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Town Gown Relations
Carol Denney
Town Gown Relations
 

News

Press Release: Berkeley City Council Approves Historic Agreement with University of California, Berkeley

Stefan Elgstrand, Office of the Mayor
Wednesday July 14, 2021 - 10:45:00 AM
Town Gown Relations
Carol Denney
Town Gown Relations

Last night, the Berkeley City Council voted to authorize a historic agreement governing future growth, city services and more with the University of California at Berkeley. The agreement represents one of the largest financial settlements a UC campus has provided to a host city and paves the way for expanded educational opportunities while balancing community concerns and prospective impacts on City services. More importantly, the agreement assures a voice for the City and Berkeley community in the University’s future development.

“At its core this agreement is about enabling a world-class education in a world-class city. It will enable the City to continue to provide quality city services and maintain the character of its neighborhoods while extending UC’s renowned education to the next generation of students. This agreement is the culmination of years of negotiation and community input, and it’s a reflection of the mutual relationship and ongoing cooperation between the City and the University of California.” said Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin.

On the agreement, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said, “pending approval by the Regents, this agreement lays the foundation for a new era of city-campus collaboration and cooperation that will greatly benefit the members of our respective communities. We are thrilled to have the city’s support for our efforts to address an urgent student housing crisis, just as we welcome the prospect of working with our municipal partners to address shared challenges and opportunities. I am grateful for Mayor Arreguin’s efforts that have allowed us to arrive at a true win-win agreement, an outcome that is indescribably better than the prospect of costly, lengthy litigation”.

[CLICK HERE TO SEE THEM MAKING THEIR DEAL] 

The tentative agreement approved by the City Council calls for the University to provide annual payments to the city for a total amount of $82.64 million over the next 16 years. The funding will support fire and city services, and projects supporting residents within a half mile of the UC main campus and Clark Kerr Campus. In addition to the annual payment, the agreement calls for a stronger cooperative relationship including: voluntarily honoring the City’s zoning standards in the design of off-campus projects, creating a collaborative planning process for projects in the City Environs, meeting and conferring around suspending master leasing of private housing, a commitment to work with the City around the closure of Alta Bates Hospital, and a willingness to work with the city to require commercial tenants to obtain permits and pay city impact fees. 

The tentative agreement also provides that the city will drop its litigation over the Upper Hearst Housing Project, discontinue litigation over an intercollegiate volleyball facility at UC’s Clark Kerr Campus and an agreement to not challenge the upcoming 2021 LRDP and UC’s Anchor House and People’s Park housing projects. This agreement enables the City to retain its rights to challenge certain off-campus projects. 

Next week, the University of California Board of Regents will discuss and potentially vote on final approval of this tentative agreement. The final language of the agreement will be available after final adoption and execution by the parties.


It’s Time for Vaccine Mandates

Ralph E. Stone
Tuesday July 13, 2021 - 01:48:00 PM

On February 11, 2021, my wife and I got our first dose of the coronavirus Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine; we got our second dose on March 3.

In May 2021, President Joe Biden set a goal of 70% of all adults ages 18 and older vaccinated with at least one shot by the vaccine by the July Fourth holiday. At the time, this seemed like a reachable goal as the U.S. had enough vaccines.

Unfortunately, July Fourth has come and gone and the 70% goal has not been reached with 55.4% fully vaccinated and 64.4% partially vaccinated. Why, because nearly one-third of Americans have no immediate plans to get vaccinated.

The irony is that some countries are clamoring for vaccines, while too many Americans are resisting believing the coronavirus threat has been exaggerated or believing the evidence that previously infected people retain some immunity to the virus. That means herd immunity may not be reached or will be unreasonably delayed.  

Now the U.S. is dealing with the Delta variant, which is as much as 50 to 60% more transmissible. The Delta variant poses a serious risk to people who are not fully vaccinated, as it is highly contagious and may result in more severe disease. The more we delay reaching herd immunity, the more chances of other more deadly mutations. Both doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are still nearly 90% effective against this variant while the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine works about 60% of the time. 

Contra Costa County, California took the daily average of new cases in the County over the previous week. Among those new cases who had been fully vaccinated was 0.6 per 100,000 residents. But it was 6 per 100,000 among those who were not inoculated — 10 times higher. It should also be noted that although most people get better within weeks of illness, some people experience post-COVID conditions including among other things tiredness or fatigue, “brain fog,” loss of taste or smell, heart palpitations, and depression or anxiety. 

How can resistance to getting vaccinations be overcome? By now the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness has been proven again and again over time, yet resistance remains. And we continue to hear that persistent education about the vaccines’ importance will eventually overcome resistance. If the unvaccinated aren’t convinced by now about the lifesaving benefits of vaccination, they just haven’t been listening or are listening to the wrong sources. 

We are still in a public health emergency, and public health trumps politics or claims of privacy. As long as medical and religious concerns are accommodated, we should mandate that the reluctant, the recalcitrant, and the reckless get inoculated at the federal, state and local levels as a condition of employment.  

In this regard, on June 23, 2021, the City of San Francisco will require all 35,000 of its employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or risk losing their jobs. Hopefully, other cities, states, the federal government, colleges and universities, and employers will follow San Francisco’s example. 

Get vaccinated. It’s the right thing to do. 

 


Opinion

The Editor's Back Fence

Berkeley's Collaborator-in-Chief Reports Deal with Over-Lady

Becky O'Malley
Wednesday July 14, 2021 - 11:39:00 AM

What the hell is going on with the purported agreement between the City of Berkeley and the University of California at Berkeley? I watched the City Council meeting last night, both the public comment which preceded the 4 pm closed meeting, purportedly exempted from the Brown Act dictum that the public’s business should be done in public because it dealt with pending litigation, and the supposedly 6 pm meeting, which actually didn’t start until close to 8, both over zoom. When the Mayor told a member of the public at the 8 pm meeting that no reportable action had been taken at the 4 p.m., I turned the "public" meeting off, but I am told by a reliable viewer that no action was taken in that meeting either.

So where did the press release announcing a settlement, complete with sickening video in a format that I haven’t been able to figure out how to post yet, come from?

I contacted Councilmember Kate Harrison, the only one of the bunch I trust, but she told me councilmembers had been legally admonished not to reveal the terms of the settlement until the U.C. Regents had voted to accept them. She couldn’t even tell me what the vote was, but other sources confirm that she was the only no vote.

So why did Arreguin think he (and only he) was authorized to put out this press release with lots of specific information? And I have many more questions for him. For example, does the pending agreement cap student enrollment, or does it allow the current exponential increase into eternity?

Arreguin's favorite word to describe his hoped-for relationship with his alma mater is “collaborative”--it's in this press release.

That’s apt, in my book. It’s a term straight out of Vichy France, and it marks him as what he seems to be, the Collaborator-in-Chief. Too bad, when what the citizens of Berkeley need is a leader, not a collaborator.

More later, if and when I can figure out what the hell is going on.

[CLICK HERE TO SEE THEM MAKING THEIR DEAL]  

UPDATE: I think I’ve figured out why the purported deal between the city of Berkeley and the University of California at Berkeley was not reported after yesterday’s closed meeting.  

There’s no deal yet. If I remember my contracts law from 40 years ago or my experience negotiating contracts for the family high tech business, it’s not a contract until both parties have agreed, and technically the Regents of the University haven’t yet voted to agree. Now, there’s another secret meeting on the council agenda for today:  

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/2021/07_Jul/City_Council__07-14-2021_Special_Closed_Agenda.aspx  

There’s something on the agenda of a legal nature which possibly allows the council to keep it secret under the Brown Act exemption for ongoing litigation, and it could be something about the various lawsuits, which according to the Arreguin-Christ press release are being dropped. Or not. That’s the beauty of secret meetings: we the public can’t know. Because secrecy….  

But the Berkeley City Council still can’t close a deal at this meeting. What’s on the table is technically an offer, and there’s no contract until it’s accepted. It’s possible the offer could even be withdrawn by the City. Oh sure.  

There’s no Zoom link posted for this afternoon’s meeting. Does that mean there’s no opportunity for public comment. Does the Brown Act allow that? 



Public Comment

UCB Takes it on the Chin, Again

Arlene Silk, Berkeley Citizens for a Better Plan
Saturday July 10, 2021 - 11:10:00 AM

This week UCB lost big in Court over its plans to stick two buildings at the corner of Hearst and Gayley Road (the so-called Upper Hearst Project) and use that project to legalize its on-going violation of CEQA in connection with student enrollment. To understand this lawsuit, you have to understand that there are two layers to what UCB was trying to do with its building project on that corner.

First, UCB wants to demolish the ugly (yes, we all can agree it is ugly) parking structure on the corner of Hearst and Gayley and build a large residence in its place running up to Ridge Road (where there currently is a surface parking lot). Over time, who can rent there has changed – first it was general public rental units, then, faculty housing, and now student housing – but the plan has always been for some housing that would produce income for UC. It also wants to build, down-hill from that huge residence hall a new building for the Goldman School of Public Policy. If that was all this involved, we’d have the typical fight over degrading historic resources and building yet more ugly, undistinguished structures in the midst of paradise. Given that the ugly garage was already there, this is and was always going to be a losing battle.

The second layer here, however, was the proverbial ball game and really high stakes for UC. For the last 15 years UCB has exceeded projected student enrollment by, well a lot. UCB’s projected enrollment was previously evaluated in a 2005 final Environmental Impact Report and, consequently, was lawfully allowed only up to that level under CEQA. CEQA basically requires that before a big project is undertaken, the developer/public entity, evaluate the impact of that project on the environment, vet the project and its impact in public so there can be input, and plan to mitigate any material negative environmental impacts. Here, UCB skipped the CEQA step on its increased enrollment, and so it tried to sneak it into the Upper Hearst Project. All Hell broke loose and lawsuits ensued, including suits by the City and community groups (kudos to all of them)!

So what happened this past week is that the court ruled against UC, finding that it violated the law (CEQA) by increasing its population without following the steps CEQA requires. It also put to bed UC’s theory that increasing it population -- through increased student enrollment and faculty and staff hiring -- was not something that impacted the environment (!!) such that they had to follow CEQA and perform a full environmental impact report (EIR) and not just a little supplemental EIR tacked onto the project application. Put another way, the Court found UC violated the law by increasing its student enrollment significantly above previous projections. It also found that UC should have considered the alternative of not enrolling so many students. (This alternative falls in the “Duh” category but was beyond UC planners.) 

What impact will this ruling have on UC and particularly on UC’s proposed 2021 Long Range Development Plan (2021 LRDP), which is pending before the UC Regents and proposes an even greater population expansion? Well, if UC were run by sensible administrators and UC Regents who paid attention, UC would (a) revise its 2021 LRDP and (b) prepare a new EIR that actually outlined in real numbers the proposed population expansion, considered alternatives to that expansion (including not expanding the student population) and evaluated its environmental impact on Berkeley, not the entire San Francisco Bay Area.  

Instead, we expect that UC will continue on its present path, which is to try to ram through the 2021 LRDP in the midst of a pandemic with no support for its legal positions or evidence supporting its decisions. It will then continue to enroll more and more students, collect fees from them despite not having anywhere to house them or expectation that they can graduate in 4 years (given how oversubscribed required classes are), and sit back and wait for folks to sue them. It will then work hard to paint everyone who opposes UC expansion as NIMBY, racist, rich, or [insert latest fashionable insult here]. 

UC has taken quite a beating before now. After all, they were previously slammed in the press after the State Auditor found UC illegally concealed a huge slush fund from the Regents (https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2016-130.pdf ), unlawfully mishandled Native Remains (https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2019-047/index.html), and (with certain Regents) engaged in corruption in student admissions (http://auditor.ca.gov/reports/2019-113/index.html.). All this and nary a blush from the UC Administration or reaction from the UC Regents. 

If only the UC Regents would pull up their socks now, do their job, and reign in the UC administrators and tell them to follow the law! We are keeping our fingers crossed for the UC Regents Meeting on July 20-22nd, which will be the first under the new Chair-Person Cecilia V. Estolano. We are watching. 

 

Berkeley Citizens for a Better Plan (BC4BP) see bc4bp.com – and oh yes, sign the petition! 

 


Don't Settle for a Blue-and-Gold Washed Sellout

Carol Denney
Sunday July 11, 2021 - 10:12:00 PM

While neighborhood groups, student groups, historical preservationists, and natural open space advocates have successfully organized opposition to the extremity of the city's high-rise friendly and open space averse planning revisions and the University of California's effort to monetize our landmarks, parks, threatened architectural gems, and rent-controlled housing, Mayor Jesse Arreguin has been oddly silent. 

While the merchants along Telegraph Avenue have swooned over 60's iconography and made the poets and flower children thematic images for their posters and marketing, Mayor Arreguin all but shrugs. It's as though the anti-war movement, the student-led ethnic studies origins, the local revolutions in music and poetry and the legendary leaps in opposing racism and gender oppression had no connection to People's Park, Telegraph Avenue, and the cultural explosion that moved the times whether they were ready or not. 

There may be nothing we can do at this point to inspire Mayor Arreguin to catch a sense of the magical qualities of Berkeley's most iconic early architecture, or the seminal role People's Park played in stopping the Vietnam War and putting cultural rebirth and political resistance into hyper drive. There may be nothing we can do to nurture what little interest our current UC chancellor has, unlike some previous chancellors, in finding an honest compromise between both the towns and the campus's current and future needs. 

While some California towns have found ways to negotiate mutually beneficial strategies for their shared futures, Mayor Arreguin and Chancellor Christ have one obvious commonality: to shove a settlement agreement through as quickly as possible during the pandemic, when fewer voices have the means to "attend" the nightmarish Zoom meetings and many commissions, often the city's best citizen-run organize voice of the impacted people, are entirely shut down. 

Green washing works for the oil industry. Blue-and-gold-washing works for the university, which, despite its ties to nuclear weapons and other generous corporate interests, walks in a misty cloud of college nostalgia. So put your pennies together. The courts have started to see through the blue-and-gold haze that clouds politicians' perspectives, especially since donations and political job stability seem to go hand in hand with a posture of agreement. If the Berkeley City Council won't take a stand for our best, most green, most livable future, the recent track record of neighborhood victories of UC's excesses in our courts may be our most sensible bet. 

# # # 


A Berkeley Activist's Diary, Week Ending July 11

Kelly Hammargren
Monday July 12, 2021 - 04:05:00 PM

If you want to appreciate how California SB 9 and SB 10 will change the local climates go out on a warm day and stand on the sidewalk in the bright sunshine and then walk into the shade under the canopy of a Western Sycamore or large majestic oak. It’s hard to miss the difference between the cooling of majestic trees and the heat that radiates from sidewalk baked in a full sun. Add in buildings that collect and radiate heat and you have the “heat island effect.”  

Trees need space to grow. Eliminating green space by covering land with buildings that soak up heat is the future Toni Atkins and Scott Weiner in SB 9 and Scott Weiner in SB 10 have planned for us. It’s not a good one and it looks like Buffy Wicks will vote for this. Let’s remember our own councilmembers Bartlett, Droste, Kesarwani, Taplin and Mayor Arreguin all declared their allegiance to SB 9 on June 15th by refusing to support a letter to the State legislature in opposition to SB 9. 

The week after the 4th of July was light in meetings. I attended only two of the nine I listed in my weekly Activist’s Calendar. 

If I had listened to the Thom Hartmann podcast from July 6 and let the end of the Centers for Disease Control’s recording of breakthrough COVID infections, except in cases of hospitalization or death, sink in before the Saturday outdoor birthday party, I might have reconsidered attending. The party was over food, so of course no one had on masks. We were all vaccinated so that was reassuring. 

What we know is that the incidence of COVID across the country, and even here in California, has nearly doubled in the last two weeks. https://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/ What we don’t know is what percent are breakthrough infections and what percent of breakthrough infections result in Long Haul Syndrome. We don’t have good statistics on the incidence of Long Haul Syndrome in people who are unvaccinated. I’ve seen reports ranging from 10% to 33%. UC Davis gives an alarming incidence of Long Haul Syndrome: “More than one in four COVID-19 patients develop long-haul symptoms lasting for months – even if they had mild cases…” https://health.ucdavis.edu/health-news/newsroom/studies-show-long-haul-covid-19-afflicts-1-in-4-covid-19-patients-regardless-of-severity/2021/03#:~:text=Doctors%20have%20been%20estimating%20one,since%20February%20confirm%20that%20range. 

What we also know now is that SARS-CoV-2 is airborne and catching COVID through touching some object is very unlikely, though washing our hands is still a very good idea. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253578 

I did hear a lot at the birthday party about how people are sick of zoom and anxious to be meeting in person. In much the same breath no one was looking forward to all the time lost for travel. I seem to be in the minority here. I happen to like zoom. I do understand that for some a stable network and possession of a working computer is an issue, but meetings in person limit attendance too, to those who are physically able and have the means to travel to the location. 

The Berkeley City Council’s Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment and Sustainability Committee (FITES) met on Wednesday on one item, an ordinance to regulate plastic bags at retail and food service establishments. I don’t know about you, but I am drowning in plastic bags. The ordinance is a good beginning, but there is so much more to do to get the presence of plastic everywhere under control. No vote was taken. One more FITES meeting is planned before council goes on recess July 28th. 

For weeks now, I have been attending Zoning Adjustment Board and Design Review Committee meetings to request that projects require bird safe glass, dark skies and planned landscapes, include native plants, only to realize that I have missed the most important part of the message on native plants. It all came together when I saw the announcement “Control Garden Pests Naturally” with pictures of leaves with bites out of them offered through the Ecology Center. I sent off my email along with some references: 

“The sign of a successful gardener is a garden with a minimum of 70% native plants and plants with bites taken out of those leaves. If we only go so far as putting native plants in our yards, but then kill the bugs they support, we are breaking apart the ecosystem we sought to create.  

Whether bugs on plants are killed with pesticides or killed with so called “natural” non-toxic pest control techniques, we are still disrupting ecosystems and putting the survival of birds and other species at risk by taking away their food. Bugs are food for birds. Even hummingbirds need caterpillars to feed their nestlings…” 

Caterpillar: It’s What’s for Dinner https://nestwatch.org/connect/news/caterpillar-its-whats-for-dinner/ 

Over 2.9 billion birds have disappeared in North America since 1970. https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/ 

Insect decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a thousand cuts https://www.pnas.org/content/118/2/e2023989118 

A better webinar would be “How to get over hating bugs and loving them as food for birds.” Another could be “Getting rid of ornamental plants and gardening for songbirds and pollinators.” 

Two years ago, I used to stop at Allston Way between McKinley and Grant on my walk home from the Y to watch the dozens of pipevine caterpillars crawling and chewing the soft leaves of the pipevine. The pipevine plant and pipevine caterpillar have evolved together so that without that specific native plant there are no pipevine swallowtail butterflies. The vine was cut down to a stump to make way for a new fence and though it has started to come back I saw only one pipevine caterpillar this year. 

It is not just Monsanto’s Roundup and the other herbicides and pesticides that are killing off insects and contributing to that 2.9 million missing birds. We can look in the mirror. It doesn’t have to end this way and that is the message of my favorite webinars from Douglas Tallamy. If we just cut lawns by half, plant native plants, keep our hands off the bug spray and let nature take hold, we can turn the loss of insects and birds around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHURaRv78QY 

Bayer Healthcare, LLC which purchased Monsanto June 7, 2018 is making the rounds of city meetings to promote the proposed 30 year Development Agreement with the City of Berkeley and their suggested significant community benefits. A number of people called in to the Zoning Adjustment Board meeting Thursday night to say the offered benefits were inadequate including Loni Hancock, former Berkeley Mayor. 

I said there were others who could speak better to community benefits and asked that as the purchaser of Monsanto, that they plant demonstration gardens of native plants that grow and support insects without the use of Round-up. Bayer is on the docket again this week at the Planning Commission (significant community benefits) on Wednesday and the Design Review Committee (project design) on Thursday. 

In closing, Nikole Hannah-Jones created quite a stir as one of the journalists with the 1619 Project examining how slavery has shaped America. Some on the political right have been whipped into hysteria over the 1619 Project and critical race theory. Critical race theory was created four decades ago by legal scholars as: ”an academic framework for examining how racism is embedded in America’s laws and institutions.”


Open letter to the Oakland City Council

Bruce Joffe
Sunday July 11, 2021 - 10:37:00 PM

Please don't yield to vague promises from the As management and make a huge financial blunder similar to what was foisted on us taxpayers with the Raiders deal, decades ago. 

We are still paying for that betrayal of fiscal responsibility even as the Raiders no longer play in Oakland. 

Why should our city government subsidize a private, for-profit company? There must be a surety of overwhelming net benefit to the public. And that benefit must accrue early in the project, not 45 years into the future. 

Furthermore, our in-place transportation infrastructure favors using the existing Coliseum site, not the waterfront area that would result in traffic and parking congestion. 

Wasn't the goal of the Raiders deal to create economic development around the Coliseum site? What evidence is there that a new site on the waterfront would fare any better? 

Thank you for giving this your attention.


Why I Partly Agree With Trump's Class Action Suit

Jack Bragen
Sunday July 11, 2021 - 10:06:00 PM

In my creative endeavors, to be more specific, my writing, because I want to be compensated and known, I am at the mercy of Google and Amazon. Although Trump's First Amendment argument is dumb and won't work, since that part of the Constitution only applies to the U.S. Government, (prohibiting the government from censoring people) there is another angle to this. 

In the early nineteen eighties the U.S. Government forcibly broke up "Ma Bell," into smaller pieces. It was an earlier mega corporation that had a monopoly on communications in the U.S. Today, small time writers are at the mercy of Amazon. Amazon is so big that it essentially has a monopoly over book sales. And Google is also huge, and in large part has a monopoly over people finding you on the web. 

Even though the First Amendment does not apply to Trump's lawsuit, a monopoly basis could be applicable. Because of the idea that big tech has a chokehold on publishing and can decide on a whim who gets to be famous and who doesn't, Trump's class-action suit strikes a chord with me. 

It would be simplistic thinking to believe that because Trump is bad, we must disagree with everything he says and does. On a few things he gets it right. And I hope to the Universe that he does not regain the Presidency.


Columns

THE PUBLIC EYE: Global Climate Change

Bob Burnett
Friday July 09, 2021 - 01:33:00 PM

The most recent Gallup Poll indicates that American voters have a lot to worry about. So many worries that voters don't seem particularly concerned about climate change. That's a problem because, in the long run, climate change is the most serious problem we face. 

There's abundant evidence about the climate change problem. On July 7th, writing in the the New York Times ( https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/climate/climate-change-heat-wave.html) Henry Fountain observed: "The extraordinary heat wave that scorched the Pacific Northwest last week would almost certainly not have occurred without global warming, an international team of climate researchers said Wednesday. Temperatures were so extreme — including readings of 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Ore., and a Canadian record of 121 in British Columbia — that the researchers had difficulty saying just how rare the heat wave was. But they estimated that in any given year there was only a 0.1 percent chance of such an intense heat wave occurring." 

Nonetheless, in the June Gallup Poll (https://news.gallup.com/poll/351779/sharply-fewer-cite-covid-nation-top-problem.aspx ) of national problems, climate change was barely mentioned. Respondents were most concerned about government (22 percent), followed by race relations (11 percent), immigration (9 percent), the economy (9 percent) and COVIDE-19 (8 percent). As usual, there's a partisan divide: Democrats (16 percent) are more concerned about race relations than are Republicans (3 percent), and Republicans (22 percent) are more concerned about immigration than are Democrats (3 percent). And Democrats and Republicans see "government" through a different lens; Democrats are satisfied with President Biden and Republicans are not. (Both parties are concerned about Congress.) 

In the June Gallup Poll, climate change rated a measly 3 percent. (The most recent You Gov poll(https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/trackers/most-important-issues-facing-the-us?) poll shows a higher number, 12.5 percent; still far from what one might reasonably expect.) 

There are several explanations for climate change's low problem rating. The most likely explanation is that most poll respondents are overwhelmed by negative news and simply don't have the attention span to deal with anything beyond the governmental crisis, race relations, economic turmoil, and the Coronavirus pandemic. (An April Pew research study (https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/04/15/americans-views-of-the-problems-facing-the-nation/) indicated that most Americans (65 percent) believe Climate Change is a serious problem just not as serious as the others.) 

Another explanation is that Republicans, in general, do not take climate change seriously because their news sources do not. During the Trump Administration, it was well known that Donald Trump did not regard climate change as a serious problem. For this reason, the White House press secretary, and other administration press channels, did not talk about climate change. In addition, for many years, Fox News (https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/2021-fox-news-still-spreading-dangerous-climate-denial ) has denigrated climate change and spread the lie that human activity is not overheating our climate. 

Nonetheless, a majority of Americans believe that climate change is real (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/global-warming-perceptions-states-more-americans-accept-fault-n1265213 ). A strong majority subscribe to the statement "global warming is mostly caused by human activities." Not surprisingly, Democrats are much more likely to hold this belief. 

While one explanation is that Democrats and Republicans subscribe to different news sources, another explanation is that their brains are wired differently. There's a growing body of neuroscience research that suggests that liberal brains are much more tolerant of ambiguity. (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-liberal-brains-might-have-some-real-differences/) That finding has several consequences, one of which is that conservatives have a narrower span of attention, they tend to focus on only one or two political issues at a time. At present that means that most Republicans focus on "government," that is. a set of issues including Trump, "the big lie," voting rights, and so forth. In addition, they focus on "immigration," that is the belief that the United States southern border is being invaded by Hispanic immigrants. They do not focus on climate change because they don't have the cognitive ability to handle an additional disturbing variable. They are impaired. (You probably already knew this.) 

Someone has to lead. Someone has to ensure that all of America's problems are dealt with -- not just the Fox News crisis du jour. That someone is President Biden. He has to mount national programs to respond to climate change because the Republicans are incapable of doing this. Godspeed, Joe. 

Bob Burnett is a Bay Area writer and activist. He can be reached at bburnett@sonic.net 


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: You do Not Have to be 'Cured' to Write Well About Mental Health

Jack Bragen
Sunday July 11, 2021 - 10:15:00 PM

The coronavirus pandemic has turned out to be a lengthy stretch that challenges people's endurance. There is not only the disease itself to consider, but also the aftermath. Many with psychiatric conditions are hit awfully hard by these circumstances. Many months ago, the term "mental health" went mainstream and became applicable to everyone who has been struggling to deal with this. 

In combination with this, we have a horrendous political situation, which in turn has created a toxic social situation. Whichever side you are on, we must agree on one thing at least: that things are not good. I am affected by all of this. My marriage and family relations have been adversely affected. I have been adversely affected. 

I have never been cured from my psychotic condition and I do not claim to be. I am predominantly in remission because I comply with medication and I get a lot of help from the mental health treatment system, even though I often criticize them in my writing. I also get a lot of support from family. 

There is no cure for most mental illnesses. I was first diagnosed as having Schizophrenia, Paranoid-type, in the 1980's and 90's. The diagnosis has been changed to schizoaffective disorder. No one has seen me in a full relapse since the 1990's, and that may be the reason the diagnosis was shifted. Some psychiatrists were still wearing diapers in the 90's. If I went off medication, my diagnosis change could be reversed. But so long as meds are made available, I'll take them. 

The fact that I'm not cured doesn't disqualify me to write this column or to be somewhat an authority on the subject, based on a pool of knowledge derived from personal experience and a lot of contemplation. 

For example, I've studied Buddhist concepts and how they are applicable to the predicament of mental illness. Although meditation doesn't cure mental illness, mindfulness can ease many of the bumps that are on the path of being mentally ill. It can also be a good adjunct to medication. A specific of this: I've changed how I feel about things, and I am less attached than I was to people, places, things, and thoughts. This makes it easier to let go of a delusion than it would otherwise be. A second specific: the life of a mentally ill man or woman has numerous disappointments, and mindfulness allows more acceptance of this. 

You do not have to be cured to know something about mental illness. I've managed my condition very successfully since 1996, I've kept a roof over my head, I've participated in a marriage in which I remain married to the same person, and I handle my own business dealings. I've also been employed, self-employed, and have had hundreds of manuscripts published, including a lot of fiction, commentary, and self-help. If you can do that while at the same time having a diagnosis of schizoaffective, it says something. 

I am in the process of enrolling in treatment that is more intensive than what I usually get. It is much more than I need, but it is a better compromise than having an hour a week of therapy over Zoom, and nothing else. Currently I have far too much alone time, and it isn't good for me. My condition in some respects is worse than it was. I've had too much paranoia, and this has begun to adversely affect my behavior, more so than it did. 

It is like the yogi who was questioned about being diagnosed with cancer. Someone asked him how it was that he was a yogi and had cancer--shouldn't he be immune or be able to cure himself? The answer is an obvious "no." Self-mastery does not make a person immune to all physical disease. The yogi replied that he couldn’t cure his cancer through meditation, yet by meditating he could enjoy his life to the fullest while he suffered from his cancer. 

For me, the truth is murkier than what I've described above. In this column I'm often giving advice in general terms on how to be well and do well with mental illness. How is it then, that I got worse? Answer: it is the nature of my condition. It is inescapable that some of the time, things will be worse. I can tell you that when I do get worse, I will invariably get more help (even if sometimes it is at the prompting of family, such as my wife), and this follows the kind of advice that I might offer in my column. 

I expect I will continue with this column and with all my other writing activities. The extra help does not prevent that, and it may make my mind better which in turn will raise the quality of my product. I will keep you updated. 

 

Jack Bragen is author of "Jack Bragen's 2021 Fiction Collection."


SMITHEREENS: Reflections on Bits & Pieces

Gar Smith
Sunday July 11, 2021 - 10:26:00 PM
Saved from the dustbin of history: The Class of 2021.
Saved from the dustbin of history: The Class of 2021.

"CONGRATS CLASS OF 2021!"

That was the message spelled on more than 20 large posters tied to the metal fence on Hopkins Street when MLK Middle School hosted its open-air commencement ceremony in June.

Today, only seven of the posters still remain tethered to the fence. But a close look at these remains reveals a hidden treasure—scores of messages scrawled on the posters by students who left an array of ink-pen scribbles, Sharpie jots, and penciled thoughts. Here are some of those fading remarks, sun-bleached quotes, and wind-whipped wisecracks left behind by the class of '21.

"Facebook is just Instagram for boomers." "Dating is Temporary: Duel Stats are Eternal [unless you get wired]." "Copeharder." "Work hard and be kind. Be kind to yourself. Always!" "It's better to be pissed off than pissed on." — Ben Franklin. "Hit kids, not vapes" — Albert Einstien. "The once infamous now famous man once said: 'When in doubt, whip it out!'" — Christopher Whistopher. "Make the best of the moment." — Sam. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." — Pablo. "I hope that 9th grade is good." — Mitra. "Drink water." — Ambrose. "Keep your friends close" — Isol. "Ava: Surround yourself with people that like you for you." "Wishing you ALL the best in high school — So much to look forward to!— Ms. Puckett."

There was one special sight that I was looking forward to photographing—a beautifully executed pencil sketch in Japanese manga format. But when I returned to the field, that poster was no longer to be seen.

On a hunch, I approached a nearby trashcan and—after a bit of digging— discovered the crumpled remains of the missing poster, along with the penciled image—rescued from the landfill. 

The March Forth of July 

Revolution Books celebrated Independence Day with posters inviting the proletariat to an Anti-4th of July screening of David Zeiger's anti-war film, Sir! No Sir! 

"There is nothing to celebrate about this blood-soaked country, its wars of empire, its destruction of the environment, its murderous police and all the suffering it has caused people here and around the world," the poster proclaimed. "Let's get down to the basics. We need a revolution—nothing less." 

The poster extended an invitation to "everyone who is sickened by the US government and what it has done to people all over the planet and to people here, everyone who refuses to join in the orgy of July 4 flag-waving and patriotism." 

Here's the trailer for the film. (If you'd like to watch an extended 16-minute excerpt, click here.) 

 

Americans Sure Know How to Celebrate the Fourth 

I haven't seen any figures on how many tons of illegal fireworks were exploded in America's neighborhoods over the course of the Independence Day celebrations, but The Gun Violence Archive recently filed its annual report on how many Americans (and unfortunate bystanders) were gunned down during the July 3-5 celebration of our gun-totting, red-blooded (and blood-splattered) freedoms. According to the GVA, more than 540 holiday shoot-outs (many involving multiple victims) left 189 people dead and 516 injured. The youngest victim was an 8-year-old girl, who was shot and killed in Georgia. 

Tax Titan Trump Now Finds Taxes Taxing 

During the presidential campaign in March 2016, the GOP's Bronze Bully told a rally crowd: “I know more about taxes than any human being that God ever created.” Two months later, during an interview with Good Morning America, the Orange Orangutan boasted: “I think nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world.” 

But now that the Grinning Reaper finds himself in the sights of New York's state prosecutors, he's playing dumb. (Well, maybe "playing" isn't the word.) He's taken to asking his adoring crowds "what's wrong?" with gifting your employees with $1.7 million in tax-free income? 

At Trump's mockingly re-dubbed Loser-Palooza event in Florida, Mr. Twice Indicted bellowed: "You used an apartment because you need an apartment ‘cause you have to travel too far where your house is, you didn’t pay tax. Or education for your grandchildren. I don’t even know, do you have to …? Does anybody know the answer to that stuff?” 

As the Daily Kos's caustic commentator Aldous J Pennyfarthing put it: "Donald Trump is simultaneously the stupidest and smartest man in the world when it comes to the tax code. I’d be tempted to call him Schrödinger’s wankface if that weren’t far too salty an appellation for [the] former pr*sident." 

How to Tell It's Not World Cup Soccer 

Just about every Sunday, a lively soccer match convenes at the MLK field on Hopkins. While jogging around the track that surrounds the field, it's easy to conclude that the members of the contending pick-up teams are not competing at Olympic levels. The give-away is in the shouted banter as the ball bounces this way and that—only infrequently finding its way to a member of the same team. During my latest two-mile trot, the three most commonly overheard shouts from the pitch were: (1) "Oops!" (2) "Sorry!" and (3) "Oops, so sorry!" 

Of course it's tricky trying to pass a ball to a teammate when everyone on the field is wearing a different-colored jersey. 

Berkeley Group Blocks US Plot to Fumigate Mexico 

Last year, Mexico called for a ban on glyphosate pesticides and genetically engineered corn. This angered Bayer—a chemical company that worked with IG Farben during Germany's Nazi era and which, today, owns a factory that occupies several blocks in West Berkeley. 

Bayer gained control over glyphosate's profits when it absorbed Monsanto and took over the production of Roundup, Monsanto's highly profitable, cancer-causing herbicide. 

Bayer immediately enlisted the Trump administration, which responded by threatening Mexico with the loss of it's prized "bilateral relationship" with the US. But Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador resisted, vowing to protect Mexico's "food sovereignty and security." 

Now, Bayer and CropLife America (a powerful industry trade association) are pressing Joe Biden's USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to run roughshod over Mexican sovereignty for the sake of Big Ag and Big Chem profits. 

That's when Mexican farmers and environmentalists reached out to the Berkeley-based Pesticide Action Network North America. Working from its headquarters on University Avenue, PAN produced a letter to Vilsack signed by 80 US corporations opposing US attempts to prolong the use of glyphosate and GE seeds. PAN followed up with another letter signed by nearly 7,000 Americans supporting the protection of Mexico's rights over the pursuit of corporate profits. 

Kristin Schafer, PAN's executive director, declared it was "completely unacceptable for US public agencies to be doing the bidding of pesticide corporations like Bayer, who are solely concerned with maintaining their bottom line profits." 

Fashion Plates Worth Pronouncing 

Out on the open road, I recently spotted a van with a license plate that read "BOP BOP." (Is that a shout-out to INNA's sexy YouTube video or just the sound your vehicle makes after you've blown a tire?) 

A few days later, I found myself driving behind a Mercedes SLS with an onomatopoeic plate that proclaimed "MMMWWWM"—clearly the sound the engine makes when you step on the gas. 

Global Warming: Charlie Sheen Tried to Warn Us in 1996 

In 1996, a film called The Arrival swept across America's movie screens. You could tell it was science fiction because it starred Charlie Sheen as a nerdy, tech-savvy radio astronomer named Zane Zaminski. 

The film begins with a breathtaking look at the Earth from high above the Arctic. The camera then zooms in on a biologist crouching on her knees as the ice around her melts. She leans over a small patch of springtime flowers that is just beginning to sprout and asks in amazement: "What are you doing here?" 

In the course of this creepy, inventive film (written and directed by David Twohy), these two scientists meet and uncover an alien plot to cook the Earth. 

Sheen eventually unmasks the alien life forms that have secretly settled on planet Earth to establish a new colony. Having found the warming planet to be a good candidate for colonization, the aliens had donned human forms (as politicians and government officials) and set about increasing the production of greenhouse gases to heat the world to more comfortable alien standards. 

Was the film prophetic? To answer that question, check out the TV news weather map that appears at 1:16 minutes in the film clip below. 

 

When Sheen confronts one of the aliens about this despicable plot to "terraform" the planet, the invader replies: "If you people can't learn to take care of your own planet, it's time for you to step aside." 

Pressing for Freedom 

In April, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) published its 2021 Press Freedom Index with rankings for 180 countries around the world. The Top Ten were: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Costa Rica, Netherlands, Jamaica, New Zealand, Portugal, and Switzerland. The US was way down the list in spot #44, judged to have less press freedom than (among others) South Korea, Botswana, Slovakia, Samoa, Uruguay, and Estonia. 

In 2015, under Barack Obama, the US was ranked 49th out of 180 countries. In 2016, the US managed a significant improvement, moving up to #41. But the toxic impact of Donald Trump—with his hectoring attacks on the media as "the enemy of the people"—sent the US' ranking on a nosedive. By 2019, the US was back to #48. 

Reporters Without Borders gave Trump due credit in the following assessment:
… many chronic, underlying conditions—from the disappearance of local news to the ongoing and widespread distrust of mainstream media—remain. In fact, the situation worsened considerably during President Donald J. Trump’s final year in-office, which saw nearly 400 journalists assaulted and more than 130 detained—unprecedented numbers according to the US Press Freedom Tracker.  

Many of 2020’s attacks and arrests of members of the media took place as they tried to cover the nationwide protests against systemic racism and police brutality towards people of color.  

Trump himself vilified bonafide news outfits as “fake news” and qualified award-winning journalists as the “enemy of the people,” feeding the type of threatening behavior—including violence and the destruction of equipment—that journalists faced during the uprising against the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021.  

As dozens of alleged insurrectionists face serious jail time for federal crimes, the erosion of trust in the American media and unchecked conspiracy theories that continue to flourish online will require a concerted effort by all—the public sector and private companies alike—to ensure that press freedom in the US runs more than just skin deep. 

But all is not well in post-Trump Washington. After praising the Biden Administration for a return to media openness and accountability, RWB notes: 

The Biden Department of Justice's decision to pursue an appeal against the extradition decision by a UK court in the case of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange resulted in his continued detention in high-security Belmarsh prison, where his mental and physical health remain at risk. If the US government appeal is successful, Assange could face a possible lifetime in a US prison for publishing information in the public interest. 

Rediscovering a Lost Film Featuring "The Committee" 

This report comes courtesy of legendary Bay Area photographer Jeffrey Blankfort, who writes:
Given the attention to the pursuit of a vaccine that will protect humans, deserving and undeserving, from Covid-19, I thought back to yesteryear, 1963 to be exact, when all the counties in the Bay Area participated over three Saturdays in the administering of the Albert Sabin anti-polio vaccine to over 90% of the people in the Bay Area—for only a quarter donation, if they so choose. 

All of the proceeds went to the various county medical societies to use as they saw fit. 

It so happened that I was the lay executive of the Marin Medical Society and, with the money we took in, we decided to make a satire on tobacco advertising called "Too Tough to Care." We were fortunate to have leading members of SF's famed improv comic team, The Committee—Scott Beach, Larry Hankin, Hamilton Camp, Richard Stahl, and Gary Goodrow—volunteer their acting skills with my secretary and some other friends taking other roles. 

 

Of all The Committee folks in "Too Tough to Care," Larry Hankin—now silver-haired and 83 and living in LA, last I heard—is the last one left alive. 

An official of the California Medical Association (which had contributed to the making of "Too Tough to Care") thought we were too hard on the tobacco companies and advertising, in general, and asked that the CMA's name be removed from the film. 

I replied that I would only do so if he sent me a letter formally requesting it, which he was wise enough not to do. 

The local chapter of the American Cancer Society wanted nothing to do with it. When I was asked to show it at the office of McCann Erickson Advertising—which had prided itself on refusing to take on any more tobacco clients—the office staff had laughed loudly in the darkened office as the film rolled by. 

When the lights went back on, it was clear that the office manager was not pleased. 

"That film is not just against tobacco advertising," he blurted, "it's against all advertising!" 

"Well, if the shoe fits..." I replied and packed up and left. 

I just discovered last night that the film, just under 19 minutes, is available on YouTube—the original color having become sepia and the production credited to someone named Sid Davis who had nothing to do with the making of the film, of which I thought I had the only existing color print. 

Here is the complete version of "Too Tough to Care," starring The Committee:
 


Arts & Events

The Berkeley Activist's Calendar, July 11-18

Kelly Hammargren, Sustainable Berkeley Coalition
Saturday July 10, 2021 - 11:03:00 AM

Worth Noting: 

City Council has only two scheduled meetings July 13 and July 27 before Summer recess July 28 – September 13, 2021. 

Monday the Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm reviews the draft for the last council meeting before summer recess. Item 19 in the proposed agenda is Objective Standards Recommendations for Density, Design and Shadows from JSISHL referral to Planning Commission and Design Review Committee (pages 39 – 62 in packet), 

Tuesday is the Regular City Council meeting at 6 pm. Item 14 is the Accessory Dwelling ordinance and item 18 is the appointment of the Police Accountability Board appointment of members. 

Wednesday the Planning Commission at 7 pm will conduct a public hearing on the Bayer proposed Community Benefits Package. 

Thursday the Design Review Committee at 7 pm will consider the 800 Dwight Way – (Bayer) 

Friday the Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force at 9 am will offer a webinar on Building Decarbonization. Pre-registration for this free event is required. 

 

Sunday, July 11, 2021 - No City meetings or events found 

 

Monday, July 12, 2021 

Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87224858589 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 872 2485 8589 

AGENDA: 2. Review Draft Agenda for 7-27-2021 regular Council Meeting – (Full Draft agenda included in this post after list of city meetings), 5. Council Worksessions, 6. Referrals to Agenda Committee, 7. Land Use Calendar, Referred Items for Review: 8. Impact of COVID-19 on meetings, Unscheduled Items: 9. Strengthening and Supporting City Commissions, 10. Return to In-Person Meetings, (next meeting August 30). 

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

 

Tuesday, July 13, 2021 

City Council Closed Session at 4 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86076393598 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 860 7639 3598 

AGENDA: 1. Pending Litigation a. City of Berkeley (CoB) v. Regents of UC No. RG19023058. B. Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, et al., v. Regents of UC No. RG19006256, 2. Conference with legal counsel consider whether to initiate a lawsuit against the Regents of UC related to LRDP (Long Range Development Plan). 

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

 

City Council Regular Meeting at 6 pm, 

Email: council@cityofberkeley.info 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82181611485 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 821 8161 1485 

Use link or scroll through list week of city meetings to full agenda 

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

 

Wednesday, July 14, 2021 

City Council Closed Session at 3 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81700770490 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 817 0077 0490 

AGENDA: 1. Pending Litigation a. WCAB Case No #ADJ1556675 and ADJ10831595, 2. Conference with Labor Negotiators employee organizations IBEWm Local 1245, SEIU 1021 Community Services and Part-time Recreation Activity Leaders, Berkeley Fire Fighters Association Local 1227, Berkeley Police Association SEIU Local 1021 Maintenance and Clerical Chapters, Berkeley Fire Fighters Local 1227 I.A.F.F./Berkeley Chief Fire Officers Association, Public Employees Union Local 1, Unrepresented Employees. 

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

 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board IRA/AGA/Registration at 5 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88313434616?pwd=QWpyNm1HVmdIdFB3cFplaTFDK01LZz09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 883 1343 4616 Passcode: 016947 

AGENDA: 4. Public Comment, Discussion& Possible Action: 5. Proposal to mandate disclosure of rent control protections in leases, 6. Regulation 503 to remove sunset language, 7. Hiring an outside consultant to draft a report for the Board regarding the rent control impacts of Council’s initiation of 2023-2031 Housing Element Update. 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/rent/ 

 

Homeless Commission at 7 – 9 pm 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/96645301465 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 966 4530 1465 

AGENDA: Updates/Action Items: 5. & 6. Presentation and discussion Sidewalk ordinance, RV ordinance, 7. Measure P recommendations, 8. Vaccination rates unsheltered, sheltered, 9. Changes planned for shelters 1281 University, 1654 Fourth street, 10. Status of RFQ for nonprofit housing developers to rehabilitate hotels, 11. Grants being applied for under ARPA, 12. Cal Trans cleaning, 13. Disability access. 

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

 

Planning Commission at 7 – 10 pm 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/95541508344 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 955 4150 8344 

AGENDA: 9. Election, 10. Elect Planning commissions Representative to BART CAG, 11. Public Hearing Workshop Regarding the Proposed Community Benefits Package for Bayer Healthcare LLC Development Agreement. 

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

 

Thursday, July 15, 2021 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board at 7 pm 

Links for virtual meeting and agenda not posted check after Monday. 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/rent/ 

 

Design Review Committee at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/92989533084 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 929 8953 3084 

AGENDA: 1. 800 Dwight Way – Bayer Healthcare LLC - advisory comments 

2. 2902 Adeline – Final Design Review – redevelop 3 parcels at 2902 and 2908 Adeline and 1946 Russell which includes the demolition of one residential structure and one mixed-use structure and construction of 6-story mixed-use building with 4 live/work units and 50 dwelling units including 4 available to very low income households, 56 bicycle spaces and 24 stacked parking for 24 vehicles, 

3. 2176 Kittredge – Final Design Review – construct new 7-story mixed-use building including 165 residential units, ground level retail and underground parking, project includes the demolition of non-residential building and 1-story gas station and car wash. 

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

 

Fair Campaign Practices and Open Government Commission meetings cancelled 

 

Friday, July 16, 2021 

Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force at 9am – 12 pm 

This event is free registration is required 

Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-safe-buildingsbuilding-decarbonization-tickets-157304657465 

AGENDA: Building Decarbonization 

http://cemtf.org 

 

Saturday, July 17, 2021 & Sunday, July 18, 2021 - No City meetings or events found 

___________________ 

 

Agenda and Rules Committee Meeting DRAFT Agenda for City Council July 27, 2021 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87224858589 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 872 2485 8589 

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

CONSENT: 1. Contract $163,008 7/1/2021-6/30/2022 with Berkeley YMCA for Fitness Center Memberships for City Employees, 2. Minutes, 3. Contract $200,000 (Measure FF) with Citygate for Fire Dept Standards of Response Coverage study to include risk profile, optimum fire station locations, crew staffing deployment, work schedules, 4-6 Funded thru CA Mental Health Services Act to 6/30/2022, 4. Contract $100,000 with East Bay Sanctuary Covenant for Trauma Support Services Latinx/Latinas/Latinos for Prevention – early intervention 5. Contract $100,000 with Pacific Center for Human Growth for LGBTQIA+, 6. Contract $31,846 with Center for Independent Living, 7. Contract add $616,819 total $7,440,430 with Innovative Claim Solutions (ICS) for administration of City’s Workers’ Compensation Program thru 6/30/2022, 8. Contrct add $75,000 total $250,000 with Bartel Associates for Actuarial Consulting Services thru 12/31/2023, 9. Contract $1,119,580 (includes $101,780 contingency) with OBS Engineering, Inc for John Hinkel Park Amphitheater Area Improvements, 10. Contract add $120,000 total $278,000 with Siegal & Strain Architects for Design and Construction Administration Services for Cazadero Camp Jensen Dormitory Replacement project, 11. Contract add $40,000total $280,000 with Bellingham, Inc for Additional Dock Repairs at Berkeley Marina, 13. Contract add $146,000 total $439,000 with DMR Builders for the 125/127 University Tenant Improvement Project/renovation, 14. Dana Complete Streets Project by AC Transit install 2-way cycle track, bus boarding platform pending public works approval final construction drawings, 15. Request for two additional meetings for Homeless Services Panel of Experts, 16. Taplin – Letter of support SB 379 – bill prohibits UC from contracting with any health facility or subcontractor that limits a UC employed health care practitioner from providing patients with medical information, reproductive and gender-affirming services (UC has contracted with Dignity Health the largest Catholic Hospital network which recently argued before States Supreme court for its constitutional right to refuse to allow a transgender patient in Sacramento to undergo a hysterectomy.) 17. Bartlett, cosponsors Arreguin, Kesarwani - Proclamation Partition Remembrance Day, ACTION: 18. CM - Updated Fees for Home Occupations Ordinance, 19. Objective Standards Recommendations for Density, Design and Shadows from JSISHL referral to Planning Commission and Design Review Committee pages 39 – 62 in packet), 20. CM – Rules of Procedure Revise rules for legislative process during COVID-19, CM – Designate a voting delegate and alternative for business meeting of the Annual League of CA Cities conference on 9/24/2021, 22. Energy Commission – Creation of Climate Equity Fund $600,000, 23. Arreguin - Contract $78,000 with Szabo & Associates for communications consulting services for Mayor’s office thru 6/30/2022, 24. Taplin – Ghost Gun Precursor Parts Ordinance, prohibits any person other than licensed manufacturer or importer from possessing, selling, transferring, purchasing, transporting, receiving or manufacturing and unfinished firearm that has not been imprinted with a serial numbers, 25. Hahn , Arreguin– Accelerating City’s transition to Plant-based foods, resolution to decrease animal based food products byt 50% by 2024, 26. Hahn, cosponsors Bartlett, Harrison – Contract for Grant-wriging Services, 27. Wengraf – Call on US Government to negotiate the elimination of nuclear weapons, INFORMATION REPORTS: 28. Referral Response to SB 1413 expediate development of teacher and school employee housing, 29. LPC Commission actions. 

_____________________ 

 

Regular Council Meeting, July 13, 2021, at 6 pm, email comments to council@cityofberkeley.info 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82181611485 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 821 8161 1485 

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

CONSENT: 1. 2nd reading FY2022 Tax rate Measure E for emergency services for severely disabled $0.01796 per sq ft improvements, 2. 2nd reading FY2022 Annual appropriations $673,601,287 gross ($552,265,708 net), 3. Formal Bid Solicitations $663,976, 4. Contract $1,200,000 (includes 7.3% contingency $82,000) with ERA Construction, Inc. for the O&K Docks Electrical Upgrade Project at the Berkeley Marina, 5. Amend Contract add $50,000 total $2,144,056 with Suarez and Munoz Construction for San Pablo Park Playground and Tennis Court Renovation Project, 6. Authorize City Manager (CM) to accept Regional Early Action Planning (REAP) grants of $75,000 (competitive), $83,506 (non-competitive) and Priority Development Area (PDA) Grant $750,000 for San Pablo Ave, 7. Accept Grant $135,462 from CA Highway Patrol (CHP) Cannabis Tax Fund to reduce impaired driving detection/investigation training for officers, community education in Berkeley, 8. Resolution approving adjusted fees for 2018 Clean Stormwater Fee, 9. Contract $702,384 (includes $117,064 contingency) for Central Library Waterproofing & Restoration Project, 10. Amend Contract add $150,000 total $200,000 and extend by 2 yr to 11/30/2023 with New Image Landscape Co. for on-call landscaping services, 11. Resolution supporting ending Qualified Immunity Act, ACTION: 12. . Arreguin co-sponsors Hahn, Wengraf – Endorse All Home CA Regional Action Plan on Homelessness, 13. CM – Zoning Map Amendment of Parcels at 1709 Alcatraz, 3404 King 3244 Ellis, 1717 Alcatraz and 2024 Ashby rezone to Commercial – Adeline Corridor District (C-AC) and revise boundaries of the Adeline Corridor Specific Plan Area to include the 5 parcels, 14. CM – Conduct a public hearing and adopt the first reading of local Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance, 15. Harrison, co-sponsors Bartlett, Taplin – Adopt Resolution Updating City of Berkeley (CoB) Street Maintenance and Rehabilitation Policy and Refer to Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment and Sustainability (FITES) potential bonding and funding opportunities for improving the Paving Condition Index (PCI), 16. CM – Housing Element Annual Progress Report, 17. Taplin – Amend BMC Section 14.56.070 for 3-Ton Commercial Truck Weight Limit between University and Dwight on Tenth Street, Ninth Street, Eighth Street and Seventh Street, 18. Police Accountability Board – Appointment of Members, INFORMATION REPORTS: Work Plans, 19. Animal Care Commission 2021/2022, 20. Commission on Disability, 21. Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Product Panel of Experts. 

_______________________ 

 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

2943 Pine (construct a 2nd story) 9/28/2021 

1205 Peralta (conversion of garage) 10/12/2021 

770 Page (demolish existing unit and construct 4 detached) 7/27/2021 

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

0 Cragmont 7/21/2021 

1131 Hillview 7/13/2021 

1513.5 7/20/2021 

2326 Roosevelt 7/13/2021 

3015 San Pablo 7/13/2021 

2768 Shasta 7/13/2021 

2000 University 7/13/2021 

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 

July 20 – 1. Bayer Development Agreement (tentative), 2. Measure FF/Fire Prevention 

September 21 – 1. Housing Element (RHNA) 

October 19 – 1. Update Zero Waste Rates and Priorities, 2. Berkeley Police Department Hiring Practices (referred by Public Safety Committee), 3. Crime Report 

December 7 – 1. Review and Update on City’s COVID-19 Response, 2. WETA/Ferry Service at the Marina, 3. Presentation by Bay Restoration Authority 

 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant Program 

 

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. 

 

This meeting list is also posted on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website. 

http://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet under activist’s calendar http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com 

 

If you or someone you know wishes to receive the weekly summary as soon as it is completed, email kellyhammargren@gmail.com to be added to the early email list. 

 

If you wish to stop receiving the Weekly Summary of City Meetings please 

forward the weekly summary you received to kellyhammargren@gmail.com