Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 15

7r Lv5r' i Oakland Berkeley San Francisco METRO Alameda Albany Emeryville Piedmont THE TRIBUNE Friday, March 24, 1989 r.vv 1 BOREDGj Jack London Square-Amtrak By Kathy Zimmerman Urn Them SACRAMENTO The Cali-, fornia Transportation Commission yesterday approved a $3.1 million grant to the Port of Oakland to help fuqd a proposed new Amtrak station at Jack London Square. Port officials and Amtrak have been discussing relocating the railroads station in. West -Oakland atMth and -Wood streets to a site at Alice and Second streets near the Jack Lon-. don Village shopping mall. The Amtrak station Is part of a port plan to transform the square into a transportation hub that will include ferry service between the Square and San Francisco and free shuttle bus service to Oaklands downtown.

This is something weve been working on for a long time, port spokesman Mel Wax said of the Amtrak station plan. Were delighted by the (CTC) decision and well try to make (the station) a reality as soon as we can. Construction on the station still is not expected to begin until late 1990. The state money will be given to the port in August, following the Legislatures approval of the 1989-90 state budget The port must let a construction contract for the station by September 1990 or risk losing the funds, CTC Deputy Transit Director Linda Bohlinger said. The port, AC Transit and Am-" trak: are working together to come up with the remaining $793,000 necessary Jo fund the station.

The port also must decide on a specific site for the train station that is both suitable to Amtrak and does not clog street access to the square, port officials said. An environmental impact report also will have to be done. Train service to the square ended in 1970 when Western Pa- cific Railroad Company closed its Third Street station. The new station is part of the $100 million Jack Londons Waterfront revitalization projert underway at the square that will include retail and office space, a hotel and movie tbea- ThirQrtw living chen pieces SECTION i 'South Bay trolley propsal angersBART By Judy Bomdngen TtmJMmm directors are-hot over a move by Santa Clara County to get federal funds for a Sunnyvale system that they claim could Jeopardize BART extensions to San Francisco International Airport, Dublin and Pittsburg. Director Nello Bianco said if Santa Clara County gets the money, it could upset the delicate compromise worked out by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission last year that allows all three BART extensions to be built Rod Dipdon, a Santa Clara supervisor' and chairman of MTC, says BART directors neednt worry.

He says the Bay Area can get money for both projects and that Santa See BART; Page B-J tors. In other action yesterday, the CTC: Approved $7.6 million to help fund BART extensions to Dublin, Fremont Pittsburg and Colma. The money is part of the $200 million the state has com-mitted to provide over the' next 10 years for BART extensions. Allocated $110,000 to help pay for an Amtrak station in the city of Antiochs waterfront redevelopment area. Approved $8.7 million to buy locomotives and cars for a third daily passenger train through the Sah Joaquin Valley.

The two- train service between Bakersfield and Oakland now carries more than 340,000 people a year. Staff, writer Paul Grabewkh contributed to thia ttory. CTC chairman wont vote, B-4- Meetings onfutm ofLakeydePark The Oakland Office of Parks and Recreation is sponsoring a series of public workshops on the future of Lakeside Park. They are: March 29, 2 jm; deFre-mery Recreation Center, 1651 Adeline April 5, 7 p.m.; Montclair Recreation Center, 6300 Mor-aga Ave. April 22, 10 a.m.; Brookfield Recreation Center, 525 Jones Ave.

May 13, 10 a.m.; Manumits Recreation Center, 2701 22nd Ave." May 21, 7 p.m.; Lakeside Park, Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave. squared off in front of the city Park and Recreation Advisory Commission, which will make a recommendation to the city council about holiday activities on the lake within a month. Cant we share the citys resources one day a year?" asked Jim Lubman, a spokesman for the California Speedboat Association, which holds the competition. Lubman said the boaters are careful to guard against oline spills and other accidents that might threaten the birds. Barbara Oshinski, the3ird lover whose lobbying campaign made the race an issue, read a letter from the managerof a See RACES; PageB-3 Potm by Gry RtjmTU Mw' Recreation Center.

Maddie Strong, 6. take their places on the life-sized See CHESS, Page BS White more Am than Nintendo By WWam Brand TSsTMtaw infers BLACK AND WHITE, 100 feet lllf square, makes lots of moves and has 11 If a tendency to giggle? In Berkeley yesterday afternoon, there was only one answer the living chessboard at James Kinney Park Recreation Center. Thirty elementary school students, all participants in the Berkeley Unified School Districts Chess in the Schools Program, made a giant chessboard on the floor of the rec center come alive. In white or black uniforms, complete with plastic foam head pieces, the youngsters qralked through the game, as teacher Patricia Stewart called the moves before an appreciative audience of more than 100 parents and friends. As the game progressed, young players, zapped by fate, shuffled tjthe sidelines.

I was offed by the black knight, said Maddie Waterfall Strong, 6, in a sad voice as her mom, Ann Strong, consoled her. I have two kids out there, she said, hugging Maddie, a bishop and a pawn. Chess is so much better than video games. It teaches them to think before they do something. Strongs bishop, Toby, age 9, agreed.

Several of young chess players, like Halima Thompson, 10, thought Nintendo the hot, high-tech game is quicker and more fun. Not T6by. With chess you have more of a challenge, said. You can play it over and over again and its always different YOu can beat any Nintendo game and then Bird lovers aflutter -over Merritt boat race chess board at Janies Kinney Park knight Casey Ferrel, 8, asd pawn immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. Its incidence here is increasing most quickly among black men and intravenous drug users, although white homosexual men still have the disease in the greatest numbers.

Saxxons words yesterday evoked mixed reactions from county officials and AIDS activists. The allegation that Alamega County is far behind where it should be I reject out of hand, said county Board of Supervisors Chairman Don Perata, a strong supporter of AIDS funding. It's a lot of rhetoric. Perata said the county plowed $1 million into AIDS this year. The leader of the largest AIDS services organization in Alameda County said yesterday he has withdrawn his recent resignation.

He then blasted the county for mounting a negligible response to the fatal disease. The public needs to know the response this county has glvpn to the immense threat hefe has been negligible, Larry Saxxon said after a press conference yesterday ontside the county Health Care Services Agency. We will have one hell of a body count eventually. Too many people have taught theyre not at risk cause they're not white homosexuals when they are because of (bugs and other at-risk behaviors. We need to pump money into educational programs to understand how AIDS is transmitted.

The outspoken Saxxon said last Saturday be was quitting as executive director of the recently re-fonned AIDS Project of the been i be omo- By Bid Snyder nWTHSM Tbe Department of. Fish and Game will send officers to Lake Merritt to find out if the annual Fourth of July speedboat races pose a threat to the lake's wildfowl refuge. Birders and boaters have been quacking and growling about the issue for months now, with birders claiming the 56-year-old tradition terrorizes and endangers nesting herons, egrets and Canada geese. The boaters say they like birds, too, but dont think that one afternoon-a year of motorboating poses a threat to the wildfowl The bird lovers have asked the California Department of Fish and Game to stop the races. Yesterday, Jim Swanson, a department biologist, said that he or another officer will take a look at the lake.

There is a lot concern in the area; we want to see if there is. danger to nesting birds, he said. However, Brian Hunter, the department's -regional manager for this area, noted that the races have occurred annually for more than half a century: I think if there had been significant damage we would have heard about it by now. In theory, the department could stop the races, but it is much more likely that Fish and Game if it becomes involved stall will make a recommendation and let Oakland decide the matter. Hunter said.

On Wednesday, about 60 partisans of birding and boating substantially more than before, in response to AIDS advocates. The county is currently appointing 35 people to a new AIDS Advisor Committee that will help the county set priorities, he said. The county gave $200,000 to the AIDS Proect and tunneled $247,000 in state funds to the group, which says'it serves about 400 people with a staff of 14 and nearly 200 volunteers. 1 But Nancy Halloran of the East Bay AIDS Response Organization agreed that the county has been too slow to establish comprehensive services and the AIDS office has problems with leadership and coordination. Alameda Countys response is not at all up to the level it needs to be, she said.

Its a crime how slow it has, been. More money, leadership; and foresight will save money and lives later. Many county officials say they believe the current flareup is a personality conflict between Saxxon, known as a firebrand, See AIDS, Page B-3 ureciM resignal axxi Vseveral ixxon, East Bay in Oakland because the county Office of AIDS was sabotaging a grant application an allegation the county has denied. Yesterday, he said be had decided to stay because his board of directors refused to accept his tion. board members and -people with AIDS also charged the AIDS Project was unfairly ignored when the county distributed $200,000 last month to various AIDS programs.

More than 375 county residents have AIDS. Another 2,600 have been diagnosed with AIDS-Related Complex and 15,000 are estimated to be infected with the MMM dim- NSMP.