Every high school student and every adult needs to understand two facts: -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This morning’s New York Times had an opinion piece by Serge Schmemann on its front page rehashing the ongoing speculation about what’s being called the “Havana Syndrome”, a mysterious collection of unpleasant symptoms which has afflicted U.S. diplomatic staff in embassies around the world, starting first in Havana in 2016. As it happens, the Planet’s longstanding “On Mental Health” columnist had just forwarded to me a piece he wrote which appeared in Street Spirit in July of 2007. Let’s say it’s at least a surprising coincidence—but have the muckety-mucks in Washington who are supposed to be investigating the Havana Syndrome ever heard of this? -more-

From Streets to Ballot Box: Berkeley Politics in the 1970s, Selections from the David Mundstock Collection
November 6, 2021 - April 9, 2022

The public is invited to two events this weekend, one in person and one online:
Saturday, November 6, 2 to 4 pm: See the exhibit on its opening day and meet and congratulate the curators: Jeanine Castello-Lin, Lincoln Cushing, William Roberts, Tama Spencer, Tonya Staros, and Charles Wollenberg.
Sunday, November 7, 3 to 4:30 pm: Panel presentation by Shirley Dean, Loni Hancock, Gus Newport, and Marty Schiffenbauer. (Please sign up with a donation of any amount on Eventbrite.)
-more-

"Almost sacred," was one California Historic Resources Commissioner's reflection on the 6-0-0 affirmative vote to recommend the eligibility of People's Park for federal recognition on Friday, October 29th, 2021. Another commissioner expressed concern about the University of California's leadership given their inability to recognize the Park's obvious cultural significance, while another reminisced about where they were and how old they were when the headlines around the world when the national guard was sent to Berkeley and CS gas wafted across the campus. -more-

“The United State foreign policy is being articulated with emphasis on diplomacy including gaining international support to ensure that the Iranian nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.This is different than the previous administration. -more-

I have been following many of your opinion pieces on homelessness and particularly liked your latest. Something must be done to stop the way the unhoused are cruelly treated and often abandoned. -more-

As an appeals court in London is deciding whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a sham political trial, a punitive attempt by the British government to try and punish Assange on behalf of the United States. -more-

The California State Historical Resources Commission voted unanimously on Friday to recommend that Berkeley’s People’s Park be listed on the National Register of Historical Places. The nomination now moves to the Keeper of the Register for final approval within the next 45 days.

Harvey Smith, President of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group (PPHDAG) said, “We were very happy that the commissioners understood the important historical and cultural legacy of the Park and acknowledged the loss of life during the struggle for the Park. The commission recognized the park's importance in the great social and political movements of the 1960s and Berkeley's extraordinary role in the history of that decade."

Last month the UC Regents approved a plan to build a massively out of scale and out of context 12 story student dormitory. Several historic preservation experts submitted comments that the project would seriously degrade the Park’s historic and cultural values and the cultural values of the surrounding historic environment, which includes famous buildings by Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan and Walter Ratcliff. The adjacent Anna Head School was Berkeley’s very first brown shingle structure, and it would be overshadowed by the project -more-

Paranoid thoughts are sometimes correct, and you can not always assume that the world is friendly. In fact, there are threats, there are threatening people, and people, deep down, are not always good. If the mental health treatment system teaches that we should always trust people, this is only for purposes of making us manageable. If we are to survive and prosper, we must be able to handle some amount of the nitty gritty of life. This means that we cannot always be naive.

It is not a safe bet that people are always telling you the truth. And liars are often very good at what they do. This includes pathological liars. They can get you to believe all kinds of things that aren't accurate.

People who work in law enforcement lie for purposes of gaining evidence against you. And if they can get a confession under the guise that you won't be in trouble if you tell them everything, then it is only appropriate that you get locked up because you are a dummy.

However, there is a reason that the word "paranoid" exists. That's where we've gone a bit too far in the instinct to protect ourselves from a perceived or imagined threat. When the perception of threat is always in charge, the accuracy of our thoughts will be less. If we can learn to be more conscious of our thoughts, perhaps with no particular rule of how and what to think, we will be better off. -more-

On October 27, 2021, Israel approved about 3,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, a day after the United States issued its strongest rebuke yet of such construction. These are the first settlements approved under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who succeeded Benjamin Netanyahu in June. -more-

Tell the Great Pumpkin It's Time to Squash Louis DeJoy

I recently waited five weeks for a birthday gift to travel from VA to CA and—in the end—the USPS lost it. They promised an "investigation" that would take "60 days."

It doesn't take an investigation to see what's wrong here—it's Postmonster General Louis DeJoy. Let's give Trump's Postmaster General the boot. Cancel him! Stamp him out! And, if you feel like sending a message to the White House, here's an Action Network link that will insure your message gets delivered while saving you postage. -more-

The majority of the Berkeley City Council and the Planning Commission have approved countless new market-rate residential development projects over the past ten years, but these have included only a tiny fraction of units designated for below median income. -more-

Noting:

Monday the Council Public Safety meeting is at 10:30 am and includes discriminatory reports, ALPR and restoring red light cameras. Agenda Committee planning for 11-16-21 council meeting is at 2:30. Peace of Justice at 7 pm has Rights of Nature on the agenda (council killed the referral last Tuesday). Kesarwani and Saltzman at North Berkeley BART at 5:30 – 6:30 pm.

Tuesday Council meets in closed session at 4 pm on the Leonard Powell lawsuit in superiorcourt. PAB Subcommittee on regulations meets at 6:30 pm.

Wednesday the Council Budget Committee meets at 10 am. BOLT is at 6:30 pm. The Disability Commission meets at 6 pm with full agenda on accessible housing, Leonard Powell displacement, elevator ordinance. The Independent Redistricting meets at 6 pm – there is still time to submit your proposal for the new council district boundaries deadline November 15. The Planning Commission public hearing on the BART Station Housing Projects is at 7 pm – this looks to be the final meeting on zoning amendments and EIR.

Thursday the Land Use Committee takes up streamlining ADU permitting and toxic remediation. LPC meets at 7 pm. Public Works has not published the links or agenda – deadline for posting is Monday. WETA meets at 1 pm with item 9 on the agenda is the Berkeley Pier/Fair study and Ferry Service Business Plan Update.



The November 9 council agenda is posted at the bottom and available for comment. Note items moved to November 9 from last council meeting which ran until after midnight: 20. Objective standards, density, design, shadows (with an absence of residential neighborhood solar protections), 21. Marina hotel tax (will tax go to the Marina or general fund), 22. Officeholder accounts and 23. free Sunday AC transit are on the agenda under ACTION. -more-

One of the side benefits of the changes forced by the pandemic is that an international conference planned to take place in London could be watched live from home. I finished the week with attending the international virtual conference Half-Earth Day.

The Half-Earth Project® started with Edward O. Wilson and his premise that to save the bulk of biodiversity including ourselves, we need to conserve half the land and sea. https://www.half-earthproject.org/

Conserving half the earth for biodiversity is a laudable goal, one that sadly I don’t see going very far. For heaven’s sake we can’t even get developers to come to ZAB (Zoning Adjustment Board) and DRC (Design Review Committee) with a landscape plan that is predominantly locally native plants, or to install bird safe glass, or to stop planning patios with methane-burning firepits.

Calling methane “natural gas” doesn’t make it any less toxic to the environment or to your kitchen for that matter. And, all those projects in the works before the implementation of the natural gas ban in new construction passed by city council on July 23, 2019, can still do what they wish. ZAB (Zoning Adjustment Board) and DRC (Design Review Committee) can only request.

As for bird safe glass, nothing has changed since I last wrote. The bird safe glass ordinance passed by council on November 12, 2019, was referred to the Planning Commission where the ordinance languishes, second from the bottom of a long to-do list with no priority, awaiting Planning Commission approval. That is, before the ordinance takes a tour through the city manager’s office, and then it can be implemented.

I confess to being a bit cranky at DRC Thursday evening, when I started my first public comment with: Why do we, month after month, have to speak to the same issues, choosing native plants and bird safe glass? The two projects before DRC for final review Thursday evening have been in the works since 2016 and 2018. Speakers representing both projects, 2902 Adeline and 1951 Shattuck, insisted the fire pits were a desired amenity to keep. Cody Fornari, the developer and CEO of Realtex for 2902 Adeline, did not express even a whiff of interest in bird safe glass. -more-

Worth Noting: A full week ahead. Commissioners are still working through aa will happen to priorities with the merging of commissions.

Monday – The Civic Arts Policy Subcommittee meets at 10 am, The Agenda and Rules committee is at 2:30 pm and reviews the council agenda for November 9. Zero Waste and Children, Youth and Recreation both meet at 7 pm.

Tuesday – Council closed session at 4 pm with the Council regular meeting at 6 pm.

Wednesday – The 4 x 4 Committee meets at 3 pm. The Energy Commission and Reimagining Task Force meet at 5 pm. The Civic Arts Commission and the Housing Element Workshop on adding 8,934 residential units meet at 6 pm. The Pier-Ferry Workshop #3 is at 6:30 pm. The Disaster and Fire Safety Commission and Police Accountability Board meet at 7 pm.

Thursday – The Hopkins Corridor Traffic Study is at 6 pm. The Willard Park Clubhouse Community meeting is at 6:30 pm. The Mental Health Commission and Zoning Adjustment Board meet at 7 pm.

Saturday relax – Roller Skate BOOgie 11 am – 4 pm.

October 28 – November 14, 2021 Citywide Public Survey on housing www.surveymonkey.com/r/berkeleyhousing -more-

On Tuesday Oct. 26, 2021 Council will be taking up the issue of solar protection for existing properties. Please send them an email in support of item 36. -more-

In the first eight months of the George W. Bush administration, Powell lost bruising battles with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and other neocons, who were really running the administration. Powell was chosen to deliver false claims of overseas threats because his international gravitas and respect. -more-

How Do You Know When Waste Is "Excessive"?

On October 25, the Chronicle reported that 23 members of Congress had signed on to Rep. Zoe Lofgren's letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding the closure of three notorious ICE detention facilities in California. "For years, under multiple administrations, these facilities have been operating in a substandard manner resulting in repeated violations … and excessive waste of federal funds."

Did you notice the critical adjective "excessive"? Apparently the assumption is that a good deal of federal funds will always be wasted but sometimes the corruption is so egregious you need to append the qualifier "excessive."

Toward the end of the article, Chronicle reporter Deepa Fernandez provides this illumination: "The letter also accuses the federal government of wasting $1.34 million a day on unused detention beds."

That means we're paying an annual cost of $489 million for "empty beds." I'd say that's a pretty good example of "excessive. -more-

We’re going to change the lighting in this room. It’s time to make it darker, to reflect the long dark night ahead.

Even someone as old as I am has a good chance of living long enough to see most of old Boston slip into the sea as Greenland empties itself of ice.

Before we see 2030 we will sail quickly and quietly past a committed 1.5°C global average temperature increase relative to pre-industrial society. Will make 2°C by morning. Your children will die of this.

The Conference of Parties at the U.N., the world climate meeting at which Joe Jim-Crow Biden’s delegates will smile and glad-hand while announcing their intention to do nothing and thereby slaughter billions is happening soon. I can not find a climate scientist who doesn’t believe this meeting is the last hope for political solutions – and that it will fail. -more-

On Monday, Indigenous Peoples’ Day. I opened my email to see this note from James McFadden:

"This 'Berkeley Together' effort seems more like an attempt to divide Berkeley -- perhaps they should be renamed 'Berkeley Divided.' The most privileged are organizing to get an exemption from development -- assuming loss of local zoning control is ok as long as it doesn't impact them. It looks like the hill people are throwing the flats under the development bus rather than forming a united front to fight this developer grab of power and neoliberal deregulation/disempowerment of cities."

There was a time when I might have felt the same knee jerk reaction, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how climate change and climate catastrophes are going to change where and how we live. This morning my first podcast of the day was “The Daily” from the New York Times “Which towns are worth saving” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/podcasts/the-daily/climate-crisis-resilience.html We might extend that to which parts of towns should be abandoned and when is retreat the best choice?

My niece and I talked not so long ago about how we are going to see climate refugees from within our own country as parts of the US become uninhabitable. How many times should an area be rebuilt? Or, should there even be expansion in cities like Phoenix with a future like 118° on June 17^th? Homeowners in the hills are finding it ever more difficult to secure fire insurance. When the hills burn again as they likely will despite our efforts to prevent such an event, should they be rebuilt? At the very least should we be putting more people in an area where they may be trapped, unable to evacuate as in the Berkeley Oakland Hills fire in 1991 where 25 people died? The opposite side of the city will be impacted by sea level rise, with a best case scenario now 10 feet, not 6 feet.

We may find that as our electeds recoil from having to say the dreaded word “retreat” it will be the insurance companies that assess the risk and drive the response. -more-

In 2016, a number of U.S.diplomats, CIA officers, and other federal officials stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba suffered traumatic neurological injuries supposedly caused by some kind of sonic wave machine. No other employees or residents of the hotel where some of these diplomats were staying reported similar illnesses. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) suspect the cause is directed energy, possibly microwaves, presumably targeted at the embassy and their residences. This is a leading theory only and so far no suspects have been identified. The U.S. Department of State has referred to the events as "unexplained health incidents;” others have dubbed the incidents as the “Havana Syndrome.” -more-

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, launched a brutal offensive against Tigray separatists which left thousands dead and over 1 million internally displaced. Meanwhile 350,000 of the country is on the brink of starvation especially children under 5 years old. This was the grim assessment of Stanley Chitekwe, chief of nutrition UNICEF Ethiopia conflict. The United Nations says it’s the worst malnutrition crisis in a decade and it’s projected to get worse unless Ethiopia lifts its brutal blockade of humanitarian aid to Tigray. -more-

From a 2004 Planet editorial about a fundraiser for the developers’ candidates in a Berkeley election:

Berkeley author Thacher Hurd has a book for the 4 to 8 set which, with wonderful pictures, tells the story of how Miles Possum and his band of little swamp critters are invited to play for the Alligators’ Ball. After the music stops, the alligators are hungry. “What’s for dinner?” says Miles. “Something tender! Something juicy!” says an alligator, holding a menu behind his back that features “Swamp Band Soup.” On the next page, “the alligators snapped their jaws and snapped their lips” as they drag the struggling band members ever closer to a big boiling pot.

As a Cajun might say about an Alligators’Ball, “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. ” In colloquial English: “Same-old same-old.”

Last week, more than a decade later, someone sent me an emailed invitation to what’s billed as the YIMBY Gala, featuring a curated selection of Bay Area elected officials as the tender and juicy menu items du jour. -more-