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Climate Emergency Report
(Council mtg 11/30, item 14 - council is committed)

Thomas Lord
Saturday November 27, 2021 - 07:20:00 PM

This Tuesday, Berkeley City Council will commit to ending essentially all gasoline use in Berkeley, all flights taken by Berkeleyans, and a significant chunk of natural gas use in residences and commercial buildings – all within just the next few years. Remarkable! Long overdue! Isn’t it? Well…

In particular, with the passage of item 14 from the City Manager, City Council will commit to something like an 11% annual reduction in community-wide emissions (year over year), every year, for at least the next eight years, starting with 2022.

While this will be Berkeley’s most aggressive commitment on emissions reduction ever, it isn’t adequate to limit warming to 1.5°C or below. Even if the whole world sang in harmony and reduced global emissions by 11% per year from here on out, the world will have long passed the 1.5°C target sometime in the 2030s.

The more serious problem is that any observer of Council knows they have no plans, no proposals, and evidently no actual intention of living up to this commitment. The commitment is not legally binding. They are passing the commitment on the Consent Calendar, in an item from the City Manager, with no fanfare. 

Why slink in with this ambitious yet empty commitment and not even try to grab the spotlight? Because formally announcing the empty commitment is the last step in gaining Berkeley membership in “C40”, a coalition of cities, founded almost in 2005. C40 is led by many of the world’s great “mega-cities”. Membership in C40, according to one recent examination at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, has no statistical association with whether or to what degree a city’s emissions fall. 

On the other hand, there are benefits of a sort, at least for the Mayor. Had Berkeley completed its C40 application in time for the recent U.N. Conference of Parties meeting on the climate emergency, perhaps the Mayor or a designate could have flown to Copenhagen to attend the C40 Mayor’s Conference. Between time spent enjoying the local sites, they might have had a chance to be photographed with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or the Mayor London. Perhaps they might have even been mentioned in the New York Times which has never seen a business-friendly greenwashing effort it didn’t like. 

In summary: in order to join a prestigious coalition with no actual success, Berkeley will make an empty promise to lower emissions very quickly, yet still somehow not enough for trying to limit heating to 1.5°C. 

Could there be a more concise summary of Berkeley and our nation’s entire response to the climate emergency so far? 

There is nothing on Tuesday’s City Council agenda that suggests any member of City Council is aware of, and takes seriously, the real existing climate emergency. 

Again.


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: The Unspoken Rule: Do Not Get Well

Jack Bragen
Saturday November 27, 2021 - 06:11:00 PM

In 1996 I experienced my most recent psychotic episode, a relapse of acute psychosis, caused by stopping medication against medical advice. I hope to never have another episode of full psychosis. I've had a total of four episodes in my life, caused by "noncompliance." Although it is poorly chosen terminology, stopping medication if you need it can ruin one's life, it can end one's life, or it can be a massive setback at the very least.

The untreated condition was bad enough that it made me gravely disabled, with the potential to be a danger to myself. (Any episode of acute psychosis, of anyone, brings substantial risk to lives. I know of no exceptions.)

When my mind gained some semblance of being able to track reality, I made a lifetime commitment to compliance. At the time, my parents were getting too old to deal with me as a psychotic person, and I was starting to get old enough that I might very well not survive future episodes if they happened. 

I am kept stabilized by a daily regimen, primarily consisting of antipsychotic medication, but also a mood stabilizer and pills for anxiety. Now that I am making more progress in my life, people view me with suspicion. They may not have been around twenty-six years ago when it was clear that I suffered from "Schizophrenia: Paranoid-Type." Take away the medication and you will see the Werewolf. I'm not willing to try that, because it would ruin me for the remainder of my lifespan. 

People do not understand that a lot of effort goes into managing my symptoms, and on top of that, into functioning in society as a competent adult. And, on top of that, I've had a great deal of luck with published writing--it is not actually luck; it is work. I do not get the respect I believe I should have. Instead, many people seem to view me as some kind of criminal. 

Furthermore, the Social Security Administration is trying to bump me off direly needed benefits. It is not just the meagre amount of money I'm given, it is the Medicare and Medicaid that I need to keep, since the medications to treat my primary disorder don't come cheap, and, I'm getting older, so more things are starting to go wrong. 

People should realize that I'm an asset to the community. I decided a very long time ago that I wasn't going to accept the clear implication of treatment practitioners and others, that says, I'm schizophrenic and therefore I can't do anything that requires intelligence. 

I'm mis-perceived in two ways. First, not that much intelligence is attributed. Secondly, people I deal with today didn't know me when I was in my twenties and thirties--and they have no concept of how bad off I was every few years when I went off medication. Instead, they see someone who is able to think and behave normally. Yet, thinking normally has required a massive amount of internal work, a great deal of reality checking, and remaining properly medicated. And people don't see that. 

In my twenties I worked in electronic repair, and I was good at it. I wasn't good at showing up or at sustaining long hours of work. And I wasn't good at dealing with people in the workplace. I'm still not good with any of that. But I was good at diagnostics on analog circuits, and this made me able to repair some earlier televisions that many would have considered hopeless. 

I was reading and understanding a college level electronics textbook at the age of twelve. I was reading Tarzan novels, H. G. Wells novels, Sherlock Holmes novels, and much more, as a teenager. It was never just electronics, I loved to read. And I loved to learn. And I never lost that. 

A lot of things I do just for the heck of it, and later they turn out to be valuable. No one helps me with my writing other than some editors. Not all editors change the text of what I write. 

But I need to tell you, once and for all: I lead a respectable life. Do not accuse me of anything unless it has been proven. Do not call me on my phone and ask why I was at a particular location at a particular time and date. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. Work. 

Jack Bragen is author of "An Offering of Power: Valuable, Unusual Meditation Methods," and "Instructions for Dealing with Schizophrenia: A Self-Help Manual."


ECLECTIC RANT: Rittenhouse Meets Trump

Ralph E. Stone
Saturday November 27, 2021 - 06:05:00 PM

Vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of murdering Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz with an AR-15-type semiautomatic rifle at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Protesters had gathered there to speak out against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was left paralyzed after being shot by a police officer.  

Shortly after the verdict, former president Donald Trump sent an email statement about the verdict. It read: "Congratulations to Kyle Rittenhouse for being found INNOCENT of all charges. It's called being found NOT GUILTY- and by the way, if that's not self-defense, nothing is!” I note that Trump did not offer “thoughts and prayers” to Rittenhouse’s victims or their families. 

Later, Rittenhouse and his mother met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The photo of the two together speaks volumes about the political polarization in this country. I am appalled at the verdict and Trump’s use of Rittenhouse for political purposes while Trump’s base is undoubtedly cheering. 


Berkeley's Emission Target Proposals Compared

Thomas Lord
Saturday November 27, 2021 - 09:43:00 PM

Editor's Note: On Tuesday the City Council will vote on a 2030 emissions reduction target from the City Manager. You can read about that item here .

On Wednesday, the Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment, and Sustainability Police Committee will take up a stronger and more legally binding climate ordinance being developed by Councilmember Kate Harrison. Harrison's item appears likely to meet with resistance from committee members Taplin and Robinson, reflecting the YIMBY agenda that calls for rapid, very dense, and tall construction throughout most of Berkeley.

The following is from an email posted by Thomas Lord on local mailing lists and shared here with permission, which considers the narrow issue of the City Manager's emissions target for 2030, as compared to Harrison's:

An interesting problem is that both Kate Harrison's item in policy committees and the city manager’s item coming to council on Tuesday claim to have "science-based emissions limits [targets]". In spite of both claiming to be "science-based", the two items set wildly different rate-of-emissions targets for 2030.

City manager: reductions of 11%, year over year, for 8 years; Kate Harrison: reductions of 25%, year over year, for 8 years. How can this be? 

Kate's quite aggressive target is very well aligned with the science and with the goal of a just transition for all. The city manager's target, based on a methodology promoted by C40 and the World Wildlife Foundation, is based on significant science errors. 

 

The WWF created the methodology used by the city manager. They made the statistical error of treating all "scenarios" discussed in the 2018 IPCC report as equally plausible, and thus averaged their targets. (A "scenario" is a stylized case-study of a possible future emissions and carbon removal technology.) The multiple scenarios considered by the IPCC are not meant to be considered equally plausible. Some are commonly considered impossible or wildly implausible -- namely those that depend the most on technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Averaging the scenarios therefore builds into the WWF model an overly optimistic assumption about the very near term future of carbon removal technology -- namely that it will magically be deployed at a very large scale more or less overnight, today. As a result, the WWF methodology recommends a shockingly slow pace of reductions (albeit still one much higher than current targets). (There are other problems with the WWF methodology and how it was locally applied but the built-in bogus assumptions about carbon removal technology appear to me to be the biggest source of error.)

I don't know where Kate's office came up with the 25% rate of reduction (total of 90% by 2030) but if you do the math to see how much would be emitted by 2030 and then by the time emissions were about 0, you'll see that Berkeley would come in a bit below a budget for 1.5C warming, meaning that energy-scarce developing countries would stand a better chance of building modern infrastructure (but sustainably) -- a critical goal among Paris agreement members, and the goal the city manager mistakenly claims to having satisfied. 


White Privilege, Black Despair

Tejinder Uberoi
Saturday November 27, 2021 - 06:20:00 PM

Recent court decisions make a complete mockery of the US justice system. 

Examples: Chris Belter, pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of four teenage girls will avoid prison, after receiving an extraordinarily light sentence that’s drawn international condemnation. He received eight months’ probation and no jail time after he pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree sexual abuse, third-degree rape and two counts of second-degree sexual abuse. Belter is white and comes from a rich white privileged family. 

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, the majority all-white jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all five counts for fatally shooting two people and wounding a third last year during protests sparked by the police shooting that left Jacob Blake paralyzed. The judge showed blatant bias in favor of Rittenhouse throughout the trial. He brandished an AR 15 rifle purchased illegally, - a federal offence. 

Three White men -- Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and their neighbor Bryan Jr. -- face charges including malice murder and felony murder in the death of Arbury, a 25-year-old Black man who was chased by the trio on February 23, 2020, in the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. One can only wonder what might have happened if the 3 assailants were black chasing a white unarmed jogger! 

Emory University professor Carol Anderson traces back our messianic love of guns, the passage of the second amendment, to white peoples fear of black people. Anderson writes there was this massive fear about these slave revolts, Black people demanding their freedom, being willing to have an uprising to gain their freedom,” says Anderson. “What I saw was that it wasn’t about guns. It was about the fear of Black people. Sadly, not much has changed.


Opinion

Public Comment

Paid Parking for Berkeley's Bateman Neighborhood? An Economic Analysis

Phillip LeVeen, Webster Street resident since 1973
Sunday November 21, 2021 - 12:37:00 PM

I have a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago (received it at a time when the department was under the control of Milton Friedman). I didn’t enjoy my time at Chicago, but I did come away with an appreciation for prices, markets, and individual behavior in relation to them as well as an understanding of how to evaluate policies in terms of costs and benefits. I taught economics and environmental policy at Cal for 25 years and I’m very familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of cost benefit analysis. The cost benefit framework is helpful in identifying key questions that need to be addressed if we are to make rational use of our resources. Some costs and some benefits are hard to quantify, but in the case of this proposed paid parking project, most of these impacts can at least be identified, if not fully quantified. Unfortunately, the city did not conduct such an analysis, so it is not surprising it is getting so much pushback from the neighborhood. Had it conducted such an analysis, I’m convinced it wouldn’t have pursued this pilot project in this setting. 

The current parking system is built on free parking for anyone who doesn’t remain more than 2 hours. For residents with an A sticker, parking costs about $60 per year. In theory, free parking for non-residents can be extended indefinitely, if the individual is willing to move his/her car every two hours. In theory, when two hours is up, you must find a new location somewhere else in the neighborhood to avoid getting a costly ticket. The intention behind the two-hour limit originated in our neighborhood’s frustration with Alta Bates’ employees who, prior to the residential parking program, monopolized our streets, forcing many of us to park blocks away from our homes. Our neighborhood proposed the very first residential preferential parking system (hence the A designation on our stickers) in the early 1980s. Since then, residential parking has been extended throughout the city. If you hate it or love it, you can thank our neighborhood and its efforts to protect itself from the hospital. 

The two-hour limit didn’t initially stop many of these employees from moving their cars a few feet (or wiping off the chalk from their tires) every two hours. We’d see troupes of employees in their scrubs as they wiped and moved cars a few feet every two years. Subsequently, the neighborhood convinced Alta Bates to subsidize a sophisticated parking enforcement system, now familiar to all, in which license numbers are tracked by roving patrol cars. It’s no longer a matter of wiping off chalk. One really must move the car to a new location to avoid a ticket. To its credit, the hospital created a series of off-site parking areas and a shuttle system to encourage their employees to stay out of the neighborhood. Still, some continue to play the two-hour shuffle with this system, but parking has become more available for residents and a kind of uneasy truce with the hospital prevails. 

Employees of local stores who drive to work also take advantage of free two-hour parking. They also play the two-hour shuffle to keep from getting tickets, though this means taking time away from the job at least three times a day, which may not please the boss, but it is free. The two-hour shuffle is the justification the city has used to initiate the proposed pay for parking pilot program. It argues that starting up a cold car causes significant amounts of greenhouse gas, and by allowing individuals to legally park for longer periods by paying a parking fee, these cold starts will be minimized, and greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced. 

If this system of paid parking is implemented, the cost of parking to everyone who doesn’t have an A permit will rise. If there are other nearby areas that don’t impose this parking fee, then some of the people parking here may move away, but I assume most will stay and pay. That means the cost of coming to our neighborhood will rise for shoppers as well as local employees. How many are put off by the higher costs is obviously a matter of contention. For some, the proposed low cost of parking for up to 4 hours for a dollar an hour will be a welcome improvement over their current situation. This is particularly true for Alta Bates employees who now drive to satellite lots and take a shuttle to the hospital rather than doing the two-hour shuffle and risking parking fines. For these people, the safety of being able to park legally, at a modest cost, will be an inducement to park on our streets rather than in the far-off lots. Maybe others who now take public transportation will switch to a car, which is certainly more convenient. Moreover, with a little effort, employees could lower the proposed $14 fee for an 8 hour stay, by paying $4 for four hours and then moving and paying $4 for another 4 hours. (I suppose it might be possible to thwart this behavior by restricting an individual car to one pass a day, but that too could have unwanted side effects). In short, this program will open the gates for many new cars parking in our neighborhood. We’ll be back to the conditions of the 1970s. 

Commuters are another potential group that might find paid parking in the neighborhood a bargain compared to parking fees elsewhere who would be more than happy to pay $14 for the certainty of not getting a ticket. These could be commuters who now park at much higher cost in various parking lots around the south side of downtown Berkeley. It’s less than a mile to campus from here. It only takes 20 minutes to walk. It wouldn’t take many individuals parking on our streets to have a dramatic impact on our parking capacity. The same goes for all the people who now park while they visit doctors’ offices. Many already take advantage of our free two hour parking, but many others park in the various parking structures which have much higher rates that those being proposed in the pilot program. Again, it doesn’t take many individuals deciding to park and pay during their doctor’s visit or visit to see patients at Alta Bates to negatively impact our parking capacity. And finally, what about football traffic which now stays out of the neighborhood and pays very high prices to park closer to the stadium? They already fill up Claremont canyon, which has free parking. They would certainly find a fee of $4 for four hours a grand bargain. 

Employees at many of the College Ave establishments, the intended beneficiaries of this pilot parking program, who have been parking for free and doing the two-hour shuffle, will, assuming they pay for 4 hours twice a day, experience a reduction in their weekly wages by the new cost of parking (assuming the merchants don’t reimburse them). If they are making $15/hr, and they have to pay a minimum of $8 per day (or as high as $14 if they opt for the full 8 hour rate) for parking, their effective income will be reduced by between 7% and 12% depending on whether they pay $8 or $14 per day. If employers reimburse for parking, they will experience, in turn, an increase in the costs of doing business here. This could be a significant additional cost if they have several employees, and they would likely try to get the added costs back from their employees by lowering future wage increases. I wonder if the owners of these businesses who have supported the pilot program have really thought through the sequence that might well make it harder for them to find employees or increase their business costs. A targeted program of travel subsidies to offset public transportation costs of getting to work, or parking permits to specific employees who have no other option but to drive to work, would benefit these businesses considerably more than the paid parking program. 

From the perspective of the overall parking capacity in the neighborhood, the increased cost to employees of local businesses might discourage some from driving their cars to work. It probably won’t increase the number of cars trying the park by these employees. I don’t see these employees as the kind of threat posed by Alta Bates employees. They are already parking here, and we have adequate capacity to absorb them. 

For other people who park in the neighborhood, particularly shoppers, most don’t need more than 2 hours, so increasing the cost, even by a modest amount, won’t be welcomed, though I don’t think it will drive many shoppers away. The only groups that might benefit are theater goers and possibly some who have three martini lunches extending over two hours. They would likely prefer the certainty of knowing they won’t get a ticket for overstaying the two-hour limit. 

The people who will be most disadvantaged by this program include the tradespeople who work on our houses, the carpenters, electricians, plumbers who now park for free. The housecleaners, gardeners, caregivers and babysitters will now have to pay as well. While the costs of the new parking fees will be low for those with short stays, the $14 fee for 8 hours will significantly increase the cost to construction crews and anyone else parking here for the day. These new costs will get built into the hourly rates we pay our helpers, so even if they actually pay the fees outright, the people living in the neighborhood will end up paying for these new parking fees. All of us have occasional visitors drop in for short or longer visits and these visits will now be subject to the new parking fees as well. 

I have no idea how much additional cost to local residents we are talking about, but I would guess that spread out over a year, including every household, we are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’m sure the city could make this calculation; perhaps it has. 

In sum, it is virtually impossible to structure paid parking to solve the problem of employees of College Avenue doing the two-hour shuffle without also encouraging many others to take advantage of the program, while at the same time imposing uncompensated costs on those who live here. I suppose the city could try and exclude Alta Bates employees from using paid parking, but that would require a byzantine effort to track each employee and his/her license plates and instructing the computer system to lock them out. This would probably constitute an illegal invasion of privacy and would be prohibitively expensive. Thus, the implementation of paid residential parking will result in significant reductions in parking space availability for residents, for everyone serving the residences, and for shoppers and employees of local business. Did the business owners who supported this program consider that shoppers and employees may well be discouraged because they won’t be able to find parking at all, paid or unpaid? 

“Induced” parking could probably be discouraged if the city is willing to impose dramatically higher parking fees, making it too expensive to park legally in the neighborhood for extended periods in comparison to existing options. But much higher fees would discourage shoppers and hurt all the other groups I mentioned above. The costs to residents would thus also dramatically increase. The employees now doing the two-hour shuffle couldn’t afford to park at all, which would make finding employees much harder for local businesses. 

Economists frame policy decisions around costs and benefits. The discussion above is about costs (I didn’t even mention the costs of implementing the program, which involves installing parking kiosks, new signage, greater enforcement, none of which are cheap). The framers of the pilot project have not discussed these costs or even acknowledged them. My discussion is mainly in theoretic terms – looking at incentives and behavior. It would be possible to quantify these various impacts, had a true benefit cost analysis been conducted. I don’t have the resources to undertake such an analysis, but from my general analysis, there appear to be no real benefits to those living here, or to the employees of local businesses, or to the businesses themselves. 

The only real beneficiaries would be those induced to park here by lower parking costs. The city doesn’t want to acknowledge this induced effect because it undermines the rationale it offers for the program in the first place – namely that there would be significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from fewer cold starts as the “two-hour” shuffle is eliminated by paid extended parking options. Induced parking means greater demand, and many more drivers circulating through the neighborhood looking for fewer available spaces. The additional circulation will certainly increase, not decrease greenhouse gas emissions. There is no logical reason to think that greenhouse emissions will be lower with paid parking. The city pretends there will be no induced additional parking, thus it hasn’t even tried to quantify this likely outcome.  

Forgetting the induced parking impact, and accepting at face value the city’s claim that paid parking will eliminate the two-hour shuffle and a significant number of “cold starts”, is there any evidence in the city’s analysis of the program that suggests this reduction will be significant enough to even be measurable? And, even if there were shown to be measurable reductions, does this justify the program imposing significant costs on the neighborhood. That is, are the supposed benefits even remotely commensurate with the costs. I think the city hasn’t even tried to answer this question. 

The federal government pays farmers $40 per ton of carbon they sequester in their soil though various conservation techniques – that is, the government believes that the social value of a ton of carbon is $40. Most serious environmentalists would argue social cost of a ton of carbon is much higher. Does anyone seriously think that eliminating a few cold starts would generate reductions in carbon dioxide totaling in the tons? If the pilot program costs several hundred thousand dollars to implement and maintain, and individuals living in the area experience significant additional expenses from parking fees, then for this program to have benefits greater than costs, the reduction in emissions would have to total in the thousands of tons. When we also consider that the program could actually increase emissions from the impact of induced additional parking and the subsequent struggle for parking spaces, it boggles the mind that anyone could imagine that paid parking will help the climate crisis, let alone be cost effective. 

I’m a strong environmentalist and believe that climate change represents a catastrophic threat to our existence. But when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we must be smart and create effective incentives. Paying employees not to drive to work, for example, would eliminate the issue of the two-hour shuffle. I’m certain there are many other choices that could achieve the desired reduction in greenhouse gas without imposing unwanted costs of this magnitude. 

There is one clear beneficiary of this program. I have no idea how many hundreds of thousands of dollars will be generated in parking fees, but it will be much larger than the costs of expanding parking enforcement (if they even do expand parking enforcement). So, Berkeley stands to gain a substantial new source of revenue. This doesn’t seem to be explained in the justification for the program, but in the interests of transparency, I would assume someone in the City’s administration has made calculations they should be willing to share with the neighborhood. Is any of this added revenue going to be used to offset the negative costs this program will impose on the residents of the neighborhood? I don’t think so, but it would be nice to know, and should be part of the consideration of the overall impact of the program, its full costs and benefits. 

Is this a case of the camel getting its nose under the tent? Is the city simply setting out to make all residential parking a new source of revenue? The Resident parking permits already generates revenue, but maybe the city sees an opportunity to increase revenue using the new technologies for paid parking fee collection and enforcement. If we can’t convince the city to abandon this pilot program, I would modestly suggest it should compensate residents who will lose the ability to park near their homes and who will in one way or another pay for the additional costs of those who visit them or work for them. Make it an annual payment of $500 per residence. Obviously, the city would object, but such a demand would force the city to acknowledge the damage it going to inflict on us. 

In sum, we don’t have a congestion problem; we don’t need congestion pricing to solve an issue that involves employees of local businesses that haven’t been willing to invest in additional employee parking. The simple solution is to ask the businesses to provide incentives for employees not to drive to work, or to require that they provide permits for those who have no other choice but to drive. What would happen if Walmart or Macy’s decided to ask all the homeowners living around their stores to give up their parking spaces for the sake of the employees and customers? No one would find that reasonable. Why should Berkeley be different?


Massive U.S. War Crimes in Syria

Jagjit Singh
Monday November 22, 2021 - 12:06:00 PM

In a painstaking investigation, the New York Times reported the US military killed dozens of civilians in an airstrike in the town of Baghuz, Syria on March of 2019, then ferkeleyverishly spent the next two-and-a-half years covering up evidence of war crimes. The bombing was carried out by a classified special operations unit known as Task Force 9 but its sordid activities were never investigated. The U.S. military downplayed the death toll and classified civilian deaths after which it bulldozed the blast site but was unable to remove the stench of rotting bodies.

The Defense Department’s independent inspector general began an inquiry, but the report was heavily redacted to downplay culpability.

In a complete mockery of lack of accountability and justice, the only assessment done immediately after the strike was performed by the same ground unit that ordered the strike.

A conscientious Navy officer who worked for years as a civilian analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Counterterrorism Center was forced out of his job in a desperate effort to halt the investigation which never occurred. 

As the New York Times report suggests this only the tip of the iceberg of massive abuses by the U.S. military. Human rights organizations reported that the U.S. military caused thousands of civilian deaths during the war. Hundreds of military assessment reports show that Task Force 9 was implicated in nearly one in five civilian incidents in the region. 

Even the C.I.A., which has a long history of human rights abuses, grew so alarmed over the task force’s strikes that agents reported their concerns alleging that in 1 in about 10 incidents, Task Force 9 hit targets knowing civilians would be killed. 

David Eubank, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who now runs the humanitarian organization Free Burma Rangers, walked through the area about a week after the strike. “The place had been pulverized by airstrikes,” he said in an interview. “There was a lot of freshly bulldozed earth and the stink of bodies underneath, a lot of bodies.” The New York Times deserves credit for exposing U.S. military war crimes but one can only wonder why it gained privy to classified documents while Julian Assange WikiLeaks founder, who exposed other U.S. war crimes earlier has been silenced and locked in U.K. ‘s high-security Belmarsh Priso


A Film for Our Time

Steve Martinot
Monday November 22, 2021 - 11:48:00 AM

The story of a killing

It happened in 2012. The facts were known at the time, but they got lost in the crowd of all the other killings, the hundreds that happened that year. Even so, it signified what was wrong. Now, ten years later, the film gives us focus. Lest we forget, lest we cease to understand the rules of the game, and what we have to change, it reaches across the sea of time, reminding us, “don’t buy the hype.”

What hype? “We’re just doing our job.” What job? Terrorizing an old man because he lives in a NY tenement, and says no? They imagine lurid crimes occurring behind all the cheap slum doors with their many locks and sheet-steel façade reinforcements. It took the cops 40 minutes to break in, to finally invade the apartment of a low income retired black former Marine whose only need for attention was a heart condition. And shoot him to death. 

The name of the film is “The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain” [Directed by David Midell, Produced by Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary]. It is about an incident, correctly represented in the film’s title, which occurred in White Plains, NY, on November 19, 2011. You can watch it on YouTube. It has won many film festival awards. 

In the story, which was widely known back then, the monitoring device Chamberlain wore in case of a medical emergency mistakenly sent a signal in the middle of the night, though he himself was in no distress. The health care company’s dispatcher had no doctors to call at that moment, so the police were dispatched. They came to the door demanding entry. Mr. Chamberlain said he was all right, and that they could go away. He didn’t need them. So they broke down the door and shot him to death. Cause and effect. 

Though these few sentences encapsulate the story, the cops were there for an hour and half, demanding and arguing and beating on the door. They asked him why he thought he could refuse a direct order from a police officer? As if he was still in the military. He answered that he was in his home, his “4th Amendment sanctuary,” which required that the cops have a warrant, or probable cause. All the cops could think about is his refusal. They imagined all the possible crimes he might be committing behind that refusal. They act on their imagination, their subjectivity, while he stands on the power given him by the law. For that, he is the criminal, and they are law enforcement. This is not chaos; it is not even a contradiction. It is flat out dystopia, causing a man to live in a situation that one is making unlivable. "Dystopia" means “there is no place for you.” 

The cops tell Chamberlain, “we are just doing our job.” They tell him “you are forcing us to do something we don’t want to do.” They imply Chamberlain is making choices that will determine a bad outcome, and he will be responsible for it. When they get violent, he is the cause -- as if they had nothing to do with the situation they placed him in. It is a strange example of “agent deletion.” In this case, it is the agent himself, the cop, who deletes himself. To a person who wishes to intervene when seeing a cop do something criminal (like killing George Floyd), the cop might say, “you are putting yourself in danger, sir; if you persist, you could get hurt.” 

Who wrote the script for this story? 

You know where the script for this film comes from? It comes from the medical emergency and monitoring company. They called up Chamberlain’s son, and told him that they had the entire event on tape because their equipment was in Chamberlain’s apartment, and turned on. It picked up Chamberlain’s responses, his feelings about what was happening and what was about to happen, the banging on the door, and the cops yelling in the hallway – all of it. 

When the police demanded entry, Chamberlain said no, he was okay, he was not sick, the alarm was a mistake, he didn’t need the police, the police had no warrant, no probable cause, they should just go away and leave him alone. In what kind of society does the truth get you a bullet? 

The police responded; we have to check you out, make sure you are okay, we must have visual contact, and make sure you are not torturing anyone in your apartment. They say that. One cop actually says to the others: “go into any of these apartments and you will find a crime being committed – drugs, or prostitution, or something stolen – in any one of them.” It is what they say to each other as they get ready to violate the US Constitution and kill a man in cold blood. 

What they don’t say, the ethic they operate under, is, “we have to have our every command obeyed, forget the ‘lawful’ part.” 

We must not forget any of this, because accountability is still to be won, in some yet undecided future. When they imagine crimes, without cause or evidence, it is merely an excuse to "militarize" people. A person is militarized when given no option to refuse a command, like in the army. 

Toward that purpose, they could not leave him alone. He is a black man, living in a NYC industrial suburb. When neighbors and relatives gather on the stairs, watching and objecting, the cops do not stop terrorizing. The audience merely amplifies and extends the effect. Chauvin didn’t listen to his audience either. 

In other words, it is part of police culture. A few cops may get charged and tried for killing. But that is not going to change their culture. It is bigger than that. 

None of the cops involved in killing Chamberlain were ever charged. 

What does “police culture” mean? 

Not even the cop who shot Jacob Blake was charged. 

Jacob Blake had just finished mediating an argument between two of his neighbors on the street where he lived. He knew them well. He was walking toward his car where his family was waiting when a cop shouted some commands at him (without trying to find out if anything needed law enforcement). Blake ignored him. The cop followed Blake to his car, grabbed his T-shirt from behind, and shot him 7 times in the back. He was not charged. Forget his lies about feeling threatened. The egotism of his culture could not stand being ignored. 

Indeed, when Rittenhouse carried his rifle into the street and shot three demonstrators, killing two, it was in a demonstration calling for justice for Blake. Rittenhouse then walked past the police line carrying his gun and went home. Those demonstrators had attempted to disarm him because the demonstration was peaceful. For that, they had to die. Dystopia. 

In 2012, according to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, a black person was shot by the police in the US every 28 hours. That was a stunning revelation at the time. Three years later, in 2015, the total number of black people shot that year was 1100. That is, three a day. One cop gets charged with killing in Minneapolis, and it is front page news for weeks. But the hundreds killed objecting to their regimentation never makes the press. 

Even in Berkeley, last year, a black homeless man was shot as he stood in an open plaza near the university. The cop who shot him was aiming for his head, which means he was shooting to kill. The bullet only passed through the man’s jaw; he remains alive. The reason he was shot was because, as homeless and hungry, he took a sandwich and a soda from a Walgreens and made an irregular payment (a dollar bill and an object he had bought previously and was returning). Standing in that plaza with his sandwich and ignoring the cops made him a threat. 

Human Rights 

Does a person have the right to tell the police: “leave me alone; you have no warrant, nor probable cause, and no need to violate the sanctity of my home; so go away.” Yes, a person has the right to tell the police all that. What a person does not have is the power to make it happen, the power to implement the invocation of rights and respect for them. That power is something a person has -- today, in the US -- only if the police give it to them. Most white people get it, but not all. For most black people, it is withheld at the point of a gun. That is the autocracy of the police. 

The film is instructive in that sense. And it gives us a taste of the spectrum of police identities, and the differences between them. At times, they yell at each other, yet will not break ranks in their effort to defeat the appearance of autonomy in a black person. 

“Let’s just leave; he hasn’t done anything” is the form of identity that, for a brief moment, recognizes the humanity of the man behind the door, and understands his sense of self-respect. It appears briefly in the movie, and then is gone. A second approach is: “Let’s wait him out; he’ll have to come out eventually.” That is the liberal stance. They will still get what they want, but in a "civilized" manner. In the list of other forms of police identity, it gets increasingly horrifying. (A) “You’re just making it hard on yourself.” (B) “Open this door, dammit, and let us do our job.” (C) “If you don’t open this door, we’re going to break it down.” (D) And finally, you know, the expletives and derogatory terms, the banging endlessly on the steel façade of the door. It is like a taxonomy of white mentalities, confronting this black human being. 

What is constant among them is the assurance that “we won’t hurt you.” They all say it. “We’ll just come in for a minute, check you out, make sure everything is okay, and leave” – as if he were an inpatient or prison inmate. And after Chamberlain is lying dead with bullets in him, it is as good as if they had never said those empty words. The three cops who sat on Kayla Moore said similar words as she quietly died under their weight. Their lie expands until it fills the universe, leaving it empty and devoid of a real person who used to live there. 

It is the knowledge of that void that we are thrown into by this movie. It horrifies because we know what is going to happen (the same pall lies over all the action in “Fruitvale Station”). 

When we watch it, we want to be able to help, to calm Chamberlain, to stand in front of the door and say "stop," to neutralize the arbitrary nature of the assault, and to return to him the virtue and respect the cops and their racialization of him have stolen. We are too late. 

How is one to survive this dystopia? 

Who are we, that we live in a world of which the killing of Chamberlain, and all the other Chamberlains (Castiles and Taylors and Grants and Scotts and …) are a part? It is a question that surrounds us. It was the import of that image of a Vietnamese girl running away from houses burning from napalm, her clothes burned off her body. When we saw her, we found ourselves looking in an unwelcoming mirror. 

The US went into Vietnam the same way the cops went into Chamberlain’s home – slowly, step by step, knowing each step was more violent and criminal than the last, obsessively, hungry for control, and empowered by the knowledge that it would be entirely destructive (think of Libya). 

The question that is asked, again and again, is how does one survive an encounter with the police? Militarization is an institutionality in which one can no longer say no, and one is no longer held under Constitutional terms or Constitutional law. When militarized in one’s person, without consent, how does one protect oneself or one’s personhood? Or rather, how does one liberate oneself from that void of regimentation? 


An Open Letter to Berkeley City Council and the City Manager about the Motorola Contract

Steve Martinot
Monday November 22, 2021 - 12:53:00 PM

We, the undersigned, are writing to express our concern about the recent decision by the Berkeley City Council, the City Manager, and the Berkeley Police Department to use encrypted public safety radio devices in Berkeley. It is our understanding that the City of Berkeley selected the company, Motorola Solution, to provide encrypted public safety radio devices for two reasons: 1) there is no alternative radio device to share communications with neighboring police units, and 2) the company would provide a discount to this city. We now understand that these reasons are false.  

The contract was given to Motorola in a no-bid process, against city regulations, and cheaper radio equipment from JVCKenwood would serve just as well with Motorola and with other neighboring systems. It seems the city council committed money to Motorola for their system upgrade, a cost which has gone from $4.2 Million to its present $6.5 million.  

Under our municipal regulations, the City of Berkeley is required to conduct a competitive bid process so radio device providers have an equitable opportunity to bid for the contract. At the same time, the competitive bid process also provides the public with an understanding about the nature of proposed changes to its public safety radio device system and its intention to use municipal taxpayer funds to cover the costs. Instead, the City of Berkeley circumvented the competitive bid process and any public discussion about making a fundamental change to our public safety communications for people who live or come to Berkeley.  

The city council had also voted to not do any business with any company that works with ICE, but that is exactly what Motorola does! So Berkeley is in violation of its own principles of human rights.  

The reason this has suddenly become an issue is that California state government ordained that police radio communications be encrypted to restrict the public from access to confidential information about police officers (under the so-called “patrolperson’s bill of rights” (PBOR)). But this is a requirement that the BPD already satisfies, since it uses "Signal" and other encryption software. In other words, Berkeley’s decision, fallaciously in response to the state, is in bad faith.  

The competitive bid process provides the public with information about the nature of proposed changes to its public safety radio device system and its intention to use municipal taxpayer funds to cover the costs. The City of Berkeley is required to conduct a competitive bid process so radio device providers have an equitable opportunity to bid for the contract. Berkeley circumvented the competitive bid process, and any public discussion about making a fundamental change to our public safety communications for people who live or come to Berkeley. 

The primary reason for which persons interest themselves in those operations is to become watchers, witnesses, and a de-escalating presence to how police deal with certain people – in particular, very diverse people, including those with mental health and substance use issues, low income people, people of color, those who are unhoused, and people with multiple identities and conditions.  

Often police criminalize a person who has simply called for assistance by giving an arbitrary or unneeded command, which the subject refuses, and is then arrested for disobedience, often with violence.  

The consequences of encryption, however, may result in harms:

1. The consequences of the police decision to encrypt make it impossible for people to assist in keeping the streets safe and friendly, and mediating disputes. It is not in the interest of law enforcement to prevent the public from being a participant in these goals. To bar that kind of participation reduces or eliminates transparency of government operations. Transparency and the ability of people to inform themselves are essential to a democracy.  

2. Radio encryption will have the consequence of making it impossible for Berkeley Copwatch to serve as public accountability for the Berkeley Police Department. Copwatch was formed 30 years ago when police brutality, arbitrary arrest, and racially biased practices were on the rise. Copwatch offered civilian participation in policing matters, and aspired to develop greater social trust in the police. That trust could be grounded in public observation, and thus the knowledge that the police were an agency that had civilian interests at heart. Ordinary people needed to be assured that black and brown people were not treated as an assumed enemy.  

3. The third consequence of encryption would be the loss of the media’s capacity to collect information and be present. Radio encryption insulates the police from the people who they are to serve. It will thus hinder the entire project of representation by excluding resident access to information on the function of government. Police will be in control of information needed by the people for their own participation in government. Any move by a government agency to exclude the people is anti-democratic.  

We want openness in communication, cooperation in governance, respect across the different functions and structures of our daily lives. As we move forward to reimagining public safety in our Berkeley community, it is critical that we move forward with meaningful change.  

1. Open communications allows us to address individual and structural policing harms that disparately impact Black, Latinx, Native American, Asian American, Pacific Islander, LGBTQIA+, unhoused people, people with low income, people with disabilities (mental health, substance use, physical). We have egregious policing harms from traffic stops, and accountability for call taking operations, dispatch, and response in the community is key to solving them and ensuring they do not continue. 

2. Open public safety communications for call taking, dispatch, and responding to people in the community allows us observe and witness with the aim to diminish overall risks of injury and death from police aggression and violence and how calls are diverted from police to non-police crisis response and other alternative programs to policing— particularly in the future.  

3. Open communication improves public safety when people can observe and witness how police by themselves or co-responding with the mobile crisis unit, respond to people experiencing mental illness and/or substance use problems in the community. They can see if first responders are focused on trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction, and if they are able to coordinate for appropriate levels of care, including transport to the next destination.  

4. Open communication further improves public safety when people can observe and witness if law enforcement is responding to non-criminal events in the community that could be answered by alternatives to policing, including for first aid and non-emergency medical care, housing assistance, resource connection and referrals and if they are using culturally safe and responsive practices to serve diverse individuals in the community.  

The residents of the city of Berkeley voted overwhelmingly for Measure ii. Its intent was to bring greater attention, and help to people caught in webs of trouble and to make sure that they will be treated with respect. Encryption does the opposite by putting behavior back into the shadows. 

References:  

https://www.dailycal.org/2021/10/12/berkeleys-contract-with-motorola-solutions-was rushed-lacked-transparency/ 

https://www.dailycal.org/2021/10/04/an-artificial-crisis-city-council-to-vote-on-sanctuary waiver-for-motorola/ 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/vb5ab4/motorola-solutions-works-with-ice-cbp  

 


Columns

THE PUBLIC EYE: Should We Worry About Inflation?

Bob Burnett
Monday November 22, 2021 - 12:34:00 PM

On November 10th it was announced that the consumer price index has increased 6.2 percent in twelve months, the largest yearly increase in thirty years. This announcement coincided with a Washington Post/ABC poll (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/14/post-abc-poll-biden/)l showing that President Biden's approval ratings have fallen again: "Despite a mix of economic signals — falling unemployment and rising prices — 70 percent rate the economy negatively, including 38 percent who say it is in 'poor' condition." What should we make of this? 

First of all, prices have risen. Inflation is real. 

It's important to understand why this is happening. Despite what Republicans may claim, inflation is not the fault of the Biden Administration. As explained by CNN reporter Allison Morrow (https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/13/economy/what-is-inflation-explainer/index.html): "Blame the pandemic. In the spring of 2020, as Covid-19 spread, it was like pulling the plug on the global economy. Factories around the world shut down; people stopped going out to restaurants; airlines grounded flights... It was the sharpest economic contraction on record. By early summer, however, demand for consumer goods started to pick back up. Rapidly. Congress and President Joe Biden passed a historic $1.9 trillion stimulus bill in March that made Americans suddenly flush with cash and unemployment assistance. People started shopping again. Demand went from zero to 100, but supply couldn't bounce back so easily." [Emphasis added] "Blame the pandemic." Blame the Trump Administration that mishandled the pandemic. 

In today's polarized environment, Democrats and Republicans view inflation differently. Nonetheless, the Washington Post/ABC poll (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/14/post-abc-poll-biden/) found that most respondents (50 percent) do not hold Biden responsible for inflation. ([Notably] the poll finds majority support for [Biden's] biggest plans. The Post-ABC poll finds that 63 percent of Americans support Washington spending $1 trillion 'on roads, bridges and other infrastructure,' while 58 percent support spending roughly $2 trillion to 'address climate change and to create or expand preschool, health care and other social programs.'" 

Most Republican voters don't understand economics, so it's easy for them to believe that President Biden caused the inflation to happen. Recently Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio said: “This will be a winter of high gas prices, shortages and inflation because far left lunatics control our government." 

The economy is complicated and multiple factors have contributed to the rise in the consumer price index. As mentioned, demand bounced back and supply did not respond rapidly. In addition, there have been problems in the global supply chain. Some are remote -- problems in Chinese chip factories -- and some are local -- a lot of truck drivers quit their jobs, during the pandemic, and have not returned. 

Economist Robert Reich (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/11/us-inflation-market-power-america-antitrust-robert-reich ) believes that corporate greed has played an important role in the inflation kerfuffle: "There’s a deeper structural reason for inflation, one that appears to be growing worse: the economic concentration of the American economy in the hands of a relative few corporate giants with the power to raise prices. If markets were competitive, companies would keep their prices down in order to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers. But they’re raising prices even as they rake in record profits." 

Regardless of one's political persuasion, inflation is likely to diminish in 2022. Writing in CNN Business, Moody's economist Mark Zandi observed (https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/17/perspectives/inflation-high-prices-economy/index.html?): "As [the pandemic] fades and workers get healthy and return to work, the acute labor shortages and outsize pay increases will end, which means higher prices will too. What's more, workers who permanently lost jobs during the pandemic will find a new employer; parents who've been home tending to children in school online will return to work as schools continue to return to in-person learning; and parents with younger children will take jobs as children eventually get vaccinated and daycare becomes more widely available." Zandi continued: "All of this refutes the notion that the government spending and tax breaks to support the economy through the pandemic, including the American Rescue Plan this past March, are somehow behind the higher inflation." 

Yes. Inflation is real. It's been stoked by the pandemic. As we overcome the pandemic, we will overcome inflation. 

That, of course, is the challenge. If the pandemic endures, then inflation will endure. President Biden is determined to end the pandemic by mandating vaccination wherever possible, but many Republicans are fighting this. That's a problem. That's what we should worry about: Republicans have abandoned common sense. 

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

 


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: If You Dig a Little Deeper, Things and People Must Start to Make Sense

Jack Bragen
Monday November 22, 2021 - 11:40:00 AM

Sometimes when people, systems, or organizations create problems, a little bit of pushback can go a long way toward resolving them. If a person wants to harass, intimidate, or otherwise create obstructions or problems for you, it can be important to show that you are not a pushover. Even when dealing with assaultive men, some counter-intimidation, or at least standing up to the person, can help with putting a stop to that. 

The biggest deterrent to those who are physically assaultive is not the idea that you will fight back, it is the likelihood that he or she will be jailed for getting assaultive with you. If your situation does not lend to the wrongdoer being caught, you just have to do your best. Even so, many bully types are less likely to push you around if you exude confidence. Additionally, even if they come after you, you still have the satisfaction of having stood up to the bastard. 

In numerous kinds of attack other than physical, some type of deterrent will help you. Yet, for now, I want to cover something very different. When you push on a predicament, when you do this consistently and with clarity, you can get results. When you push on your own reactivity and fine tune yourself to refrain from panic mode, and when you continually approach your difficult situations from a focused mind space--thirdly, if you have determination like a wind in your sails, emerging from deep within you, you will be able to solve most of your problems. 

You should not let people get away with abusive behavior or derogatory speech. I have a shorter phrase for that which I can't use here. If you try, often you can push people to make sense and to follow accepted rules that govern a situation. This starts with better quality and clarity of thought. And you can learn to have responses of a lower amplitude. 

In the vein of pushing on people, a government agency sent me a demand that was fully unreasonable. I confronted them, and I achieved a change in plans that was barely acceptable. Same government agency was quite hard-nosed in dealing with me, and I pushed them to be just a little bit communicative. Another government agency didn't want to do their jobs--and it was something I truly depended on. I went to their office, talked to them, and forced them to make some sense. In government dealings, to my advantage, I grew up with parents who worked for government agencies. 

Sometimes you face a lost cause, in which more dealings with an individual or other entity, is an exercise in futility. It is important to recognize this when it happens. 

In some instances, we need to dig deeper within ourselves to find the strength to deal with something. This can take the form of "just doing it," or it can involve cognitive preparation. 

No one can force anyone else to do something they are unwilling to do. However, when situations allow only one or two routes that lead to a good outcome, the situation is forcing something on us--or we must accept unsavory consequences. 

In reference to being mentally ill: If mentally ill, you must deal with a great deal of governmental red tape, including county, state and federal agencies. You could also be dealing with treatment venues that have their hierarchies. Learning how to deal the human beings in those contexts is a great skill and will serve you well. 

The Dalai Lama of Tibet: "Know the rules well, so that you can break them effectively." 

Jack Bragen is author of "Jack Bragen's 2021 Fiction Collection," and "Instructions for Dealing with Schizophrenia: A Self-Help Manual."  


ECLECTIC RANT: The Climate Crisis After Glasgow

Ralph E. Stone
Monday November 22, 2021 - 11:38:00 AM

The August 9, 2021, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivered a doom and gloom report on climate change predicting that we can no longer stop global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years and the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed. The report is described as a “Code Red for Humanity.”  

The best we can do now is slow climate change down and prepare to deal with its effects such as intensified storms, wildfires, droughts, flooding, heat waves, etc. Unfortunately. there has been too much talk about climate change at the national and international level, but not nearly enough action. 

In response to the climate crisis, at least 200 countries met at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow from October 31, 2021 to November 12, 2021. Notably China and Russia were not represented at the summit. The delegates reached a consensus that all nations must do much more, immediately, to reach decarbonisation to limit future global temperature rise to 2°C, but ideally to 1.5°C (2.7°F) above preindustrial levels by 2030.  

Results from a wide range of climate model simulations suggest our planet’s average temperature could be between 1.1 to 5.4°C (2 and 9.7°F) warmer in 2100 than it is today. This means a 30% cut is needed to limit warming to 2C. and a 55% cut is needed to limit to 1.5°C. Instead, delegations left Glasgow with the Earth still on track to pass those thresholds, pushing toward a future of escalating weather crises and irreversible damage to the natural world. 

The largest delegation at the conference was not from India or the United States; it was the fossil fuel lobbyists who like the world the way it is. 

The U.S. can set an example by immediately passing the $1.75 trillion Budget Reconciliation bill, which includes the Build Back Better agenda with all its climate provisions intact. This would be a $555 billion framework to combat the climate crisis. 

The lofty rhetoric of world leaders at the summit did not include an agreement on concrete action. Lots of talk, too little concrete action. Or as environmental activist Greta Thunberg put it, the COP26 climate summit was a failure; it was “blah, blah, blah.” 

Is Ms. Thunberg’s harsh judgment of the world’s response to the climate crisis justified? Only time will tell, and time is running out. 


SMITHEREENS: Reflections on Bits & Pieces

Gar Smith
Monday November 22, 2021 - 11:45:00 AM

Is That Why It's Called a Restroom?

After my sixth lap around the MLK Jr. Middle School track, I had to "recalculate" and head for the head—a.k.a. the privy, outhouse, latrine, loo, comfort station, honey bucket, earth closet, bogger, brasco, commode.

As I was trotting through the newly opened tot-playground, I heard another pair of shoes slipping up behind me. The runner soon passed and was clearly going to reach the Porta-Potty before me. I diplomatically veered off to await my turn at the urn. As I took up a position in front of the gate to the Swim Center, I watched as the runner approached the "comfort station"—and was baffled when he opened the door, suddenly bolted backwards, and shut the hut.

He turned to see me standing in line and offered some breaking news:
"I don't think you want to go in there just now. There's someone sleeping inside!" 

As we left the lodger to slumber in peace, I wondered if this is the next stage in affordable living for the unhoused. The concept of the "Tiny Home" just got tinier. 

Letters the Chronicle Didn't Run 

Granted, it was a lame idea to pen an anti-Pentagon protest letter-to-the-editor on Veterans' Day—a national holiday dedicated to honoring the institution of war—but I gave it a try anyway. Here's the note the Chronicle opted not to note. 

Regretfully, I must take issue with Joe Biden's Veterans' Day speech in which he described the Armed Forces as "the solid steel spine" and the "soul of America." 

As President Biden has repeatedly proclaimed, the country's real backbone is "America's working class." As for "the soul" of America, that would be our nation's first responders and caregivers. As for the US troops currently stationed in more than 80 foreign nations, we might better describe them as "the fists and boots of Washington's foreign policy." 

Manchin Needs More Coal for His Mansion 

It's no secret that Sen. Joe Manchin and his family are heavily invested in West Virginia's coal economy. According to CNN, Manchin's "holdings [are] valued at between $1 million and $5 million in Enersystems, Inc., the coal brokerage business he founded." Last year, Manchin reaped more than $491,000 from these holdings—more than double his $174,000 Senate salary. And when it comes to "conflicts of interest," Manchin is the poster-child since he currently chairs the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Ruling over this powerful committee, Manchin is perfectly seated to overrule the part of President Biden's Build Back Better program that calls for a phase-out of carbon energy and a transition to clean, renewable wind and solar. 

It's become clear that Joe Manchin would rather see the entire world burn than see a single coal mine shuttered.  

To my mind, that makes Manchin "a coal-blooded killer." 

Notes from a Green New Dealer 

Melanie D'Arrigo is a healthcare worker, an activist and a mother-of-three who hopes to win election to New York's 3rd District by promising to expand Medicare for All, address climate change, and overcome income inequality by advancing the Green New Deal. 

While D'Arrigo applauds the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better compromise (which still includes universal pre-school, and a temporary extension of the expanded Child Tax Credit) she's bothered by the loss of Biden's Clean Energy Performance Program. 

"Congress doesn't prioritize things like healthcare for our families" D'Arrigo says. "because lobbyists give them a lot of money to focus on giving tax breaks and subsidies to corporations and the wealthy." To prove her point, D'Arrigo cites an OpenSecrets list of the loot that some top industries have given to members of Congress—so far this year:
Fossil Fuels: $6,680,062
Defense: $3,339,841
Internet / Telecom: $4,879,217
Finance: $31,323,080
Real Estate: $14,480,686
Insurance: $6,825,483
Pharmaceuticals: $4,522,295 

The Clean Electricity Performance Program (designed to transition to clean renewable energy) was blocked by Sen. Joe Manchin, who holds millions in coal company stocks and meets with Exxon lobbyists on a weekly basis. Thanks to his family-owned coal business, Manchin pockets more carbon-tainted "black money" than any other Senator. 

D'Arrigo also laments the loss of Biden's plan to allow the federal government to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. This cut-back was carved by the Senate's other Democrat In Name Only, Kyrsten Sinema, who ran for office on a promise to lower the cost prescription drugs, but now seems more attached to the $500,000-plus dollars her campaign has been gifted by the pharmaceutical industry. 

Gosar? It's Time for You to Go, Sir!  

If Al Franken could be expelled from the Senate for posing for a photo where he pretended to grope a sleeping female co-worker, Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) deserves a resounding condemnation — not just an act of censure but a full expulsion from the House and a possible civilian trial — for pretending to murder a female House colleague. Gosar's staff billed the country's taxpayers for the time they spent creating an anime-style video depicting Gosar slashing—and nearly decapitating—fellow Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As blood gushes from AOC's neck, Gosar's anime avatar flies off to attack the US president. (Looks like seditious, traitorous behavior to me but Gosar dismissed his critics as "infantile" and "laughable"—and followed up by saying his staff was responsible for producing the video.) 

In the Trump-aligned GOP, 206 Congress members voted to oppose censuring Gosar. Only two Republicans voted to condemn the simulated assassination of a female colleague. 

The Dark State is employing some dark stunts in an attempt to push the country toward civil war—the ultimate distraction to avoid making far-reaching social changes that threaten the fortunes of the powerful few. 

The GOPs Incumbent Insurrectionists 

The CrazyEight PAC takes its name from the octet of currently serving Congress members who were personally involved in the events that lead to the storming of the US Capitol building on January 6. Now it's looking like CrazyEight may have to change its name to keep up with changing circumstances. 

"The January 6 insurrection isn’t over," the PAC proclaims, citing a troubling trend—to wit: "At least 10 Capitol rioters were elected to local office this month." 

John McGuire, a Virginia native, was photographed with a pack of men in paramilitary gear facing off against police on Jan. 6. A Trump Republican, McGuire was just elected to Virginia's House of Delegates. 

Matthew Lynch, a school teacher, was forced to resign his position as a high school instructor after photos surfaced showing him participating in the bogus "Stop the Steal" ruckus. (Lynch called his critics a “digital Lynch mob” so let's give him some points for crafting a timely pun.) A Trumpublican, Lynch just secured a seat on his local Massachusetts school committee.  

Marie March, another Pro-Trumper, has Facebooked warnings of a “coming Civil War” and pledged her willingness to “fight and die” for her beliefs. March just won a spot in Virginia's House of Delegates. 

The Huffington Post notes with alarm that there are 57 current state and local Republican officials who participated in the Jan. 6 attempt to disrupt the 2020 presidential election—and many of them will be up for reelection in 2022. 

A New Ploy to Stump Trump? 

Despite his retreat to the shadowlands of Mar-a-Lago, the Republic still faces the specter of the Orange Blobs' expressed intent to recapture the White House in 2024. But blocking a Trump re-run with a mere censure ruling would not suffice to bar his return to power. That's why concerned political strategists are preparing to invoke Section 3 of the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which declares:
"No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States , or, under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same." 

Nicknames and Knock-names for Mr. No Name 

Back at the start of the year—after the January attack on the Capitol—Late Night host Stephen Colbert took an oath to never again pronounce Donald Trump's name on-air. The ban also included any visual presentations of Der Trumpf's brand name—hence Colbert's use of the "T****" tag. 

Faced with the challenge of coining nicknames for the disgraced and twice-impeached GOP Flop, Colbert invited viewers to assist his staff writers in conjuring code-words and sharing them at the hashtag #HeWhoShallBeNamed. 

Here are some of the knock-names that have aired:
Girth Vader, Traffic Cone of Treason, Eric's Dad, Penis Pumpkinhead, Previous Occupant of the Oval Office (POOO), Centaur of Gravity, Annoying Orange, President Spanky, Orange Dick Tator, The Floridian Fondler, Orange Julius, The Great White Dope, SCROTUS, BLOATUS, The Orange Slug, Mar-a-Lardo, Tangerine Ball Bag, King Baby Coward, Tighty Whitey Bulger, and Ole Yeller.  

Meanwhile, I have my own nickname for The Former Guy. I prefer to refer to him as "TrumpleThinSkin, the Ochre Ogre." 

That's "KP" as in "Keep Your Distance" 

During a recent visit to the Kaiser Permanente facility in Oakland, I spotted an attractive garden in the sculpture garden alongside the southern wall of the 3600 Broadway building. It looked like a pleasant place to sit down and enjoy some sunshine—until I noticed a red sign on a pole amidst the greenery. It read: "CAUTION: Freezing gases and small objects may be discharged without notice from vents above." 

Beware of falling tongue depressors and vaccination needles? I quickly moved on. 

Befuddled by a Biblical Billboard 

There's a billboard that towers over a major Oakland intersection that is raising some eschatological issues. In huge block letters, the Clear Channel marquee at the corner of Telegraph and West McArthur offers an invitation: "DISCOVER why Jesus created you." The answer is to be found by calling (82) FOR-TRUTH—the phone number for the Christian Aid Ministries (CAM). 

As a former Boy Scout chaplain, the message left me a bit befuddled. According to my biblical teachings, it was God Almighty who created "mankind." Jesus came along much later—when the world was well-populated with humans. The signage seems to propose that, some 20 centuries ago, the Heavenly Father somehow delegated the chore of creation to his son. If so, are there any inherent differences between humans created by Jehovah and humans created by Jesus? Guess I'll just have to make that phone call. 

An earlier iteration of the sign offered the message: "Shackled by LUST? JESUS Sets Free." The Biblical reference cited was James 1:15: "Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." 

Sadly, in related news, members of Christian Aid Ministries were among those seized by Haitian kidnappers and are being held for ransom. Because these volunteers were taken hostage more than a month ago, their story has vanished from the headlines but CAM's website is keeping track of the situation at this link. 

Meanwhile, there is some solace to be found in an earlier passage from James 1:2-3, which reads: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." 

Fashion Plates 

I hereby salute the anti-war owners of a local sedan that bares a license plate reading: PAX2YOU. Perhaps, not coincidentally, the car is a lovely shade of green. 

The Anguish of a Refugee: 300 Scenes in Three Minutes 

Save the Children, a humanitarian organization dedicated to making the world "a better place for children everywhere," has produced a stark and shattering video to dramatize the suffering of children turned into refugees and traumatized by war. Each scene in the video only lasts a second but there are 300 "one-second scenes" that play out over the course of this increasingly dark and unrelenting mini-movie. The film is short but the impact on the viewer may last forever. The video ends with the following words: "Just because it isn't happening here doesn't mean it's not happening." 

 

Anybody Looking for a Pen Pal? 

Last month, a rare hand-written letter arrived in my Post Office box. It was addressed to Academic Publishing (my non-profit, which dates back to the 1960s and the days of the Free Speech Movement). The letter written in pencil on lined papers and came from a Nevada resident named Larry Sturges. 

Larry wrote that when he was a teenager living in the Midwest, he had a subscription to The Berkeley Barb. (The Barb was one of the leading "underground" weeklies of that era and Academic Publishing's Berkeley Barb Project oversees a legacy collection of the weekly editions: See the Berkeley Barb Archives.) 

After all these years, Larry was writing to see if he could renew his subscription "to see what I've missed" over the years. 

I had to break the news to him: The Barb ceased publication in July 1980. 

To salute his dedication, I mailed Larry a near-mint copy of a classic Barb and he responded with a second letter, in which he shared more of his story. 

"I was young at the time and not knowing a lot. Now I'm 72 and have done time. I shouldn't be here. The judicial system sucks. I had a public defender. Should have had a private attorney. Got two more years to go before I go up in front of the parole board. Being my first time ever to be in trouble with the law." 

Larry concluded by asking if I could post his name and address on our Pen Pal list. Well, AcPub doesn't have such a list but out but let's make an exception for this dedicated reader. If you would like a pen pal who's actually IN the Pen, here's Larry's hand-written profile: "I'm white. 72 years old. Pieces. Correspond with ladies about my age only." Larry's address: HDSP 1189819, PO Box 650, 22010 Cold Creek Road, Indian Springs, Nevada 89070. 

The 25th Amendment 

The Founders Sing 


AN ACTIVIST'S DIARY, week ending November 20

Kelly Hammargren
Sunday November 21, 2021 - 12:43:00 PM

Bringing race home: Race, racism is our country’s history. Racism is front and center in the trial of the killers of Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia, in the Charlottesville civil trial over the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in 2017. Racism is tangential to the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse and his acquittal. 

Critical Race Theory was used to whip parents and voters into a frenzy in the Virginia Governor’s election. Racism plays into the fights over social spending, national health care. Racism defines where people live and who is pushed out with gentrification. And, then there is the pure economic racism, not just what is paid, but who gets the contracts. 

The first hour Tuesday evening, November 16, 2021 at Berkeley City Council was a lesson in institutional systemic racism Berkeley style. Dr. Eleanor Ramsey from the Mason Tillman consulting firm slowly and methodically built the foundation and then showed slide after slide of the findings of the City of Berkeley practices. It was an eye-popping, jaw dropping analysis of who receives contracts from the City of Berkeley and who doesn’t. It wasn’t the Black owned business. The Hispanic businesses did only a touch better than the nothing that was dished out to the Black owned businesses. You can watch it all by choosing the webcast for 11/16 at 6:00 pm. https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Agenda_Index.aspx 

The Mason Tillman analysis of the City of Berkeley contracts’s concluding finding is Intentional Discrimination Systemic Practices. Let that sink in. 

Councilmember Ben Bartlett, who authored the measure to secure the study (item 34 January 24, 2017) with co-sponsors Cheryl Davila and Kris Worthington, said the findings confirmed what he heard over and over when he ran for office. 

The Mason Tillman presentation is not attached to last Tuesday’s agenda and there was comment that the report is in the hands of the city. I hope that doesn’t mean it will be scrubbed before we see it. 

I did attend the first hour of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force meeting Thursday evening when the task force was informed that city staff (unnamed) have requested the removal of the “History” section of the NICJR (National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform) Report stating that it is inaccurate. Members of the task force vocalized their outrage, saying that the history [of policing in Berkeley] is the reason for the task force. 

After attending many of the Public Safety Task Force meetings, removing the history section smacks of more city “scrubbing.” There are other ways of handling any purported discrepancies. Has no one heard of footnotes? But, as task force members have so clearly asked from the beginning, are they “window dressing”? 

Withholding information is not new. There was a fight to withhold the report of disparate treatment of people of color by Berkeley Police in the Center for Policing Equity Report of 2018. 

Once again it comes back to race and intentional discrimination. It should be no surprise to anyone when you see the chart of “Priorities for Berkeley’s city government” with Equity as the least important. It is the chart that has been posted at the top of the Berkeley Daily Planet front page. Climate didn’t rate much higher. 

Councilmember Droste complimented the city manager for five department heads of color, but as former Councilmember Davila said so succinctly, “…Sadly not all skin folk are kin folk” pointing to the fact that under this Black City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley and senior managers of color, discrimination didn’t end. Williams-Ridley officially started March 9, 2016,; the first year studied by Mason Tillman. One could excuse the city manager for her first year, but what about all the rest of the years? And now that we are clearly informed of the discrimination, should contracts include ethnicity, and should existing contracts just be extended as they appear to be? 

The raises for senior management were on the November 16th consent calendar. The City Manager, Dee Williams-Ridley, was granted her $84,732 / 28.11% raise to a salary of $386,160 with no one from council abstaining or voting no. 

Public comment on the raises and consent calendar starts at 2:08:21 into the meeting webcast. I spoke just before Charles Clark, stating that a 2% raise not a 28.11% raise was appropriate. You can fast forward the webcast from the MasonTillman Equity presentation to 2:20:16 – 2:22:09 to hear Charles Clark. 

“I am Charles Clark a resident of District 6, I actually support the raises for senior city management, items 5 and 12, but that support comes with two criticisms and a caution some of which you have already heard.First, why are you looking at Palo Alto, but not cities like Alameda, San Leandro, Antioch, Walnut Creek and Fairfield? If you want a small rich city, why not Piedmont? The sample seems rigged to conclude that Berkeley’s managers are underpaid. And, I’ll tell you rigged samples don’t tell you, don’t command respect. Second, why can’t the item say in so many words the city manager will be getting a 28% raise so that her current $301,000 salary will increase to $386,000 per year. You know the Alameda County Grand Jury criticized that same lack of directness in measure JJ which this council authored last year to raise your own salaries 75% without saying so directly, which brings me to my caution. If you want compensation like Palo Alto, then I want roads like Palo Alto. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission told us just this month that Palo Alto’s pavement condition index is 84, while Berkeley’s is only 58, and you know this year’s paving report told us that 1/5 of our street miles are in failed condition. With raises like the ones you will approve tonight with my support such failure is not an option. The caution is, Taco Bell performance at French Laundry prices is unacceptable.” 

The Agenda and Rules Committee met Monday and from Mayor Arreguin’s comments, don’t be surprised to experience some trickery around item 27m the Surveillance Technology Report, and item 28, the ALPR (Automated License Plate Reader) budget referral. There was discussion at the Agenda committee that the Action calendar for the November 30th council meeting was very full and they might not get through all of it. Arreguin said he could call a special meeting with only 24 hours’ notice, and pondered choosing December 13th. 

The strategy on controversial items is all too often, schedule the item as the last of the evening, make people sit through an entire 5 hour plus meeting and then continue the item. Or, if enough people have given up and left the meeting, take up the controversial item around midnight when the objectors have gone to bed. 

In this case it looks like Arreguin’s intent is to continue the report and ALPR, call a special full council meeting on short notice, and then hold a special budget meeting the next day followed with a full council regular meeting that evening on December 14th to approve the AAO (mid-year budget cycle spending) and fund ALPR. On these kinds of forecasts, I really like to be proven wrong. 

Two of us have been attending the Design Review Committee (DRC) and Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) meetings for months to educate and push for native plants, permeable paving, bird safe glass and dark skies. Charles Kahn, architect on ZAB and DRC, has really taken this in. Thursday, we saw a little more progress, but it is so hard for people to let go of what they have always believed and the way they have always worked. 

Douglas Tallamy in his books Bringing Nature Home, Nature’s Best Hope and The Nature of Oaks explains so well the relationships of plants, insects and birds. It was reading one of his books and then watching one of the many YouTube presentations/lectures that put it all together for me. Maybe in this coming week of holidays and no meetings you can set aside a little time to watch Tallamy and reflect on what we all might do to make a place for nature and a place for nurture in our lives. 

Please put these into your holiday plans: 

Restoring the Little Things that Run the World 

Nature’s Best Hope: Conservation That starts in Your Yard  

 

In closing I’ve been busy. I just finished two lovely non-fiction books by Hope Jahren, Lab Girl published in 2016 and The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where We Go from Here published in 2020. Hope Jahren is a geochemist and geobiologist at the University of Norway. I grew up not far from where Jahren was born, Austin, MN and even have a picture of myself with my friend Susan from our tour of the Spam Museum in Austin. The Austin Hormel meat packing plant is mentioned in both books. There is so much more she gives us to think about and not just women in science and the funding of science in her first book. Her second book is a provocative look at climate. 

The third book is After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made, by Ben Rhodes, published in June 2021. Rhodes writes that he asked a Hungarian how Viktor Orban transformed Hungary from an open democracy to a largely authoritarian system in the span of ten years. As I read this section I couldn’t stop thinking about Fox host Tucker Carlson broadcasting from Hungary with Viktor Orban. 

 

Here are the steps and they may sound way too familiar: 

 

  1. Win elections through right-wing populism that taps into people’s outrage over the corruption and inequities wrought by unbridled globalization.
  2. Enrich corrupt oligarchs who in turn fund your politics.
  3. Create a vast partisan propaganda machine.
  4. Redraw parliamentary districts to entrench your party in power.
  5. Pack the courts with right-wing judges and erode the independence of the rule of law.
  6. Keep big business on your side with low taxes and favorable treatment.
  7. Demonize your political opponents through social media disinformation.
  8. Attack civil society as a tool of George Soros.
  9. Cast yourself as the legitimate defender of national security.
  10. Wrap the whole project in a Christian nationalist message that taps into the longing for a great past.
  11. Offer a sense of belonging for the disaffected masses.
  12. Relentlessly attack the Other: immigrants, Muslims, liberal elites.
The three libraries I use for ebooks and audiobooks are Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. 


Arts & Events

The Berkeley Activist's Calendar, November 29 - December 5

Kelly Hammargren, Sustainable Berkeley Coalition
Saturday November 27, 2021 - 05:58:00 PM

Worth Noting:

Expect extra Council meetings to be called on short notice before Council leaves on Winter Recess. Council Winter recess is December 15, 2021 – January 17, 2022. https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Agenda_Index.aspx



December 1, 2021 at 5 pm is the deadline to submit response to the DEIR for the Ashby and North Berkeley BART Station Housing Projects is https://www.cityofberkeley.info/bartplanning/ (395 pages)



Vision 2050 Survey – the City is planning for a major bond measure in 2022 on infrastructure: tinyurl.com/2050survey



Sunday, November 28th is the Berkeley Equity Summit series at 6 pm provided in collaboration with Friends of Adeline on protecting your home ownership.

Monday the Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm will be reviewing the agenda for December 14, the last council meeting before winter recess.

Tuesday is the Regular City Council meeting at 6 pm. The agenda is long with 24. Development Agreement and certification of FEIR with Bayer, 26 Commission Reorganization merging the Parks and Waterfront Commission and the Animal Care Commission, 27 The Surveillance Technology Report and 28 the Budget Referral for Automatic License Plate Readers.

Wednesday the FITES Committee meets at 2:30 pm on establishing emergency GHG emission limits ordinance and native plant ordinance referral. The Energy Commission meets at 5 pm, the Independent Redistricting Commission meets at 6 pm and the Planning Commission meets at 7 pm.

Thursday the Land Use Committee meets at 10:30 am and the Landmarks Preservation Commission meets at 7 pm. The Reimagining Public Safety Task Force is scheduled to meet, however, it is not posted. Check after Monday for time and zoom link. https://www.cityofberkeley.info/RIPST.aspx

Saturday, December 4th is the Native Plant extravaganza from 10 am – 4 pm with a percentage of the proceeds going to support the spring Native Plant Garden Tour. If you are unfamiliar with why native plants our so important to the health of pollinators (bees and butterflies) and birds and us watching one of the many videos with Douglas Tallamy should help here are two to choose from:

Restoring the Little Things that Run the World (60 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN7-jzL40zQ

Nature’s Best Hope Conservation that Starts in Your Yard (90 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAzDP0wQI78



Sunday, November 28, 2021

Berkeley Equity Summit Series 6 at 6 pm

Videoconference: https://bit.ly/3qHQV2H

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 or 1-253-215-8782 Meeting ID: 810 7490 9352 Passcode: 692041

AGENDA: Community Conversation about Receivership, Probate, Pitfalls and Deceptive Tactics to steal BIPOC Homeownership. Protect your home and stop BIPOC Displacement. 

Series provided in collaboration with Friends of Adeline Neighborhood Group 

 

Monday, November 29, 2021 

Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85877795250 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 858 7779 5250 

AGENDA: Public Comment on non-agenda items and items 1-7, 2. Review of 12/14/2021 6 pm Regular city Council meeting – full proposed agenda follows list of city meetings by day or use link, 3. Berkeley considers, 4. Adjournments in memory, 5. Council worksessions, 6. Referrals for scheduling, 7. Land use calendar, REFERRED ITEMS for REVIEW: 8. Impact of COVID-19 on meetings, 9. In-person meetings, UNSCHEDULED ITEMS: 10. Design and strengthening of policy committee process, 11. Strengthening and supporting city commissions. 

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

 

Tuesday, November 30, 2021 

City Council CLOSED session at 3:30 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84061822756 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 840 6182 2756 

AGENDA: 1. Conference with Legal Counsel whether to register as an eligible Non-litigating Subdivision in nationwide settlements to resolve all opioid litigations, 2.a. Existing litigation Oceanview Neighborhood Council v. CoB 1444 Fifth St RG21091748, b. .Existing litigation Oceanview Neighborhood Council v. CoB 1442 Fifth St Case No. 21CV001971, 3. Conference Real Property Negotiators 1007 University, (Bauman College) 4. Conference with Labor Negotiators: Employee Organizations Berkeley firefighters Local 1227, Berkeley Fir Fighters Association Local 1227 I.A.F.F. / Berkeley Chief Fire Officers Assoc., IBEW, Local 1245, SEIU 1021, Community Services and Part-Time Recreation Activity Leaders, DEIU 1021 Maintenance and Clerical Public Employees Union Local 1, Unrepresented Employees, Berkeley Police Assoc. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/2021/11_Nov/City_Council__11-30-2021_Closed_Meeting_Agenda.aspx 

 

City Council REGULAR Meeting at 6 pm, 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82259683632 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 822 5968 3632 

AGENDA: Use link or go to end of email for full agenda  

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

 

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 

City Council Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment & Sustainability Committee at 2:30 pm, 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81902157907 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 819 0215 7907 

AGENDA: CONSENT: Public Comment on non-agenda items, 2. Harrison, co-sponsor Hahn - Adopt an Ordinance Adding New Chapter 12.01 to BMC Establishing Emergency Greenhouse Gas Limits, Process for Updated Climate Action Plan, Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Regional Collaboration, 3. Taplin - Native and Drought Resistant Plants and Landscaping Ordinance Referral. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Facilities,_Infrastructure,_Transportation,_Environment,___Sustainability.aspx 

 

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85215150264 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 852 1515 0264 

AGENDA: 1. a. Measure FF, b. Measure GG, c. Dept activities, 3. Revisiting Cmmission’s Recommendations to Use FF Funds, 4. Criteria for Use of Portion of Measure FF Funds for Vegetation Clearance on Private Land, 6. More Budget Details for Measure GG v. General Fund Allocation for Overtime, 7. Timeline for Input on Budget Cycle, 8. Policy on Eucalyptus trees removal and suppression, 9. Defensible Space, 10. Home Hardening, 11. Possibility of recording meetings, 12. CERT and Related Preparedness Programs, 13. Grant Programs. 

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

 

Energy Commission at 5 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82889451883 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 828 8945 1883 

AGENDA: 5. Update Chair, 6. Update Staff on Climate Equity Fund, EBCE transition outreach, staffing update, Discussion and Action: 7. Presentation on vision 2050 Infrastructure Bond, 8. Consideration of Berkeley Energy Commission 2022 Calendar, 9. Commission consolidation with CEAC, 10. Response to council referral on Reusable Bags. 

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

 

Independent Redistricting Commission at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84948847183 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 849 4884 7183 

AGENDA: 2. Appointment at-large alternate commissioner, 3. Review of Community of Interest Form Submissions, 4. Review of Map Submissions. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/irc/ 

https://redistricting-commission-berkeley.hub.arcgis.com/ 

 

Planning Commission at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83800308140 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 838 0030 8140 

AGENDA: 9. Public Hearing: Tentative Tract Map #8621 – 1169 – 1173 Hearst – would convert the sole ownership of the entire property into individual units – two duplex units (common interest development / condominiums) and an existing single-family dwelling unit for a total of seven buildings and 13 dwelling units, 

10. Presentation: Zoning Ordinance Revision Project ZORP (updating zoning) 

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

 

Thursday, December 2, 2021 

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

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83358093456 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 833 5809 3456 

AGENDA: Public Comment non-agenda items, 2. Taplin, Streamlining Toxic Remediation in Manufacturing Districts. 

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

 

Reimagining Public Safety Task Force at 6 pm (check time when posted) 

AGENDA and zoom link are not posted, check after Monday 

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

 

Landmarks Preservation Commission at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82744090204 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 827 4409 0204 

AGENDA: 5. 2523 Piedmont – Wurts-Lenfest House – open public hearing consider to grant designation status to residential property 

6. 1940 Hearst – James T. Stocker-Loni Ding House– open public hearing consider to grant designation status to residential property 

7. 1710 University – Demolition referral 

9. Initiative for city-wide historic resources survey 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/landmarkspreservationcommission/ 

 

Friday, December 3, 2021 – no meetings or events found 

 

Saturday, December 4, 2021 

Native Plant Extravaganza 10 am – 4 pm 

A percentage of the proceeds go to support the spring Berkeley Native Plant Tour  

Shop in-person:  

East Bay Wilds Native Plant Nursery at 2777 Foothill Blvd corner of 28th Ave and Foothil with entrance on 28th (accept cash, check or Paypal – no credit cards) https://www.eastbaywilds.com/ 

Watershed Nursery at 601 Canal St in Point Richmond https://www.watershednursery.com/ 

On-line 

Green Thumb Works https://www.greenthumbworks.net/ 

 

Sunday, December 5, 2021 

Watershed Nursery at 601 Canal St in Point Richmond https://www.watershednursery.com/ 

Is open on Sunday 10 am – 4 pm 

_____________________ 

 

Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm  

(FULL DRAFT AGENDA for Dec 14th) 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85877795250 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 858 7779 5250 

Review of DRAFT AGENDA for 12/14/2021 6 pm Regular city Council meeting 

CONSENT: 1. Resolution to continue Legislative meetings via Videoconference and Teleconference, 2. Resolution ratifying COVID-19 Emergency, 3. Minutes, 4. Extension of Interim Director of Police Accountability Board, 5. PO $70,000 with Protiviti Government Services: Using GSA for vehicle no. GS-35F-0280X. 5. Formal bid solicitations $960,000, 7. Contract $150,000 with RLH & Associates, initial contract for 2 years, for Providing Temporary Governmental Financial Consulting Services for the Finance Department, 8. Contract $150,000 with Valdes and Moreno for Professional Services for the Microbond Financing Pilot Program, 9. Contract $300,000 from 9/13/2021 – 8/31/20211 with Galney Scientific for Project Management & Consulting for the Fire Dept with an option to extend for an additional 2 years for total contract amount not to exceed $900,000, 10. Revenue $80,000 FY2022 Federal COVID-19 Funding from HHS CARES Act Provider Relief Fund, 11. Revenue Contract $250,000 with Positas College for Instructional Service Agreement to support Fire Dept Training 7/20/021 – 7/19/2024, 12. Contract $65,956 Participation Agreement and any amendments with CA Mental Health Services Authority for Statewide Prevention and Early Intervention Project thru 6/30/2022, 13. Contract to accept $274,202 Community Services Block Grant, 14. Authorize Amendment to CalPers Contract to effect changes to cost sharing agreement between City and Unrepresented PEPRA members in Unrepresented Employees Group, 15. Contract add $381,137 total $996,117 from 12/15/2021 – 6/30/2024 with Digital Hands for Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Monitoring, 16. Contract $300,000 with Alcor Solutions, Inc. for Managed Services and Upgrade for ServiceNow Application 7/1/2022-6/30/2024, 17. Contract add $133,420 total $2,192,611 from 12/12/2021-6/30/2023, 18. Contract add $733,720 total $2,288,950 and extend term to 6/30/2024 with Tyler technologies, Inc for Professional Services and Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) software, 19. Cash Donation $26,566 to install fencing for a dog park at Aquatic Park, 20. Contract $900,000 from 1/3/2021-6/30/2025 with Cumming Management Group, Inc for Project Management Services for the African American Holistic Resource Center, 21. Contract $100,000 includes contingency $8,251.33 with Get IT Tech for new electronic gate system at the waterfront, 22. Contract $326,723 with Best Contracting Services, Inc for Fire Station No. 3 Re-Roofing Project at 2710 Russell, 23. PO $345,000 with Arata Equipment Company for one 18-year rear loader, 24. Ratification of Police Accountability Board’s Standing Rules, 25. Authorization for additional Public Works Commission meeting in 2021, 26. Arreguin – Allocating Remainder of Berkeley Relief Fund, 27. Arreguin – Relinquishment of up to $500 to 11th Annual MLK Jr Celebration, 28. Arreguin – Resolution support Bay Adapt: Regional Strategy for Rising Bay, 29. Taplin – Budget Referral Pedestrian Crossing Improvements at Ashby and Action, 30. Taplin – Russell Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvements, $50,000-Traffic Circle at Russell & King, $60,000-Cycle Track Crossing at Russell & San Pablo, $250,000-Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons at Russell & Sacramento, 31. Taplin, co-sponsors Bartlett, Hahn, Arreguin – Just Transition from Fossil Fuel Economy, 32. Taplin – Reaffirm City Endorsement of a Carbon Fee and Dividend letter to Barbara Lee, Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, 33. Robinson – Letter to UC President Michael Drake in Support of Student Researchers United-UAW, 34. Taplin – Letter of Support for H.R. 4194 Peoples Response Act which would create Division of Community Safety and provide grants to local governments, state governments and community based organizations to support non-carceral approaches to public safety, ACTION: 35. CM – Response to Council - Amendments to ADU Ordinance, 36. CM-Response to Council Amendments to ADU Ordinance Public Safety Concerns, 37. CM – Amending paragraph NN of BMC Section 19.48.020, 38. CM – Public Hearing Residential Preferential Parking Program on 1600 block of Lincoln, 39. CM – FY 2021 Year-End and FY 2022 First Quarter Budget Update, 40. Amendment FY 2022 Annual Appropriations Ordinance $177, 309,914 (gross) and $163,076,585 (net), 41. City of Berkeley’s 2022 State and Federal Legislative Platform, 42.a.Liam Garland & b. Public Works Commission Street Maintenance and Rehabilitation Policy and 5-year Paving Plan, 43.a. Parks and Waterfront Commission & b. Scott Ferris Adopt-a-Spot, 44. Kesarwani, co-sponsors Wengraf, Droste, Bartlett – Referral to CM to Streamline ADU Permit Review and Approval, 45. Barlett – Refer to CM and Community Health Commission Health Care Facility Oversight, 46. Hahn – Consideration of Expansion of Paid Parking to 7 days per week to Support Parking Meter Fund and Improved Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities, INFORMATION REPORTS: Tobacco Prevention Program. 

 

_____________________ 

 

November 30, 2021 City Council Regular meeting at 6 pm 

(Nov 30th FULL AGENDA) 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82259683632 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 822 5968 3632 

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

AGENDA CONSENT: 1. Opt-in to Countywide Organics Reduction and Recycling Ordinance, 2. Minutes, 3. Grant Approval - Application for $50,000 from San Francisco Foundation support for 100% affordable housing at BART stations, 4. MOU between CoB and Rent Board to implement Ronald V. Dellums Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, 5, Formal bid solicitations $340,000, 6. Proposed Ordinance Rescinding Ordinance 7.788-N.S. and Amending Paragraph NN of BMC Section 19.48.020 (“Amendments to the California Fire Code”) to language which existed prior to October 26, 2021 – this is about the requirements for sprinklers in projects in fire zones 2 & 3 in the hills, 7. Contract $99,000 with Blaisdell’s Business Products for new office and classroom furniture for the North Berkeley Senior Center, 8. Amend Contract add $210,000 and extend for 1 year with Youth Spirit Artworks Mental Health and Case management Services, 9. Amend contract add $47,999 total $400,915 thru June 30, 2024 with Mental Health Services Help@Hand Participation Agreement, 10. Contract $1,200,000 with Alameda County Network of Mental Health Clients (Berkeley Drop-in Center), Options Recovery and Women’s Daytime Drop-in Center, 11. Contract $150,000 with NEED (Needle Exchange Emergency Distribution 7-1-2021 – 6-30-2024, 12. Grant Application $1,104, 320 with CAL FIRE and Community Forestry tree planting, 13. Resolution approving electrification strategy of existing Berkeley Buildings, 14. Resolution to adopt Cities Race to Zero Campaign to establish 2030 emission reduction target 60.5% from 2018 levels, 15. Add $300,000 total $600,000with Siemens Industry for Fire and Life Safety Systems Maintenance and extend to 12-31-2024, 16. Contract add $150,000 total $650,000 with First Carbon Solutions, Inc for CEQA compliance for Solid Waste Recycling and extend to 6-30-2022, 17. Purchase order $305,900 with PB Loader Corporation for two chipper trucks, 18. Arreguin – refer $20,000 to 2021 AAO (mid-year budget) for Berkeley Age-Friendly Continuum, 19. Arreguin – Reappointment of Dr. P. Robert Beatty to Alameda Co. Mosquito Abatement District Board of Trustees, 20. Arreguin – Budget Referral $100,000 to support recovery of Habitot, 21. Harrison, co-sponsor Bartlett - Budget Referral Establishing a Pilot Existing Building Electrification, 22. Hahn, Co-sponsor Harrison – Referral to CM to create system to better document, communicate, and prioritize Public Works requests from BUSD and establish protocols for BUSD to coordinate directly with Public Works, 23. Wengraf – Budget referral $100,000 to improve pedestrian safety where sidewalks are NOT provided, ACTION: 24. Public Hearing – Bayer Healthcare LLC Certification of FEIR and Development Agreement, 25. Fair Campaign Practices Commission – Amendments to Berkeley Election Reform Act: 1) Make public financing available to candidates for Auditor, School Board Director, Rent Stabilization Board Commissioner, 2) Clarify use of funds, 3) requirements for unspent funds, 4) new process to return unused funds, 5) cost of living adjustment for contributions in January of each odd0numbered year, 26. Commission Reorganization: Creating the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission – merges the existing Children, Youth and Recreation Commission and the existing Berkeley Animal Care Commission into the Parks and Waterfront Commission, 27. CM – Resolution accept Surveillance Technology Report for Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR), GPS Trackers, Body Worn Cameras, an Street Level Imagery Project, 28. Taplin, co-sponsors Droste, Wengraf – Budget Referral for Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR), INFORMATION REPORTS: 29. Quarterly Update on short term referral process, 30. 4th Quarter Investment Report, 31. Annual Report Condominium Conversion Program, 32. Berkeley’s Community-wide GHG inventory. 

 

_______________________________ 

 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

1527 Sacramento – 2nd story addition date 2-22-2021 

2956 Hillegass - addition to nonconforming structure date 2-8-2021 

Remanded to ZAB or LPC 

1205 Peralta – Conversion of an existing garage 

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

SFD = Single Family Dwelling 

1860 Capistrano – Alterations in the non-conforming left side yard and addition over 14 ft in average height to enclose the 15 sq ft balcony and the 43 sq ft rear balcony to add 58 sq ft, 12-7-2021 

2345 Channing – rebuild the fire damaged 20,794 SF Pilgrim Hall addition with a new 9,675 SF wing on the campus of the First Congregational Church of Berkeley 12-2-2021 

725 Folger – Add business support service use to an existing office building 12-7-2021 

1488 Grizzly Peak – Major Residential addition over 14 ft and over 20 ft in Hillside Overly 12-7-2021 

2717 Marin – Install an unenclosed hot tub in a side yard of a SFD 12-7-2021 

628 San Miguel – Unenclosed hot tub to rear of SFD 12-7-2021 

1812 Virginia – 2-story residential addition to existing SFD including partial demolition of a portion of the rear of the house 12-7-2021 

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 

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

January 20 (Thursday) – Update on City’s COVID-19 Response and 

Public Works/Infrastructure Presentation 

February 15 – Homeless and Mental Health Services 

March 15 – Housing Element Update 

April 19 – Fire Department Standards of Coverage Study 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Alameda County LAFCO Presentation 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant Program 

Civic Center – Old City Hall and Veterans Memorial Building 

Mid-Year Budget Report FY 2022 

 

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


Ars Minerva Presents a Wild and Crazy MESSALINA from 1679

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Monday November 22, 2021 - 12:09:00 PM

Coming out of the opera Messalina on Satiurday night, November 20, all I could think to say were two words: Wow! And Whew! Messalina, a Venetian opera by Carlo Pallavicino, may be the wildest and craziest opera I’ve ever seen! Based on the flagrant sexual exploits of the Roman Empress Messalina, who as a teenager was forced to marry the 50 year old Emperor Claudius, this opera explores rampant sexuality, marital infidelity, cross dressing, and the nature of love itself. All this in a decadent Roman social milieu that Ars Minerva’s founder and Artistic Director, Céline Ricci, likens to that of Federico Fellini’s film La Dolce Vita.  

The libretto for Messalina is by Pallavicino’s longtime collaborator Francesco Maria Piccioli. One wonders how this opera, which premiered at Venice’s Teatro San Salvatore in 1679, managed to pass Venice’s watchful censors. As Messalina begins, the opening scene has Messalina indulging in what might be called heavy petting with her secret lover, Caius (Caio in Italian). In the course of this opening scene, Messalina is stripped of her elaborate dress by Caio, sung here by lyric tenor Patrick Hagen. Soprano Aura Veruni, who sings the role of Messalina, now appears in a skin-tight, skin-toned full-body leotard that reveals her curvaceous figure. Two ornaments are added to emphasise Messalina’s breasts. As the petting gets really heavy, Caio and Messalina zealously paw each other while laying on a soft circular couch at center stage. But before the lovers can go further in their love-making, Messalina’s husband, Emperor Claudius (Claudio in Italian), enters and indignantly berates his wife for dallying with Caio. However, the wily Messalina turns the tables on her husband and accuses him of two-timing her with other women. The sheepish Claudio, sung here by mezzo-soprano Deborah Rosengaus, is obliged to agree to a short lived reconciliation with his wife. 

A secondary plot involves the efforts of a Syrian woman, Erginda, disguised as a man named Alindo, to regain the love of the man, Tergisto, who in Syria betrayed her. The Alindo/Erginda role is sung here by mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich, and the role of Tergisto is sung by baritone Zachary Gordin. Meanwhile, Erginda is reunited with her sister Floralba, elegantly sung here by soprano Shawnette Sulker. However, when Floralba’s husband Tullio enters and sees her hugging “Alindo,” he accuses his wife of being unfaithful. Left alone, Floralba implores the stars to not let her linger in pain, a mournful aria beautifully sung by Shawnette Sulker and accompanied on theorbo by Adam Cockerhorn. When Floralba exits, the indignant Tullio, robustly sung here by tenor Kevin Gino, despairingly asserts that, “In cor di femina fede non c’è “ (“In a woman’s heart there’s no fidelity”) A bit later, Tullio angrily declares, “Io voglio vendetta!” (“I want revenge!”). Rounding out the excellent cast is tenor Marcus Page as Lismeno, Messalina’s attendant who comments wittily on the antics of others. 

As this opera progresses, nearly every character tries to seduce every other character, with the exception of Floralba, who remains faithful to her husband Tullio despite the efforts of Emperor Claudio to seduce her. At one point in Act 3, Claudio attempts to use force to assault or rape Floralba, but he is stymied in these efforts by the intrusion of his wife Messalina. Once again, Messalina contrives to manipulate Claudio into yet another false reunion of husband and wife. 

Meanwhile, Messalina’s lover, Caio, is becoming desperate over all the impediments to his hoped for sex with Messalina. He laments getting titillation but no satisfaction to his lust for Messalina. In Act 3, Tergisto flees a mob of bandits and escapes by jumping or falling off a cliff, injuring himself. He is found by his supposed friend “Alindo,” who is actually his former fiancée Erginda. When the injured and exhausted Tergisto falls asleep, singing a sleepy aria accompanied by theorbo, Erginda uses twigs to write her name in the dirt beside the sleeping Tergisto. When he awakes he is moved by the reminder of his once beloved Erginda and vows to reconcile with her. 

Meanwhile, Messalina has become infatuated with “Alindo,” and the Empress now comes on strong to “Alindo.” When Emperor Claudio catches them, “Alindo” is forced to reveal that he is in fact a woman. In director Céline Ricci’s staging, this revelation is accomplished by having mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich bare her breasts to prove she’s a woman, much to the astonishment of all the other characters. Tergisto now enters, and seeing that “Alindo” is actually his fiancée Erginda, falls on her breasts and asks forgiveness, which Erginda grants. Caio, fed up with his lack of sex with Messalina, now renounces love and sings an aria stating that “If we got rid of love, the world would be happy.” Our passions, he asserts, should be governed by reason. 

Improbably, Messalina sings that “Faithless men, take a lesson from women in how to love.” Does she mean that women know how to be faithful, or does she mean that both men and women should just treat sex and love as natural and go with the flow? It’s impossible to say. Nonetheless, all the protagonists now celebrate the reign of peace and forgiveness. 

Musically, Pallavicino’s score skilfully alternates between rectitatives and arias, and his coloratura writing includes long melismas on single syllables. Jory Vinikour conducted from the harpsichord and the small instrumental ensemble featured Cynthia Keiko and Laura Jeannin on violins, Aaron Westman on viola, Gretchen Claassen on cello, and Adam Cockerham on theorbo. The elaborate costumes were by Marina Poliakoff and the intriguing back projections were by the German-born artist Entropy. Kudos are due to Céline Ricci for discovering the score for Messalina in Venice’s Marciana Library and for her brilliant staging of this remarkable opera.


The Berkeley Activist's Calendar, November 21-28

Kelly Hammargren, Sustainable Berkeley Alliance
Sunday November 21, 2021 - 11:31:00 AM

Worth Noting:

The only published public city meeting found during the week of the Thanksgiving Holiday is the Mental Health Commission DOJ Santa Rita Jail Subcommittee at 1 pm on Monday. Thursday is Thanksgiving and Friday is listed as City of Berkeley Thanksgiving Holiday – offices will be closed.

The November 30 regular City Council meeting is available for comment. On consent is item 6 the rescinding of the October 26th council action requirements for sprinklers in fire zones 2 & 3. Action items include 24 - the City and Bayer development agreement, 26 – the reorganization of the Parks and Waterfront Commission, 27 – the Surveillance technology report, and 28 - the budget request for automated license plate readers (ALPR).

Don’t miss the December 1st deadline to respond to the DEIR for the Ashby and North Berkeley BART Housing projects or forget to complete the surveys.

December 1, 2021 at 5 pm is the deadline to submit response to the DEIR for the Ashby and North Berkeley BART Station Housing Projects is https://www.cityofberkeley.info/bartplanning/ (395 pages)

Complete Streets Survey closes November 28 at 5 pm. It is for the Southside, but this has implications for the rest of the city: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6575124/Berkeley-Southside-Survey-October-2021

Vision 2050 Survey – the City is planning for a major bond measure in 2022 on infrastructure: tinyurl.com/2050survey

At the Reimagining the Public Safety Task Force meeting the task force was informed that history section of the draft final NICJR (National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform) Report and Implementation Plan will be removed at city staff request with the reason given that it was not accurate. The next meeting is December 2, 2021.Reimagining Public Safety Public Meetings – the draft final NICJR Report is available: www.berkeley-rps.org 

Monday, November 22, 2021 

Mental Health Commission DOJ Santa Rita Jail Subcommittee at 1 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82908990373 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 852 7166 0121 Passcode: 221700 

AGENDA: 4. Action steps to address alternatives to 5150 transports to Santa Rita and John George Psychiatric Facility. 

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

_____________________ 

Available for Comment – email council@cityofberkeley.info 

November 30, 2021 City Council Regular meeting at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82259683632 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 822 5968 3632 

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

AGENDA CONSENT: 1. Opt-in to Countywide Organics Reduction and Recycling Ordinance, 2. Minutes, 3. Grant Approval - Application for $50,000 from San Francisco Foundation support for 100% affordable housing at BART stations, 4. MOU between CoB and Rent Board to implement Ronald V. Dellums Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, 5, Formal bid solicitations $340,000, 6. Proposed Ordinance Rescinding Ordinance 7.788-N.S. and Amending Paragraph NN of BMC Section 19.48.020 (“Amendments to the California Fire Code”) to language which existed prior to October 26, 2021 – this is about the requirements for sprinklers in projects in fire zones 2 & 3 in the hills, 7. Contract $99,000 with Blaisdell’s Business Products for new office and classroom furniture for the North Berkeley Senior Center, 8. Amend Contract add $210,000 and extend for 1 year with Youth Spirit Artworks Mental Health and Case management Services, 9. Amend contract add $47,999 total $400,915 thru June 30, 2024 with Mental Health Services Help@Hand Participation Agreement, 10. Contract $1,200,000 with Alameda County Network of Mental Health Clients (Berkeley Drop-in Center), Options Recovery and Women’s Daytime Drop-in Center, 11. Contract $150,000 with NEED (Needle Exchange Emergency Distribution 7-1-2021 – 6-30-2024, 12. Grant Application $1,104, 320 with CAL FIRE and Community Forestry tree planting, 13. Resolution approving electrification strategy of existing Berkeley Buildings, 14. Resolution to adopt Cities Race to Zero Campaign to establish 2030 emission reduction target 60.5% from 2018 levels, 15. Add $300,000 total $600,000with Siemens Industry for Fire and Life Safety Systems Maintenance and extend to 12-31-2024, 16. Contract add $150,000 total $650,000 with First Carbon Solutions, Inc for CEQA compliance for Solid Waste Recycling and extend to 6-30-2022, 17. Purchase order $305,900 with PB Loader Corporation for two chipper trucks, 18. Arreguin – refer $20,000 to 2021 AAO (mid-year budget) for Berkeley Age-Friendly Continuum, 19. Arreguin – Reappointment of Dr. P. Robert Beatty to Alameda Co. Mosquito Abatement District Board of Trustees, 20. Arreguin – Budget Referral $100,000 to support recovery of Habitot, 21. Harrison, co-sponsor Bartlett - Budget Referral Establishing a Pilot Existing Building Electrification, 22. Hahn, Co-sponsor Harrison – Referral to CM to create system to better document, communicate, and prioritize Public Works requests from BUSD and establish protocols for BUSD to coordinate directly with Public Works, 23. Wengraf – Budget referral $100,000 to improve pedestrian safety where sidewalks are NOT provided, ACTION: 24. Public Hearing – Bayer Healthcare LLC Certification of FEIR and Development Agreement, 25. Fair Campaign Practices Commission – Amendments to Berkeley Election Reform Act: 1) Make public financing available to candidates for Auditor, School Board Director, Rent Stabilization Board Commissioner, 2) Clarify use of funds, 3) requirements for unspent funds, 4) new process to return unused funds, 5) cost of living adjustment for contributions in January of each odd0numbered year, 26. Commission Reorganization: Creating the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission – merges the existing Children, Youth and Recreation Commission and the existing Berkeley Animal Care Commission into the Parks and Waterfront Commission, 27. CM – Resolution accept Surveillance Technology Report for Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR), GPS Trackers, Body Worn Cameras, an Street Level Imagery Project, 28. Taplin, co-sponsors Droste, Wengraf – Budget Referral for Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR), INFORMATION REPORTS: 29. Quarterly Update on short term referral process, 30. 4th Quarter Investment Report, 31. Annual Report Condominium Conversion Program, 32. Berkeley’s Community-wide GHG inventory. 

_______________________________ 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

1527 Sacramento – 2nd story addition date TBD 

2956 Hillegass - addition to nonconforming structure date TBD 

Remanded to ZAB or LPC 

1205 Peralta – Conversion of an existing garage 

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

SFD = Single Family Dwelling 

1915 Berryman – Demolish existing Triplex. Construct 10-unit building including 1 very low income unit, density bonus application 11-24-2021 

1860 Capistrano – Alterations in the non-conforming left side yard and addition over 14 ft in average height to enclose the 15 sq ft balcony and the 43 sq ft rear balcony to add 58 sq ft, 12-7-2021 

2345 Channing – rebuild the fire damaged 20,794 SF Pilgrim Hall addition with a new 9,675 SF wing on the campus of the First Congregational Church of Berkeley 12-2-2021 

699 Creston – 509 sq ft 2nd floor addition to existing SFD 11-23-2021 

682 Ensenada – 126 sq ft 2-story rear addition ave height 19ft 1 ¼ in 11-23-2021 

725 Folger – Add business support service use to an existing office building 12-7-2021 

1488 Grizzly Peak – Major Residential addition over 14 ft and over 20 ft in Hillside Overly 12-7-2021 

2717 Marin – Install an unenclosed hot tub in a side yard of a SFD 12-7-2021 

2429 Ninth – New window openings and larger windows 11-23-2021 

628 San Miguel – Unenclosed hot tub to rear of SFD 12-7-2021 

1812 Virginia – 2-story residential addition to existing SFD including partial demolition of a portion of the rear of the house 12-7-2021 

2326 Webster – Addition 300 sq ft including 5th bedroom over 14 and 28 sq ft in ave height to SFD 11-23-2021 

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 

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

January 20 (Thursday) – Update on City’s COVID-19 Response and 

Public Works/Infrastructure Presentation 

February 15 – Homeless and Mental Health Services 

March 15 – Housing Element Update 

April 19 – Fire Department Standards of Coverage Study 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Alameda County LAFCO Presentation 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant Program 

Civic Center – Old City Hall and Veterans Memorial Building 

Mid-Year Budget Report FY 2022 

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 


Violinist LEONIDAS KAVAKOS & Pianist YUJA WANG at Zellerbach

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Monday November 22, 2021 - 12:20:00 PM

Though two decades apart in age, and coming from vastly different cultures, Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos and Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang make great music together, often touring together and even recording together. On Saturday, November 13, they performed four quite different sonatas for violin and piano at Zellerbach Hall under the auspices of Cal Performances. The unifying theme of this concert was the example and influence of Johann Sebastian Bach. Featured here were two Bach sonatas for violin and keyboard plus Ferruccio Busoni’s Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano from 1898 and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sonata for Violin and Piano from 1968. 

As Kavakos and Wang walked on stage to begin this concert, one was struck immediately by the difference in their appearance. Yuja Wang, now 34 years old, makes a fashion statement every time she appears, as has been noted especially by Janet Malcolm in her memorable New Yorker article of 2016. At Zellerbach Hall, Yuja Wang came on stage in a floor-length sequined red gown slit up the right leg. Slim and petite yet sinewy, Yuja Wang exudes sex appeal. When she sat at the piano, her right leg was bared to mid thigh, offering a view of shapely leg. By contrast, Leonidas Kavakos, who is of stocky build with shaggy dark hair now greying, wore a simple dark suit. Kavakos, unlike Wang, has the look of a serious musician. However, Yuja Wang may look like a sex-kitten; but when you hear her play you know she’s a serious and electrifying musician. 

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Keyboard in E Major, BWV 1016, opened the program. Bach here paves the way for later development of the sonata form by giving the keyboard instrument, in Bach’s time a harpsichord, both a melodic function in the treble register and a basso continuo function in the lower register. In this sonata, Bach features delightful to and fro as violin and keyboard exchange melodic phrases over a basso continuo. The first movement in this sonata is a slow Adagio, while the second is a fugal Allegro. The third movement is a delicate Adagio on a passacaglia, and the final movement is an agitated Allegro full of rapid fire triplets. Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang expertly brought to the fore all the brilliant exchanges between violin and piano. 

Next on the program was Ferruccio Busoni’s Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in E minor. This was for me a revelation. I can’t recall how long it’s been since I heard a work by Busoni. Perhaps it was his opera Doktor Faust, heard many, many years ago, though it left no lasting impression. This sonata for violin and piano, however, I found memorising. Written in 1898 when Busoni was 32 years old, it was premiered two years later in Helsinki with Busoni himself on piano. It opens with a slow movement that begins in a somewhat somber mood but shifts into a more strident mood as the piano indulges in several strong outbursts, powerfully played here by Yuja Wang. The violin then responds with strong outbursts of its own, forcefully played here by Leonidas Kavakos. The second movement is a Presto featuring a galloping tarantella. The third and final movement is twice as long as the first two combined, and it contains a rich variety of musical moods. Though it is marked Andante piutosto grave, or Andante rather grave, it offers a section of rapid fire music evoking a skipping motion. It also offers a quotation from a Bach chorale from that composer’s Anna Magdalena Notebooks, and after reworking slow themes from the first movement, it eventually comes to a surprisingly quiet ending statement that is quite moving in its gravity. 

After intermission, Yuja Wang came on stage in a skin-tight minidress of sequined turquoise. Once again, when she sat at the piano, Wang showed lots of shapely leg to mid-thigh. Kavakos, true to form, wore the same nondescript suit as in the first half of this concert. Bach’s Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Keyboard in B minor, BWV 1014, opens with the piano establishing the independence of the left and right hands, thereby calling attention to the liberation of the keyboard from its prior role as merely providing a basso continuo. Then the violin enters with extended notes, as the slow Andante movement gets underway melodically. The two slow movements, the first and third, are the true centerpieces of this sonata, beautifully performed here by Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang. The two fast movements, the second and fourth, are more old fashioned in style but were brilliantly played here by Kavakos and Wang. 

The final work on the program was the Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Major by Shostakovich, who dedicated this work to violinist David Oistrakh, who premiered it with pianist Sviatoslav Richter in 1969. It opens with a brief Adagio featuring pizzicato plucking from the violinist. Then the second movement erupts in a fiery blaze, full of Shostacovich’s uniquely sardonic gestures. Included in this movement are sul ponticello passages in which violinist Leonidas Kavakos forcefully plucks the strings closer to the bridge than usual, making a glassy sound. Meanwhile, pianist Yuja Wang has her share of forceful outbursts, brilliantly played. At the close of this boldly aggressive movement, the Zellerbach audience broke into spontaneous applause for Kavakos and Wang. The third movement again offers pizzicato passages from the violin, first accompanied by low notes on the piano and later by high notes on piano. The fourth and final movement is marked Andante and includes cadenzas for both piano and violin, each brilliantly performed by Wang and Kavakos. Then, surprisingly, this rather tumultuous work ends on a quiet note of moving simplicity. 

In response to thunderous and sustained applause, Kavakos and Wang offered a single encore, which I believe was Suite italienne by Igor Stravinsky from his neo-classical period. Well, I was close! It was indeed Stravinsky. But Cal Performances informs me it was the finale, marked Dithyrambe, from Stravinsky/s Due Concertante.