F R I D A Y APRIL 5, 2002
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 44
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
Plans for new parking lot raise concerns with area neighbors BY KRISTEN GENTILE
Some Fox Point residents and College Hill community members have expressed concern over a possible University plan to build a parking garage near India Point Park near I-195’s Gano Street exit. The University is considering three sites for a garage: Lot 2 at the OMAC, Pembroke Field, which is bounded by Hope, Cushing, Meeting and Brook streets, and a property on Tockwotten Street, located near India Point Park that currently houses two storage buildings. The University will not make a decision about additional parking until July when the City of Providence has asked for Brown’s decision, said Director of Planning Michael McCormick. The Brown Green Party leads the opposition to the India Point Park site on campus. They co-signed a letter to the University administration outlining their concerns
along with the Brown College Democrats and Brown Environmental Action Network, said Ian Carroll ’03 of the Brown Greens. The Brown Green Party faults the University for not firmly pushing for a reduction in cars on campus, Carroll said. The Brown Green Party points to Cornell University’s parking system as a model for Brown to emulate. Cornell instituted a Transportation Demand Management Program in 1991 to handle the problem of increased traffic and parking on its campus. By encouraging carpooling and the use of mass transit, Cornell reduced the amount of cars on their campus. In 2001-02, 37 percent of Cornell employees used mass transit or carpool, according to the university’s Commuter and Parking Services Web site. “The number one priority needs to be car reduction and other alternatives,” said Ellen Bak / Herald
see PARKING, page 6
Dukakis, a high-speed rail supporter, is vice president of the board at Amtrak.
High-speed rail demands federal funding, Michael Dukakis says BY CARLA BLUMENKRANZ
Ali Silverman / Herald
Tockwotten Street near India Point Park is one of possible location for a new parking lot, but the plan is a cause for concern in some neighboring communities.
Former presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis argued for substantial federal investment in high-speed rail at a Thursday lecture in lower Salomon. Now vice president of Amtrak’s board, Dukakis maintained that a national commitment to a high-speed railway system would be more cost-effective for the government and more convenient for citizens. The government last year spent $33 billion on highways, $12 billion on airports and only $350 million on Amtrak, Dukakis said. “This country has never made anywhere near the kind of commitment to rail as it has to airports and highways,” he said. Dukakis supports a bill Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Joseph Biden, DDel., introduced last year, allowing Amtrak to issue up to $12 billion in bonds, according to Hutchison’s Web site.
Amtrak will need $4.6 billion the bill’s first year and $2.5 to $3 million in the years to follow in order to maintain the current rail system and make “modest but consistent improvements,” Dukakis said. These funds “seem like nickels and dimes,” he said, when compared with the federal investment in airports and highways. A national high-speed rail system could be developed on existing tracks, Dukakis said. If standard tracks were upgraded, outfitted with modern equipment and crossings were closed, trains could run on them at up to 150 miles per hour, he said. Dukakis said he believed there is widespread interest in expanding high-speed railways. The majority of people travelling between New York and Washington, D.C., now use trains, he said, and, in 2000, Florida voted to establish an intra-city railway system. “When you give Americans good train see DUKAKIS, page 7
South Asian Identity Week commences with keynote speaker D’Lo BY JULIETTE WALLACK
The first ever South Asian Identity Week began Thursday night with a convocation featuring speeches addressing how the South Asian community can address the complexity of its identities and a keynote address that included stories about civil war in Sri Lanka. Keynote speaker D’Lo, a Tamil-Sri Lankan performance artist, offered a distinctive blend of comedy, dramatic works, storytelling and music to the audience of more than 100 people in Starr Auditorium. D’Lo presented a short history of herself, detailing how she went from being “honorary Chicana” to being accepted by “progressive South Asians” during college. She said college was when she began to learn about South Asian identity. “You were talking about how South Asia has all these different people in it, and there are not very many similarities,” D’Lo
said. She said she remembers growing up Sri Lankan, and “I didn’t even know we were near India until I looked at a map.” D’Lo talked briefly about Sri Lanka, her ancestral home, and spoke about the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka. Now, she said, “for the first time in a long while, there are peaceful negotiations going on.” She said she doesn’t believe in war because she doesn’t believe “people should get killed for no reason.” Because of the fighting, D’Lo said she began to write about the Sri Lankan civil war, and she shared one of the stories with the audience. The story blended the different lives of two boys — one from Los Angeles County and one from Sri Lanka. D’Lo said part of the story was inspired by the experiences of her cousin. Beginning by saying that “guns allow for a superiority complex,” D’Lo performed a short hip-hop piece about police brutality.
She also discussed sexuality and gender issues. D’Lo, who is transgendered, dedicated her third creative work to “my boys who are perfect gentlemen but perfect women all the same.” D’Lo performed a creative work for the women in the audience, saying it was a result of “the struggle we have as women, regardless of what shape or form we’re in.” The serious messages D’Lo conveyed were punctuated by jokes and musings, which ranged from thoughts on her mother to the “insanely bear-like squirrels” on college campuses and drew laughter from the audience. Eight students spoke about their identity and place in Brown and America’s South Asian community. There are “so many issues which require see SOUTH ASIAN, page 6
I N S I D E F R I D AY, A P R I L 5 , 2 0 0 2 Post- takes a wide angle, in-depth look at the causes, experience of depression magazine
Matt Haicken ’02 makes magic his passion and his profession page 3
Marion Billings / Herald
D’Lo, a Sri Lankan transgendered performance artist, kicked off the first annual South Asian Identity Week in Starr Auditorium Thursday.
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T U.S. Rep. James Langevin speaks on challenges of physical disability page 5
Alex Schulman ’03 says we must question of Saudi peace plan is just a bluff column,page 11
20th-ranked men’s lacrosse claims first Ivy win with 9-8 victory over Yale page 12
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