June 9, 1999

A man with a pegleg and a lot of guts

There were a couple of important obituaries in the Tribune last week. They got my attention, because both were about people who have been important to me during my stay in Pacifica.

Jack Weintraub was a union man. He worked very hard for his fellow blue collars. He was well read, opinionated, and dedicated. Until age and illness got the better of him, he could be counted on regularly at the Pacifica Democrats. He received a well-deserved, detailed obituary. It's likely, on the other hand, that most readers quickly noted that Ken Faria had not lived here in 20 years and moved on to the Police Beat and Letters to the Editor.

Ken wasn't a diplomat, nor the most likable man I've ever met. What with that prosthetic he used in place of the leg he'd been born with, he probably couldn't have run much of a footrace, either. On the other hand, when he set his mind to it, he could get things done, push them through, accomplish things.

Most civicly active Pacificans have been to a meeting or three at the Council Chambers, which happens to be upstairs in the sewer plant complex. Even if you have never been there in person, you've probably seen that meeting room on Channel 8.

Given our sewage disposal problems over the past 25 years or so, it's likely the best part of the whole complex is that meeting room. Most people who attend meetings in the Council Chambers clump up the stairs. It's faster than the elevator, if you take waiting time into account.

I almost always take the elevator. I take it to exult that it is there. Now when I take it, it will be in memory of Ken Faria. That elevator is there mostly because that guy with the pegleg was just so damn stubborn. There are no villains in this story. It was just that the decision to hold Council meetings came after the building was mostly complete, and before everybody realized it would serve our needs so well. Council members who thought of themselves as fiscally responsible didn't want to pay the price of a retrofit.

No one had planned for an elevator. In our chronically strapped city, (yes, budget problems aren't new in Pacifica) no one wanted to retrofit an elevator, at several tens of thousands of dollars, into the building. The suggestion was even made that a sturdy firefighter be stationed at the bottom of the stairs to haul up the handicapped, piggyback, I presume. Ken would have none of it. He objected. He hemmed. He hawed. He quoted the laws requiring handicapped access. It was in the early seventies, several years before I started writing The Reactor column in 1975, but I agreed with him and I wrote some viewpoint columns supporting him. Finally, since he had solid laws to back him up, the city bit the bullet and had an elevator installed.

Ken never used that elevator himself. He stumped his way up the staircase at every meeting he attended. My guess is that if that elevator hadn't been built, he would have ridden that firefighter's back up the stairs every meeting, just to be ornery. Maybe I would have too.

Paul Azevedo has been interested in Pacifica politics ever since the then president of the Pacifica Democrats knocked on his door in 1963. If you have opinions you wish to share with him, his e-mail address is Paul@thereactor.net.