John Gaccione

Date: 02/03/2021

Subject: The People’s Public Safety Building

From: The Executive Steering Committee

The real estate brain trust up at headquarters encourages all the faithful to promote the following mantra regarding the people’s Public Safety Building remodel. “It’s the people’s house, we’re paying for it, and we want our police in there.” Repeat as required.

The faithful know the rightful place for the Kensington Police Department and the Kensington Fire Department is in the people’s Public Safety Building on Arlington Ave. Forever safe in a mythical spot where the so-called vast majority of homes are located. Earthquake fault… what me worry?

What is with those wayward locals who keep making suggestions that the police could be housed in another part of our hillside village? And to make matters worse, some of the misguided lowlanders even suggested the Colusa Circle area could be a viable option. Good grief, what are they smokin’ down there!

As everyone knows, the Colusa Circle area is much too close to the dreaded El Cerrito. Their long history of flatlander’s corruption and wicked sinful ways must not be permitted to taint our hillside village. Those kinds of things just don’t occur in the people’s Republic of Kensington. Can I get an amen?

The problem of getting the KFD and KPD housed in the people’s PSB has taken longer than anticipated. Fitting both departments and their equipment into the existing limited space certainly has been a challenge. The estimated cost of 4 to 7 million is yet another challenge.

A portion of design time was spent questioning the need for ADA mandated accessibility issues. Complying with the ADA requirements was thought to be way too expensive. In reality, a law suit for ADA non-compliance would be far more expensive. Penny-wise and pound-foolish? 

What does it mean if the Chiefs of the Police Department and the Fire Department provide lists of the proposed PSB remodel short comings? They seem to have concluded the combined occupancy remodel doesn’t work for either department’s needs. They may be trying to tell us something.

A successful design depends on identifying project constraints and working within them to reach a solution. Conversely, the faithful seem to believe the solution lies somewhere up near that mythical terrain where the vast majority of homes are located. Can we afford a case of form following fiction?

“Design cannot rescue failed content.” (Edward R. Tufte)

Note: Contents flavored by satire and 27 years of living in Kensington, results may vary.