Editors note: Last month, we printed two of the many letters we received in response to our March cover story "Here Comes the Sun" featuring Dr. Robert Dane, inventor of the new solar ferry. The common theme of all the letters we received, including one from a self-styled "Fairy for Ferries", had to do with Dr. Dane’s looks. Dr. Dane responds:
Published: May, 2001
Editors note: Last month, we printed two of the many letters we received in response to our March cover story "Here Comes the Sun" featuring Dr. Robert Dane, inventor of the new solar ferry. The common theme of all the letters we received, including one from a self-styled "Fairy for Ferries", had to do with Dr. Dane’s looks. Dr. Dane responds:
Dear Editor,
Just got back from Denmark the land of my fore fathers to find your most recent issue.
Well..what can I say????
1. At least there was a hetero letter there.
2. My wife is not letting me come to San Francisco alone!
3. The boys in the factory are paying me out big time
4. How far would I go to sell a boat?
5. Any publicity is good publicity?
Best wishes to you and your interesting and cosmopolitan magazine.
Kindest Regards
Dr. Robert Dane
Solar Ferry
Northbridge, Australia
Name the new Alameda Ferry after Harre Demorro
Dear Editor,
As an Alamedean and dedicated ferry rider, I write to urge that the new Alameda ferry about to come on line be named in honor of a honored son of Alameda, Harre W. Demoro .
Harre W. Demoro was the preeminent transportation writer and historian in the San Francisco Bay Area. Demoro, who died in 1993 from complications of a heart operation, covered transportation for the Oakland Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle for many years and wrote 13 books on the subject.
Herb Caen called him "a great reporter’’, Don Wood, professor of transportation at San Francisco State University said he was the "Preeminent transportation and transit historian’’ of the Bay Area, and Quentin Kopp, then chairman of the state senate transportation committee, called him "the soul and historian of regional transportation.’’
Demoro was interested in all forms of public transit—including streetcars, rail service and BART—but his real love was ferryboats. Four of his books had large sections about ferries from Seattle to the vessels operated by the Key System the Southern Pacific to Oakland and Alameda and the Northwestern Pacific in Marin County.
When east bay ferry service was revived in 1989, Demoro took the boat everyday and wrote about ferries constantly in stories in The Chronicle. He took such an interest in the boats and the service — he always referred to the vessels as "luxurious ferry steamers’’—that he was an institution on board. When the deckhands learned that he was to have an operation, they volunteered to donate blood.
Harre W. (for Wilkins) Demoro was born in Oakland, and grew up in Alameda. He went to Encinal High School and always retained an affection for the island city—""The Isle of Style’’ he called it. He attended Hayward State University, served in the U.S. Army, and went into journalism with stints on nearly all the Bay Area papers. He won a number of awards and participated in the civic life of the region. For many years, he was chairman of the board of the Western Railway Museum in Solano County and at the time of his death he was president of the Press Club of San Francisco.
He was one of the most consistent and effective advocates for ferry service and public transportation in the region and greatly respected by all who knew him or read his books and newspaper articles. He was truly an institution in the region, and his friends and colleagues commemorate the anniversary of his death every year with a dinner in his memory.
I find it difficult to think of a more appropriate individual to name our new ferryboat after. If Vallejo can honor their Mayor Anthony Intintoli by naming a boat and Tiburon Mr. Zelinksy, naming our new boat after Harre Demoro is the right thing to do.
Denis Ko
Alameda
The Little Trestle That Still Can!
Dear Editor,
Regarding your article about "The Little Trestle That Could," it is indeed a tragedy that the City of Larkspur wants to remove this important and valuable structure. The request to tear down the railroad trestle and widen Sir Francis Drake Blvd. ironically comes at the same time as the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District is planning to pave over the railroad corridor between the trestle and the Cal Park Hill tunnel to provide more free parking at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal.
Everyone agrees that traffic and parking congestion is a problem. However, undermining the integrity of a vital transportation corridor to satisfy the voracious appetite of the automobile is not a well thought out plan. Especially when the reason for such a violation is a parking lot that is a 10 minute walk from the terminal, mostly through other parking lots.
Despite the fact that it seems that passenger rail will not reach Larkspur in the near future, there is a compelling argument to be made in favor of preserving structures such as trestles and tunnels so that future transportation options can be left open.
An intelligent, cost effective alternative to more traffic and more asphalt would be to convert this corridor into a bicycle / pedestrian path that will provide Marin residents with a flat, car-free greenway connecting to San Rafael through the Cal Park Hill Tunnel and to Corte Madera over the trestle.
Continuing to chip away at our inherited transit resources and our natural environment in order to cater to ever greater numbers of single occupant vehicles is a short-sighted behavior that will benefit nobody. Preserving an historic corridor by converting it to a greenway for skaters, bicyclists, wheelchairs, and pedestrians is a sensible investment that will preserve the corridor for future rail and will improve the health and well-being of County residents in the meantime.
Josh Hart
Fairfax
Harbor Bay Residents Make Some Noise of Their Own
Dear Editor,
I read your editorial piece entitled, "Heroes &Goats", in the April edition of Bay Crossings. I agree with your position that we all must take responsibility for the Bay, hence, its protection. However, I believe your conclusion that Harbor Bay residents must accept additional airplane noise in lieu of Sail Francisco’s proposed runway expansion into the bay is superficial.
The Community of Harbor Bay Isle in conjunction with CLASS, Citizens League for Airport Safety and Serenity, which collectively represents an estimated 1 1,000 Harbor Bay Island residents (a number we do not consider to be "a relatively small number,.."), has been in discussions with representatives of the Oakland Airport for the last 15 years with a goal to create a balance between airport development and the attendant issues of safety and noise. These discussions have never reached the level of negotiations simply because the airport refuses to move to this level. We have proposed to the airport solutions that we believe provide for development while addressing our concerns. Unfortunately, the airport will not consider them.
San Francisco’s proposed runway expansion plan’s primary goal is to address delays in arrivals and departures and not future expansion. Furthermore, this goal can be more efficiently and quickly addressed through the implementation of global positioning technology. This technology does not require filling the bay with two square miles of new runways.
In short, the issues you wish to address are complex. They take thoughtful research and analysis before arriving at conclusions and/or solutions. I would be more than happy to provide you with more substantive background information.
Walt Jacobs
Vice President
Community of Harbor Bay Isle
Editor’s Note: We’re going to take Mr. Jacobs up on his offer for more information on this issue as part of continuing coverage on this issues in the months to come.
Perspective on Port of Oakland
Dear Editor,
Long before it was "Oakland" this was a waterfront place and will be long after "Oakland" is forgotten. The Port rolled out its RFQ (Request for Qualifications) for development of the Oak to 9th Ave. section of the Estuary Plan Area last week. The bottom line of the RFQ is right in line with Article 7 of the City Charter, which in 1927 set up the Port. In essence Article 7 says ‘take these lands and make money’.
Although there were always skirmishes over Waterfront access, commerce and related industries took precedence. Even with containerization the seaport and airport occupy three quarters of Oakland’s twenty-one mile shoreline, and for obvious reasons will never have any public access. Despite the recommendations of the Charter Review Committee in 1995 to withdraw the remaining five miles from the Port’s jurisdiction, the Port sold Site B to Lincoln Properties (now Legacy Properties) for $12.00 /sq. foot shortly thereafter. Now anyone can rent an apartment at ‘The Landing’ for just $2500.00/month, and like the Executive Inn, Portabello and KTVU, there is enough "public access" along the shoreline to build a levee as the sea level rises.
Except for two private parcels in the middle, most of the Oak to 9th area is Tidelands held in trust by the State of California for the Public, so a sixty-six year lease is as much as the Port can offer. Ironically efforts to sweeten this pot by inducing eminent domain over the private holdings for a proposed "Pan Pacific Expo" several years ago were what forced me into this conflagration. My neighborhood graphically demonstrated to City Council that amongst other fallacies in the proposal, the Expo simply wouldn’t fit here. The only notice our landlords or we received was via the newspaper, so potential negotiations were stillborn. When the obvious choice of potential locations became the Army Base the Port balked and the sham crumbled.
The 9th Ave. Terminal is given Port Priority Use Status in the BCDC’s SF Bay Plan and the first responsibility of a would-be housing/office developer is to assist the Port in getting the BCDC to lift this designation. The Estuary Policy Plan does not include residential uses except joint living and working quarters. It may be under the circumstances that the Public’s interest would be better served if the Port Priority Use Status remained. Public access has become the paramount use of Tidelands, but we surely won’t get much from the Port’s business as usual.
Robin Bartoo
Oakland
