I remember reading when Donald Trump was elected in 2016, there were people around the world busy archiving documents, especially documents on climate, from U.S. government websites and storing the information outside of the country so it could be saved and retrieved.

For over the last year we have been hearing the City of Berkeley was developing a new updated website. We were blithely coasting along like any of the historical documents we might ever need would be there when we wanted.

Today I wanted to find documents from the Community Environmental Advisory Committee (CEAC). Because City Council dissolved CEAC, it is not a searchable choice in the “Records online,” the place we are supposed to go to in the new city website to find older documents.

Even current information is blocked. In preparing the Activist’s Calendar, the agenda for the Tuesday Closed Council session gave this message: 403 SORRY, PERMISSION DENIED. This is a first. In the past, the agenda items were listed. Closed Council meetings began with public comment on agenda items before going into closed session. This meeting is now cancelled.

Friday, I heard that City-employed legislative aides can’t find the documents they need. I guess there is some comfort that I am not the only one having problems with the acclaimed improved Berkeley City website. The pictures are attractive, and I expect some people love them and the new format. The format looks like it is easier for people who do business with the City, not those who are engaged in what the City is doing. Given the choice between colorful pictures and historical records, I’ll take the later. -more-

By now you must all be aware that many, many residents of the Hopkins Corridor are vehemently opposed to the proposal currently before the City Council to hijack our neighborhood and turn it into an ideological dystopia. We oppose it on many levels: its cavalier claims to increase safety when we can plainly see it won’t; its disregard of the needs of the elderly trying to age in place; its schizoid approach to wanting to attract people to the area and its shops, while trying to make it very difficult for them to come here by any means other than bicycle; its simplistic answers to complex questions (get an e-bike! take a cab or Uber!).

However, the most serious of our objections is this: in the process of trying to appease the bike lobby, to which some of you belong, with this neighborhood take-over, the city has placed itself in financial jeopardy and has put its residents at legal and financial risk.

By stating time and again that this is about safety, then proposing a very unsafe infrastructure for bikes and very little in improvements for pedestrians and drivers, the city may have taken on a huge liability risk. And it is not helpful that the city has received repeated public warnings about this, including this one.

By having allowed the Transportation Commission to run amok, sending forth a recommendation to adopt a plan that had 11^th hour additions that received no discussion among commissioners and no opportunity for public comment, and taking up that recommendation for action on May 10, you may very well be violating the Brown Act.

And by advancing the interests of one group of your constituents over the interests of the elderly, you may be committing a civil rights violation.

All of these things have consequences that can be quite costly to the city if they result in lawsuits.

You face another problem, too. Faith in the integrity of the Council has been seriously damaged, and that can result in a revolt against supporting other things the Council deems important, not the least of which is any future funding requests for infrastructure or other needs.

With this packet, we offer you all the information you need to understand that, despite your ideological purity, there are serious problems with the Hopkins Corridor Plan. We have not asked that you abandon it, just that you do that which is necessary RIGHT NOW to make the streets safer for everyone and save the controversial aspects for a time when we have a better idea that they are necessary. That is the one fact that the Commission and the staff have been unable substantiate: that this plan will actually accomplish a goal that is beyond just what the bike lobby wants.

Hopkins Corridor Information Packet -more-

To:Tom Quinn, CEO, NEON

Dear Mr. Quinn,

I write out of anxiety for our movie theaters. The success of Netflix et al at making movies accessible privately during COVID was a comfort. But I’d hate to see this convenience be allowed to displace the shared experience of seeing films on the big screen. Without movie theaters and their large screens and sound systems, I worry that we will lose great films. They need the financial support that comes from large-scale presentation, and viewers need the scale provided by big screens in movie theaters to enjoy the richness of a film made as a work of art.

Great films such as Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Atanarjuat, Claire Denis’ mysterious The Intruder, Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, and a particular favorite that I know you helped bring to us, Honeyland, cannot be appreciated on a small screen and in a private home. Film as an art form requires the big screen. Viewing movies in a communal setting creates the exhilaration of sharing a momentous event and the satisfaction of the senses that art produces.

As I wrote to Kevin Holloway, President of Landmark, I am deeply grateful for Landmark’s reopening of the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley last year as the pandemic began to recede. It was a huge relief to be able to see some of the new films (I’d been keeping a list) under rigorously safe conditions, thanks to the Cinemas’ scheduling multiple screenings daily, including uncrowded afternoon showings.

Between the 1960s and 2010 or so, Berkeley was one of the best places in the world to see a wide range of films, popular blockbusters as well as foreign films, indie films, the low-budget quirky films I’ve always treasured. But we’ve steadily lost screens in recent years, mainly due to developers’ proposals for market-rate housing, which doesn’t serve Berkeley’s urgent need for median- and low-income housing. The heirs of Landmark’s great 1914 California Theatre recently rejected a very good offer to renew the lease in favor of a for-profit speculative development.

And now I am alarmed at the renewed threat to the Shattuck Cinemas resulting from the sale of that property to a Chicago developer, fronted by Bill Schrader of the Austin Group. A group of film lovers formed here to oppose the previous developer Joseph Penner’s intention in 2015 to demolish the Shattuck Cinemas. The property is part of the landmarked block that contains the 1910 Shattuck Hotel. The ten-screen theater represents the very successful repurposing of a former department store; it includes hand-painted murals in the Egyptian- and Moroccan-themed theaters. Due to different-sized screening rooms, it brings us a range of films. Before the pandemic, 275,000 to 300,000 movie viewers a year were coming to the Shattuck Cinemas in downtown Berkeley.

I spoke with my friend Rick MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s, another film lover, recently about the possibility of the sort of forum Harper’s occasionally organizes, to discuss the future of movie theaters. I write you to ask if you are aware of any organized effort to defend our movie theaters across the country against the home-screen ventures and demolition by developers, so we can continue to see films on their big screens, with other film lovers. -more-

This is the story of a coop (as in "cooperative"), of whiteness (as in "supremacy"), and the way they weave together in subtle forms of ostracism (as in segregation), and mendacity (as in blaming the victim). They have been marshalled against the efforts and struggles of a Black woman for both respect and affordable housing. The location of this story is an actual cooperative organization in South Berkeley. The irony of its story is its self-construction by means of non-cooperation. We shall call this Black woman Emma (not her real name). The point of the story is to both outline some of the more subtle structures of racist harassment, while at the same time advocating for a more authentic and principled cooperative endeavor. -more-

When historians look back on 2022, they're likely to characterize it as "the year of the big reveal." The year Vladimir Putin was revealed as murderous thug. The year Donald Trump was revealed as feckless loser. The year Republicans were revealed as the party of white male supremacy. The year the US Supreme Court went rogue. -more-

What makes a person "disabled" versus "having a disability"? I'm asking more than semantics--I'm looking for clarification about the assessment of people. Example: Social Security, when it decides disability, looks for a physical or mental condition that makes the assessed person unable to earn a living. In some instances, I've seen the clause "at their usual occupation" while in other instances, not. -more-

Breaking News—Literally

Three Peregrine falcon chicks have pecked their way out of their eggshells in a nest high atop UC Berkeley's Campanile tower. Despite the untimely demise of Grinnell, the feathered soulmate of bird-mom Annie, a new brood of peregrines is happily feasting on bits of pigeon brought home by step-dad Alden.

Appropriately, UC announced the news in the form of a Tweet.

You can celebrate "Hatch Day" at this link and take a real-time peep inside the nest, thanks to the 24-7 Falcon Cam located just a click away. -more-

A leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion In the Mississippi case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, indicates that the Court is poised to reverse the 1973 landmark decision of Roe v. Wade. -more-

Worth Noting:

Besides the introductory summary, to make scanning the list of city meetings easier and quicker key agenda items are both bolded and underlined in this edition.

The new City of Berkeley website at https://berkeleyca.gov/ continues with challenges. The Council closed session on Tuesday comes with a notice of “permission denied” instead of public notification of items to be covered so the public may prepare and comment in the public comment period at the beginning before the meeting is closed to the public.

Fair Work Week is the only item at the Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community meeting Monday at 10 am. The Agenda Committee meets at 2:30 pm to plan the May 24 council meeting agenda. Warrantless searches of persons on parole and TOT are in the draft agenda. The Youth Commission new meeting time is 6:30 pm instead of 5 pm.

Wednesday all meetings are at 7 pm. The Parks Commission presentation on butterflies looks terrific and the Marina Plan will be taken up later in the evening. The Homeless Commission will receive reports and respond to actions (taken & planned) at homeless encampments and allocation of Measure P fund recommendations. The Police Accountability Board also meets Wednesday evening.

Thursday morning the Budget and Finance Committee meets at 10 am and starts off with the auditor’s report on Pension and Infrastructure liabilities.

Don’t forget Day 2 of the Book Festival May 8, the Berkeley Neighborhoods Council May 14 at 10 am and the Green Home Tour May 14 & 15 from 10 am – 1 pm. The virtual Green Home Tour is free. If you register and can’t attend you will be notified when the recording of the tour is posted.

You can thank Erin Diehm for this website which gives estimates of migrating birds flying overhead the altitude of their flight and species of birds https://dashboard.birdcast.info/ . This is totally cool!!

The CalFalcons hatched and you can watch live at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nvCVS2TRRk -more-

The English Vocal Ensemble The Tallis Scholars are led by their founder Peter Phillips, and along with the Belgian vocal group Vox Luminis are considered among the world’s finest choral ensembles. At Berkeley’s First Congregational Church on Friday, May 6, The Tallis Scholars offered a concert that seamlessly blended the 15th century Earthquake Mass of Franco-Flemish composer Antoine Brumel (c. 1460- c. 1520) and the 21st century vocal work sun-centered by David Lang (b. 1957). Cal Performances presented this concert and also co-commissioned David Lang’s sun-centered. -more-