Talk of the Point

I happen to like the Point Richmond Gateway design. But not everyone agrees.

Archtect and Point landowner Walter Connolly asks good questions about it in his comments to “What’s up with Tom Butt?” For one thing, Walter wants to know where his tenants will park, not to mention Plunge users when the pool reopens. I haven’t counted, but he says the project reduces parking in the immediate area from a potential 60 spaces to a design for just 12.

He invites everyone to attend a protest this Monday at noon. Bring your lunch.

What visions Katrina brings. We in the Point gaze upon New Orleans and some of us see ourselves in a similar fix from the Hayward Fault, a Chevron release, terrorism, or who knows what else.

So it seems like a good time to finally take the R.E.A.C.T. training. I’ll be in the class that begins this Saturday and continues through October.

A new class opens tonight–and organizer Kathryn Gerk says there’s still room. Call her at (510) 620-6866 to sign up. Each of the five class sessions is held both Wednesday nights from 6 to 8:30 and Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30, your choice. For more details, see Point Richmond Online’s page devoted to R.E.A.C.T.

I was talking to a long-time Pointer about Tom Butt the other day. He said, “I’m ambivalent about Tom. He’s been courageous. He’s often been the lone dissenter on the City Council. That takes courage. And then he does something like the email to Masquers.”

And then there’s the grouchy comment last week to “An aspirin for N.I.C.E.” He wants me to simply shut up and fall in behind the N.I.C.E. boosters, who “know something about business,” while he refuses still to avoid hard questions.

The man is frustrated, that’s clear enough. Point business people, who do indeed know a thing or two about business, voted no on his cherished N.I.C.E., 70 percent of them!

Still he mocks my curiosity about how business improvement districts have worked elsewhere and what experts have to say about them. He calls Talk of the Point “negative” and suggests, “Try being a community booster for a change.” And still, 40 days after his attempted extortion of Masquers, we’ve heard no apology. In fact, he told the Contra Costa Times he’d do it again.

It’s strange behavior for a man who calls himself a leader. Any politician more worth holding office at least tries to persuade, to take opposing viewpoints and turn them around. I wonder if Tom knows just one style: sheer bullheaded stubbornness.

I hope he learns a sweeter tune in time for The Return of N.I.C.E. It would be too bad for the valiant efforts of other volunteers and for the Point–so much in need of a boost–if a good idea had to struggle again under the weight of such “leadership.”

You may have noticed the mural going up across West Richmond Ave from Suzhou restaurant. It’s Brian Elder’s WPA-style snapshot of Point history, and by about mid-September it’ll be ours too.

“What would happen if all the hard working, shady and trustworthy and not so hardworking got together and had a bit of a party?,” he asks. Labor organizers, ne’er-do-wells, Rosie-the-Riveters, scallywags and everything in between–what if they all intersected?

He’s rendering it all WPA-style with colors from Toulouse-Lautrec. He also remembers the huge Coca-Cola sign that was in the very same spot. And he pays homage to the late, great cartoonist who once lived in the building, Joel Beck.

I can’t think of a better gateway.

See his sketch here. Keep in mind that your monitor or my scanning of his sketch may alter the colors from what he intends to put on the wall.

N.I.C.E. is down but not out, I’m sure. So I’ve been poking around at sites on business improvement districts, and I’ve found insights here and there.

Here’s one in an article by a consultant, John L. Gann, called “Aspirins for Downtown.” It’s one of several articles.

Downtowns didn’t go downhill because building facades had been modified to historical incorrectness. Nor because sidewalks were too plain-looking. Nor because elevated trains running over the street were a “blighting” nuisance. Neither was it because of inadequate police presence, lack of a “gateway,” litter on the street, lampposts devoid of banners, no “wayfinding,” or unsightly signs.

The origin of the downtown headache, in other words, wasn’t a beauty deficiency, or a historical authenticity deficiency. We’ve fixed all these things, but, since we missed the causes, the fundamental problems remain.

A simple question reveals the answer: What did downtown have when it was at the peak of health and vitality that it down’t have now? The answer, as obvious as it has been elusive, is: Activities.

Lots of them.

Stores, jobs, offices, taverns, movie theaters, nightclubs, banks, transportation centers, churches, good restaurants, post offices, housing, health clubs, services. In short, things to do. More specifically, economic things to do.

Downtown thrived when it was the pre-eminent place for large numbers of people to either spend or make money. And more people are motivated to do these things than to take in museums, appreciate architectural history, or experience the visual delights of ornamental pavers underfoot.

As I understood it, the first N.I.C.E. addressed only the “aspirins” as if things-to-do would follow on their own.

Downtown residents received a mailed notice this week about the new liquor license at the Baltic. Things seem to be moving ahead on the reopening.

Oops. A little script was supposed to fire up last week to tell all my thousands, perhaps dozens, of faithful readers that Talk was on vacation in Desolation Wilderness. But it didn’t, stopped by an error on “line 15.”

Talk has taken a rest from coverage of N.I.C.E., and it’s now on to other juicy subjects–such as railroad “quiet zones.”

Masquers Playhouse president Bob Goshay is happy now. The theater’s neighbor is acting more neighborly.

Just a week ago, things looked different. That’s about when neighbor Tom Butt, a partner in the next-door landlord, threatened to deny an easement for maintenance.

Tom was peeved that the Masquers had voted against N.I.C.E.–and demanded in a now-infamous email to withhold access if Masquers did not change its vote to one in favor.

The well-connected Talk correspondent Walter Connolly first alerted the world to the email on this very site late Monday. But not until Tuesday night’s City Council session, when councilman Nat Bates revealed it, did we know for sure of the email’s gist.

Oh, the mayhem that ensued. Even Josh Genser, Tom’s partner in Mariner Square, said to Bates that Tom had been “out of line.”

According to Bob, Josh followed through a day or so later with a cordial phone call in which he assured Bob of cooperation and neighborliness.

In that call, Genser said he himself was the managing general partner of Mariner Square Joint Venture. Should Masquers need access, he wrote, the theater should contact him.

Work has begun on the wall.

N.I.C.E. didn’t get anywhere near a majority. Votes against amounted to 70.96 percent, according to the city clerk. Votes in favor amounted to just 20.04 percent. More details soon.

N.I.C.E. lost Tuesday night. N.I.C.E. lost big. I’ll post details any hour now.

In the meantime, we hear from correspondent David Moore, curator of the fine Point Richmond Online. He says of the post-N.I.C.E. period, “This thing is getting to be like the Hatfields and McCoys. I’d like to see the opponents and proponents, as well as other interested parties, sit down in a room and work it out.”

Well said, Dave.