Installing a portable toilet in front of any mural is a bad idea, but installing one in front of what is an historical mural commemorating the historic events of People's Park is especially wrong.

The mural stands for many things that are special to Berkeley - the commitment to free speech, the commitment to honoring the community that created this park, the dedication of community artists who undertook to honor the events that took place in the founding of People's Park and the sustained effort by these community artists to maintain the mural.

The events of People's Park are a special part of the history of Berkeley and in some ways best express the true dedication to freedom and equitable justice that Berkeley has become synonymous with. The founding of People's Park itself, after all the protest and struggle, is a testament to Berkeley's dedication to the fulfilling the promise of equal justice that America is supposed to be aiming for.

I join with Osha Neumann, and all reasonable minded members of our community, in calling on our Berkeley leaders to find another location for the public toilet. Please - do not be tone deaf - protect and respect a piece of art that is part of Berkeley's history. 

To: Liam Garland, Berkeley Director of Public Works Dee Williams-Ridley, Berkeley City Manager Mayor and Council, City of Berkeley

I found out today that the City is planning to install an 8 ½ foot tall, 10 ½ foot long public toilet – Portland Loo is the brand – directly in front of A People’s History of Telegraph Avenue (The People’s Park Mural) on the side of Amoeba records at the corner of Haste and Telegraph. I designed that mural, initiated the project, and painted it together with a group of extraordinary artists – O’Brien Thiele, Daniel Galvez, Hannah Kransberg and others. O’Brien and I have worked together to preserve this mural for 45 years.

When I heard the plan for a mural-blocking toilet, I was astounded, saddened, outraged. If I was British, I might say, gobsmacked. I’ve painted other murals. I’ve let them go. But this one? No.

“Really?”, I thought. The City can’t find any place to install a toilet except smack dab in front of my mural – our mural? And somehow that’s okay? To permanently obscure the view of a mural, which has been a Berkeley landmark since it was painted in 1976, and which was officially landmarked in 1990; a mural which is still the only memorial in the city (and perhaps anywhere) to the events that gave Berkeley its reputation as a place where people struggle for the betterment of human kind, for the end of stupid brutal wars, for the elimination of racism, for freedom of speech, and for life free from repressive strictures on how to dress, whom to love, and how to wear your hair. All those freedoms this mural celebrates.

And you want to put a toilet in front of it.  

Have you ever stood and watched, say on homecoming day, or the first day of college for freshmen, when parents drive their children to the gates of the University and drop them off to begin their journey towards adulthood, and have you seen how many come and stand in front of the mural to get a history lesson and how many step across the street to take a picture? Now what will they bring home? A snapshot with a toilet in the foreground. 

It is only by sheer luck that I found out about the plan for a mural-blocking toilet. No one bothered to give me or O’Brien, or any of the other muralists a heads up. I found out today, Sunday. I’m told the deadline to submit comments is Monday. I’m told there was one meeting for public comment. Rigel Robinson sent out a newsletter to his constituents announcing it on Friday, October 1. The meeting was Monday, October 4. I I’m told that only three or four members of the public attended. I’m told that only two locations were offered as options. One of them was in front of the Framer’s Workshop on Channing Way. I’m told the owner of that establishment was present. Maybe they got the newsletter. I’m told they objected because they were concerned about flies. We’re not talking about an outhouse, with an open hole, and a roll of toilet paper sitting next to it, and may be a creaky wooden door. We’re talking about a very fancy modern engineered structure. What flies? I can understand maybe they don’t want a public toilet in front of their establishment, although I could also imagine it could become a destination for people who really have to go and who might, with gratitude, having relieved themselves, look around and say, for example, “Oh, the Framer’s Workshop, just the place to bring that old photograph of grandma we've always loved.” 

Surely there are other possible locations for this much-needed Portland Loo. Like, even a few feet further up Haste. Or on the triangle at Dwight Way. Or . . .. 

Don’t do this. 

If you do, I suspect you will be inundated with outraged letters from people who care about this mural, who have cared about it for decades, and who perhaps care about it even more now as plans are well afoot to build on People’s Park. I saw an announcement of those plans in Rigel Robinson’s newsletter. It included the expression of an intent to “Establish a public memorial in celebration of the park’s past and meaning.” 

That’s what we painted 45 years ago! 

That’s why people call it the “People’s Park Mural. 

And now you want to block 10 ½ feet of it with your toilet. What section will it be? Maybe the section depicting the Free-Speech Movement, with Mario Savio’s words from the famous speech he gave standing atop the police car on Sproul Plaza: 

There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!! 

I quote this section in full as it appears on the mural. I think it’s important for people to see it, to read it, to know it. Perhaps more important than ever. We need all the help we can get not to be overwhelmed with fear and loathing, to keep up the struggle, to preserve our courage during these terrible times I worry that people might interpret the placing of the Portland Loo in front of the mural as the City giving the middle finger to the memory of the struggle for People’s Park, and use Mario’s words as license to wreak havoc on the Portland Loo. The need to poop and pee, should not be in conflict with the need for free speech, the need to remember the past, and the need for art that embodies our collective memory. 

So it’s simple. Don’t do this. It would be a colossal mistake. For 45 years this mural has been largely free from graffiti. It’s been protected by the people. Now it needs protection from government. The rare occasional graffiti we can scrub off. This 10 ½-foot-long, 8 ½-foot-high impediment will not be so easily removed. Find another location. 

Sincerely, 

Osha

I start out each week committed to writing up meetings as they occur only to end the weekend scrambling to finish the diary before the next week starts.

Elmar from Public Works related at the Telegraph/Channing Restroom Community meeting on Monday the challenge of finding a flat location for the Portland Loo and settled on two possible sites. The Portland Loo is a stand-alone pre-fabricated public restroom with a flushable toilet and an external hand-washing station https://portlandloo.com/

One of the two sites is at Haste and Telegraph in the street in front of the mural “A Peoples History of Telegraph Avenue” on the Amoeba Music building. With the Loo’s substantial height of 8 ½ feet and length 10 ½ feet it would obstruct the view of this classic mural designed by Osha Neumann, painted with O’Brien Thiele, Janet Kranzberg, David Galvez and many others in 1976. The mural was enlarged in 1999 and most recently restored in 2020. https://berkeleyplaques.org/plaque/telegraph-avenue/

The other location on Channing just west of Telegraph was met with resistance by Framer’s Workshop. The Framer’s Workshop owners envision that the plumbed public restroom would be a magnet for flies that would find their way down to the Framer’s Workshop entrance like flies from the porta potty that was once near their business. This location also has a mural, but the considerably smaller mural is on a two-story wall and does not possess the historical recognition given to “A Peoples History of Telegraph Avenue.”

If there is absolutely no other location, my vote is for the Channing site and saving the History of Telegraph Avenue Mural. Osha Neumann is probably more widely known by council and city employees for defending the homeless than for his mural art. I hope that doesn’t influence a city decision. I emailed ugonzalez@cityofberkeley.info If you wish to voice your opinion on the location of the Portland Loo then email ugonzalez@cityofberkeley.info by 6 pm TODAY, Monday October 11. I will also will try emailing the Director of Public Works, Liam Garland. 

Last Monday evening was the first Peace and Justice Commission meeting since the beginning of the pandemic. The council referral, the Rights of Nature, a new concept to most people, was the last agenda item at a meeting that was already hitting the wall, an inopportune time to take up a complicated concept that few understood. https://www.invisiblehandfilm.com/what-are-rights-of-nature/ 

Commissioner Rita Maran, appointed by Linda Maio in 2016, was completely opposed to any rights given to nature, convinced that nature would reverse the hard fought human rights. The explanation given by George Lipmann did not touch on how the Rights of Nature has been the legal path to stop the polluting of rivers, clean up the mess and assign damages. These are the very things that cause death and devastating illness, not just to animals and ecosystems, but also to people, most often Black and Indigenous People Of Color (BIPOC(.. 

In 2008, Ecuador was the first nation to give rights to nature when it ratified Articles 71-74 of the Ecuadorian Constitution, granting the environment the inalienable right to exist, persist and be respected. It was a battle before and ever since. Some may recall the 2013 decision against Chevron with a fine of $9.5 billion, which Chevron has refused to pay. 

Here in Berkeley, the Rights of Nature has been a bumpy road as I noted in the April 3, 2021 Activist’s Diary. Mayor Arreguin boxed himself into a corner when he declared his opposition to the rights of nature at the agenda committee and needed a way out. The path became the Peace and Justice Commission referral where it will be tied up for months until the commission is merged and it dies. A fuller story is here: https://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2021-04-03/article/49114?headline=A-Berkeley-Activist-s-Diary--Kelly-Hammargren 

This leads into my personal transformation and broader view. It was the 2018 IPCC interim report on holding temperature rise to 1.5°C and the February 2019 Guardian article “Plummeting insect numbers threaten the collapse of nature” that shook me out of any remaining complacency. Earlier this year, hungry for something different to read, I picked up the Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy at Pegasus. I followed that with his earlier book Bringing Nature Home. It was Douglas Tallamy that carried me out of, “what is the big deal about native plants” to “this is so easy” we can restore nature and ecosystems one yard, one garden at a time. All we need is to replace our imported exotic plants with native plants. And, if we don’t have yards and gardens we can make room for pots of native plants. 

Douglas Tallamy was interviewed on KPFA Friday, October 8^th at 1 pm (Interview starts at 5 minutes and speed is adjustable – I do 1.25) https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=365520. Tallamy is so positive. He is speaking in-person in San Rafael on October 27^th at 7 pm https://dominican.extendedsession.com/douglas-tallamy/. If you miss all those, my favorite video is Douglas Tallamy in Lancaster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwJbP0yA0gc 

This brings us to FITES, Thursday’s Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment and Sustainability Committee and Councilmember Taplin’s Native and Drought Resistance Plants and Landscaping Ordinance referral. It definitely felt like a set-up when Councilmember Robinson invited city arborist Dan Gallagher and Parks Director Scott Ferris to speak and then followed the invitation with a chat that they could meet offline. Taplin was absent. Robinson has expressed little interest in trees in prior meetings except as a nuisance (trees get in the way of biking), and the city arborists don’t believe in native plants and trees, as illustrated by non-native trees being planted throughout the city including at the restored North Berkeley Senior Center. 

Tuesday evening was the special council meeting to vote on the waiver of the Sanctuary City Ordinance for the $6.5 million lease of police radio equipment with Motorola. Council justified not getting competitive bids bringing up a problem Oakland had with another equipment provider some 7 years ago. Setting aside the issues raised by Motorola Solutions contracting with ICE, it still seems $6.5 million is an awfully large contract to skip the step of a competitive bid. The other agenda item, Interim Regulations proposed by the Police Accountability Board (PAB), passed with amendments and deferring how testimony is taken until the required legal process is completed. Taplin’s substitute motion to require witnesses to have permission to make a complaint was rejected. The PAB meets Wednesday, October 13 at 7 pm with Interim Regulations on the agenda. 

The Land Use Policy committee met Thursday on Taplin’s Affordable Housing Overlay. It was quite surprising how little Taplin had to say about the measure he submitted. Councilmember Hahn in her usual manner carried on and on and modified some of the language, but essentially it passed out of committee with little change, and the motion was ready when they realized they had completely ignored public comment. Of course, public comment had no influence on what was already in the works. 

You didn’t miss anything by skipping the council’s Public Safety Committee. Both agenda items, including the Automated License Plate Readers budget referral from Councilmember Taplin with co-sponsors Wengraf and Droste, were continued to a future meeting without action. 

If you watched the Mayor’s town hall you can tell your conspiracy minded friends in Berkeley that the reason they haven’t yet contracted COVID-19 isn’t because of Ivermectin and/or whatever other questionable stuff they put in their mouths, it is because 93% of us (those of us eligible for vaccination) in Berkeley did fulfill our civic duty, accepted responsibility to protect our own health and theirs and got vaccinated. 

I started Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America by Sarah Kendzoir as an audiobook, but there is so much research and information going back to money laundered Russian cash purchases of Trump Tower condos in the 1980s that this is better as a book in hand or ebook. It is mind-boggling just to track all the corruption and interconnections. The book hits hard on Mueller and the Mueller report, disappointing as it was, but is still worth reading. The tell-all books and even revelations from the judiciary committee are a soft touch compared to the scathing indictment from Kendzoir. 

When people with a mind-altering condition get older, we are no longer able to pull off any of the crazy stunts that young mentally ill people do and still get away with it. This is not to imply that mentally ill people intentionally do these things, not at all. When someone first becomes mentally ill, it is not something we have chosen to do to ourselves. When young, we may lack the temperance and the common sense that would lead us to have a modicum of normal behavior; this could look like staying in treatment so that we don't do disastrous things, or it could look like having mechanisms we've learned, that kick in when symptomatic, that prevent these disastrous actions. 

I knew a man who died at 50. He had failed to learn to adequately manage his condition, and he reaped the results of that. That's just a guess, since I'm not privy to the details of his death. However, when I knew this man, he was in his mid to late forties and was still doing the stupid stuff that you just can't do when you get older. Society and social mechanisms have only so much tolerance. 

When we get older, our responsibilities increase, and our ability to fulfil responsibilities decreases. Employment, when we are older, is harder to find and to maintain. We may no longer be able to meet the expectations of entry level jobs that twenty-year-old women and men typically get. At the same time, we may not have a college degree and it may not be plausible to get one. For those reasons, when we are older, many of us can't work. We may be financially illiterate. That by itself can prevent creating a survivable future. We may be impaired by decades of taking mandated medication. There are a lot of things that people without mental illness can do that mentally ill people can't do. This is a problem. 

The attitudes I'm currently dealing with imply that I'm not expected to last. I'm dealing with people in the mental health care systems who appear to have me written off as defunct. Yet, this is conjecture. I don't know these things for fact. However, the amount of real help I've received consists of medication, plus being bogged down in bull. No one is making a sincere effort to help me become employed. Instead of that, I get a pretense of help, the reality of it is that my time is being squandered. This is because I'm older, and the prevailing picture of me that people are seeing is of someone suited for institutionalization. 

There are some counselors who offer genuine help. These are the ones whom I value deeply and to whom I'm eternally grateful. When the I.Q. of the counselor is a bit higher, they are more likely to understand me. The ones who are fools seem to presume a lot. Their assumptions aren't accurate. It is a mix, a roll of the dice. 

When mentally ill people age and haven't thrown in the towel, it could be an unusual phenomenon. Why should I give up? I'm still here and I can still think. I'm up against a lot. Yet I can always try to overcome that, and maybe get some help with doing that. 

I am probably considered "geriatric mentally ill," as the category I'm put into. If I'm evaluated according to that, the expectations that follow are going to lead toward people helping me in my journey up the river toward death or steering me toward permanent institutionalization. No allowance is built into the system to consider that maybe some individuals aren't yet ready to go there or need to go there. It is inappropriate to lump me into this artificial category. I have a lot to contribute to society. When I direct counselors to look at my writing on the web, they discount what they are seeing because it doesn't fit their picture of who and what they believe I am. This is bad for me because it prevents being lined up with any genuine opportunities of what I can do and do well. 

I've seen many of my mentally ill peers disappear over the years. One day they are living nearby, and the next day police are taking them away, never to be seen again. Is this what we await as our reward for abiding by the rules of what we are expected to do? If so, something is terribly wrong. Other peers develop medical problems because of the decades of taking antipsychotics and/or mood stabilizers. They become physically ill. They might have irreversible tremors. They might have organ damage. Their brains might no longer work. 

Society must offer us a bit more than that. 

Jack Bragen lives in Martinez, with his wife, Joanna Bragen, and has books for sale on Amazon and elsewhere.

Deja View

On August 9, I drove down to the Berkeley Marina to visit the Chavez-Huerta Solar Calendar, which sits atop a prominent hill on the north end of the Cesar Chavez Park. As a "Sundial Steward," my assignment was to conduct a monthly check of the site to see if any of the stone markers, signs, or surroundings required maintenance. Stewards also look for signs of vandalism—ranging from stones picked up and tossed about to the recurring mischief of a pro-Trump vandal who likes to scratch the acronym "MAGA" onto the stone dedicated to Tolerance.

But there was a bigger act of vandalism on view that morning. Directly to the north, the Richmond refineries were ablaze and the burning oil was sending up huge black clouds that were spread over miles of local neighborhoods. I took a photo.

On October 4, I visited the site for my monthly inspection and—to my surprise—once again discovered a large black cloud of smoke spread across the skies over Richmond. I took a photo.

When I compared the photos, I was startled by how similar the dark clouds were. But when I went online looking for the details behind the latest firestorm, the Internet's vast slate was blank.

The two photos—side-by-side and two months apart—look almost identical. What are the odds? Does this mean that major industrial fires in Richmond are becoming commonplace? 

The Day Greenpeace Sailed to Richmond 

Those smoke-smeared skies reminded me of the day I joined the crew the Rainbow Warrior —the Greenpeace flagship—to sail from a berth in San Francisco across the Bay to the waters off Richmond. 

The ship dropped anchor near Castro Slough and proceeded to stage a protest at a leaking oil-company storage pond. The Greenpeacers rowed a rubber raft to the middle of the oil-soaked waters, grabbed hold of a large metal wheel on a massive pipe, and wrenched it backwards until it shut off the flow of polluted water. 

We braced ourselves for the sound of distant sirens and the screech of approaching security vans—but there was no response. Growing increasingly impatient at the lack of "emergency response," the Greenpeace monkey-wrenchers finally had to resort to phoning the oil barons, to notify them that a critical safety valve on their refinery's property had been twisted shut. 

Eventually, two indignant Big Oil reps arrived to confront the activists. But when they saw a Greenpeace crewmember shouldering a professional-looking video camera, their demeanor softened. Instead of denouncing acts of "eco-vandalism," they started boasting about the plant's safety record. 

What they failed to notice was that, over their shoulders, one of the refinery stacks had just burst into flames. The activist with the video camera slowly moved to the side, repositioning himself to show the refinery's Dirty Duo blathering while, behind their backs, massive flames continued licking up the sides of a metal tower. The unexpected "special effects" provided a perfect backdrop for the oil-reps' flippant fibbing. 

Eventually the oil-meisters began to wonder why everyone was looking at them with increasingly larger grins that were starting to turn into guffaws. They finally turned around, saw the flames, high-tailed it to their cars, and headed back to their offices. 

And Greenpeace captured it all on videotape. 

A Discomfiting Enigma 

Have you ever had a creepy premonition? Have you ever seen something so odd that it made you want to say something? Several weeks ago, while walking down a North Berkeley neighborhood sidewalk, I found my path obstructed by two red ribbons stretched across the pathway. They resembled yellow crime-scene tape, only thinner. They were tied to some large bushes on the house-side of the sidewalk; the other ends were tethered to a white RoadTrek van parked on the street. The ribbons effectively blocked any approach to the van's doors. 

Stepping into the street to circumvent the obstruction, I noticed the back of the camper truck sported an ominous decal that showed an assault rifle above the words "Defend Hawaii." 

Gazing toward the house, I noticed a sign in the window that read: "Yellow Peril/Black Lives Matter"—an odd conjunction that seemed racially charged. 

I was wondering if I should share my sense of alarm with the Berkeley Police but, a couple of days ago, I spotted a couple on the sidewalk untying the "keep out" ribbons. Both were wearing what looked like white hazmat suits. Their faces were hidden behind wide-brimmed hats fitted with full-face "bee-keeper" masks. A few days later, the ribbons were gone and so was the mysterious camper. 

I'm still haunted by the memory. 

Ads Nauseam 

Under the category of "TV Ads for Products the World Doesn't Need," I'd like to nominate the adverts for Feliway calming capsules for cats. (I first noticed these TV ads popping up last week. Does this portend a flood of new "pet-meds" that Americans will be urged to buy? What next? Anti-itch pills for poodles? Mood-enhancers for pit bulls?) 

Is your cat hyperactive? Super-sensitive? Easily spooked? Emotionally unbalanced? Self-destructive? Prone to claw the furniture? Anxious and hiding? If so, the new TV spot argues, Feliway's Optimum Enhanced Classic Cat Calming Pheromone Spray Diffuser Kit is just what your feline craves. Plug a capsule into a wall outlet and waft your cats in a soothing fog of pheromones that will leave your furry pals "less stressed in their environment"—for "up to 4 weeks." 

Really! But isn't Standard Cat Behavior already largely defined by long bouts of lounging and slumber? If you need to engulf your pet in a 24/7 cloud of sedative perfume, the problem may be that you've adopted a ferret or a chipmunk by mistake—that's not a cat. 

"The Boys Who Said No": Gala Online Film Launch 

The reviews are in and the verdict is unanimous: Berkeley documentarian Judith Ehrlich's long-awaited anti-war film, The Boys Who Said NO!, is “A stand-out film ... Profound and startling" (Showreel) and “an ode to the power of activism” (Chronicle). 

The film, which memorializes the anti-Vietnam-War/draft-resistance movement of the Sixties, has already won numerous film festival awards and has garnered widespread critical acclaim. 

As American University professor Susan Erenrich has written: "There is never a blueprint for social movements—there are templates—and this film is an important one." And Documentary Drive adds: “Some films are too important not to see. The Boys Who Said NO! is one of those films.” Here's a trailer: 

The filmmakers inform The Daily Planet that the film will be available for 48 hours of online viewing begining Friday, October 15-17 at 3 pm. 

In addition, an hour-long livestream event will follow on Sunday, October 17 at 5 pm, featuring an online discussion with film participants Joan Baez, Daniel Ellsberg, David Harris, Mandy Carter and Ehrlich, the Oscar-nominated director of The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. 

The discussion will feature an update on pending legislation that would force young women to register for the draft and the event also will include a special tribute to the film’s founding producer, former draft-resister Christopher "Colorado" Jones, who died from a tragic fall in 2019. 

Tickets are $12 to view both the film and the livestream event. You can click here to order tickets 

Voting Rights? It's Not on Feinstein's List 

If you've ever sent an email message to a Washington politician expressing support for or opposition to a piece of legislation, you're familiar with the pre-selected roll-out of "topics" that you can choose from. Each senator and congressmember has slightly different lists. 

I was recently moved to email my senators in support of the Freedom to Vote Act. Alas, Senator Dianne Feinstein's list of topics failed to include "democracy" or "voting rights." Alex Padilla's list was better: It not only includes "animal rights" but also invited comments involving "Campaign/Election Reforms." 

Given the always-changing nature of modern politics, here's a proposal for our reps in Washington: Include a blank line for "other." 

The Chronicle's Quake-Prep Resources 

On October 10, the Chronicle published a special 20-page supplement with detailed advice on "How to Survive" a major Bay Area earthquake. While large, devastating quakes are rare, "history suggests that the Bay Area is due, if not overdue, for a major quake along the [East Bay's] Hayward Fault." Here are some of the crucial links from the Chronicle's Sunday edition: 

See our Disaster Survival Guide to start getting ready, from apps that offer early shake alerts to tips on protecting pets and safeguarding your home against fire: 

• Interactive California Earthquake Tracker: real-time updates on quakes in the state over the last 30 days
• How to build a DIY emergency kit for your home or car
• The documents you need to get in order before disaster strikes
• Apps and technology that will get you ready for a fire, quake or flood
• Tips on fortifying your home to withstand a quake or fire
• Which Bay Area regions are most at risk from a tsunami
• 11 steps to designing an emergency plan for your family

Karmic Strips 

Sally Forth and Luann are two contiguous comic strips in the Chronicle. On October 6, each had three panels that included 15 images of different characters. Only two of the depictions included People Without Color. 

On the same page, Sherman's Lagoon showed three main characters—a shark, a sea turtle and a crab—recently transformed into human forms by a sea God named Kahuna. Thanks to the diversity of the other two strips, I noticed something odd about the "humanated" lagoon dwellers: while their native colors are shark grey, turtle green, and crab red, whenever they ask Kahuna to turn them into "beach apes," they always reappear looking like three white guys. 

Cosmic Strips 

Speaking of contiguous content, last week's edition of Chron comics contained two different strips—Sherman's Lagoon and the teen-angst strip, Zits—that both featured their lead characters facing off against UFOs. 

In both strips, a UFO appears and emits a green tractor beam that sucks the wide-eyed humans upwards into the hovering spaceship. In Zits, a pack of teenagers helps a pair of green teen aliens recharge the batteries on their joy-riding spacecraft. Meanwhile, Sherman's Lagoon takes a more serious turn when the three newly-minted "white guys" are confronted by a large green alien who confronts them with this question: "Why do you destroy your home planet?" 

Save the Planet: Delete the Meat 

More breaking news about how "going vegan" can help save the planet. 

Friends of the Earth Europe recently published The Meat Atlas, a study by Heinrich-Bóll-Stiftung that reports: "Just five of the world's largest meat and dairy companies—among them, JBS, Tyson and Cargill—are responsible for more emissions than oil giants like Exxon and BP." 

According to the FOE report: "Globally, three-quarters of agricultural land is used to raise animals or the crops to feed them. Livestock farming and soybean cultivation are the biggest contributors to deforestation whose effects include soaring emissions, destruction of Indigenous communities and small farmers' livelihoods, and pandemics." 

Seriously??? 

A radio spot recently addressed the difficulty of holding adult-child conversations and pitched an odd solution—listen to song lyrics. 

According to Sound It Out Together: "Music can help to bridge the gap between you and your kid, making for earnest and constructive conversations about emotional well-being. Learn more about how you can approach conversations surrounding topics like anger, loss, racism and more with your children." 

More, from the company website: "Sound it Out is a new national campaign that uses the power and soul of music to help parents and caregivers better support their middle-schooler's emotional wellness." The program, created by the Ad Council, "delivers exclusive new music and interviews from some of today's brightest stars" designed to help kids "open up about an array of emotions." 

Worth Noting:

With Monday as Indigenous Peoples Holiday, City meetings are packed onto Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Sunday - Green Party events are not normally listed in the weekly calendar, however, with the Federal Court of Appeals reinstating the abortion ban in Texas the Green Sunday speakers program may be very interesting.

Tuesday is very full with eight meetings in total. If you did not see the demonstration of how to use the mapping tool to redraw council district boundaries there is a demonstration at 12 noon. The agenda committee meets at 2:30 pm and the regular city council meeting is at 6 pm.

Wednesday there are seven meetings in total including Homeless Commission, Parks Commission, and the Police Accountability Board all meeting at 7 pm.

Thursday the Reimagining Public Safety Task force meets at 6 pm and the Zoning Adjustment Board meets at 7 pm.

Saturday is the Harvest Festival at Cedar Rose Park.



The full draft agenda for the October 26 regular city council meeting and the full agenda for the October 12 6 pm regular council meeting are at the end after the list of meetings. In case you haven’t noticed, the first name listed with an agenda item is the author, then co-sponsors. Also, an abbreviated description is included with each use permit in the appeal period. 

Sunday, October 10, 2021  

Green Sunday: The abortion battle in Texas and what it says about American Politics Today at 5 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82620271999?pwd=S3ZwUklteGI5YjJsMEtMSnJXRzU3UT09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 826 2027 1999 Passcode: 2020 

AGENDA: Speakers Snehai Shingavi (University of Texas) and Nancy Rosenstock (Chicago for Abortion Rights) 

Monday, October 11, 2021 – Indigenous Peoples Day – City Holiday no city meetings 

Tuesday, October 12, 2021 

Demonstration of Online Mapping Tool for Redistricting at 12 – 1 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86886754491 

Teleconference: 1-833-548-282 Meeting ID: 868 8675 4491 

AGENDA: virtual demonstration – how to use tool to draw new council districts 

New website for redistricting - https://redistricting-commission-berkeley.hub.arcgis.com/ 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=175 

Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89092330038 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 890 9233 0038 

AGENDA: Public Comment non-agenda and 1 – 7, 1. Minutes, 2. Draft Agenda for 10-26-21 (use link or go to end of list of meetings to see full draft agenda for 10-26-21 council regular meeting), 3. Berkeley considers, 4. Adjournments in memory, 5. Worksession, 6. Council referral to agenda committee for scheduling, 7.land use scheduling, REFERRED ITEMS FOR REVIEW 8. Impact Covid-19, 9. Preliminary analysis return to in-person meeting, UNSCHEDULED ITEMS 10. Supporting City Commissions. UNFINISHED BUSINESS FOR SCHEDULING: Kitchen Exhaust Fans, Surveillance Technology Report, Street Maintenance and Rehabilitation Policy. 

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

City Council Closed Session at 4 pm, 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81204866867 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 812 0486 6867 

AGENDA: 1. Public Employee Appointment – Fire Chief, 2. City Manager Performance Evaluation.  

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

City Council Regular Meeting at 6 pm, 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87357139470 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 873 5713 9470 

AGENDA: Use link or scroll past list of city meetings to full agenda 

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

Community Environmental Advisory Commission at 5 - 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87340693118 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 873 4069 3118 

AGENDA: this is the first CEAC meeting since the pandemic started in 2020, 8. Discuss/Action: 1. Elections, 2. Review of Work Plan, 3. Presentation on Consolidation, 4. Commission Reorganization. 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/Community_Environmental_Advisory_Commission/ 

Police Accountability Board Regulations Subcommittee at 6:30 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82281228507 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 822 8122 8507 

AGENDA: 4. a. Continue drafting permanent Regulations, b. Update pending questions to City Attorney regarding confidentiality of legal analysis and potential conflict of interest. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=162752 

BART El Cerrito Plaza Community Meeting at 6 – 8 pm 

Videoconference: Register at Zoom no call-in provided https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMocOGppjspH91GkR_aOa0ZQbvvSz8rr-gZ 

AGENDA: BART rider parking spaces, strategies for getting riders to BART and other options. 

https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/BECCAPECP_2021Oct2_Flyer_v3.pdf 

Youth Commission at 5 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85925075321 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 859 2507 5321 Passcode: 621930 

AGENDA: 10. Discussion with Trish McDermott BUSD Public Information Officer, 11. Discussion transportation equity, 12. Letter in support of students’ rights in Title 9 complaints, 13. Letter in support of Berkeley High students’ demands regarding ending sexual harm. 

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

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board Evictions in Berkeley Webinar at 10 am 

Use link to register 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/rent/ 

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

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87554876072?pwd=bDVNMURZZ1l2UHkrdHZZb3JoYnd5UT09 

Teleconference: 1-408-638-0968 Meeting ID: 875 5487 6072 Passcode: 217564 

AGENDA: 5. Recommend that full board approve the 2022 Annual general Adjustment, 6. Recommend full Board approve the 2022 Annual Inflationary Adjustment of the Owner Move-In and Ellis Act Relocation Assistance payments, 7. Discussion regarding City’s general Plan, 8. 2022 ballot initiative to amend the Berkeley Rent Ordinance including review of Measure MM language, 9. Future items, Tenant Occupancy Limits. 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/rent/ 

Southside Community Safety Meeting at 4 – 6 pm 

In-person Faculty Glade / 4.0 Hill (UC Berkeley Campus) 

Homeless Commission at 7 – 9 pm 

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

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

AGENDA: 5. Staff report on current numbers of persons receiving housing thru Shelter Plus certificates, Section 8 vouchers for homeless, flex subsidies under measure P and other subsidies, number of people placed in permanent housing from Project Roomkey motels and hotels and number of people currently at Horizon, 6 chair/vice-chair update, 7. Q&A with Peter Radu or designess on enforcement of sidewalk ordinance and RV ordinance, 8. Presentation update on COVID vaccine for Homeless, 9. Recommendation for crisis stabilization program in Berkeley, 10. RV lot at Grayson. 

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

Parks and Waterfront Commission at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/96974512296 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 969 7451 2296 

AGENDA: 8. Update Echo Lake Camp Facilities, 9. Update process for building at 199 Seawall, 10. Commission consolidation, 11. Reporting discharges at Aquatic Park, 12. Grove Park Renovation, 13. Special funds budget update, 14. Native Species Planting in Berkeley, 16. Adopt-a-Spot. 

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

Police Accountability Board at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82237902987 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 822 3790 2987 

AGENDA: 3. Public Comment (taken only at beginning on agenda and non-agenda items and at end of meeting), 5. Chair report on Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, 6. Director report on status of complaints, 8. Subcommittee reports Fair & Impartial Policing, Director Search, Regulations, 9. a. Questions to City Attorney’s Office regarding the confidential memo on the obligation to meet and confer over provisions of the Interim Regulations for handling complaints against sworn officers, b. Memo from City Attorney office regarding lawful changes to hearing process to correct imbalances, c. City Attorney conflict of interest issues, d. Continue discussion of Standing Rules, e. Policy complaint, 10. A. Review and answer questions for Interim Regulations approved by Council Oct 5, b. Training: Procedural justice as practiced by BPD, Closed Session 11. Consider recommendation for administrative closure of complaint #3, 12. Recommendation on administrative closure of complaint #8, End of closed session 13. Announcement of closed session action, 14. Public comment, 15. Adjournment. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=162752 

2x2 Committee (2 council member 2 BUSD board members) at 4 – 5:30 pm 

Videoconference: https://berkeley-net.zoom.us/j/89644009209?pwd=T3dwR1hUb3drR3MvNk1CU2pUWWVWUT09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 896 440 092 09 

AGENDA: no agenda is posted, but the meeting is listed in the city community calendar 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/2x2_Committee_Homepage.aspx 

Thursday, October 14, 2021 

Reimagining Public Safety Task Force at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81983354907 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 819 8335 4907 

AGENDA: Discussion/Action Items: Community Town Halls – NICJR, Berkeley Mental Health’s Mobile Crisis Team, Subcommittee Reports: Policing, Budget & Alternatives to Policing, Community Engagement, Improve and Reinvest, Alternative Solutions to Gender Based Violence 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/RIPST.aspx 

Zoning Adjustment Board at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85635951780 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 856 3595 1780 

AGENDA: 2. 1798 Scenic - on consent – change use of two buildings at Pacific School of Religion from higher education to a middle school for up to 140 students, 

3. 2709 San Pablo – on consent – establish 3,176 sq ft veterinary clinic and construct 25 sq ft addition at entry, 

4. 2327 Shattuck – on consent – add service of distilled spirits incidental to food service 

5. 924 Gilman – on consent - allow a substantial expansion of existing lawful non-conforming recreation center use by adding live music and arts events Monday – Thursday from 6 – 10 pm. 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/zoningadjustmentsboard/ 

Friday, October 15, 2021- No City meetings or events found 

Saturday, October 16, 2021 

Harvest Festival celebrates Berkeley’s Sustainable food culture at 11 am – 4 pm 

Cedar Rose Park, 1300 Rose St.  

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CABERKE/bulletins/2f678dd 

Sunday, October 17, 2021 - No City meetings or events found 

_____________________ 

Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm, October 12, 2021  

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89092330038 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 890 9233 0038 

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

Draft Agenda for 10-26-21 – CONSENT: 1. Resolution continuing meetings via video and teleconference, 2. Referral Response Amending City Council Budget Expenditure and Reimbursement Policies, 3. Appointment of Emergency Standby Officer for District 2 and accept resignation from District 4. Revised conflict of interest code, 5. Minutes, 6. Add $548,096 total $1,657,618 and extend to 9-30-2022 with Dorothy Day House for adding RV dwellers at 742 Grayson, 7. $300,000 Bid solicitations – Parking meter fund, 8. Contract $100,000 with Federal Engineering, Inc for prioritized dispatch consulting 11-1-2021 to 10-30-2022 with option to extend for 2 2-yr terms for total not to exceed $300,000, 9. Contract add $287,712 total $657,712 with B.O.S.S. for property management at 2111 McKinley a supported housing site for mental health division clients, 10. Contract add $9,900 total $103,500 and extend to 12-31-2021 with Sonya Dublin Consulting as external evaluator tobacco prevention program, 11. Contract $450,000 with Discovery Health Services for weekly onside employee COVID-19 testing 11-1-2021 to 11-1-2022, 12. Contract $112,000 with Voya for 3^rd Party COBRA Administration and Retiree Health Premium Assistance Plan Administration, 13. Revise Housing Inspector Classification and Salary, 14. Add Housing Inspector I, Housing Inspector II and Senior Housing Inspector Classification and Salaries, 15. $1,939,538 to purchase through NASPO (National Association of State Procurement) Dell Computers, hardware, software and related services 10-26-2021 to 6-30-2023 $1,019,769 in FY22 and 919,769 in FY23, 16. Contract add $14,625 total $97,436 with Communication Strategies for Consulting Services for Voice Over IP and billing audit of AT&T 7-1-2017 to 6-30-2023, 17. Grant Application $897,000 San Francisco Restoration Authority Measure AA for pre-construction and improvement documents at Aquatic Park, 18. Grant Application $20,000 Boating Safety and Enforcement Equipment, 19. Renewal Elmwood Ave BID for FY2022, 20. Renewal Solano Ave BID for FY 2022, 22. Adopt-a-Spot Development Recommendations, 22. Taplin – Budget Referral for funding of Reckless Driving and Slideshow Deterrence, 23. Taplin – Budget referral sidewalk repair on arterial streets, 24. Bartlett – Presentation Request Study to Achieve Equity in City Contracting for Mason Tillman Assoc to present finding and recommendations from Berkeley Inclusion Opportunity Index, 25. Hahn – Support Net Energy Metering, 26. Budget referral $50,000 Public Bank East Bay, 27. Robinson – Budget referral - $60,000 Durant Parklett and Telegraph Plaza Improvements, 28. Robinson – Budget referral $500,000 Telegraph Shared Streets Feasibility study, ACTION: 29. Parks Commission - Proposal to Allocate Revenues Generated by Transient Occupancy Tax (hotel tax) in the Waterfront to the Marina Fund to avoid insolvency, 30. Taplin – Grant Application to CA Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant Program to provide resources for community safety initiatives, 31. Taplin, co-sponsor Hahn – Amend BMC 6.52.010 to add punitive fees for unauthorized removal of coastal oak and authorize tree replacement requirements for the granting of tree removal permits, 32. Taplin – Restore Red Light Program, 33. Hahn, cosponsor Harrison - Bright Street to Schools, improve safety for youth, families, teachers and staff within two block radius of schools, 34. Amend City Council Rules of Procedure and Order to Allow Extension of Items in Committee in Writing, INFORMATION REPORTS: 35. Annual Commission Attendance and Meeting Frequency Report, 36. Senior Center Survey Results, 37. Parks and Waterfront Commission Work Plan for 2021-2022. 

_____________________ 

City Council Agenda for 10-12-21 at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87357139470 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 873 5713 9470 

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

RECESS ITEMS: 1. Contract accept bid $1,461,900 (includes 10% contingency) with Murry Building for Cazadero Camp Jensen Dormitory Construction Project, CONSENT: 2^nd reading of 2 - 5: 2. Amending BMC 14.56.070 to limit 3-ton commercial truck weights limits on Berkeley’s Bicycle Blvds and At-Risk West Berkeley Residential Streets, 3. 3-ton Gross weight limit on Marin between Grizzly Peak and Marin Fountain Circle, 4. Ordinance for a Shared Electric Micromobility Permit Program, 5. Adoption of Baseline Zoning Ordinance, 6. Update Guidelines and Procedure for City Council Office Budget, 7. City Council Rules of Procedure and Order Revisions via video, 8. Formal Bid Solicitations – Zero Waste Fund $750,000, 

9. Proposed Ordinance Amending Paragraph NN BMC 19.48.020 expands existing fire code tp require fire sprinklers in new structures and retrofit sprinklers into existing structures in Fire Zone 3 to to include fire zone 2, 10. Contract using Measure FF $650,000 for two ambulances, 11. Contract using Measure FF $322,000 for five pickup trucks Ford F-250 4x4 with Nicholas K Corp DBA “The Ford Store.” 12. Amend Contract add $62,000 total $100,000 and extend 5-1-2021 to 7-31-2024 with Alameda Co Healthcare Services for epidemiology and program evaluation, 13. Appointment Abraham Roman as Fire Chief salary $268,990, 14. Classification establish program manager I & II hourly salary range $51.7326 - $62.4561/hour, 15. Transfer tax refund for 1685 Solano to Bay Area Community Land Trust to support the acquisition and renovation operation as affordable housing, 16. Amend contract add $100,00 total $499,411 from 9-14-2016 to 6-30-223 with Geographic Technologies Group for Additional Geographic Information System, 17. Purchase order for vehicle GS-35F-0280X for $492,000, 18. Grant Application: Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Project (EEMP) $500,000 to plant urban forest trees, 19. CM – City policy regarding scheduling meetings on significant religious holidays, 20. Taplin & Kesarwani - Budget referral: $500,000 Security Cameras in the Public Right of Way at intersections experiencing increased violent crime and environmental safety assessment for high crime areas: arterial intersections along University, Ashby & Alcatraz, 6^th/University, 7^th/Ashby, San Pablo/Ashby, Sacramento/Alcatraz, Alcatraz/Adeline, Ashby/Telegraph, Gilman/6^th, College/Alcatraz, Ashby/Domingo, Ashby/Claremont, other possible intersections University/Sacrament, Sacramento/Ashby, George Florence park, 10^th/Bancroft, 8^th/Channing, 8^th/Addison, 21. Ghost Gun Ordinance, 22. Taplin, cosponsor Arreguin, Robinson, Kesarwani – Letter to Senate Budget Committee Chair Senator Skinner regarding budget allocation for Berkeley Pier, 23. Bartlett - Infrastructure and Affordable Housing Finance Plan for Adeline Corridor, 24. Harrison Resolution in support of Direct Pay Provision for the 26 U.S.C § 25D Residential Energy Efficient Property Tax Credit, 25. Wengraf, co-sponsors Taplin, Kesarwani, Hahn – Adopt resolution denouncing Texas Anti-abortion law (SB8) and reaffirming reproductive freedom in Berkeley, 26. Wengraf, co-sponsors Taplin, Kesarwani, Hahn - Support for HR 3755 – Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, ACTION: 27. ZAB Appeal 1205 Peralta, 28. Response to Short Term Referral for amendments to ADU ordinance to address public safety concerns, 29. Amending the Berkeley Election Reform Act (BERA) relating to officeholder accounts, 30. Harrison - Referral to the Zero Waste and Energy Commission to conduct community outreach and education regulating the use of carryout and pre-checkout bags and to make recommendations to FITES, 31. Objective Standards Recommendations for Density, Design and Shadows, 32. City Manager (CM) – referrals for removal, 33. Harrison – Budget Referral Allocate General Fund Revenues to Support Pilot Program offering free AC Transit on Sundays in Berkeley, 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

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

2956 Hillegass (addition to nonconforming structure) date TBD 

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

2015 Blake – merge & reconfigure 7 parcels, construct 7-story mixed use bldg 10-14-21 

2759 Dohr – repair garage and add ½ bath10-21-2021 

171 Hill – install an unenclosed hot tub 10-12-2021 

1516 Hopkins – alter & add 2^nd story addition, unenclosed hot tub 10-14-2021 

1527 Sacramento – 565 sq ft addition above 14 ft, unenclosed hot tub 10-14-21 

2709 San Pablo – new veterinary clinic 10-14-2021 

1716 Seventh – demolish existing SFH construct 2 new 2-story SFH 10-14-21 

1344 Summit – legalize entryway addition 10-12-2021 

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 

October 19 –1. Berkeley Police Department Hiring Practices (referred by Public Safety Committee), 2. Crime Report 

December 7 –1. WETA/Ferry Service at the Marina, 2. Presentation by Bay Restoration Authority, 3. Update Zero Waste Rates and Priorities, 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Alameda County LAFCO Presentation 

Homeless Services and Mental Health Services 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant Program 

Review and Update on City’s COVID-19 Response 

Civic Center – Old City Hall and Veterans Memorial Building 

Housing Element (December 9) 

Priority Setting Follow Up Discuss (December Special Meeting) 

Kelly Hammargren’s comments on what happened the preceding week can be found in the Berkeley Daily Planet www.berkeleydailyplanet.com under Activist’s Diary. 

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 

Write to City Council members and Mayor Arreguin! Demand that they protect solar access, especially for rooftop solar panels. Send e-mail by noon, Monday Oct 11 to: council@cityofberkeley.info ; and copy to: clerk@cityofberkeley.info 

Background:  

Berkeley is required by State law to plan for 9,000 new housing units in the next eight years.  

In Berkeley, where most lots are small - increased density, without common sense guidelines – will result in dramatic decreases in sun for solar panels, main windows, and gardens.  

Recent state law allows cities to protect solar access with “objective standards” as part of the design requirements of new housing. Currently, Berkeley lacks objective solar access and shadow standards that many other cities have already enacted. Berkeley has yet to protect rooftop solar panels, even though Berkeley was designated as a Solar America City by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2007. Sadly, this absence of standards and codes has already allowed cases where solar panels have been shadowed by new development. 

In your email: Tell the City Council and Mayor Arreguin that “Objective standards” need to require any new construction to PROTECT SOLAR ACCESS on any nearby roof, up until one hour before sundown, every day of the year. 

Item 31 on the Tuesday, October 12 Berkeley City Council agenda addresses solar access and other objective standards to guide development. More housing can be built without cutting off neighbors’ access to sunlight. https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/2021/10_Oct/City_Council__10-12-2021_-_Regular_Meeting_Agenda.aspx 

Berkeley has 3,000 roof top solar installations. This cuts down on our carbon footprint, provides resilience, and generates electricity. The combined effects of climate change, rolling black outs, and the increase of electric cars means that roof top solar panels are the most efficient, most resilient answer for our own power. Don’t let the City jeopardize this valuable resource in the face of Climate Change. Don’t devalue resident’s investments in solar panels and food production. With reasonable setbacks and design adjustments, we can have more housing without reducing solar access.  

Thousands of years ago, Mayan pyramids and Stonehenge used the sun to guide their design. If our ancestors could do it, so can Berkeley architects using computerized design systems with built-in “shade studies” to accurately predict the loss of solar access created by any design. 

PROTECT SOLAR ACCESS FOR BERKELEY HOMES.  

More housing AND more solar energy. 

This post by Todd Darling, Toni Mester, David Ushijima, and Rob Wrenn, Berkeley Solar Rights Committee. The Berkeley Solar Rights Committee is a recently formed local Berkeley ad hoc committee concerned about preserving solar access for Berkeley's homes and solar panels.  

I told you and I told you and I told you! But you went and did it anyway and look what happened. I hate to say it, but I told you so.

********************

The September 9 issue of the London Review of Books led off with a full page of quotes on Afghanistan from foreign policy luminaries, all the way back to Zbigniew Brzezinski speaking to the Afghan mujahedin in 1980 :“Your cause is right and God is on your side!” through President Biden’s Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in August of this year:“This is manifestly not Saigon.”

In between were stirring quotes from both establishmentarians and contrarians: “ I will venture a prediction. The Taliban/al-Qaida riffraff, as we know them, will never come back to power:”--Christopher Hitchens, 2004.

There was only one women among about two dozen opiners, and she was only one who questioned the wisdom of the enterprise. Yes, you guessed right, it was the East Bay’s beloved Congressmember, US Representative Barbara Lee, on September 14, 2001:“Let’s step back a moment. Let’s just pause, just for a minute. And think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control.”

No one paid attention, so the downward spiral she anticipated is just now hitting bottom. Our country’s involvement in the Islamic world turned into the eternal distant conflict foretold in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Fourl, where citizens of Oceania are not sure who’s the enemy, or even if the reported battles are actually taking place. And it’s lasted for two decades. 

I happened to be in Italy at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and had to stay there (hard duty) for a couple of weeks until I could get a flight home, so I missed the war fervor which took over the United States. But I was grateful for Barbara Lee’s heroic opposition to the invasion—like many of us in the East Bay I put a “Barbara Lee Speaks for Me” bumper sticker on my car right away. 

I was around for the next act of this ongoing drama. I marched down Market Street in March of 2003 to protest the Bush invasion of Iraq, proud to be joined by a dozen or so members of my immediate family including at least one babe in arms. I remember thinking that maybe eventually we’d have the warmongers outnumbered. But nope… 

Searching the Planet archives to refresh my recollection of that demonstration and my thinking at the time, I ran across a charming piece by Zac Unger, Raised on Revolution, about taking his baby to the Berkeley demo on that same day, 

Here’s how it starts: 

”I took my infant daughter, Percy, to her first protest march a few weeks ago in the hopes that nine pounds and 10 ounces of pure political muscle in pink footsie pajamas might be just enough to tip the scales toward peace. “ 

Well, by my calculations his daughter and my grandbabies who went to those protests are now old enough to vote and even to go to demonstrations on their own. Not only that, the mothers of those granddaughters, who like Zac went to anti-war protests in backpacks and strollers, are over 50 and they vote too. But have we tipped the scales toward peace yet? 

Without the aid of Wikipedia and its clones, I can’t even recall much about the sequence of events between entry to and exit from Afghanistan. Iraq I and II and Syria and Libya and all the rest are no more than muddy memories for me—I’m like one of those 1984 citizens of Oceania who can’t be sure if the enemy in the distant forever war is Eurasia or Eastasia. 

“As a child in the semi-sovereign Berkeley principality of Rockridge I was raised with a picket sign in my hand”, said Zac. 

Our kids might say the same thing. Well before this series of forever wars in the Middle East gathered steam, they were marched in strollers and pulled in wagons in the picket line around Ann Arbor City Hall every Monday for two or three years in the early 1960s, challenging the city council to enact a fair housing ordinance, and when that had been accomplished they took trips to Washington to oppose the war in Vietnam. Weather in DC is lovely in the spring, or it was before climate change. 

In 1970 the kids passed out Shirley Chisholm for President fliers in Michigan, just as Barbara Lee did in California. But we still haven’t had a woman president, let alone a Black woman president, though Barbara’s protégée Kamala Harris is a step in the right direction. 

Now it’s widely acknowledged that all those Middle East wars were a terrible mistake, despite the enthusiasm with which they were initially endorsed by the kind of Very Serious People quoted in the LRB. Has anyone learned anything from the experience? 

Living long enough to remember what’s merely history to most of your fellow citizens is a curious experience. The year I graduated from high school some of my older relatives must have remembered the turn of the 20^th century, which seemed to me at the time to be as distant as the period when the French started building the Cathedral of Notre Dame. When I hear supercilious Whiteboy YIMBYs nattering on about exactly what constituted and caused housing segregation in the 50s, I must remind myself that they weren’t there and that might be why they don’t know what they’re talking about. 

What other people, powerful people, will have learned from the Afghanistan debacle is not clear. But the main thing I’ve learned from watching the world for three-quarters of a century is that the world is never saved—you have to keep saving it over and over again. 

As Barbara said way back when, we must always”think through the implications of our actions.” And she’s still not shy about reminding us that there’s always a lot still to do. 

Here’s a simple example from today: 

One of her main forms of activity now that she’s well into her eighth decade is online fundraising for others, since her East Bay seat has been a lock from the beginning. 

From her latest missive: 

“Only 2 Black women have ever served in the United States Senate. Currently, there are no Black women in the chamber, since Kamala Harris took the office of the Vice Presidency. 

“Cheri Beasley in North Carolina and Val Demings in Florida are running for Senate to change that. 

“They are both trailblazers in their own right, and would help expand our tiebreaking majority in the Senate by flipping these Republican-held seats.” 

I’ve seen that we have benefited immensely from the work of the vigorous Black women who have served in public office in my lifetime. That would include not only Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Lee, but Barbara Jordan and Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson-Lee and a host of others. 

Something as simple as contributing to a successful campaign for one of the two women Barbara Lee is backing could make a lot of difference in what will be accomplished in future Senates with a reliable progressive majority. 

What we do today is still what causes tomorrow. If others in Congress had paid attention to Barbara Lee in 2001, the last two decades might have been very different. 

If you’re looking to do a little something to contribute to the future, you might consider supporting Barbara’s candidates for 2022. We’ve had a good look at Val Deming as a very effective congressperson, and my North Carolina friend tells me Cheri Beasley, a former state supreme court justice, would be a terrific senator. Let’s do it. 

I’m writing with deep disappointment about the horrific use of excess use of force at the hands of US border authorities against Haitians and Black asylum-seekers at the US-Mexico border and the Biden administration’s aggressive expansion of Title 42 expulsions. The cruelty, racism, and oppression against migrants and asylum-seekers at the border cannot go unanswered. 

If the U.S. truly aims to convince the world that its commitment to human rights and racial justice are sincere, then it cannot deny asylum and deport thousands of people who fear for their safety back to a country experiencing extreme instability and massive human rights violations. 

I call on the Biden administration to: 

• Immediately halt any and all deportations to Haiti; 

• Immediately grant humanitarian parole to Haitians at the southern border, and restore access to asylum for all asylum; seekers in accordance with international law; and • Immediately end Title 42 expulsions. 

Images from the airport tarmacs in Kabul and Port-au-Price and the camps in Del Rio have been a damning indictment of the US government’s approach to human rights for all. This is your time to reverse course and show leadership. People in the United States and around the world are watching you.

Last Monday feels like a month ago. When it comes to water and the drought last Monday was a year ago as the California water year runs from October 1 through September 30. We are starting out from a grim spot and unless this new “water year” happens to be the occasional wet year in a future that with climate change is expected to be perpetual drought. We are in a heap of trouble. In my neighborhood walks, I see way too many wilting, dying and dead trees. Nearly all of California is in the two worst drought categories, exceptional and extreme drought. This has not stopped, the legislature, the governor, ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments) of which Mayor Arreguin is the president from planning for adding 441,000 housing units to the bay area and changing zoning law for increasing density across the State with the passage and signing of SB 9 and SB 10. 

As for COVID-19, I’ve been keeping a table with the number of days it took to add another million documented new cases of infection and the crossing of each 100,000 deaths. The table is at the end of this Diary. My preferred update on the state of the pandemic is Michael Osterholm’s weekly podcast which he usually starts with saying he is scraping the mud off his crystal ball. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/podcasts-webinars 

Monday started with the Council Public Safety Committee. Councilmember Wengraf’s recommendation that the Safety Committee work on Councilmember Taplin’s Ghost Gun ordinance turned into an unnecessary detour as it was sent back to council to be referred to the City Attorney. 

Tuesday the Council Land Use Committee met for the sole purpose of extending the date of Taplin’s Affordable Housing Overlay proposal. The affordable housing overlay proposal will be taken up again this coming week on Thursday morning. As council has been so concerned about combining commissions to save staff time, a look at their own practices could use some scrutiny. 

The Tuesday evening council meeting took an unexpected turn on two items with a flood of public commenters giving objections to item 23 and item 18. Item 18, the $6,500,000 7-year lease agreement with Motorola grew objections over encryption that will limit information picked up by police dispatch scanners and that Motorola is a major contractor with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Item 18 did pass on consent with modifications limiting when the encrypted channel could be used. Harrison and Bartlett voted No and Hahn abstained. Because Berkeley is a Sanctuary City prohibiting cooperation with ICE, at the special council meeting Tuesday evening, council will vote on a waiver to the Sanctuary City Ordinance to enter a contract with Motorola. 

Item 23 was Taplin’s proposal to limit commercial trucks over 3 tons on West Berkeley at-risk residential streets and bikeways. Despite City insistence that the amendment to Berkeley Municipal Code 14.56.070 was only affecting commercial vehicles. Public Comment speakers stating objections reported those living in RVs in the area were already receiving warnings to leave. 

There is a problem with commercial trucks detouring through neighborhoods and delivery trucks clogging the streets, but the other side of this is the RV dwellers who are trying to stop their fall through the bottom of the housing crisis. According to the census nearly 20% of the people in Berkeley live in poverty. That is around 24,000 people living in poverty. Even the $15 hourly wage is only $31,200 for a fulltime worker. That isn’t much to survive in a city that sports houses with a median price of over $1,000,000. And, units affordable to those at the bottom of the income ladder have all but disappeared. There is no romance to living each day wondering if today’s RV shelter will still exist tomorrow. 

Wednesday evening at the Police Accountability Board the agenda item Training: Police Department patrol responsibilities; Field Training Officer program by Frank Landru took up a big chunk of the meeting. You can watch Landru describe the patrol officer’s job followed with the description of the 18-week training program for new employees. Fast forward to 1:16:15 in the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWKUXFC1a18. The presentation ends at 2:15:09 with questions. All new hires are required to complete the 18-week training regardless of years of experience. Landru reported a 75% - 80% successful training completion rate. 

The video for the Thursday evening Reimagining Public Safety Task Force isn’t posted yet on the website https://www.cityofberkeley.info/RIPST.aspx so I can’t check if I actually heard correctly that NICJR (National Institute for Criminal Justice) was recommending a new police academy as the solution for reimagining public safety. A proposal for a Berkeley police academy was rejected by the council Public Safety Committee months ago as financially infeasible. The meeting sunk into the all too common problems and deficiencies of NICJR cited by the task force members. The task force is not given reports and information in advance and expected to make decisions with a 5- minute presentation, zero attention has been paid to looking at Berkeley Municipal code and what should be decriminalized or eliminated, it is never clear who is in charge and who in the city will take over and why are they not in attendance, why is the focus on calls and there was more. There weren’t answers. And, when it comes to reimagining, there doesn’t appear to be any reimagining in any corner of the police department. Let it settle in that the City Council authorized $300,000 for this. 

The week ended with the Independent Redistricting Commission Saturday afternoon. The entire public meeting was devoted to how to submit maps for the new city council districts. Each district must have a population of around 15,554 with a variation of no more than 1556 or 10%. The deadline for submission is November 15, 2021 at midnight. You can access the meeting video, maps and links through the commission website. Printed maps can also be picked up at the City Clerk’s office. 

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CABERKE/bulletins/2f41053 

Californians successfully crushed Larry Elder‘s bid to replace Governor Newsom in the recall election, but how many of us knew that Steven Miller the white nationalist in the Trump administration was as a Santa Monica high schooler a frequent caller into the Larry Elder show. I certainly didn’t. Larry Elder is described as a mentor to Miller in the book Hate Monger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda by Jean Guerrero. Miller was according to the book also coached by David Horowitz. The book paints an ugly picture of the work of Stephen Miller which should be no surprise. Miller, Trump’s speech writer, was behind the Muslim ban and child separation at the border. 

I can’t seem to get enough of reading about American decay, corruption and the racism that brought us to Trump. The other book I finished was Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency by Michael Wolff. It reads more like gossip. Wolff takes us through the last year, the election, January 6^th and Trump leaving the White House and settling in to Mar-a-Lago as his home. I don’t think I will ever understand how someone as delusional and volatile as Trump is to so many a charismatic leader. 

In the September 25 Activist Diary, I recommended the book Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America. The author Eyal Press was interviewed by Chris Hayes in his weekly podcast Why is this happening. It is worth a listen. https://www.stitcher.com/show/why-is-this-happening-with-chris-hayes/episode/dirty-work-with-eyal-press-200233267 

v 

From the perspective of the Receiver, the punchline for the “Saga of Leonard Powell” would be that moment when he finally gets to sell Powell’s house. At that moment, he could crow, “Pay Day.” He would have taken another man’s house, worth maybe $300,000 in 2015, spent around $750,000 on it, and upon sale, cleared maybe $1.3 million, most of which would have ended up in his own pocket. That is, if he could have sold it.

At least, that was the plan, the way receivership is used. The Receiver inflates the total bill for the job to the point where it pushes the owner’s debt beyond what the owner can pay, and then the Receiver petition’s for the right to sell the house in order to recuperate his expenses (since the owner can no longer cover them). This works especially well to move black families out of a city. Black families generally do not have reserve assets to cover the Receiver’s bill, and it is harder for black people to get loans from a bank than white people.

This strategy was actually seen in action in Powell’s case. The real work on the building had ended in September, 2018. But as long as the "Receiver" is recognized by the court, he can keep adding costs to his bill (legal fees, employee expenses, etc.). This was allowed to happen from September, 2018, until the end of 2019. And it all got charged to Mr. Powell. During that time, the Receiver petitioned the court for the right to sell the house, perhaps figuring it was time to cash in his chips and get out of the game. After all, he had violated the judge’s instructions, though he had transformed the building into a fancy (well, semi-fancy) rental property, a nice income-earner for a new owner.

But it didn’t happen that way. A lawyer entered Powell’s side. And she was a fighter. She won the first round, challenging the travesty of this Receiver’s one-man show, by managing to get it on the record that the judge’s order to "repair" the house did not mean "reconstruct" it. Yet that was no easy trick, because the Receiver insisted that those two terms were synonymous. Yet she had all the facts in hand – from dictionary definitions and the judge’s original instructions to the legal distinction that the Receiver’s work obeyed the state construction code (Title 24) that governs "reconstruction," which is wholly distinct from Berkeley’s housing code, under which the building’s violations were listed.

Apparently unable to discern this difference in jurisdiction, the Receiver acted according to the fiction that the city required the house be restored to duplex status. And he actually hints at active collusion by the city to this end, that is, of transforming it into income property. To return the house to duplex status, the Receiver had the foundation worked on, the house tested for asbestos and lead presence, and new flooring installed – all on his own (or with yet unacknowledged city collusion). It is that extravagance that inflated what could have been a $150,000 job (according to a number of contractors) to $750.000.

But there was the end-game. While negotiations proceeded on the semantic difference between repair and reconstruction, the Receiver kept adding fees and expenses to his bill each month, revealing that his own income is simply a horrendous transformation of people into money. Ultimately, his game prevented the judge from arriving at a final figure, in order to terminate the receivership. The game went on for a few months, and was ultimately halted by the demands of Powell’s attorney. Thus, while the “pay day” punchline remained the same for the Receiver, it was still just a little out of reach when the pandemic hit.

One is reminded of that moment in the movie, "Titanic," when the man guiding the submersible with its cameras down into the hull of the ship on the ocean bottom, and finds, in the captain’s cabin, the "safe." He sees it on his computer screen, broadcast from the "deep," and crows “pay day.” As a treasure hunter, he counts his wealth even before it breaks the ocean surface. 

When the safe is brought on deck and cracked open, the necklace, with its enormous diamond, is missing. It is only to be found in Jack’s drawing of Rose. She is nude, and wearing the necklace as a taunt (to her past life, as well as to her future treasure hunters). It is the drawing that testifies to Rose’s liberation from elite class domination (or, as she puts it: “you see, he [Jack] saved me in every way a person can be saved.”) 

It is Rose in her presence as an old woman to the crew of treasure hunters who tells the story. Her audience on that salvage boat is unable to conceive of the story that she doesn’t tell, about how she never had to "spend" the necklace. She still has it with her -- all they had labored for was but a few feet away. It symbolizes for her, as the house and community symbolize for Powell, that they, the people and not the things, are the true forms of wealth. 

In Berkeley, somewhere in the depths of City Hall, some administrative “treasure hunter” saw Powell’s house on a computer screen, sometime in the past, and because it existed in a poor neighborhood, it glittered before his eyes as if of gold. He would have known that the capital gains accrued by development on property of low initial value would be enormous. 

Like Rose, Mr. Powell never thought to "spend" his house – that is, to sell or even rent it. But that is a story of which the city’s treasure hunters could have no conception. They come from a different world, a colonizing culture, unconcerned about whose life they disturb in their quest to get their hands on what lies glittering in the distance, as potential income property. Perhaps they (these administrators) expect a "cut" when the Receiver finally gets to sell the house that is not his to sell. 

By June of 2019, the Receiver thought that he had the gem in hand. But his collusion with the city caught up with him. He admits to it all, in his court filings of 2017 and 2018. Thanks to the support that Powell got from his community, that “Pay day” has yet to be dredged from the depths of the corruption represented by the city’s receivership process. It taunts the city’s treasure hunters, who are blind to the travesty of an illegitimate debt of three-quarters of a million dollars. None of them have ever stepped forward on their own to say, “this is wrong.” 

Mr. Powell is still fighting for his life, to keep himself from sinking into the freezing waters of urban gentrification. He is fighting against political corruption, against urban treasure hunters who see people like him as things, and any property they may have as something to be taken from them, like diving down into a shipwreck and looking for loot. He goes to court on Dec. 3 to answer the city’s undying corruption, and to fight free of its hold on his life. 

If you would like to help, please contact “Friends of Adeline” at 510-338-7843. Or email us at friendsofadeline(at)gmail(dot)com.

I am in my late fifties, and I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia: Paranoid-Type, at age eighteen. All my adult life, I have lived with the specter of mental illness. And this is no walk in the park. Even though I've rarely gone without having my material needs met, this disease is serious business, and it ruins many people's lives.

Ruination of one's life can be prevented. The beginning is to accept treatment and get the symptoms under control. Yet, for many people, this is a tall order. Compliance with prescribed antipsychotics is often the biggest hurdle for a person suffering from schizophrenia.

(Another hurdle that may exist concurrently is to prevent harm to oneself and others.)

There are reasons for the common "noncompliance" with treatment. The absence of basic insight about the presence of psychosis is one of those reasons. The patient's mind has disconnected itself from reality. And because of this, the patient is unable to recognize that their thinking is not accurate. They may believe it is the world that has gone crazy, and not them. To the patient, this internally generated false version of reality is correct. The disease blocks perception of itself. 

If the person's mind could incorporate the idea that they are delusional, it would be a resource that might allow getting well. And, in fact, once medicated and in safe surroundings, this basic insight begins to filter into the mind. When the patient is released too soon, it is a problem. A patient should be kept in the hospital long enough that they can gain an understanding of what happened. The shortsightedness of saving taxpayer dollars is responsible for this. You're not in the long run saving any money if the patient returns to the hospital three weeks later. 

Sometimes when a patient is mostly recovered, they mistakenly believe they can ride out the disease without medication. Disaster commonly follows. 

It is an all-too-common syndrome: "the revolving door syndrome" where a patient becomes ill, goes into the hospital involuntarily, is put on medication and gets stabilized, is released, and then quits his or her medication, only to relapse again. This happens to some patients on a repetitive basis. It ruins the patient's brain, and this ruins their future chances at forging a decent life. The insight is sorely needed that we have to remain medicated. Or else. 

#2: 

Medication side effects can induce massive physical and mental suffering. Counteracting this suffering or tolerating it, can be extremely challenging, especially in the first few years of being medicated. Side effects can cause some to resort to excessive eating, smoking, coffee drinking, alcohol drinking, or use of illicit drugs. Any of those can cause serious physical harm. 

When first medicated, some have an alarming weight gain, in which weight is increased by a third within a few months. Medication can cause damage to bodily organs. If medicated, a patient should have regular blood testing to screen for organ damage. 

The perceivable side effects can be hell on wheels. The horrible, drugged feeling, the restless feeling (like you want to jump out of your skin) and in some cases, tremors or uncontrollable movements, can be so awful, it could cause most people to not tolerate medications. This is a valid reason. Yet, medication could be necessary to think and act normally. It is a substantial dilemma. 

My solution for myself: ignore, tolerate, adjust, and use mindfulness. I should explain the adjust part: This is where I work with the doctor to put me on meds and on dosages that I could tolerate. It is where the meds are adjusted to be effective yet not to produce any more suffering than I have to undergo. The mindfulness part and the tolerate and ignore methods are skills that I've taught myself over a period of more than thirty years of being medicated. I plan to incorporate some of these ideas and how I implement them into future writings.

A recent Washington Post Robert Kagan oped (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/23/robert-kagan-constitutional-crisis/) says what a lot of us have been thinking: the United States is heading into a constitutional crisis. Would-be dictator Donald Trump is determined to run for President in 2024 and "Trump and his Republican allies are actively preparing to ensure his victory by whatever means necessary." To deal with this existential threat to our country, it's necessary for all of us -- not just our leaders in Washington DC -- to take extreme measures.

Robert Kagan observes that Trump has consistently been underestimated: "[The establishment] underestimated the extent of [Trump's] popularity and the strength of his hold on his followers; they underestimated his ability to take control of the Republican Party; and then they underestimated how far he was willing to go to retain power." Kagan details the forces that animate the Trump movement: "Suspicion of and hostility toward the federal government; racial hatred and fear; a concern that modern, secular society undermines religion and traditional morality; economic anxiety in an age of rapid technological change; class tensions, with subtle condescension on one side and resentment on the other; distrust of the broader world..." Kagan continues: "What makes the Trump movement historically unique is not its passions and paranoias. It is the fact that for millions of Americans, Trump himself is the response to their fears and resentments. This is a stronger bond between leader and followers than anything seen before in U.S. political movements." [Emphasis added] 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but this an existential crisis. It's time to get back on the barricades. Here are the measures I suggest: 

1.Guaranteeing fair elections has to be our number one priority. In these difficult times, many policy initiatives are vying for our attention: climate change, racism, economic justice, reproductive rights, affordable housing, public health...to name only a few. But we have to focus our efforts: guaranteeing fair elections has to be our unmistakable top priority. 

The problem is that millions of Americans have pledged their fealty to Donald Trump. And he is willing to do anything to regain power. A recent University of Virginia study (https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/clear-and-present-danger-majority-of-trump-voters-believe-its-time-to-split-the-country-in-two/? ) detailed the extent of this problem: "A majority of Trump voters believe it's time to split the country into two, with 'red states' and 'blue states' seceding from the Union." 

2. Enact Vaccine Mandates. While enacting vaccine mandates might seem peripheral to the central problem, it isn't, because vaccine mandates are a rare "two-for." First, requiring vaccination helps keep us (relatively) safe from Coronavirus; second, vaccine mandates drive a deep wedge into the Republican Party. Mandates are a powerful wedge issue because hard-core Trumpers subscribe to conspiracy theories and many of these theories suggest that Coronavirus vaccines are evil. (Recently Trump has given half-hearted support for vaccination; but there's no evidence that this has changed the behavior of his rabid base.) 

Therefore, if you are Trump supporter and you are required to get vaccinated, you have a difficult choice: get vaccinated to save your job -- as a nurse, police officer, bus driver, or whatever -- or not get vaccinated and lose your employment and possibly die. This choice largely falls on Republicans. 

Approximately 55 percent of all Americans have been fully vaccinated; A recent NBC News poll (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/nbc-news-poll-shows-demographic-breakdown-vaccinated-u-s-n1277514 ) found that 69 percent of ADULTS had been vaccinated: 88 percent of Democrats, 60 percent of Independents, and 55 percent of Republicans. The NBC poll found that among those "Republicans who support Trump more than party," only 46 percent had been vaccinated. (Nationally, there's about a 13 percentage point difference between counties that voted for Biden and counties that voted for Trump -- there's a 17 percentage points difference in California.) Many Trump followers are going to get very sick, and possibly die, because they won't get vaccinated. 

Bottom line: Unless they are vaccinated, Trumpsters shouldn't be allowed to be public employees, use public facilities, go to theaters or sport arenas, or use public transportation. 

3. Restrict Hate Speech. One of the consequences of the Trump ascendancy is that "hate speech" has been empowered. Trump has obliterated the boundaries of political correctness. He feels he can say whatever he feels like, whenever he feels like it. And because of his stance, Trump's followers believe they can say whatever sexist, racist, or xenophobic phrase that pops into their mouths. Because of Trump, is it any surprise that the daily news features videos of minorities being threatened or taunted by white folks? 

But the Trumpster conduct goes way beyond speech; opponents of Trump are threatened. It's become common for public officials -- those who are perceived to be in Trump's way -- to be threatened with physical assault or death; often their families are threatened. (This is the same "brown-shirt" behavior that characterized Hitler's early followers -- "Sturmabteilung".) 

Robert Kagan deplores the current state of the GOP: "The Republican Party today is a zombie party. Its leaders go through the motions of governing in pursuit of traditional Republican goals, wrestling over infrastructure spending and foreign policy, even as real power in the party has leached away to Trump. From the uneasy and sometimes contentious partnership during Trump’s four years in office, the party’s main if not sole purpose today is as the willing enabler of Trump’s efforts to game the electoral system to ensure his return to power." [Emphasis added] Kagan speculates that many erstwhile Republican leaders are afraid of being primaried. Sadly their motivation is more basic: they fear for their lives. Many otherwise decent Republicans are afraid to oppose Trump because of the damage his deranged followers might do. 

Trump is a thug. He's the reincarnation of Hitler. The conduct of his followers needs to be opposed and penalized. 

(By the way: we need to severely penalize those who planned and participated in the January 6th insurrection.) 

4. Protect Voting Rights: Robert Kagan understands the nature of the dilemma facing the republic: "Senate Democrats were wise to cut down their once-massive voting rights wish list and get behind the smaller compromise measure unveiled last week by Manchin and Sen. Amy Klobuchar... Heading into the next election, it is vital to protect election workers, same-day registration and early voting. It will also still be necessary to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which directly addresses the state legislatures’ electoral power grab."