Public Comment

(see “WHEN YOUR CITY BECOMES THE CAMPUS” Presentation By Professor Davarian Baldwin, February 17, 2022 http://berkeleyheritage.com/calendar.html)

Operating a university is Big Business these days. In our own back door UC Berkeley rents huge amounts of space to Google, the American Automobile Association, and other non-educational businesses, yet pays no property taxes or other fees to the City of Berkeley (CoB). As it expands West into our downtown, UC is removing ever more taxable property from the City’s rent rolls as well as rent-controlled apartments that we desperately need.

So, what is the optimal solution? Clearly it is not, as we have previously written the cents-on-the-dollar deal our one-foot-out-the-door mayor Jesse Arreguin cut with his friend Chancellor Carol Christ last year:

https://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2021-09-03/article/49375?headline=The-Settlement-Agreement-between-City-of-Berkeley-and-UCB-br-An-Open-Letter-to-the-Berkeley-City-Council--Leila-H.-Moncharsh-attorney-for-BC4BP.

On the other end of the country, city residents facing the same problem of no-tax universities consuming a disproportionate amount of unreimbursed city services revolted and got results. After years of protests with citizens taking to the streets, Yale finally agreed to pay City of New Haven $136 Million. (https://www.ctpublic.org/education-news/2021-11-17/yale-announces-historic-135-million-payment-to-new-haven.) 

New Haven’s Mayor commented about the deal: “Those [New Haven] residents finally, finally have an opportunity to see that Yale actually heard what they were saying.” Commenting on the deal, Yale reportedly “is daring others to follow its lead to help uplift residents of college towns.” 

So how can Berkeley residents figure out how to obtain a fairer result? One man may have the answers: Davarian Baldwin will be speaking to interested Berkeley residents on February 17th and I for one urge Berkeley citizens to attend this webinar, which promises to be eye-opening, and buy his latest book. (http://berkeleyheritage.com/calendar.html. $15 for tickets; $22 for the book.) 

A leading urbanist, historian, and cultural critic, Davarian L. Baldwin is Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies and founding director of the Smart Cities Lab at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He recently published In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities (2021) a pointed commentary on the difficult financial relations between universities and their host cities across the country. His research gives clarity and context to the vexed relations between large-scale tax-free academic institutions and the cities that support them including Berkeley. 

I first met Baldwin when he interviewed me about a lawsuit against the UC Regents that I had filed for my client, Berkeley Citizens for a Better Plan (BC4BP). When we spoke, Baldwin clarified for me that our local problems with UC are not isolated to Berkeley – they are national issues about how large universities including UCB damage their host cities despite the good that they also provide. Professor Baldwin opened my eyes to how citizens of other towns are taking on their local universities and creating a win-win situation for the university as well as their host towns. I urge every citizen of Berkeley to listen to what Prof. Baldwin has to say. 

First, he has an extraordinary grasp on how we got here, namely the pressures on universities that has led them to become what can only be described as grasping, semi-commercial behemoths that exploit their tax-exempt status to make up for lost government subsidies. He can also speak to the problem of lack of housing in thriving urban centers alongside expanded student enrollments, which is certainly an acute problem in Berkeley. 

Second, he will identify how the modern university has become an advantaged commercial landlord to the detriment of local business owners. Here in Berkeley, that has translated into lost municipal revenues and disadvantaged local businesses. UC rents space on Shattuck to Google and AAA among others. Based on public information act requests, it appears CoB has not required these huge corporations to pay the city business license fees. So, not only does UC have an advantage over local landlords that must pay city property taxes, its big business tenants have a leg up on our local businesses! 

Third, Baldwin can address how the expansion efforts of modern universities endanger a city’s unique and historic identity. Here in Berkeley, we need to look no further than Oxford and University to see the results of UC’s latest expansion efforts, namely the loss of one handsome and whimsical landmark --Walter Ratcliff’s 1920s gas station, the last of its kind in downtown – and an adjacent rent-controlled older apartment building that housed several families. If there are no changes in how the Regents grow the footprint of UCB soon, we stand to lose even more landmarks. 

So how can we turn the tide, and move towards better town/gown relations here in Berkeley? Well, while there are no cookie-cutter solutions, Davarian Baldwin can offer us some good places to start. Knowing your adversary is one key to success. Public activism is another, after all that is what got New Haven its money. Oh, yes, and public activism is something Berkeley used to be known for. Perhaps we need to go back to the good old days, and make some noise. Let’s find out by tuning into what Baldwin has to say on February 17th.