Esteemed Daily Cal Editors:

In our giddy eagerness over the catchphrase “revitalize Lower Sproul” ("Overhauling Sproul May Require Fee Increases," October 20,) we seem to be overlooking something quite important.

The assertion that the area needs “more café-type things” seems inappropriate in light of the presence of several cafes on campus—one of which is a stone’s throw from Lower Sproul—as well as the presence of nearly twenty cafes in the city. But more importantly, it is dangerously reminiscent of the logic with which the ASUC defended itself as it replaced the BEARcade, the city’s only arcade, with the city’s second Gelateria Naia location, eighth ice cream shop and fifth ice cream shop within a mile radius. In this untenable move, the ASUC destroyed a minority subculture for the sake of its own fiscal and political gain. And in our blithe enthusiasm about reshaping Lower Sproul, we risk a repeat of this tragedy.

Cal’s student body is a diverse group that deserves a diversity of services—and unless we the students make a conscious commitment to this ideal, the ASUC, given its history, clearly cannot be trusted to hold to it.

The question is not whether or not we will change Lower Sproul, but whether we will do so intelligently, maintaining respect for the pluralism that makes Cal unique, or whether we will continue to prostrate ourselves before the ASUC’s bread-and-circuses politics until the flagship campus of progressivism is reduced to a cheap knockoff of downtown. History is watching carefully for our answer to this question.

Sincerely,
Albert Wang

UPDATE: What a surprise--the Daily Californian opted not to print my letter. Apparently, it would rather subject its readers to inane ranting about faulty math in a sex column than admit that its editorial board may have misjudged the BEARcade in the slightest.