The city of Berkeley will expand its coronavirus vaccine eligibility to grocery and convenience store, education and childcare workers, the city said Monday. 

Berkeley residents in those occupations can make vaccination appointments for the city's vaccination site near the Albany Bulb Wednesday through Saturday, according to city officials. 

All Berkeley residents who are age 65 and older also continue to be eligible for vaccinations at the site, located at the foot of Buchanan Street. 

Vaccination appointments for Wednesday and Thursday can be scheduled at https://curative.com/sites/24548#9/37.8675/-122.2969 while appointments for Friday and Saturday are at https://curative.com/sites/25054#9/35.8808/-120.1664. 

Appointments will be confirmed with identification at the vaccination site, according to the city, but vaccinators will not request immigration status information. 

Residents under age 65 seeking a vaccination must bring a recent pay stub, letter from their employer or an employee identification badge to confirm that they work in an eligible field.  

Berkeley residents who need transportation to the vaccination site can receive a ride from Easy Does It transportation services for a $15 fee. Rides with Easy Does It can be scheduled by calling (510) 704-2111. 

Berkeley residents can sign up to be notified when they are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at https://cityofberkeley.jotform.com/210145406660951. 

All Alameda County residents can do the same at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/44974350ffd14f288b03b029f2486ba8 or through the state's My Turn vaccination notification system at https://myturn.ca.gov.

Will children homeschooled during the pandemic be scarred for life?

My friend Becky O’Malley, the Berkeley Daily Planet’s editor, has asked for my thoughts on that—given my own childhood experience spending years outside a classroom.

My missionary parents took me to West Africa in 1948 when I was three—first to the Gold Coast, then to Nigeria. Until I went to a mission boarding school at 13, I did most of my learning at home—except for second and sixth grade, when we were in the United States on furlough.  

Like other children in the mission, I worked my way through the Calvert correspondence courses—excited to open new boxes of books and, starting in third grade, reading instructions for each day myself. When I needed help, Mother (who had been a teacher) paused from her office and housework to help. 

I remember that third grade year as a high point in my life. We lived on a spacious compound on the edge of the venerable city of Oyo, and I was free to roam on my own – studying the red ants under one tree and climbing up on a fallen giant trunk of another. 

On rainy days, I sat on the upstairs veranda and read comics my aunt sent me from Kentucky or nestled into a chair in my bedroom with Smiling Hill Farm, an introduction to the idea of history. I began a lifetime of piano playing under the instruction of another missionary. I helped Mother pick cucumbers in her spreading cucumber patch and loved digging in the earth and growing things. 

Meanwhile, Nigerian life flowed in and out of mine. I watched our gardener burn rubbish—and started my own fires from the embers in the early mornings from ashes he left behind. I observed the food he and our steward ate on their breaks—and sampled some myself from street sellers. 

I realize my experience with home schooling in the 1950s in West Africa was quite different from that of children learning at home during the pandemic today. I had the advantage of parents who had been teachers and who had flexible work schedules that allowed them to give me a few minutes of their day when I needed it. I had an excellent correspondence course. I was living a mix of cultures. 

And above all, I was free to roam—exploring my hospitable environment – trees to climb, warm weather, and only very occasionally a car on the compound roads. 

We moved on from that compound after my third-grade year—and only one of the places we spent time in could match that Oyo compound. My life became more bounded, and I usually lacked child companions, except for my brother. My mother observed in letters home that she could see I was lonely. Indeed, I was glad, at thirteen, to go off to boarding school with other missionary children. 

But even three years of boarding school did not prepare me for the regimentation and dullness of American high school life when I was dropped into it in 10^th grade. I felt lost in the rivers of students that flowed through the halls. 

Yet I prospered in college and in my later life, which has brought a wide range of experiences, friendship, family, love—and a lifetime of work focused on learning and teaching. I believe it was not in spite of but rather because of my early schooling experiences outside a classroom that I became, in an educational phrase du jour, a lifelong learner. 

When NPR asked a former school superintendent to comment on how educators should respond to children returning to the classroom after learning at home during the pandemic, she said something that struck a chord with me. Children "have been growing and maturing and thinking” throughout this difficult time. Some of them have lost more than a classroom: they have lost love ones. But they have also had a year’s worth of unprecedented experiences living through a pandemic. Schools need to acknowledge the complexity of their experience and their ability to respond to it—and make space in the classroom for them to share what they have learned. 

“I think,” she said, “that sometimes we underestimate the capacity of the human child.” 

 

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Carol Polsgrove is author of When We Were Young in Africa, Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause, and other histories. 

 

I am writing to address the resolution on exclusionary zoning. Since the early 1970s, I have worked in housing development, construction, and sales. I worked for the Oakland, Emeryville, and Berkeley Redevelopment Agencies in housing planning and was the lead planner for the Savo Island housing in Berkeley. After that, I have been involved in the construction of high, medium, and low-income units in Berkeley and Oakland. From that background I make my comments.

I find the title of the resolution to be staggeringly misleading. It slants the housing history in the U.S. and in Berkeley in a way that is inaccurate and unproductive. It dresses itself up as a racial equity plan when it is actually a trojan horse for wealthy real estate and tech interests. When addressing housing, we need to look carefully and be guided by facts, not false flags.

We all know that housing discrimination was an issue that was overturned by the Rumford act in 1968. During my real estate career, I have seen historic title restrictions in the Claremont area barring people of Jewish descent, had Japanese clients who had to buy their house secretly in the hills due to housing discrimination that restricted people of color from buying above Martin Luther King. I built a house next to four homes on Cragmont Avenue that were built by a white developer in the 1950s and sold only to black buyers in order to make an attempt at breaking housing discrimination. Discrimination existed but it was not caused by zoning. 

I would submit that R-1 zoning has never been a racial equity issue. Covenants, restrictions, appraisals, and lender's red-lining have been problems. The resolution confuses these with zoning. 

If you look at the census data for Berkeley from 1950, you will see that our population has been relatively stable for the last 70 years. We are an old, high-density city that has been pretty fully built out for decades. In the 1950s, our population was 70% white, 12% black or African American, and 3.5% Asian. By 1990, Berkeley was 67% white, 19% black, and 15% Asian. I would submit that many of these three groups owned their homes. Where you see a real change is in 2010, right after the financial crisis. This was a crisis that disproportionately affected communities of color. After that, the Tech sector ballooned in our area, bringing extreme income inequity. The result was housing went to those most able to buy. And that is the primary housing issue we face now, not exclusion by race but exclusion by income. To the extent that Hispanic and black communities are disproportionately represented in housing scarcity, it is an income issue. But there are many people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds who cannot afford housing in Berkeley. 

Changing R-1 zoning to accommodate higher density housing will not address the issue of income inequality and affordability. If one calculates the costs of redeveloping expensive Berkeley properties, land costs, construction and financing costs, planning and sales costs, and developers' profits, you get exorbitantly expensive rental or condominium properties, and that will not address the affordability issue. If Berkeley is interested in making housing more affordable (aka more inclusionary), we need to have a plan that addresses affordability. If we are interested in addressing climate through housing, we need to address that issue. But we may not need to address the agenda of the Tech sector to build out Berkeley to satisfy its workers. That is all that this resolution does. 

As the most densely populated small city in California, Berkeley is basically completely built out. Adding more housing in underdeveloped areas like the San Pablo corridor of the Telegraph corridor can make a contribution to the health of our city, if not its affordability, without causing density problems like traffic overload. But after that, we need some time to do Environment Impact Reports and intelligent planning to truly assess what different options might mean. We need to take a thoughtful approach because no matter what we do, we cannot solve or even contribute much to the housing affordability issue, aka the diversity in housing issue, alone. We need good federal programs to do that. The same ones we leaned on to build Savo. The ones that no longer exist. 

Thank you, Candace Hyde-Wang 

 

The Berkeley Neighborhoods Council (BNC) is writing this letter because of deep concerns expressed by many Berkeley neighborhoods over the increasing threat to the well-being of residents and the unshakable hope that the year 2021 will provide the opportunity for a fresh start for cities everywhere. While these concerns include the broad spectrum of urban life issues, this letter focuses on existing land use policies, procedures and practices that affect the daily lives of residents in every part of our City. The Berkeley Neighborhoods Council is not anti-development, anti-housing or anti-business, we are pro-people.

These concerns have been expressed over a long period of time, mostly at meetings of the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) and on appeals to the City Council. Today, they have grown to the extent that there are increasing calls for a holistic approach, a new visioning of our City that considers social, economic and age diversity, public health and safety, racial justice, livability, climate change and resilience, in a process driven by residents, not by paid consultants, nor the preconceived concepts of City staff. On January 9, 2021 at the regular meeting of BNC, we heard loud and clear the voice of the people in neighborhoods throughout the City.

Those concerns centered around four basic objectives as follows: 

1. To uphold the principle that the fundamental duty of government is to protect the health and safety of all the people they serve;
2. To maintain local control over land use that respects statewide and regional objectives, but still considers geographical, environmental and governmental circumstances that define our City and sets it apart from a ‘one size fits all’ approach;
3. To ensure that the value and timeliness of the participation of people in land use decisions is practiced; and
4. To adopt land use regulations and enforcement mechanisms and procedures that are fair, transparent, free of influence as to outcome, and address racial and socioeconomic inequities imposed in the past.

Five major land use decisions that have been made recently or are under current consideration by the City of Berkeley exemplify our basic concerns. These projects are: 

1. The renewed attempt to resolve the more than 30-year problem of eliminating the toxic air emissions and disturbing noise emanating from the Lehigh Asphalt plant at 699 Virginia Street:

The plant located in Berkeley in 1956. In 1999, because of odor pollution complaints, the Oceanview Neighborhood Association and Communities for a Better Environment filed a lawsuit that resulted in a settlement agreement between the plant and the City of Berkeley that modified the plant’s Use Permit to require that loading operations be covered. In subsequent years complaints again escalated, and in 2015 the City directed staff to enforce the settlement and take corrective actions. A committee of Council Members Maio and Droste was appointed to look into the problem and contact Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD). Between October and December 2020, over 200 complaints were filed with BAAQMD regarding intense episodes of sulfurous air pollution affecting large areas of Berkeley. Three Notices of Violation (NOV) were recently issued: Two by BAAQMD on December 8 and December 22, 2020 under Code 1 Section 301 Health and Safety Code 41700, Public Nuisance, giving the plant 10 days to submit a written description of corrective actions or seek a variance. The City issued a NOV on January 11, 2021 because of frequent noxious odors stating that the plant shall enclose the asphalt product truck loading operations with a February 1 date to submit a plan check correction list or within 15 days submit evidence of compliance. Monetary penalties up to $500/day are citied, but there is no mention of revoking the plant’s Use Permit. Why? 

BNC wants to know the answer to that question and what exactly has happened as a result of the NOVs. The long-time failure of this plant to comply with the terms of its Use Permit, plus failure to implement new advances in technology is inexcusable and threatens the health and safety of all residents. It is the obligation of the City and the BAAQMD to take immediate and decisive action. 

2. Approval of the co-living project at 2435 San Pablo Avenue:

This is a four-story building with commercial/retail on the ground floor and on each of the three floors above, a shared kitchen, eating and communal seating area surrounded by 15 small rooms (200-240 sq ft with a bed, desk, sink, toilet and shower), topped by a patio with shared open space, laundry and toilet facilities. The project was presented as a trending co-housing model for individual professionals. Potential rents are said to be $2,000 per room per month. There are no affordable rooms. The City considers these as Group Living Accommodations (GLA) similar to “guest rooms” in rooming/boarding houses and in single family homes with five or more bedrooms. ZAB approved the project in August 2020. An appeal was filed in September on issues regarding health and safety, avoidance of payment of Housing Trust Funds, no regulations for the establishment of residential hotels or GLAs, shadowing on nearby residential uses, and traffic and parking impacts. 

BNC supported the appeal for three main reasons because it 1) puts tenants and the whole City at risk because it goes against all current health and safety regulations; 2) evades paying Affordable Housing Mitigation Fees, and it 3) should be deferred until health and safety standards for Non-Transient Long Term Residential Hotels are put in place. The Council held a public hearing and approved the project with the addition of adding a soap dispenser in the bathroom sink that is part of the toilet tank. After the meeting, we note a Twitter post from Council Member Robinson, who characterized such health and safety concerns as the usual "dog-whistle" complaints from housing detractors. 

Health and safety issues cannot be lightly dismissed as the City in granting its approval found specifically that “the circumstances of this particular case existing at the time at which the application is granted” are not detrimental to the health, safety and general welfare of the persons in the neighborhood or to the general welfare of the City.” BNC is puzzled as to how a land use decision for “Group Living Accommodations” can be allowed that violates the regulations the Berkeley Health Department has in place for dining-in businesses throughout Berkeley and a directive from the California Department of Public Health which banned gatherings “that bring together people from different households at the same time in a single space, or place.” 

We want a written explanation, particularly given the increase in COVID infected UC students with no indication of where or how such contacts might have occurred. 

3. Adherence to State policy regarding Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) development:

1. on narrow streets in the CALFire designated high fire Zones and the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Zone safety risk areas which hinder both emergency vehicle response and resident evacuation.

In mid-year, the City Council asked the Planning Commission (PC) to consider a local ADU ordinance with a focus on the CALFire designated Fire Zones 2 and 3 since the ADU Urgency Ordinance approved in January 2020 would expire in December of that year. The PC in turn requested feedback from the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission (DFSC) which responded to the PC on July 20, 2020. The DFSC concluded that the prohibition on ADUs in the Fire Zones should remain and added three recommendations: 1) the prohibition should only apply to new ADUs on narrow streets that impede emergency vehicle access in designated fire zones; 2) the prohibition should include two designated evacuation routes in those Fire Zones even if those streets were not narrow; and that the PC join the DFSC is supporting various wildfire prevention and evacuation measures. 

The DFSC report was never discussed by the PC. It is said that the City Attorney’s Office short-stopped the discussion by concluding that the City could not regulate ADUs based on street width and the existing ADU Urgency Ordinance expired. On January 26, 2021 the Council took two actions regarding off-street parking and new ADUs. These were: 

• Reduce on-site parking requirements citywide for new construction, including ADUs and halt expansion of the on-street reserved parking permits program.
• Ask the DFSC and PC to recommend within 90 days ADU ordinance amendments that would address emergency access and egress, street parking in Fire Zones 2 and 3, and limiting the size of new ADUs.

While no one can argue against trying to reduce dependency on the private automobile, this is a prime example of poor planning when an action is approved and at the very same time, amendments to that action are to be considered. The City had more than 6 months to respond to the ADU question. It didn’t do so, and while it is raining now, we cannot breathe easier. The danger to all Berkeley residents is increasing as wildfire is now considered not to be a seasonal event but to be present throughout the year, and rain ensures the production of more fuel for future fires. 

The City also ignored the information which appears on page 9 of the State issued ADU Handbook, updated December 2020, which states that while ADUs must be permitted, “any limits on where ADUs are permitted may only be based on the adequacy of water and sewer service, and the impacts on traffic flow and public safety.” (Emphasis added). 

We understand that the City Attorney’s Office may be reconsidering their opinion. BNC urges that this problem be addressed immediately as ADU units are being approved administratively that are far above what people expect from such housing units and which are harming existing tenants. See below. 

2. granting approval that disrupts existing housing, including disabled access such as the approval of the project at 2915 Harper Street.

On October 20, 2020, the City administratively granted a permit to build a 4-bedroom, 1,005 sq ft ADU in the front yard of an existing multi-family building at 2915 Harper Street. The ADU eliminated the front yard setback of the existing building at that address along with the five parking spaces for existing tenants, including the access used by a wheelchair-bound disabled man. The only notice to tenants was a note in their mailbox to move their cars to enable the construction. 

On November 19, 2020, during the Rent Stabilization Board’s Public Comment Period, six speakers told of the distress and problems encountered by residents due to this construction and how it was handled. It is said that the City has published a one-page summary of ADU regulations this month. A long search by BNC has failed to find such a document. However, we have been told that it indicates that the City has decided that detached ADUs on multifamily lots that do not exceed 16 feet in height may be of unlimited size. This is truly an important issue throughout Berkeley. The experience of 2915 Harper is the canary in the mine where any and all zoning features will be waived. This speaks volumes as to how residents can be expected to be treated in the future. The future is confirmed by what happened regarding the Adeline Corridor Plan. 

4. Introduction at the last minute of allowable building conditions that have never been previously seen by the public and which overturned years long planning efforts as occurred in the approval of changes to the Adeline Corridor Plan.

On December 8,2020, the Berkeley City Council approved a new Adeline Corridor Plan that covers 86 acres along Adeline and Shattuck from Dwight Way to the Oakland border. Once an area with a majority Black population, it had thriving commercial areas, surrounded by well-kept homes. It now suffers from significant gentrification and displacement. The new Plan approved by the Council allows greater density than had been recommended, 75,000 sq ft of commercial space, 1,450 housing units, 850 of which will be on the Ashby BART parking lots. 

No question, this was an important land use decision. After five plus years of planning, citizen participation and endless meetings, the PC approved a hard-fought compromise that was supported by both the Berkeley Tenants Union and the Friends of Adeline, a grassroots neighborhood group. That compromise was before the Council when they met to vote on it. During the meeting, without any written material having been circulated before the meeting, Mayor Arreguin proposed allowing greater heights without any increase to the amount of on-site low-income housing the developer would have to provide. Solar protections for adjacent properties were also eliminated. A motion to approve the PC’s recommendation failed, and the Mayor’s proposal for greater density without increased affordable housing was approved by Mayor Arrequin and Council Members Kesarwani, Taplin, Wengraf, Robinson and Droste. 

The Mayor hailed it as accelerating affordable housing by “placing racial and social equity at the front.” The Berkeley Tenants Union called it a “sell-out to Corporate Developers.” Community participants were stunned to see their years of hard work to forge a compromise on density and finally achieving a significant amount of affordable housing, summarily swept away. Many saw this as an unjust, insulting and duplicitous move that denigrates their continued, positive engagement in their community. 

5. Tacit acceptance of the designation and planning efforts of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District of the North Berkeley BART Station as an “Urban” site while at the same time saying that any proposed development would be in context with the low-rise development of its surrounding, existing neighborhood.

About 60 years ago, some 75 houses where the North Berkeley BART Station is currently located were torn down to create the North Berkeley Station with a large parking lot to be used for commuters using BART. Under then Mayor Wallace Johnson, Berkeley voted to tax themselves to pay for undergrounding BART tracks and creating a public transit system that would in appearance and function be unlike any in the East Bay. 

Today, Berkeley’s BART Stations are part of the statewide effort to build some 14,000 housing units on properties they own. The vast majority of these stations in urban areas are in locations surrounded by existing commercial and high-rise multifamily uses, i.e. in neighborhoods that are similar to downtowns. However, the North Berkeley BART Station on Sacramento Street is uniquely smack in the middle of low-density residential uses. BART doesn’t recognize this unique situation and they classified the North Berkeley site as “Urban” which calls for the construction of a minimum of seven-stories of housing. 

Planning has been going on for some time. A City-BART agreement has been signed indicating that the subsequent plan would “consider” the context of the surrounding lower density environment and a 14-member Community Advisory Group (CAG) was formed to address both the North Berkeley and Ashby BART Stations. 

During this planning stage, staff and paid consultants have only been talking about a plan that will allow eight story and above structures with 800 – 1200 housing units. The North Berkeley Neighborhood Alliance supports a stepped plan with 400 to 500 housing units that are 100% affordable. Two stories would be at the perimeter with 4 stories in the middle. Architectural renderings have been prepared that show an 8-story structure plan compared to what the low-rise story plan would look like in its existing surroundings. The Alliance wants the low-rise plan to be presented as an alternative scenario for the Station. To date, participants in the planning discussion have overwhelmingly preferred the low-rise design yet there has been no indication that this alternative is even being considered. The low-rise plan isn’t shown and the staff and consultants have made it clear that the final design will be created by the developer chosen to build the project. 

Breaking news: Council Member Droste has submitted a “Resolution of Intent,” No. 31, Consent Calendar, City Council Meeting of February 23, 2021 that calls for upzoning most of the City. The item is co-sponsored by Council Members Robinson, Taplin and Bartlett. 

The item presents a history of single-family zoning and red-lining loan practices ending with the conclusion that this racist history is a proxy for racial restrictions that still exist today. It calls for “zoning reform” that will allow single-family homes but will also allow a greater mix of home types and affordability in more neighborhoods and reduce housing costs for low and middle-income households. It will do this by pursuing zoning reform that: 1) addresses public safety in all parts of Berkeley; 2) where a mix of single and multi-family housing exists, new housing will occur within the existing multi-family range; 3) the inclusion of new and rehabilitated multi-family developments will be encouraged; and 4) multi-family housing in certain parts of Berkeley will no longer be banned. 

There can be no better example of establishing a process for which a conclusion has already been reached so that it can be claimed that public input occurred but comments by those who might not want that particular conclusion can be ignored. 

Berkeley residents need to be informed and comment on this proposed resolution. 

BNC has held a regular meeting on Saturday, February 13, 2021 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm for a preliminary discussion. ... We are also working on arranging a forum on Saturday, February 20, 2021 regarding this problem and inviting at least one of the Council Members associated with it to be present. 

Conclusion: 

BNC requests that the City take immediate action on the following: 

1. Create a partnership between the City, BAAQMD and a committee of residents that will establish a written timeline to either resolve the problem permanently or face revocation of their Use Permit.
2. Rescind the action to grant a permit for The Poet’s Corner at 2435 San Pablo until the Department of Health has granted approval for dine-in facilities throughout Berkeley.
3. Request that the Planning and Community Development Department work on a priority basis to create appropriate code standards for Resident Hotels.
4. Request the Department of Health to review health and safety standards for new GLAs throughout the City to determine whether they should be altered to ensure resident safety or be halted altogether during pandemic conditions.
5. Request the Rent Stabilization Board produce written guidelines as to rent, eviction and other tenant protections applicable to residents of GLAs.
6. Re-institute the emergency ban on ADUs in Fire Zones 2 and 3 until action has been completed on the Council’s 90-day request to the DFSC and PC to comment on this matter.
7. Review construction on the administratively approved ADU at 2915 Harper to determine if there is any way that disabled access for an existing tenant can be re-established.
8. Revise Council meeting procedures to include prohibiting the introduction of significant changes to an item which previously has not been seen by the public at a Council meeting at which action is to be taken on that item.
9. Revise Council meeting procedures in order to provide speakers on land use issues at least 2 minutes of time, and that Council not take action on the same date that a public hearing is held on zoning appeals and land use issues, but instead schedule such action at a future Council meeting.
10. Re-consider the Council decision regarding rejection of the PCs recommendation regarding the Adeline Corridor Plan.
11. Request planners prepare and make a side-by-side comparison of the 8-story plan and the alternative 5-story plan, including an analysis of how each meets the Council’s signed agreement with BART that the adopted plan would be in compliance with the existing neighborhood.
12. Reject item 31, submitted by Council Member Droste and co-sponsored by Council Members Robinson, Taplin and Bartlett establishing a Resolution of Intent regarding zoning reform.

BNC assures you that we support zoning reform which includes a review of our current Master Plan, and we will be submitting ideas in the near future of how that might occur. Today, we urge that the Council indicate its intent to begin such review and reform by beginning a process that will be fully vetted through all appropriate boards and commissions. Furthermore, that the process will consider the need for housing and include transit planning that does not rely upon high priced and polluting old fashioned public transit alternatives. Today, we urge that such a process begin. 

 

America’s misguided priorities are rapidly driving more Americans into a downward spiral of poverty and despair fighting the COVID pandemic, systemic racism and economic inequality. We continue to pour obscene amounts of money into the Pentagon’s bottomless pit, with weapons systems they don’t need (example Space Force) and pay raises for failed military adventures. While our lawmakers obsess on the rights of the unborn child little concern is given for soldiers sent on failed missions or the millions of foreign civilians slaughtered, dismissed as necessary collateral damage for “the greater good”. Returning soldiers are often haunted by the horrors of war, many unable to return to civilian life, others ending their lives. Our leaders never admit their political blunders but send more of our men and women into battle convinced that our military firepower will eventually prevail. Remember President Nixon “we see light at the end of tunnel” and decades of deceit by General Westmorland. Daniel Ellsberg, who stole the Pentagon Papers at great personal peril, was the unsung hero. 

The US has such a long history of military blunders from Vietnam to Afghanistan. We demonetize the “enemy” as terrorists while engaging in brutal acts of terrorism carpet bombing, defoliating the country with Agent Orange, cluster bombs (Vietnam), or “precision guided missiles” which rarely hit their intended targets but kill thousands of civilians. The CIA, with an undisclosed budget, engages in criminal activities overthrowing governments or stealing their precious resources. For example, in 1953 Britain’s MI6 were willing partners with the CIA in a blatant theft of Iranian oil, overthrowing Iran’s burgeoning democracy. MI6 were shielded for their crimes by the British “official Secrets Act.” In the small island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, the local Chagossians were forced off the island at gunpoint by the US and British military and their beloved dogs drowned. 

The U.S. war machine has become a raging bull in the global china shop obsessed with “regime change” to service political agendas. George Bush’s brain, Karl Rove once boasted “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” The destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan is their tragic legacy. 

From its birth, the US has a very dark history - genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans to the Louisiana Purchase and the annexation of northern Mexico in the Mexican-American War. 

President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana raised serious concerns of America’s overarching colonial ambitions but his courageous voice was silenced by a 1966 coup (later confirmed by former CIA intelligence officer John Stockwell). 

Congress is often compared to a red light district where members sell their souls to armies of lobbyists (pimps) who demand political favors in exchange for political donations. 

Even in the game of their global ‘queen’s gambit,’ efforts to open up new markets, the US has been a failure. Eighteen years following the U.S. invasion, Iraq’s largest trading partner is China, while Afghanistan’s is Pakistan, Somalia’s is the UAE (United Arab Emirates), and Libya’s is the European Union (EU). 

President Eisenhower warned against the “unwarranted influence” of America’s military-industrial complex but little has changed. Consider this alarming statistic, America’ a war machine costs more than the next ten militaries in the world combined but cannot win a war or vanquish a virus. Fearful of being accused of being weak on foreign threats our leaders insist on siphoning off 66% of U.S. federal discretionary spending to preserve and expand the US military machine. Meanwhile the Russians have breached our cybersecurity with relative ease and devastating consequences. 

China and the EU have become the winners the in world trade, without compromising the upkeep of their basic infrastructure. By comparison, America’s infrastructure resembles a third world country. China completed the largest high-speed rail network in the world in just 10 years and Europe has been building and expanding its high-speed network since the 1990s. By comparison, America high-speed rail remains a pipe dream. 

China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty, while America’s poverty rate has remained the same and child poverty has increased. America has the weakest social safety net of any developed country and no universal healthcare system. Fifty percent of Americans have little or no retirement income and are two paychecks from bankruptcy. 

Decades ago Martin Luther King Jr. warned us that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” 

Mercifully, the proverbial raging bull, Donald Trump has been dispatched to Mar-a-Lago. Full of anger he continues to use his clout to intimidate critics like Liz Cheney who supported his impeachment. Meanwhile, House minority leader, Kevin McCartney made a hasty trip to kiss the ring of the don and pledge his fealty. Even under President Biden there is little hope the war machine will lose its appetite for more and more federal dollars.

An impeachment trial is not a fair trial. In a civilian court of law, a suspect faces a judge and jury that are expected to be unbiased, to review facts, to review evidence, to hear and see witnesses, and to make a simple decision: Did she/he do it, or not? 

In Presidential impeachments, and in particular, this one, Republican Senators had made up their minds before the trial began. In jury selection in a civilian trial, steps are taken to assure you do not have jurors voting based on personal biases. In this case, Senators had a total conflict of interest. They voted based on how it would affect their political future prospects. 

The liberal media is painting the acquittal as a good thing, because seven Senators broke ranks and voted to convict, because history and the public got the message that Trump did a bad thing, but really because they are trying not to have the general public that wants to see justice go into a rage at this injustice. 

This decision is a grave threat to the future democracy of the U.S., and it is a grave threat to human survival on Earth. Trump is emboldened. 

Now we will see more Trump rallies, we will see Trump running again for President, and we will see violence and mob rule. The U.S. could degrade into anarchy. 

What is the American public going to do? We're going to be vaccinated, go back to our jobs, celebrate the summer holidays, and be at peace. In fact, the American public has two years to take steps to prevent Trump from being re-elected and to shore up our system of laws and our Constitution such that we do not see a coup. 

In two years, we could see the Republicans take over both houses of Congress, and they could then, purely for political motives and with no substance, find a way to Impeach Biden and Harris. If that doesn't work, reactionary extremists will find violent methods to overthrow the government. Take this seriously.

Kudos to the House impeachment managers who presented their case with devastating impact using video footage to prove that former President Trump incited the violent insurrection at the Capital in a vain attempt to negate the certification of the 2020 election. There was little doubt the spineless Republicans would vote their conscience and convict their cult leader. Most Republicans had made up their minds prior to the commencement of the trial. Few made any effort to focus attention on the trail looking bored, irritated, while others were caught doodling on bits of paper. 

Former Vice-President Mike Pence, who falsely claims to be a devout Christian, betrayed his faith and maintained his loyalty to Trump who made no effort to shield him from an angry mob of barbarians clamoring to hang him on the steps of the Capitol. 

Trump made no effort to stop the violence and expressed no remorse for the tragic loss of life. 

Perhaps the most damning statement was made by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who sharply criticized former President Donald Trump’s actions for fomenting the attack on the Capitol last month, but voted to acquit him Saturday on the charge of “incitement of insurrection”. Kindly explain the double-talk Mitch! 

Fortunately, there is near certainty that Trump will be so overwhelmed with ongoing litigation he will rapidly fade into obscurity.

On February 11, my wife and I got our first dose of the coronavirus Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine; we get our second dose on March 3. We are relieved to get some protection from the virus even though we will continue to wear masks when we leave the house, observe social distancing, avoid crowds, and generally stay at home most of the time. 

According to a recent The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, about 1 in 3 Americans say they definitely or probably will not get the coronavirus vaccine, while 67% plan to get vaccinated or have already done so, 15% are certain they won’t and 17% say probably not. Many are worried about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness even though the vaccinations so far have encountered few side effects. The resistance was found to run higher among younger people, people without college degrees, Black Americans, and Republicans. 

The virus is changing quickly, and it may well continue to develop in ways that help it elude the vaccines being deployed worldwide. For example, the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech claim their vaccines are effective against new variants of the coronavirus discovered in Britain and South Africa. But they are slightly less protective against the variant in South Africa. New forms of the vaccines may need to be developed to combat the new forms of the virus. 

If about one-third of the population persist in refusing to be vaccinated then herd immunity will be difficult to be reached and the goal of ending the pandemic may be difficult to achieve. Herd immunity occurs when enough people (about 75% to 85%) in a population have developed long-lasting immunity to a virus or disease, either through infections or vaccination. 

The resistance to vaccinations is exacerbated by the rise of white supremacy encouraged by Trump; his response to the racial justice movement; right-wing media sources that helped Trump spread disinformation about the virus.  

In April 2020, The Harvard Kennedy School published a research article, The Relation between Media Consumption and Misinformation at the Outset of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the US. The Article shows that Americans who relied on right-wing sources like Fox News, Breitbart News, One, America News, The Drudge Report or Rush Limbaugh, received misinformation about the pandemic, entertained conspiracy theories and discouraged them from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others from the virus. Fox News provided Trump and the GOP with a television channel to distribute their “alternative facts” to entertain their loyal followers. To further this symbiosis, Trump looked to Fox News personnel for his staff and advice. 

There is an irony in Trump’s minimizing the seriousness of the pandemic and his own downplaying of his own sickness with Covid-19 last October. Trump had extremely depressed blood oxygen levels at one point and a lung problem associated with pneumonia caused by the coronavirus. Instead of using his bout with Covid-19 as a teaching experience, Trump and his medical team failed to disclose the seriousness of his condition. Trump compared Covid-19 infection to the “seasonal flu." 

The resistance to vaccinations is compounded by the anti-vaccine movement (anti-vaxxers), who rely on misinformation, pseudoscience, and conspiracy mongering. What distinguishes science from the way movements like the anti-vaxxers approach evidence, is that the anti-vaxxers value anecdotes over careful science. Vaccines, which are one of the safest and most efficacious preventive medical interventions humans have ever devised, arguably having saved more lives than any other medical intervention ever conceived. In sum, the anti-vaxxers are another denialist movement, very similar to denialists of global climate change, science-based medicine, and evolution, which unfortunately remains so stubbornly resistant to reason and science. 

The Los Angeles Times reports that anti-vaxxers and hate groups are teaming up to stoke fears on Covid-19 vaccines in an effort that some experts fear could create mistrust of government at a crucial moment for public health. This mistrust of science was aided and abetted by the Trump administration's frequent disregard for scientific expertise. 

How can resistance to getting vaccinations be overcome? Hopefully as the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness continues to be proven again and again over time, resistance will be overcome. And persistence education about the vaccines’ importance to ending the pandemic will be essential. The hardcore anti-vaxxers will be the most difficult to convince. 

Yes, we should all get vaccinated for our own safety and the safety of the community. 

The mental health treatment system and other authorities can force us to accept treatment. And much of the time, this is helpful. But they cannot force us to believe their spiel that we are intrinsically inferior.

It is hard enough for a young adult to acknowledge and accept that they have a serious mental disorder. They should never, on top of that, try to swallow the pill that says they will never amount to anything, that they will never be able to have a professional career, that they will not be accepted in society, and that they will never be normal.

A psychiatric disability doesn't equate with dumb. Ignorance is widespread concerning psychiatric problems, and even people of high intelligence and achievement often do not really understand that being mentally ill does not mean you can't do anything of substance. Talented people often fall prey to the same ignorant beliefs as anyone else. 

I do not understand why, today, the prejudice and stigma of the public toward mentally ill people has become increasingly worse in the last two decades than it was in the nineteen eighties through the year 2000. Yet, I've noted far more bigotry directed at me for being mentally ill today compared to any other time in my adult life. 

Many people attribute stupidity to me by looking at my outward appearance. I don't know where this comes from. It seems I have developed an outer facade that enables me to blend in among those of lower socioeconomic status. That is a guess. And if it is so, it is some type of natural protection rendered by my subconscious. If I looked like a super smart person, roughnecks would come after me a lot more than they do now. 

Within the last ten years, when I've demonstrated basic competence and some abilities of a normal adult, I've surprised people. This points to an assumption that I am supposed to be an idiot. Why am I not an idiot when I am mentally ill? Because it's apples and oranges. Being schizoaffective does not make a person an idiot. The perception that mentally ill people are necessarily incompetent is self-sustaining because it rubs off on the patient. When we allow people to convince us that we are intrinsically inferior, we begin to think and behave that way. This limits the mind--more so than medication does. 

When I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, in 1982, the diagnosis was probably correct, but the prognosis was bogus. The psychiatrist, Dr. Trachtenberg, said I could do fairly well for a while. Then, when I was outpatient, I was told I should do the same kind of brainless work that I'd done before I became ill. Yet it was that line of work that contributed to becoming sick. 

A few years later I went to trade school and learned more electronics than I'd known as a hobbyist. I was the top student in a class of ten very bright students. I took a job in television repair. I was successful at television repair for several years after that. The limitation was my low capacity to handle stress--it was not a lack of smarts. 

My intellect is very good, and I am able to keep it separate from symptoms of paranoia and delusions. This allows me to engage my mind to help fix my mind. This would not be possible if I did not take medication. Therapy is helpful when the therapist is good. Ram Dass: "The therapy is only as high as the therapist." 

I am in an extraordinarily challenging phase in life. I have multiple health issues that I have to stop ignoring, I'm looking at housing insecurity and income insecurity, I have massive obligations of time and energy, and I am unsure of my chances of getting out of all of this. At the same time, I'm trying to forward my writing efforts. Are these the efforts of an incompetent person? Or is this a sort of crisis that many people would find terrifying? 

Some people have believed I'd be defunct long ago. I did not accept that. There is no reason that a person should accept other people's assessments of oneself. To do so is almost like surrendering one's will and one's destiny to an enemy. 

We cannot control or predict the future. We can only try. But we will never try anything if we allow mental health professionals to implant beliefs in us that we are not capable. And while we may need to face a simple fact that we may have a psychiatric condition that responds to treatment, and while this acknowledgment benefits us, how does it benefit us to agree with people who tell us we don't have a mind? And if we never try anything, rest assured, we will never accomplish anything. 

---

Jack Bragen is a fiction, commentary, and self-help author who lives in Martinez with his wife, Joanna Bragen.

Trump Ups Room Rates for His "Second Inauguration"

Not all QAnon cultists have abandoned ship since the failed arrival of "Judgment Day" on January 6. Q's most fervent followers are now looking forward to Donald Trump being sworn in as the next president—on March 4, 2021(the official Inauguration Day until 1933). And apparently, Trump still believes he has a chance to return to power.

The evidence? According to Forbes, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC has raised the prices of its room rentals three-fold for the period of March 3-4. No other DC hotels have raised their daily rates—let alone tripled them.

This "Trump Bump" also happened last month, when the Trump Empire jacked up the price of its rooms for January 5-6—coincidentally coinciding with the day that Trump Tweet-ordered his true believers to show up in Washington with the veiled promise: "Big protest in D.C. … Be there, will be wild!”

The cheapest rooms for the day of Trump's March 4 "inauguration" start at $8,000 a day.

It looks like Trump has not given up on his hopes to regain control of the White House—nor has he given up on schemes to enrich himself at the expense of the Always-Trumpers. 

At Least It Was Quick 

We now give thanks to the unlikely duo of Stormy Daniels and convicted Trump Fixer Michael Cohen for giving us "The Best Headline of the Week." 

Sex-worker and author Daniels recently appeared on Cohen's podcast (waggishly titled "Mea Culpa") to discuss the details of her illicit 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. Stormy's steamy interview gave rise to the following, bold-faced summary: "Sex with Donald Trump: The Worst 90 Seconds of My Life." 

Disney's Robo-Trump Headed for the Dump? 

More bad news for Donald J: A new Left Action Petition is calling on the Disney organization to "impeach and remove" its mechanized replicant of Donald Trump in the "Hall of Presidents" exhibit at Florida's Walt Disney World Resort. The petition's argument is simple: "He's a national embarrassment, he attacked our democracy, and he's probably giving little kids nightmares." 

Some signatories have left scathing comments, including: "Throw his figure in the pirates' moat" and "Turn off his spotlight and his audio-animatronics." 

Despite not looking much like the disgraced ex-president, Disney's Robo-Trump actually proves to be more graceful and eloquent than the real deal. (See video.) As a tribute to the actual Trump, the Trump-bot's sub-sized hands frequently flash the "OK/WhitePower" salute while the words in his pre-recorded speech ring as hollow as the automaton's interior. (According to one White House insider, Trump wanted to revise the Disney-provided script so he could boast about his real estate empire and make "inaccurate claims" about his accomplishments.) 

 

From the beginning, the Trump-bot prompted so much derision from visitors that the Disney team had to install "large spikes" on the stage to protect the ire-provoking effigy. Now, with the Trumpster headed for the Dumpster, the future of the entire Hall of Presidents is in doubt. According to the Orlando Weekly, "unofficial outlets with reliable insider knowledge [are] reporting that Disney had hired Lin-Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovic to work together on developing a new version of the attraction." 

Don't Call That Chicken a "Dumb Cluck" 

It turns out that the Humane Society has a lesser-known compatriot. The Maryland-based Humane League is mailing solicitations for funds to "end the abuse of animals raised for food." The League shames the practice of "factory farming" and insists that "No animal deserves to live without the sun ever touching their back or fresh air in their lungs." The League says it's time to abandon the practice of using creature-mocking slurs like "birdbrained" and "pigheaded." Instead, consider the following fascinating factoids: 

Chickens can see more colors than people, can differentiate between human faces, can plan for the future, can count to ten. 

Pigs can recognize their given names at just two weeks old, are smarter than dogs, can run up to 11 mph, can play simple video games, love belly rubs. 

Cows have a memory of three years, have best friends, love to play. 

Senator Duckworth 

One of my fave senators, Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), has long been a stalwart opponent of the Trump Regime. She recently sent out a fund-raising letter with the following message printed on the outside of the envelope: "I didn't defend our democracy in a warzone thousands of miles away just to watch it crumble at home." Unfortunately, these ringing words wound up sounding like bag of clanging frying pans because it raised the question: How did our invasion, destruction, and occupation of Iraq—based on the lie that Saddam Hussein possessed "weapons of mass destruction"—have anything to do with "defending our democracy"? 

Duckworth compounded the confusion with the first two sentences of her fund-raising pitch: 

"I proudly served in a war in Iraq that I didn't support. I did it because I believed in the values our nation was founded upon." 

So what is Duckworth saying? That she did something she believed was wrong because our nation values unquestioning obedience? It's hard to find anything to be "proud" of in this equation. 

Ten Black Women Who Ran for President 

I recently spotted a headline on The Daily Kos that raised an interesting challenge. It read: "Surely, you know the name of one Black woman who ran for president. What about the other 10?" 

(I could only name two.) 

Here's a link to the story (which contains videos of the contenders). 

 

A Stauch Defender of Women 

Have you heard of the Stauch Book Prize? The contest, begun in 2018 by British screenwriter Bridget Lawless, honors "thriller novels" that do not include acts of violence against women. That's rare: awarding a prize not for something that's IN a book but something that's NOT. 

The existence of such a prize is a sad and sobering indication of how rare it is to find a work of fiction that doesn't involve a woman at risk. Winners are announced on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. 

Some people still don't get the message, as the following note from Wikipedia illustrates: "Some writers object to the premise of the award, referring to it as a 'gag order' and accusing it of censorship." 

 

It's Time to Declare a Climate Emergency 

Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer mused: "It might be a good idea for President Biden to call a climate emergency." That call has been answered. 

According to the climate action group 350.org, Senator Bernie Sanders has joined with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Earl Blumenauer to introduced a bill that would do just that. A climate emergency declaration would give President Biden the power to "reinstate a ban on crude oil exports, send emergency climate aid packages to states, and even redirect billions of dollars of funding toward the production of renewable energy." 

This action is overdue. Around the world, 38 other countries (including Japan, New Zealand, and members of the European Union) already have acted to declare "climate emergencies." 

Invoking the National Emergencies Act would grant Biden more than 100 powerful tools to address the crisis. 

"We don’t take invoking the National Emergencies Act lightly," 350.org cautions. "We know that it’s been used in the past to abuse power, support militarization, and more. We remember when Trump tried to use the Act to funnel money from the Pentagon to build his 'border wall.' But if there ever was an emergency, the climate crisis is it." 

350.org is inviting Bay Area residents to click here to send letters to Barbara Lee and Senators Feinstein and Padilla, urging them to support the new climate emergency bill. 

Alphabetical Equality 

I've always been bothered by online forms that present lists of nations that begin with the "United States" at the top. Even the most reputable and progressive organizations are guilty of perpetuating this tradition of "alphabetical exceptionalism." So I've been pleased to see increasing cases where the US is properly listed alphabetically and appears towards the back-end of all entries. Now there's an organization—Sanctions Kill—that not only lists the planet's nations alphabetically but also presents country names in the local script. The first four entries—Afghanistan, Aland Islands, Albania (Shqiperia), and Algeria—feature nation-names rendered in Afghan Persian and Arabic script. 

Franken Nails It 

In case you missed it, former Senator Al Franken recently posted a splendid article titled "Surprise! Surprise! Republicans Care About Deficits Again" in which he observed: "Republicans have taken renewed interest in deficits and our growing national debt. That’s because a Democrat is in the White House. When a Republican is president, deficits don’t matter." 

Franken offered some history: 

• The national debt nearly tripled under Ronald Reagan, who gave huge tax cuts favoring the top of the income ladder. (Thanks to Reagan's payroll tax hike, taxes actually went up for the bottom 40 percent.) 

• During George H.W. Bush’s "No New Taxes" term, the national debt rose by 54 percent. 

• Bill Clinton increased marginal tax rates for the affluent. Instead of triggering a recession—as the Republicans loudly warned—the US saw eight straight years of economic growth, a balanced budget, and a surplus. 

• George W. Bush promised tax breaks for the poor but actually privileged tax cuts for those at the top. Under George W., the national debt doubled, leading to worst economic performance since the Great Depression 

• Barack Obama famously lead the country out of a crushing recession in 2008. During Obama's two terms, the economy continued to recover and marked 76 straight months of economic growth. 

• Donald Trump—like Bush #1 and Bush #2—promised to cut taxes for low- and middle-income Americans. Once in office, he made sure that massive tax cuts went to the massively wealthy. 

• The Congressional Budget Office warned Trump's 2017 tax cuts would add another $1.9 trillion in debt and, under Trump's misleadership, the US entered the decade "last among developed nations in income" and first in wealth inequality. 

Warren's Wealth Tax 

When Elizabeth Warren was appointed to the Senate Finance Committee she promised her first bill would be to introduce a wealth tax—a centerpiece of her presidential run. Since the start of the COVID pandemic, US billionaires reportedly added $1 trillion to their collective wealth. Ten billionaires made enough money to pay for vaccinating everyone on the planet. Meanwhile, many Americans faced lost incomes and the risk of homelessness. The country's frayed social safety net quickly collapsed.  

Warren's bill would levy a two-cent tax on every dollar of individual wealth over $50 million—with an added tax on every dollar over $1 billion. The new funds would help to restore the social safety net. If you want to help make this happen you can sign a petition to Congress calling for a Wealth Tax. 

Introducing Founders Sing 

After being intentionally trashed by the prior “president” and his cronies, the environment now has a fighting chance under the Biden administration. This video features fierce environmental advocates Leonardo DiCaprio and Greta Thunberg. 

 

Smithereens has occasionally ended with video clips from a group of prolific political satirists who perform under the name, Founders Sing. Here is a snippet of background information from the Founders themselves. 

A Note from Founders Sing 

We’re thrilled that you’re here because it means that, like Founders Sing, you’re committed to justice, integrity, equality… and rockin’ this joint! 

Our video series sprang to life in response to the rise of Trump and Trumpism—i.e. rampant corruption, racism, misogyny, voter suppression, environmental destruction… all exacerbated by sheer incompetence. The number of lies spewed now measures in the tens of thousands. 

We’re gobsmacked that barely a single Republican has lifted a finger to reverse the trashing of our Constitution and willful destruction of our entire way of life. (Nice try, Mitt!) 

We invite you to support our important mission by visiting our donation page. Your generosity will enable us to crank out more high-quality videos until Democracy (or at least a modicum of sanity) is restored. 

With love and laughs, ~ Founders Sing

Thankfully, some city meetings were canceled this week so the impeachment trial could take center stage during the day and space was left for the evening rehash.

With only four meetings of significant note and a need for shifting your attention, this Activist’s Diary starts with where you can have the most impact to shape an ordinance or influence a decision, City Council Policy Committees.

It was December 11, 2018 when City Council voted to create six standing Council Committees. After two years with this new arrangement, it still feels like people think the place to comment to influence a decision is at the regular Council meeting. Council meetings are the fallback position when we lose in committee or an item skates through to the regular meeting agenda without going through committee.

The six committees are: 1) Agenda & Rules Policy Committee, 2) Budget & Finance Policy Committee, 3) Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment & Sustainability Policy Committee, 4) Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community Policy Committee, 5) Land Use, Housing & Economic Development Policy Committee and 6) Public Safety Policy Committee https://www.cityofberkeley.info/citycouncil/.

These meetings are during the daytime, which makes it harder for people with daytime jobs and responsibilities to attend. This is where neighborhood and community groups can coordinate input by sending representatives. 

We can’t forget that courage from elected officials can be lacking even here in Berkeley. It is important that our voices are heard and items don’t just slide by. We end up with better results when we participate, even when we lose. 

Monday afternoon, February 8th in the Agenda Committee, Councilmember Droste’s item Resolution to End Exclusionary Zoning got a pass and it was placed as action item 29 in the February 23rd City Council regular meeting agenda. Candace Hyde-Wang, in a letter to Council, described this item as follows: “The title of the resolution is sadly deceptive. It frames discriminatory housing history in a way that is inaccurate and unproductive. It dresses itself up as a racial equity plan when it actually serves to further wealthy real estate and tech interests. When addressing housing, we need to look carefully and be guided by facts, not false flags.” Co-sponsors of this “false flag” are Councilmembers Taplin, Bartlett and Robinson. 

You can read her full letter in this issue. Berkeley Neighborhood Council will be holding a special meeting February 20 on just this item. https://berkeleyneighborhoodscouncil.com/ 

The other Droste real estate item, Quadplex Zoning, will be reviewed at the Council Land Use Committee on Thursday morning February 18th at 10:30. This ordinance would bypass Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) review of applications for variances to established zoning except in a few defined cases. 

I have attended enough ZAB meetings to know that better projects are possible when there is review and input. And, not an insignificant amount of the time that nudging for better projects, better planning comes from the community. 

The Tuesday evening City Council meeting outcome (just like the impeachment trial which consumed most of my week and probably yours too) was mostly predictable. Sophie Hahn engaged in her usual tactic when there is an item at the end of the agenda that Council wants to avoid. She dawdled away chunks of time for the “perfect wording” of the amendment to the Home Occupations ordinance, the item that preceded the controversial last item on the agenda, the Vote of No Confidence in the Police Chief. 

I counted thirty-six speakers including myself plus emails who supported the vote of no confidence. Only four from the community supported Police Chief Greenwood. The comments came from people who had observed and experienced racial profiling, people who were part of the Mayor’s Impartial Policing Working Group and had experienced upfront Chief Greenwood’s resistance to change. Chief Greenwood was described as corrosive, disconnected from his progressive self-image and in opposition to every attempt at change. His gross overrun of the Department budget was cited by many. Speakers repeatedly said that Chief Greenwood lacks the willingness to productively participate in the community process to re-imagine policing in Berkeley. Delays in reporting and lack of follow-through were also noted, but racial profiling and disparate treatment of people of color was the single thread through statement after statement. The Community Policing Equity Report provides confirmation to disparate treatment. 

George Lippman laid the problem in the lap of the City Manager. “…The City Manager manages the Police Department. She or this office must be held accountable for the racially discriminatory behavior of the Police Department…” In the end, as could be predicted, Mayor Arreguin, Councilmembers Taplin, Wengraf, Robinson, Droste, and Hahn voted to take no action on the vote of No Confidence. A few cited a technicality: that they didn’t have the authority to make such a vote. Councilmembers Bartlett and Harrison abstained. Kesarwani did not respond and was noted as absent. 

This was City of Berkeley business, but as I reflect on the week, I can’t help but see the parallels between what happened Saturday in the impeachment trial and City Council’s not holding City management accountable. Councilmember Wengraf said she was hopeful. I’m hopeful someone gets a wake-up call to be accountable, change or leave. 

Wednesday evening the Parks and Waterfront Commission was my third and final stop in an evening of zooming. The Disability Commission lacked a quorum, the Homeless Commission barely held my attention and Parks was still in session in the middle of reviewing the plans for 600 Addison when I tuned in. 600 Addison is a commercial building project with a west facing glass façade with a spectacular view of the Bay. Normally a project does not come to the Parks and Waterfront Commission, but this project abuts Aquatic Park and plans to use Bolivar Drive as a shuttle thoroughfare. It was Maria Landoni who noted that Bolivar Drive is in Aquatic Park. 

It was in a review of the project description after the meeting where I found that the developer’s statement that a planned shuttle would run every 15 minutes during commuter hours, which really means every 15 minutes from 6 am – 10 am and 3 pm – 7 pm: eight hours of using a park road as a shuttle thoroughfare. I’ve been following this project and there have been improvements. More trees are being saved and planted. Bird safe glass is being considered, but a commitment is sadly missing. Parking has been reduced from 1044 spaces to 924 which is still obscene in a city that eliminated parking minimums and established parking maximums in new residential projects just a few weeks ago. 

While the Parks and Waterfront Commission declined to take a vote, when asked for a recommendation, the big question is why a commercial project should be allowed to make a park road on park property its transit corridor for its shuttle. 

Why has no one insisted that the building be designed for the shuttle to circulate on the east side, away from the park where families bicycle, people stroll and birds frolic in the water? 

Surely there is a way to decrease or rearrange parking (944 spaces), entrance and exit traffic patterns to accommodate a shuttle. 

There was one other item at the Parks and Waterfront Commission worth attention, the proposal for a ferry and pier. I couldn't make the numbers add up. Someone at a ferry/pier meeting called a ferry a boutique service. It is a poor contender as efficient transportation. 

A BART car can hold 200 passengers and a 10 car train can transport 2000 people in one trip. A 433 passenger ferry if used as a commuter service would at a minimum double travel time. Projections are that if implemented by 2035 the ridership could be up to 795 unique persons per day. The whole proposal needs a thorough honest economic evaluation and an environmental impact report. 

The last meeting of the week worth noting was the McGee Spaulding Neighbors in Action (MSNIA) and the key agenda item was the presentation on TOPA, Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act. This is a very interesting ordinance proposal and there are still parts to be worked out, but it could be very beneficial to tenants and fair to building owners. TOPA would require that before an apartment building can be sold, it has to first be offered to the tenants for purchase. This is an important measure to track and it certainly sparked my interest, turning me from lukewarm to a cautious supporter. If you can make it, TOPA is on the Land Use Committee Agenda for this coming Thursday, February 18. Councilmember Harrison organized the MSNIA presentation. 

I’ve been finishing my Activist’s Diary with what I’m reading. I needed just one more hour to finish Braiding Sweetgrass, but my time ran out with the San Francisco library and I am back on the waiting list. There is good reason why it is on the best seller list. I finished RUST a Memoir of Steel and Grit. I have to thank book club for this choice. It’s a great book available from our Berkeley Library. RUST is about Cleveland, the steel mill, work, church, relationships, mental illness and politics. Next up is The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. 

Worth Noting:

We are looking at a short week with the President’s Day Holiday on Monday, February 15 and city meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.



Key meetings this week are:

Tuesday at 11 am Margo Schueler will give a presentation on infrastructure at Civic Center Park (what lurks underground). At 6 pm is the presentation to Council on the Marina Area Specific Plan and proposed Pier and Ferry.

Thursday at 10:30 am is the Land Use and Housing Council Committee with several impactful housing proposals especially Quadplex zoning which appears to turn over approval of duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes to a desk sign-off away from ZAB (Zoning Adjustment Board) review except in certain circumstances. At 7 pm there will be a presentation on the creation/progress of a Berkeley Department of Transportation (BerkDOT) at the Transportation Commission.

The City Council February 23 Regular meeting agenda is available for comment and follows the list of city meetings. A public comment letter to Council on agenda item 29 Resolution to End Exclusionary Housing is in this issue.

If you have a meeting you would like included in the summary of meetings, please send a notice to kellyhammargren@gmail.com by noon on the Friday of the preceding week. If you wish to see comments from attending the City meetings of the previous week, go to the Activist’s Diary in this issue.  

Tuesday, February 16, 2021 

Community for Cultural Civic Center (CCCC) Parks Subcommittee, 11 am – 12 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87665359314 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 876 Meeting ID: 876 6535 9314 

AGENDA: 3. Presentation on existing ‘grey’ infrastructure of Civic Center, in relation to elements of Gehl Vision and Berkeley Vision 2050 report by Margo Schueler, (pre meeting homework read 25 pages Gehl report overview options A/B/C, 129-133, 146-147, 154-44, 168-169, Aerial View 216-217, Public Realm Plan 224-225, Public Realm Zones 226-235 link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uhSZ6hTTGoed0T8ugMXffz5DaCc4wDLX/view 

Email debdurant@gmail.com to be added to subcommittee and google drive 

 

Berkeley City Council, 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Agenda_Index.aspx 

Council Closed Session, 4 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87054545221 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 870 5454 5221 

AGENDA: Pending Litigation, WCAB (Worker’s Compensation) (4) Cases 

 

Council Work Session, 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82670306267 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 826 7030 6267 

AGENDA: 1. Presentation: Report on Homeless Outreach during COVID-19, 2. Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan and Pier/Ferry Work Session, 

 

Wednesday, February 17, 2021 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, 10 – 11:30 am 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/rent/ 

AGENDA: COVID-19 webinar – preregister for links to join 

 

Berkeley Cultural Trust (BCT) Equity & Inclusion Committee, 10:30 – 11:30 am 

https://berkeleyctrust.weebly.com/news.html 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/96545147675?pwd=TlNKZGtNOFdSWHArL3ljWWlpNlVoQT09 

Teleconference: not given try 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 965 4514 7675 Passcode: 693207 

 

Animal Care Commission, 7 – 9 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Animal_Care_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85743447842?pwd=WmovUGFYTmo4U2gvMVkzcTBJY0dNZz09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 857 4344 7842 Passcode: 725597 

AGENDA: V.a) Update COVID impact Berkeley Animal Care Services, b) Annual Workplan, c) Update on Friends of Berkeley Animal Care Services, VII. Monthly Financials, Statistics, Budget 

 

Thursday, February 18, 2021 

City Council Land Use, Housing & Economic Development Committee, 10:30 am, 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Land_Use,_Housing___Economic_Development.aspx 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81837769005 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 818 3776 9005 

AGENDA: 2. Quadplex Zoning – to allow approval ministerially of projects with up to 4 units if certain conditions are met, also to allow possibility of dividing up existing homes into up to 4 units. And to direct that staff initiate work immediately and for Planning Commission to incorporate into 2021-2022 workplan., 3. Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act ordinance – expected financing of TOPA combination of City subsidies, tenants’ capital and bank/credit-union loans, 4. Resolution Housing as a Human Right, referral to CM to study financial feasibility of Municipal Housing Development Pilot Project with cooperative, nonprofit and public ownership models, 

 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, 10 am 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/rent/ 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/94935840413?pwd=VFNXTm9MN2RYY1VPbW1UVmlWanJudz09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 949 3584 0413 Passcode: 417409 

AGENDA: 5. Special Presentation: Honorary Resolution to Gus Newport in honor of Black History Month, 7. Midyear-budget & addition to add Housing Counselor, Staff recommendations for waivers 

 

Design Review Committee, 7 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/designreview/ 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/99426090096 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 994 2609 0096 

AGENDA: 1. 2129 Shattuck – Review of Building Signage, 

2. 3031 Telegraph – continued preliminary design review – demolish existing commercial building and construct 6-story mixed use building, 110 units (7 Very low-income) 112 bicycle spaces, 29 vehicle spaces 

 

Fair Campaign Practices Commission / Open Government Commission, 7 pm 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/FCPC/ 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88554543030 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 885 5454 3030 

AGENDA: Complaints alleging violations Berkeley Election Reform Act {(BERA) 6. Mayor Arreguin, 7. Leah Simon Weisberg, Mari Mendonca, Andy Kelley, Dominique Walker, Xavier Johnson, & 9. Compassionate Bay} 8. Enforcement referral from City Clerk re Berkeley Community for Police Oversight Committee Supporting Police Commission Oversight Charter Amendment, 10. Remitting public financing funds in event of returned contributions, 12. Lobbying enforcement referrals and procedures, 13. Report and discussion re Council Agenda & Rules Committee on officeholder accounts and budget grants, 

 

Transportation Commission, 7 – 10 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Transportation_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88633458817?pwd=WitFMEZKc0hvU0F1MWd1WjlGM2VIdz 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 886 3345 8817 Passcode: 612870 

AGENDA: B. 1. Berkeley Department of Transportation (BerkDOT), 2. Vision 2050, 4. Work Plan 

 

African American History Celebration, 6 – 8 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=16749 

Posted as in person at James Kenney Recreation Center, 1780 8^th Street celebration of African American history and culture with light refreshments 

 

John Hinkel Park Community Meeting, 6:30 – 8:30 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=17222 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/99710129120 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 997 1012 9120 

­­­­­­­­­­ 

City Council Regular Meeting, 6 pm, February 23, 2021 available for comment  

Email: council@cityofberkeley.info 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Agenda_Index.aspx 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81676274736 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 816 7627 4736 

 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

1850 Arch (add bedrooms) ZAB – 2/23/2021 

1862 Arch (add bedrooms) ZAB – 2/23/2021 

1200-1214 San Pablo 2/23/2021 

Notice of Decision (NOD) and Use Permits with End of Appeal Period 

570 Colusa 2/22/2021 

1205 Cornell 2/22/2021 

1720 Delaware 2/16/2021 

2421 Fifth 2/23/2021 

2440 Grant 2/23/2021 

1901 Marin 2/23/2021 

2220 McGee 2/23/2021  

1 Orchard Lane (LPO) 2/9/2021 

917 Page 2/23/2021 

1128 Parker 2/18/2021 

86 Rock 2/22/2021 

1216 Stannage 2/18/21 

2740 & 2744 Telegraph 2/16/2021 

2113 Vine 2/16/2021 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Current_Zoning_Applications_in_Appeal_Period.aspx 

 

LINK to Current Zoning Applications https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Current_Zoning_Applications.aspx 

___________________ 

 

WORKSESSIONS 

March 16 – 1. Capital Improvement Plan (Parks & Public Works), 2. Digital Strategic Plan/FUND$ Replacement Website Update, 3. FY 2021 Mid-Year Report and Unfunded Liabilities Report (tentative) 

May 18 – (tentative) – 1. Bayer Development Agreement, 2. Affordable Housing Policy Reform 

 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Berkeley Police Department Hiring Practices (referred by Public Safety Committee) 

Update Zero Waste Priorities 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant