 2004, when Pixar needed the citizens of Emeryville to approve a controversial major campus expansion, their corporate philanthropy towards Emeryville's schools was made known to everybody.  They endowed the schools over $100,000.  It was a major feather in their cap as they sought to persuade Emeryville residents to vote yes to Measures U and T; the ballot measures needed for their construction project to start.  The NO on U & T side said Pixar should build their campus expansion but should enter into a Community Benefit Agreement; an accord to provide local hire for the construction, to guarantee money for the schools, help with affordable housing and other such things.  Community Benefit Agreements (CBA's) are common in the Bay Area for major corporate planned unit developments like the Pixar expansion.
Pixar for its part said in addition to their ongoing generosity towards the schools (not forced but donated voluntarily), they would pay millions every year in business taxes.  As it turned out, after Measures U & T passed, they claimed their income was to be attributed to Burbank, the headquarters of Disney Corporation, of which Pixar is a subsidiary.  As a result of that claim, they paid Emeryville just $8000 in 2011 business taxes according to City Councilman Kurt Brinkman, and presumably similar amounts in subsequent years.

Hoodwinked
We just spent $100 million on Phase 1 of our campus.
But we're willing to lose that and leave Emeryville
if we have to sign a CBA like other corporations do.
Oh, and we're not paying taxes or giving anything
to your schools after you vote YES on T&U.

Before the 2004 election Pixar had just completed Phase 1 of their campus at a cost of approximately $100 million.  However, the thought of having to sign a CBA with the people of Emeryville was enough for them to claim they would pull up stakes and leave our town unless they got everything they wanted.  That was a threat Councilwoman Nora Davis and some of her colleagues said was absolute it should be noted, and she railed against any citizen who had the temerity to ask that City Hall negotiate with Pixar for a better deal.
 
Not Just Pixar
And that's the way it goes in Emeryville.  When corporations here face any kind of exposure, when they need something from us, out comes the check book and the corporate largess towards the schools flows like wine.
Bay Street Mall developer Madison Marquette gave $50,000 to Emeryville's schools in 2009 when they needed the Council to OK the exclusive right to negotiate (ERN) for the "Site B" mall expansion on some fallow ground to the north of the mall.  The ERN agreement between City Hall and Madison Marquette would lock out any other developer from making proposals for the site.  After the City Council granted the ERN, Madison Marquette, with its portfolio of 23 million square feet of prime retail real estate holdings, has severely curtailed spending on Emeryville schools.  Since 2009 they have only given $5000 or less per year.  Wareham Development's donations to the schools has dropped precipitously from the years when they were asking permission to build several major projects in Emeryville from 2008 to 2011. During those years Wareham gave $60,000 to as much as $87,500.  Last year Wareham gave just $15,000.   Emeryville's Novartis Diagnostics, a major bio tech corporation at $58 billion in US revenue last year alone hasn't needed anything recently from City Hall, no request for permission to expand their campus or any other favors and so they haven't donated anything at all to Emeryville's schools.

Letter to the Tattler: Ingrid Eliasson

The following is a letter received from Anna Yates Elementary School teacher Ingrid Eliasson in response to the recent announcement that current principal Jag Lathan will be leaving in June.


Dear Anna Yates Community and Greater Emeryville Community,

Many of you may already know Dr. Clifford Thompson, former principal of Emery High School 2001-2003, who has been substituting for Principal Jag Lathan for the past two years. For those of you who do not know Dr. Thompson, I would like to provide you information about his qualifications for the upcoming position of Principal for Anna Yates Elementary School. 

Dr. Clifford Thompson

Dr. Thompson has worked in education for over 30 years, primarily in the Oakland Unified School
District where he has taught everything from French to math and served as an administrator in many roles, including principal of the K-8 Conservatory of Vocal and Instrumental Arts and principal of the 100 Black Men Community School, an all-male public charter school. Dr. Thompson also served as principal of Emery High School 2001-2003, during a time of leadership and financial crisis for Emery Unified School District. Dr. Thompson is currently working as Adjunct Professor of Education at Patten University, California State University Hayward and the University of Phoenix. 

As President of the Oakland Alliance of Black Educators, an affiliate of the National Alliance of Black School Educators, Dr. Thompson’s leadership works to achieve goals including: 

• Identifying programs and practices which both enhance or inhibit the education, social moral development of African American children and youth 
• Eliminating systemic inequities adversely impacting African American students within local schools and districts 

Dr. Thompson’s educational qualifications include: 

• Professional Clear Tier One Administrative Credential 
• Professional Clear Tier Two Administrative Credential 
• Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) University of San Francisco 
• Master of Science (MS), Education California State Hayward 
• Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies, Multiple Subject Teaching Credential California State Hayward 
• Single Subject Teaching Credential, French Language Teacher Education California State Chico 
• Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), French and Rhetoric University of California, Davis 

Many of Anna Yates staff, teachers, and parents have seen Dr. Thompson at work as a substitute principal for Anna Yates, and have been impressed by his leadership and community building skills in action. With Dr. Thompson’s leadership, the whole environment of the school transforms for students, parents, and teachers alike, becoming calm, positive, productive, and welcoming for all. As a result, many of Anna Yates staff, teachers, and parents have decided to take action to petition the School Board of Emery Unified School District to hire Dr. Thompson as the new principal for Anna Yates Elementary School. 

Regardless of the petition circulating in support of Dr. Thompson, rest assured that EUSD School Board will interview and verify the qualifications of all candidates for the position of Anna Yates Principal. The purpose of this petition and this letter to the Tattler is to inform EUSD school board members that there is strong community support for Dr. Thompson as a candidate for principal!

Supporters of Dr. Thompson's candidacy for the Principal of Anna Yates Elementary School will be presenting their petitions to the EUSD School Board during their regular meeting at 6:00 pm, Wednesday, March 12th located at Emery Unified School District Office, 1275 61st Street, Emeryville. This is an opportunity for you to speak to the School Board on the behalf of Dr. Thompson, and/or let the Board know what qualities Anna Yates new principal should have! 



Ingrid Eliasson is a teacher librarian at Anna Yates Elementary School in Emeryville.  Ms Eliasson has taught at Emery Unified School District since 1994.