On Friday, the California Court of Appeal issued a stay enjoining UC Berkeley from demolishing and building a massive housing project in People’s Park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The stay is necessary because the UC regents had refused to delay demolition at People’s Park until the trial court’s decision on the merits of a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) suit to prevent the destruction of People’s Park filed by Make UC A Good Neighbor and the Peoples Park Historic District Advocacy Group (PPHDAG). 

The trial court’s hearing is scheduled for July 29, 2022, which is less than three weeks from now. The suit seeks to force UC to study and to implement alternative sites for student housing, thereby preserving People’s Park. Both community organizations and many others are supportive of UC building more student housing, but have pointed out that the university has identified numerous alternative sites that are more appropriate. 

Harvey Smith, president of PPHDAG, said, “Among the alternative properties owned by the university is an earthquake unsafe parking structure built in 1961 located just over a block from People’s Park. Why should the university keep a parking lot and destroy a park? Haven’t they heard of extreme climate change? We can have both housing and a park.” 

People’s Park was recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the park is surrounded by many other landmarked buildings. Southside lacks adequate park space and the park should be preserved as open space open to all residents of the city. UC has acknowledged the need for more open space, proposing instead to demolish Evans Hall on the campus and replacing it with open space, effectively walling off the new open space from the community. 

The recent filing also countered the UC Police contention that the park has unusually high crime rates in the area. Using crime mapping data readily available online, during the past six months in a roughly 20-block area surrounding People’s Park, the park accounted for only 6% of the crime in that area. 

PPHDAG’s projected vision for People’s Park includes improved maintenance of the neglected park making it the equal of any park in the city or on the campus. Given UC’s long time failure to manage the park, PPHDAG has suggested the historic park be adopted by California as a state park and that an interpretive center be established to honor the cultural, political, environmental and architectural history of the park and the Telegraph Avenue corridor.

Way back in the Before the Before Times, when residents of cities were sometimes called citizens and sometimes called burghers and sometimes even The Voters, many of them got their news about what was going on from what was called “newspapers”. There was a longish era of daily papers supported by readers and advertisers and a shorter era of “underground” newspapers, most of them cheaply printed free weeklies supported (kinda sorta) by ads. Now local news coverage, such as it is, is mostly provided in digital form, sometimes as offshoots of the remaining newspapers and sometimes as social media.

A recent AP article quoted a Northwestern University paper reporting that newspapers in the U.S. are dying at the rate of two a week. At the end of May there were 6,377 newspapers, down from 8,891 in 2005. About 75,000 journalists worked in newspapers in 2006, and now that’s down to 31,000, the report said.

As one of those once-upon-a-time journalists I remember a slogan that might have come from somewhere I might have worked in the Before Before: We’ll tell you what’s coming down before it lands on you.

Yeah, sure. These days, it’s much likelier that you find out what’s happening because it landed on you.

John Geluardi, who once for a while covered Berkeley for the in-print Daily Planet, used to talk about the Berkeley Two Hundred, the few locals who actually knew what was going on and tried to do something about it.

Most of the time, then and now, many if not most Berkeleyans prided themselves on getting most of their information from the New York Times and NPR. And therefore most of them proudly knew nothing about what was going on in Berkeley.

Even when several print weeklies were at their lively best in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the smug citizenry, here and elsewhere, made fun of them. Berkeleyans have always wanted to believe like Candide that This is the Best of All Possible Worlds.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian, where I worked for a hot ‘80s minute, inveighed tirelessly for years against the Manhattanization of San Francisco and the perfidy of PG&E, for which they were roundly derided by the corporate press. Yet today’s pre-shrunk Hearst Chronicle has relegated local news from all over the Bay Area to a second section which contains pseudo front pages which are relics of three sections which no longer exist. The skinny paper seldom bothers with house editorials any longer.

Tuesday featured an op-ed in the former editorial space discussing why workers don’t want to work in downtown offices anymore. What the writer doesn’t mention is that The City is increasingly dominated by dark grey wind tunnels devoid of sunlight. The former office workers much prefer to work at home in the ‘burbs, where they can sometimes even work in, yes, their Back Yards.

It's the Manhattanization, stupid. Downtown SF is fully Manhattanized—it’s all over now. Bruce Brugman, founder of the San Francisco Guardian, was right.

(Let’s not even talk about everything that’s also wrong with PG&E—it’s just too obvious, and too depressing.)

You can still learn a bit by occasionally reading what’s left of the metropolitan print daily, though it’s a mere shadow of its former self.

Wednesday’s Chronicle front page featured a uniquely stupid article wondering why nobody seems to be using the SB 9 legislation, a Sacramento special from Scott Wiener and our own Nancy Skinner and Buffy Wicks. This legislation lets property owners split single family lots to build four houses on two lots. It’s worth reading, and especially the 200+ comments it drew, several of them intelligent:

Despite uproar, few seek to use California’s new housing-density law. What’s stopping them?

What indeed? As many commenters pointed out, there was never any uproar from single family homeowners demanding the right to build second houses in their own backyards. The reporter on this story transparently got most of his information from the well-oiled and developer funded YIMBY PR apparatus, with apparently no attempt to talk to organizers of ongoing attempts to return planning control to local governments. One commenter found 6 factual errors in the short article.

My online viewing of this piece was accompanied by an ad for a pre-fab cottage you could buy for your back yard. I wonder how many of these were purchased by readers?

And yet, most residents of all those California cities which have been stripped of their power to regulate local development have no idea yet that this has happened. Certainly Berkeleyans, except for the 200, have been Shocked, Shocked when a neighbor’s bungalow has been bought by a speculator to be torn down for a multiplex.

When this happened on a residential block in the north campus area, even neighbors considered well-informed on national topics (i.e. Prof. Robert Reich and his wife) seemed to be surprised. Why did I know about the dramatic changes to local regulatory powers which have been taking place in Sacramento and they didn’t?

This week I watched the open online meeting of Berkeley Neighborhoods Council and I talked with several people who have been trying to get the word out on local topics they considered crucial. A common theme is puzzlement about the disconnect between what local voters seem to want and what their electeds do for them.

One person pointed out that on the national level that there’s strong support in polls for tighter gun regulations and strong opposition to abortion bans, and yet elected officials consistently vote in the opposite direction.

Here in Berkeley I’m reasonably sure that no one has voted, per a sarcastic Chronicle commenter, like this:

" ‘Gee, I'd like to look out of my living room window and see a window with someone looking back at me and a wall of painted shingles where the apple tree used to be!’ said no homeowner ever.”

But that’s what Berkeley’s mayor and his newly-minted councilmember majority seem to have in mind for them. Jesse Arreguin was first elected with the support of the progressive coalition that also supported Kate Harrison, Sophie Hahn, Ben Bartlett and Cheryl Davila, but he worked to dump Davila in the next election. Recently he’s been voting on land use questions with the councilmembers who are obvious YIMBY pawns: Taplin, Droste and Kasarwani, with the frequent cooperation of longtime “moderate” Susan Wengraf.

There’s a bunch of issues that the Berkeley 200 know about now, but is there any way to get the memo to the rest of us?

A few examples of what some know, but many don’t:

• Some are outraged that the city has signed a 15-year contract to deface our public spaces with huge light-up billboard devices that can suck up data from users’ cell phones.
• Some think that “place-making” in the Hopkins shopping area is turning into place breaking, with screwy lane-changes which will doom the retail businesses whose customers need parking.
• Others worry that the biotechnology industrial development next to Aquatic Park will be fatal for migratory birds if bird-safe glass is not use.
• Some know that Arreguin and UCB are hand-in-glove regarding the destruction of the People’s Park Historic Landmark.
• Film buffs mourn the loss of Downtown Berkeley’s cinemas.
• Many wonder why no low-income housing and no family housing at any price point are coming out of Berkeley’s Big Ugly Box boom. They see that it’s just producing dorms for Luxury Students and temporary dwellings for tech workers who no longer want to Bart to offices in San Francisco.
• Last night a sizeable crowd showed up on Zoom to express their opposition to a consultant’s proposal to “monetize” the native plant restoration area at Cesar Chavez Park by making it a commercial stage.
• And, and, and….

Here at this site, now opinion-only, we no longer have paid reporters. We are blessed with volunteer contributing opinion writers who are well-informed and generous with their time, so if you read what they rail about you’ll be reasonably well-informed too.

We have about 1000 regular subscribers, to whom I send emails with links to articles a couple of times a week, plus several thousand more regular readers who go on their own to our home page.

There are other sites focused on Berkeley, some of which even have reporters, which might reach tens of thousands more. The Chronicle probably still has some subscribers in Berkeley, but their coverage of Berkeley has been hopeless for years, even though a sizable number of their reporters have always lived here.

But really, folks, there’s an election in November. Will most voters know anything about city issues by then? Sadly, I doubt it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have a small thought about something you read here that you would like to share with fellow readers? Is it too simple to dignify with a lengthy Public Comment? Just use your regular email and send it to: editor@berkeleydailyplanet.com. The editor will decide which letters are good to go, at her sole discretion.

(A letter to those who love the Marina, and to the Berkeley City Council, Berkeley’s City Manager, and Berkeley’s Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront Commission, PRW)

Having lived in Berkeley for 45 years, I am very distressed about the commercial developments being proposed for Berkeley’s Marina, including Cesar Chavez Park and the Native Plants Area. The proposed Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan is highly problematic. First of all, there is a legal covenant dating from 1976 and 1977 that declares that the land should be used “for unstructured recreation.” The City of Berkeley does not own the land that makes up the Marina. the State of California owns it. The City holds it in trust. The California State Lands Commission administers State lands held in trust. This land use covenant was confirmed by Berkeley City Council Resolution No. 47,935-NS in May 1976, confirmed verbatim in the Master Plan in 1977, and in all subsequent conceptual and specific planning documents.

My following comments address the significance of the Marina to visitors, to wildlife, birds, insects, and the importance of native plants.

Resident birds and other wildlife need native habitat in order to survive, to feed, and to raise their young. In North America, bird populations have seen a decline of 30% since 1970, a problem that is also global. Migrating birds need urban parks as stopovers in which to rest and feed during their migrations covering many thousands of miles. Why should we care? Our very survival depends upon a healthy and diverse ecosystem that includes birds, insects, and other wildlife.

About the Native Plants Area: don’t even think of demolishing it. This proposal is an outrageously rude insult to the many volunteers who have spent thousands of hours over forty (40) years planting and nurturing the area. They have been transitioning the land from a dump to a life-giving habitat for wildlife, pollinators, and birds. What we need is a larger area for native plants.

We people need parks that are unstructured in which to restore our emotional and mental health. Nature is the city-dweller’s lifeline, now more than ever. In our current economy, with job loss and inflated prices for the basics of food, housing, and transportation, we all need free public places in nature where we can get a breather from all the stress of a commercialized world. 

The Adventure Playground on the south side of the Marina should continue to provide kids ways to play and learn. Don’t pave it over. 

I presume the initial financing of the proposed commercial venture would be by investors and the City of Berkeley, all of whom would expect a return on their investment. People using the reconstructed area would be expected to pay, when the area has already been funded by taxpayer dollars and thousands of volunteer hours. Additionally, most people are really struggling with finances, and need a place to recreate without paying fees. Places that are transformed into concert venues and stadiums have a limited lifespan. Take note of the Oakland Coliseum and its years long woes with financing 

The beauty of a natural area like Berkeley’s Marina is that its lifespan is an ongoing continuum, responding to the interrelationships of the plants, birds, wildlife, insects, and people in a healthy ecosystem. Changing, yes, and full of life. 

I urge you (Councilmembers, Commissioners, and City Manager) to respect the Berkeley Marina and its significance to people and all of wildlife. Do not proceed any further in planning to commercialize this area. For those who are eager to provide financing, please direct those funds to the sorely needed infrastructure projects in Berkeley that are ready and waiting with open hands. 

All of us who care need to join the PRW Commission’s zoom meeting this Wednesday, July 13 at 7 PM to speak for up to two minutes, during Public Comment and/or Item 9: Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan, regarding the proposed development and commercialization. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022-03-16-FINAL-Mtg_deck-CW2-Deck_0.pdf 

For more information, go to chavezpark.org. and <savecc6@gmail.com> 

PS: For those of you interested in learning more about bird migration, I highly recommend A World on the Wing, by Scott Weidensaul.

Another mass shooting, in the suburb of Highland Park (Chicago) grips America. The multiple guns used by the shooter were purchased legally, courtesy of the NRA, Republicans and radical members of the Supreme Court.

No one is safe in America, not schools, grocery stores, not even parades celebrating the birth of our nation. America is alone in the world with its obsession with guns not the sanctity of life.

Politicians continue to enjoy campaign contributions from the NRA even though the organization is riddled with corruption and was forced to file for bankruptcy protection. Their non-profit status should be revoked immediately. One welcome news, churches and other arbiters of morality have expressed their outrage on mass killings and have called for a total ban on assault weapons and a buyback program.

Most mass shootings are carried out by young men fueled by racism, sexism and a “toxic masculinity” that equates gun ownership with manhood.

Meanwhile the conservative members of the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing guns and weapons of war to be carried openly accelerating the likelihood of more killings.

The right to carry weapons of war has been justified by the “Second Amendment,” but former Supreme Court Justices, Warren Berger and John Paul Stevens argued vociferously that individual gun rights was a “massive fraud perpetrated on the American people and should be revoked.”

A bevy of scholars agrees, arguing a ”well-regulated militia” was only necessary to protect the country during the birth of our nation but has now been replaced by multiple agencies, Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Guard, and US Law Enforcement Agencies. Thus, the Second Amendment clause, “the right to bear arms” is completely outdated and should be revoked immediately . It has been used by the NRA as a cash cow to sell guns and weapons of war.

Some parallels can be drawn between forcing women to carry pregnancies against their will, and forcing people deemed mentally ill to receive medication and other treatment against their will. There are parallels and there are contrasts. Forcing a mentally ill person to receive treatment is done under the premise that the individual, due to her or his mental illness, does not have the capacity to judge that they are ill and need treatment. On the other hand, forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy is done under the premise that the unborn fetus has the right to be born and to live, regardless of the consequences to the mother. This concept prohibits performing an abortion even in cases where the pregnancy poses a medical threat to the mother's life. Outlawing abortion doesn't say anything regarding the competency of the mother. 

(I am referring to pregnant women as "mothers" even though this isn't a hundred percent accurate. I would use different wording if I were able to conjure up a better phrase.) 

But even while the paragraph above draws a sharp contrast, I'd like to explore the potential parallels a bit longer. In both instances, an individual is forced to do or not do something against his or her will. In both instances, doctors are involved. And in both examples, the criminal justice system becomes involved when the line between doctors and police becomes blurred. 

In the case of mentally ill people, psychiatric practitioners, either a psychiatrist or a psychiatric nurse practitioner, is the main person who decides that a patient is incapable of judging that they need treatment. In the case of an abortion, a doctor is involved because they are bound by a state law prohibiting them from performing an abortion including when it is in the best interest of the mother. Thus, in the latter case, the doctor's involvement consists mostly of inaction. But such doctor is free to take other measures to protect the life of the mother and/or to bring some level of comfort to her. 

I've found that many psychiatrists are authoritarian and abrasive toward mentally ill patients. They'll just give orders forcing the patient to receive treatment, and at the same time, the psychiatrist may lack any kind of bedside manner. 

I can't comment about the bedside manner or about the sympathy a doctor may have toward a mother who is bearing a child against her needs, or toward a woman who carries a miscarried fetus in a situation where she is likely to die from this. I lack any knowledge of this. 

In the case of the U.S. Government forcing a woman to carry a fetus, I've heard the catchphrase: "Get the government out of my womb!" And in the case of a psychiatric consumer, the government is an unwelcome guest in our brains. Whether we are speaking of "right to life" or the issue of saving an unwilling psychiatric patient against their flawed judgment, force is used, and it is unwelcome. There are some people with psychiatric diagnoses who can buck psychiatry and can discover their own methods of dealing with their minds. I tried to do this, and I couldn't pull it off. But because I'm not under legal restriction, I can refuse a particular medication from a doctor, can refuse a specific "treatment", and I can switch psychiatrists if I must. 

The present-day alternative for an unwilling mother is to travel to a different state in the U.S. Yet that is about to change. If the court has established precedent that the fetus has rights, it logically follows that a nationwide ban on all abortions is coming next. 

I am male and will never need an abortion, and this undermines a lot of my ability to comment. Yet I am a sympathizer with women whose fundamental rights are being hijacked. 

If I'm not mistaken, a third of those with schizophrenia can recover without treatment. That one third is still being forced to take medication against their wills. "Treatment advocacy" means advocating treatment including when forced. The mental health consumer lacks legal protection and does not get an adequate opportunity to battle our insanity on our own. 

I'm not trying to say that it is a good idea for a newly diagnosed mentally ill person to be noncompliant, I'm not saying that at all. Yet I believe a middle ground could potentially be created that does not currently exist, one in which the consumer might be able to be in a safe place with our basic needs met and have an opportunity to sort through the mental havoc that assaults us, maybe not without medication entirely, but maybe with other meds that could simply help us remain calm while we look at the thought disorder within our minds. 

Very little is offered in the life of a schizophrenic woman or man. We are expected to accept living our lives in grossly substandard circumstances. We are expected to accept taking medication that induces physical suffering. We are told we will never amount to anything, and we lack opportunities for advancement in life. Very few self-respecting nondisabled women would consider dating a schizophrenic man. Schizophrenic women seem to fare better in this respect. 

The fact that mentally ill people do not have as many rights and privileges as neuro-typical people compares to the stripping away of women's basic rights and basic dignity. The idea of self-determination of the course of one's life in both cases is taken away. 

I don't need to tell you this: The Supreme Court of the U.S. has become a puppet of the ultraconservatives, and of Trump. The Republicans in Congress are puppets of Trump. For this reason, the U.S. continues to be in an immense power struggle. The outcome will be determined by how much abuse and stupidity U.S. citizens are willing to tolerate. 

Don't Mope! Note Mopps'!

We may not have a majority on the Supreme Court but we still have Mr. Mopps'. The local kid-centric bookstore on the corner of MLK and Rose has a new roster of inspirational children's books on display. They carry a host of positive titles, including these:

Feminist Baby; We Rise, We Resist; We Raise our Voices; Change Starts with Us; We Are Better Together; Enough Is Enough; Why We March; March Against Fear; Say Something; Rad American Women: A-Z; Stacey Abrams' Extraordinary Words; The Young Activists' Dictionary of Social Justice; Fall Down Seven Times; Stand Up Eight. 

Spread Sheet Statements 

There is a tall, protective fence surrounding the MLK Jr. Middle School's carbon-capturing Miyawaki Forest (one of three in the US) on Rose Street. Recently, the fence sprouted a crop of student-scrawled messages spelled out on colorful cloth banners. Here are some of the messages:
• I would be a mountain.
• I am a leaf, always moving from the wind
• In which we really harness the infinity of the universe
• Flying cars. Flying cars. Time travel. Flying cars. Flying cars. Flying cars. Sentient Space Ship AI. Flying houses. Flying cars :). Flying cars. Flying cars. Flying things. Floating cars. Flying cars. Flying cars. 

Dallas Cowboys' PR Stunt Misfires 

The Dallas Cowboys really fumbled the ball when they agreed to a cross-promotional deal with the Black Rifle Coffee Company. Black Rifle calls itself "a SOF veteran-owned coffee company, serving premium coffee and culture to people who love America." 

The PR problem wasn't the in the brews but in a blind-spot disregard for America's concern over a growing surge in mass-shootings. 

As if forging a commercial alliance with a rifle-boosting coffee-roaster wasn't bad enough, the Cowboys failed to see any problem with names BRCC selected for their caffeinated offerings: AK-47 Espresso, Silencer Smooth, Thin Blue Line, Coffee or Die, and Murdered Out. 

The bags containing BRCC's Freedom Fuel display the image of an assault rifle mounted on an American flag. Packets of AK Espresso feature the image of a skull. Containers of Just Decaf sport the image of Old Glory with a US "killer drone" flying overhead. (And, lest you miss the messaging, the bags are photographed on tabletops covered with an equal scattering of coffee beans and copper-jacketed bullets.) 

 

Black Rifle also offers a $15 magazine—the kind filled with words, not bullets. The latest edition of Coffee or Die (all 150 pages of it) contains a report on Russia's invasion of Ukraine written by senior editor Nolan Peterson, "who lives in Kyiv" and "dispatches from the 80^th anniversary of Pearl Harbor." 

If the Cowboys are looking for more off-putting publicity, they might want to ask Black Rifle to add some new offerings. How about: Macho Macchiato, Latte Slaughter, De-Cappuccino, Redneck Robusta, Arabica Invasion, Cortez Cortado, and Americano Empire. 

Weird Words 

Have you noticed: the word "forge" can mean (1) making something real from heating metal or (2) making something false with mental cheating. 

Wall Street's Word Tricks 

There's a cheery radio ad that encourages listeners to hand over their nest eggs to an investment firm that "only makes money when our clients make money." The ad ends with a quickly uttered disclaimer: "Investments and securities include the risk of loss."
Question of the day: If you can lose your money by investing in stocks, why is the offering called a "security"? 

Wall Street has its own language. When the Stock Market hits the skids and investors rush to cash out as the value of their investments plummet, we're told to call that frantic reaction an exercise in "profit-taking." Sounds so much better than "I just lost my shirt investing in Twitter!" 

Hot Wheels for Earth Day? 

Just about everyone knows by now that driving gas-powered automobiles fuels global cooking but that didn't stop the Hot Wheels franchise from trying to cash in by creating an "Earth Day" edition of the classic four-wheeled plastic toy that features a green chassis (fashioned to look like a plastic soda bottle, complete with pop-off metal cap In place of a radiator grill). The only connection to Earth Day is the logo on the side that proclaims: "Earth Day: April 22, 2022." The packaging also flashes the news: "Guaranteed FOR LIFE" followed (in much smaller type) by "Limited Lifetime Warranty." 

Editorial Edits 

The Chronicle's January 5, Open Forum submission ("EPA ruling a blow to Constitution") contains a line that reads: "states retain authority to control emissions from on stationary sources." The "from" is fine; the "on" is unnecessary. 

The January 3, Chron's Insight section featured an essay on "How unions are hijacking CEQA law" that included the line: "The fact that so many union CEQA appeals have less to do with environmental concerns than no-bid contracts does not appear to phase many local elected officials." I think the right word should have been "faze," not "phase." 

Another July 3 article with the headline "Law hasn't curtailed illegal sales on streets," contained a statement that: "City staff and nonprofits so far are just educating vendors about upcoming the permit system…." The word "upcoming" doesn't fit here. Did the Chron mean to say "updating"? 

Karmic Strips: Bizarro Gets It Right!  

The Chronicle's July 3 Sunday comics featured a brilliant single-panel, multi-joke drawing by Bizarro cartoon collaborators Dan Piraro and Wayno. 

Bizarro is a well-crafted and artsy cartoon with some signature features, including riffs on inspired puns. Another distinguishing touch: Each panel contains multiple recurring images hidden in plain sight. These "incidentals" include a slice of pie, a fish, a stick of dynamite, a wild-eyed bunny, and an alien eye-ball hovering in a mini-UFO. 

The Sunday panel shows a courtroom filled with two-dozen people—including a judge, three attorneys and a jury. The judge turns to the jury and asks: "How do you find the defendant?" The jury foreman offers an odd reply: "We can't, Your Honor. We give up." The joke is revealed in a banner at the cartoon's bottom, which explains that we are looking at "The Trial of Waldo." (Yes, as in: "Where's Waldo?") 

That could have been enough of a comic pay-off but there's a bonus laugh on tap because Waldo is actually present, hiding in the courtroom. 

Ready to look for Waldo? Click here! 

Fashion Plates 

Some personalized license plates seen around town. 

A black Kia: WHYTRIP (An aging hipster who's given up LSD?) 

A Ford Escape: DLA 2MH (A slow-poke driver? Delay 2 Miles per Hour?) 

A red Honda: PAISA11 (Pa is All?) (Paisan?) 

A sleek Dodge: SPUUKYY. (A decal on a side window offered this related information: "Golden State Muscle Car Club: LA-SPOOK3Y.") 

A Ford Edge from New Mexico—"The Chile Capital of the World": BFDT80 (Before Dinner Time Ate Nothing?) 

A red Tesla: [Heart symbol]LPSTRD. (Love Laps, Streets, Roads?) 

Spotted in passing: SKZ, FOGOGO, and SYNAP Z 

BumperSnickers 

A Subaru with a sticker from PM Press (a progressive, Oakland-based book publisher) also displays a sticker that reads: "At least the war on the environment is going well." 

Reader Supported News 

The hard-working staffers at Reader Supported News recently reposted a New York Times article by Ezra Klein titled "Dobbs Is Not the Only Reason to Question the Legitimacy of the Supreme Court." RNS intended to preview the article by posting the lead sentence, which read: 

"Since the Dobbs decision came down, I’ve heard a lot of liberals lamenting the Republican theft of the Supreme Court. As the story goes, Mitch McConnell stole the majority when he refused to give Merrick Garland so much as a hearing in 2016, holding the vacancy open until Donald Trump took office in 2017." 

But that's not how the opening sentence read when it appeared on the RNS preview page. The snippet follows: 

"Since the Dobbs determination came down, I've heard a batch of liberals lamenting the Republican theft of the Supreme Court. As the communicative goes, Mitch McConnell stole the bulk erstwhile helium refused to springiness Merrick Garland truthful overmuch arsenic a proceeding successful 2016, holding the vacancy unfastened until Donald Trump took bureau successful 2017."  

(Is this what happens when "artificial intelligence" gets stoned?} 

The SCOTUS Dystopian Chorus 

 

Left-others: Inflation Hits My Cereal Bowl 

Over the past month, the cost of our weekly grocery shopping has nearly doubled. This means cutting back on purchases. And this means starting to run low on meals and munchies around mid-week. And this means trying to fill breakfast bowls and dinner plates with whatever leftovers I can manage to scrape together. I call the result "left-others." 

Last night I had a tasty hot-dog-and-toast sandwich that, for lack of tomato catsup, required a slathering of feta salad dressing. No so bad, actually. 

Heat Strokes May Call for Heat Strikes 

Global warming has already started killing people as extreme heat endangers workers in the US and around the world. 

According to an alert from Public Citizen: "Heat already kills more people than hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods combined. And as climate change brings more heat waves, things will only get worse. 

• Heat is likely responsible for at least 170,000 work-related injuries and between 600 and 2,000 occupational fatalities in the US every year, which would rank it third among all causes of worker injuries and death
• Workers of color are worst impacted, especially farmworkers, who are overwhelmingly immigrants
• A heat-safety standard issued by California reduced injuries by 30%, suggesting that injuries and illnesses could be avoided nationwide with a simple safety rule."

The solutions are simple: guaranteed water, shade, and work breaks. But the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is taking far too long to develop workplace heat standards. 

Public Citizen has pressed OSHA to issue heat standards for more than a decade but, at this rate, they fear it could take another "6-8 years before farmworkers, construction workers, gardeners, and warehouse workers will be [protected from] unsafe levels of heat." 

As summer temperatures continue to rise, Public Citizen is petitioning OSHA to issue emergency safety standards to protect workers from heat-related injuries and death. You can sign the Public Citizen petition here. 

Add Highland Park, IL, to the shameful list of mass shootings. With over 300 mass shootings just this year, gun violence has now become as American as baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie. 

In many towns and cities across the country, a traditional celebration of July 4th might include a parade, a barbecue or picnic, and then fireworks. There is an irony here when a mass shooting occurs on July 4th, the annual ritual celebrating our independence became a scramble to survive. Nothing is sacred anymore. 

This mass shooting comes on the heals of a domestic terrorism bill blocked by Senate Republicans that would have opened debate on hate crimes and gun safety. Then President Biden signed a very modest gun safety law. The signing was followed by a Supreme Court decision striking down a New York law that placed strict restrictions on carrying concealed firearms in public for self defense — one step forward, two steps backward. 

Clearly, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms” as interpreted by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller too often trumps public health and safety. 

When and where will the next mass shooting occur? Your town or city could be next.

Worth Noting:

Check the new city website for late postings https://berkeleyca.gov/ but don’t count on the City to publish all the Berkeley City meetings that are important.

Monday – daytime meetings only, no evening meetings – 10 am Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community takes up Fair Work Week and Office of Racial Equity, 2:30 pm is Agenda planning for July 26.

Tuesday – 7 am January 6th Hearing, 10 am 4 x 4 on Relocation Ordinance, 6 pm City Council regular meeting with warrantless searches as item 18.

Wednesday – 6:30 pm Fire Dept webinar on home hardening, 7 pm Parks Commission item 9 is the Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan more appropriately described as the Berkeley Marina Commercial Development Plan, 7 pm Police Accountability Board item 10 c. is Controlled Equipment.

Thursday – 7 pm Zoning Adjustment Board, 3 projects addition to / expansion of existing buildings

Friday – 9am Climate Emergency Task Force webinar focuses on the environment & climate with 3 presentations, military & climate, forever chemicals and wildfire.

DEADLINE July 14, 2022 to comment on standards for new housing in the Housing Element Draft go to Appendix B (size – height, mass – how much of lot is covered), Check Site Map and comment on suggested locations for new housing, Chapter 4 - Housing Constraints in Housing Element Public Draft starting on page 67 is helpful background. Put your attention on Appendix B and Sites.

Draft: https://raimi.konveio.com/city-berkeley-housing-element-update-public-draft

Housing Element Update Webpage: https://berkeleyca.gov/construction-development/land-use-development/general-plan-and-area-plans/housing-element-update

Rent Board - Ballot request deadline extended to Monday, July 11 at 11:59 pm Friday. Ballots must be turned in by July 15 at 11:59 pm. For full information go to the Berkeley Tenants Convention website https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOAqWds54-w3W7J_UGPWqhdTRARFOGf6JmfCJa8xMJTFsw-w/viewform

Two BART meetings are included in the calendar. Monday at 4 pm BART Police Citizen Review Board if you are interested in incidents on BART and Tuesday at 2 pm BART Justice subcommittee on parking policy.

Monday, July 11, 2022 – Juneteenth Holiday 

City Council Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community Committee at 10 am, (Hahn, Bartlett, Kesarwani) 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87886171626 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 878 8617 1626 

AGENDA: 2a. Commission on Labor - Fair Workweek Ordinance, 2b. CM – review and evaluate impacts and costs, 3. Taplin, co-sponsors Harrison, Hahn, Robinson – Office of Racial Equity: Re-Entry Employment and Guaranteed Income Programs. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-health-life-enrichment-equity-community 

Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm (Arreguin, Wengraf, Hahn) 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88608674408 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 886 0867 4408 

AGENDA: Public Comment on non-agenda and items 1 – 7. 1. Minutes, 2. Review and Approve 4/12/2022 draft agenda – use link or read full draft agenda after list of city meetings, 3. Berkeley Considers, 4. Adjournments in Memory, 5. Worksessions Schedule, 6. Referrals to Agenda Committee for Scheduling, 7. Land Use Calendar, Referred Items for Review: 8. COVID, 9. Return to In-person meetings, Unscheduled Items: 10. Discussion Regarding Design and Strengthening of Policy Committees, 11. Supporting Commissions, Guidance on Legislative Proposals. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-agenda-rules 

BART Police Citizen Review Board at 4 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84514563579 

Teleconference: 1-833-548-0282 Meeting ID: 845 1456 3579 

https://bart.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx 

Tuesday, July 12, 2022 

4x4 Joint Task Force Committee on Housing: Rent Board/City Council at 10 am 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81457454729?pwd=QlQvSVQxWi84Q09neU1pU20rRytjUT09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 814 5745 4729 

AGENDA: 6. Possible recommendation to Council regarding Relocation Ordinance and suggested additions regarding Tenant Habitability Plan, 7. Discussion regarding pandemic “eviction cliff” 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/4x4-joint-task-force-committee-housing 

City Council CLOSED Session at 4 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87495949850 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 874 9594 9850 

AGENDA: Appointment Director of Police Accountability 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81476464690 

Teleconference: 1-699-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 814 7646 4690 

AGENDA: use link and HTML to see agenda and document details, or go to end of this post for full agenda with key items highlighted in bold and underlined. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

Civic Arts Commission Grants Subcommittee at 10 am 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88687977292 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 Meeting ID: 886 8797 7292 

AGENDA: 5. a) FY23 Individual Artist Projects, b) FY23 Festivals grant fnding 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/civic-arts-commission 

BART Environmental Justice Advisory Committee at 2 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82538552999 

Teleconference: 1-833-548-0282 Meeting ID: 825 3855 2999 

AGENDA: Parking Policy Update 

https://bart.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx 

Wednesday, July 13, 2022 

Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront Commission (PRW) at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89908872760 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 Meeting ID: 899 0887 2760 

AGENDA: 7. Director’s Report (Ferris), 8. City-adopted PRW 2023/24 Operations and CIP Budget Update, 9. Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan (BMASP), check proposed development https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022-03-16-FINAL-Mtg_deck-CW2-Deck_0.pdf 10. PRW Roadmap a long-term action plan, 11. In-person meetings. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/parks-recreation-and-waterfront-commission 

Police Accountability Board at 7 pm 

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

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

AGENDA: 3. Public Comment on agenda and non-agenda item, 4. Minutes, 5. Chair and Board members reports, 7. Chief of Police, 8. Subcommittee reports, 9. A. Continue reviewing draft of proposed permanent Regulations for Handling investigations and complaints, 10. a. Transition to permanent Director of Police Accountability, b. Attendance at NACOLE Annual Conference Sept 11-15 in Ft Worth, TX, c. Consider recommendations of Controlled Equipment Subcommittee regarding Policy 709, Military Equipment for transmittal to City Council. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/police-accountability-board 

Home Hardening for Wildfire: Vents and Property Clean Up at 6:30 – 8 pm 

Hosted by Berkeley Fire Department use link to sign up for workshop. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/home-hardening-wildfire-vents-and-property-clean 

Thursday, July 14, 2022 

Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86404007773 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 864 0400 7773 

AGENDA: 1585 University – on consent - add distilled spirits 

1818 Milvia – on consent – demolish existing detached garage, lift 2-story duplex and construct major residential increase the number of bedrooms on property to 8, establish one off-street parking spot within an attached garage on the ground floor, lot is nonconforming to lot coverage, density and setbacks 

1822 Milvia – on consent – demolish existing garage and unpermitted portion of the existing dwelling, lift the building to create a 3rd floor, add 6th bedroom, relocate the existing parking within an attached garage on the new ground floor, lot nonconforming to lot coverage and setbacks, 

1643 – 1647 California – staff recommend approve – create a new lower basement level, construct a new 2nd story, modify the existing duplex layout, resulting in a 3,763 sq ft duplex. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/zoning-adjustments-board 

Friday, July 15, 2022 

Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force at 9 am – 12 pm 

Go to website to register, event is free, donations suggested 

Agenda: 9 am - welcome, Militarism & Climate, 10 am - Petrochemicals, PFAS, Plastics & Climate, 11 am - Wildfires in the Wild & City. 

https://www.cemtf.org/ 

Saturday, July 16, 2022 & Sunday, June 17, 2022  

++++++++++++++++++++ 

AGENDA AND RULES COMMITTEE at 2:30 pm (Arreguin, Wengraf, Hahn) 

DRAFT AGENDA FOR JULY 26, 2022 REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88608674408 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 886 0867 4408 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-agenda-rules 

CONSENT: 

1. Resolution continues local COVID-19 Emergency
2. Continue Meeting via video and teleconference
3. Minutes
4. 4 Downtown YMCA membership for city employee
5. Contract $750,000 with Lehr for Emergency Response Vehicle Supplies/Equipment and Installation Services, term 8/1/2022 – 9/30/2022 with option to extend for 5 additional years
6. Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) 2022-2023 Annual Update,
7. Amend Contract add $93,600 total $109,200 with Sonya Dublin Consulting to provide evaluation services and extend from 6/30/2022 to 6/30/2025
8. Shelter Plus Care Program Renewal Grants
9. Contract Amendments Mental Health Services Act Community Services, Supports Prevention and Early Intervention total $1,571,966
10. Revision of Tool Lending Specialist Classification
11. Amend Contract add $312,000 total $552,432 with Robert Half International/Protiviti for professional services in support of the cyber-resilience projects through 6/30/2023
12. Amend Contract add $154,927 total $2,549,482.53 with Superion, LLC for AS400 Software Maintenance and Support 7/1/2006 to 6/30/2023
13. Purchase Order $350,000 with Protiviti Government Services for GS-35F-0280X
14. Amend Contract add $140,000total $2,294,769 with ESI Group for the IBM Hardware and Software Lease6/2/2003 to 6/30/2023
15. Donation from Caltrans New Sign at entrance to Berkeley Waterfront
16. Contract $900,000 with AE3 Partners, Inc for architectural services for the African American Holistic Resource Center (AAHRC) 8/1/2022 – 7/31/2025
17. Extension of Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with Innovation Properties Group for 199 Seawall Drive (His Lordships in Berkeley Marina),
18. Accept Grant $112,337 from CHP Cannabis Tax Fund Grant Program to Reduce Impaired Driving in the City of Berkeley7/1/2022 to 6/30/2022
19. Amend Contract add $100,000 total $175,000 with DC Electric Group, Inc. for On-Call Electrical Services and extend thru 6/30/2025
20. Amend Contract add $75,000 total $255,000 with Berry Brothers Towing for on-call towing services and extend thru 1130/2025
21. Amend Contract add $400,000 total $700,000 with Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, Inc. for on-call environmental consulting services extend thru 11/30/2025
22. Amend Contract add $100,000 total $287,401 with CycloMedia Technology, Inc. for Geographic Information System Infrastructure asset data acquisition and ongoing data access and extend thru 12/30/2025
23. Grant Application to California Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) Cycle 11 for Protected Left-Turn Signals at multiple signalized intersections for up to $6,000,000
24. Disaster and Fire Safety Commission - Approval for one additional meeting for Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meeting
25. Youth Commission - Add Youth member to the Environment and Climate Commission
26. Taplin – Council Expenditure up to $500 to support Young Lives Matter Foundation and Berkeley Junior Jackets 6th Annual Jr Jackets Day
27. Robinson – Resolution support Living Wage Act of 2022 to increase CA state-wide minimum wage to $18 on a gradual timeline.

ACTION: 

28. CM – Adopt Resolution and Ordinance for a Personal Delivery Device Permit Program
29. BPD Chief Jennifer Louis - Accept Surveillance Technology Report, Surveillance Acquisition Report and Surveillance Use Policy for Automatic License Plate Readers,
30. BPD Chief Jennifer Louis – Police Equipment & Community Safety Ordinance Impact Statements, Associated Equipment Policies and Annual Equipment Use Report
31. Arreguin – Authorize 3 Additional Homeless Services Panel of Experts meetings in 2022,
32. Bartlett – Outcomes Based Funding, Pay-for-Success and Social Impact Bonds

INFORMATION REPORTS 

33. CM – Sanctuary City Contracting Compliance Report
34. LPO NOD 2733 Buena Vista Way
35. LPO NOD 2200-block Piedmont
36. LPO NOD 8 Greenwood
37. LPO NOD 2113 Kittredge
38. 2022 Commission on Aging Work Plan
39. City Auditor FY 2023 Audit Plan (Employee Retention, Rent Stabilization Board, Homelessness, follow-up on prior reports)

++++++++++++++++++++ 

CITY COUNCIL REGULAR Meeting JULY 12, 2022 at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81476464690 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 814 7646 4690 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

CONSENT:  

1. Annual Appropriations Ordinance FY 2023 $754,176,624 (gross), $625,939,999 (net) 

2. goBerkeley SmartSpace Pilot Program Implementation Recommendations 1. Adopt an Ordinance repealing and reenacting Berkeley Municipal Code Chapter 14.52 Parking Meters to enable demand-responsive paid parking for non-RPP permit holders in the 2700 blocks of Durant Avenue, Channing Way, and Haste Street and the 2300-2400 blocks of Piedmont Avenue (a portion of Residential Preferential Parking Program Area I) for the duration of the grant-funded goBerkeley SmartSpace pilot program, and allow payment via license plate entry pay stations (“pay-by-plate”) to improve convenience and enforcement; 

3. Voting Delegates – League of CA Cities Annual Conference, 

4. Formal bid Solicitations $3,620,000 

5. Amend Contract add $10,000 total $60,000 with Waters Moving & Storage to move Aging Services back to North Berkeley Senior Center, 

6. Amend contract add $110,000 total $380,000 with Bartel Associates, LLC for Actuarial Consulting Services thru 12/31/2023, 

7. Amend contract add $28,679 total $64,990 with Vestra Resources, Inc for Geographic Information System (GIS) Services 9/15/2018 – 6/30/2024, 

8. Amend contract add $300,000 total $500,000 with Hamilton Tree Service, Inc. as needed tree services, 

9. Amend contract add $200,000 total $700,000 with West Coast Arborists, Inc. for as-needed tree services, 

10. Amend contract add $26,000 total $1,145,580 with OBS Engineering, Inc. for John Hinkel Park Amphitheater Area Improvements Project, 

11. Auditor’s Financial Condition (FY 2012 – FY 2021): Pension Liabilities and Infrastructure Need Attention, 

12. Arreguin – Amend Contract $78,000 with Szabo & Associates for Communications Consulting Services thru 6/30/2023, 

13. Arreguin co-sponsors Robinson, Hahn – Resolution joining House America, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to form partnerships with state, tribal and local governments to rehouse people experiencing homelessness, 

14. Taplin, co-sponsor Hahn – Support for Assembly Constitutional Amendment 3 – CA Constitution currently prohibits slavery, but includes an exemption for involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime Amendment 3 removes the exemption for involuntary servitude, 

15. Taplin - Support for AB-1816 Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program – in CA it costs $100,000/yr to imprison one person and $25,000/yr for permanent supportive housing, 

16. Robinson, co-sponsor Hahn - Support for SB 1063: Flexibility for Energy Innovation authorize CA Energy Commission (CEC) to make new technology standards effective sooner – removes 1 year delay requirement for new technology standards, instead allows flexibility in effective dates, 

ACTION:  

17. CM - Zoning Ordinance Amendments Title 23,  

18. Droste, Taplin – Revision to Section 311.6 Warrantless Searches of Individuals on Supervised Release Search Conditions of the Berkeley Police Department Law,  

19. Hahn, co-sponsors Taplin, Bartlett, Harrison - Restoring and Improving Access to City of Berkeley Website and Archival Materials,  

20. Rent Stabilization Board – Ballot Initiative Proposed Amendment to Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance, 

INFORMATION REPORT: 21. Youth Commission Work Plan 2022. 

++++++++++++++++++++ 

LAND USE CALENDAR: 

NOD – Notices of Decision 

2328 Channing re-locate building – 7/14/2022 

2213 Fourth St construct parking garage 7/14/2022 

747, 787 construct R & D building and parking lot 7/19/2022 

Public Hearing to be scheduled 

1201 – 1205 San Pablo construct mixed-use building - 9/29/2022 

2018 Blake construct multi-family residential building - TBD 

Remanded to ZAB or LPC 

1643-47 California – new basement level and 2^nd story 

1205 Peralta – Conversion of an existing garage 

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

Bad news on tracking approved projects in the appeal period. Samantha Updegrave, Zoning Officer, Principal Planner wrote the listing of projects in the appeal period can only be found by looking up each project individually through permits online by address or permit number https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/Online-Building-Permits-Guide.pdf 

The website with easy to find listing of projects in the appeal period was left on the “cutting room floor” another casualty of the conversion to the new City of Berkeley website.  

Here is the old website link, Please ask for it to be restored  

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/planning_and_development/land_use_division/current_zoning_applications_in_appeal_period.aspx 

WORKSESSIONS: 

July 19 – 

July 26 – Special meeting at 4 pm on ballot measures 

September 20 Residential Objective Standards for Middle Housing (start 4 pm) 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant Program 

Kelly Hammargren’s on what happened the preceding week can be found in the Berkeley Daily Planet www.berkeleydailyplanet.com under Activist’s Diary. This meeting list is also posted at https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website. 

If you would like to receive the Activist’s Calendar as soon as it is completed send an email to kellyhammargren@gmail.com. If you wish to stop receiving the weekly summary of city meetings please forward the weekly summary you received to kellyhammargren@gmail.com. 

If you are looking for past agenda items for city council, city council committees, boards and commission and find records online unwieldy, you can use the https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website to scan old agendas. The links no longer work, but it may be the only place to start looking. 

 

Worth Noting:  

Check the new city website for late postings https://berkeleyca.gov/ but don’t count on the City to publish all the Berkeley City meetings that are important. 

Monday – daytime meetings only, no evening meetings – 10 am Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community takes up Fair Work Week and Office of Racial Equity, 2:30 pm is Agenda planning for July 26. 

Tuesday – 7 am January 6th Hearing, 10 am 4 x 4 on Relocation Ordinance, 6 pm City Council regular meeting with warrantless searches as item 18. 

Wednesday – 6:30 pm Fire Dept webinar on home hardening, 7 pm Parks Commission item 9 is the Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan more appropriately described as the Berkeley Marina Commercial Development Plan, 7 pm Police Accountability Board item 10 c. is Controlled Equipment. 

Thursday – 7 pm Zoning Adjustment Board, 3 projects addition to / expansion of existing buildings 

Friday – 9am Climate Emergency Task Force webinar focuses on the environment & climate with 3 presentations, military & climate, forever chemicals and wildfire. 

DEADLINE July 14, 2022 to comment on standards for new housing in the Housing Element Draft go to Appendix B (size – height, mass – how much of lot is covered), Check Site Map and comment on suggested locations for new housing, Chapter 4 - Housing Constraints in Housing Element Public Draft starting on page 67 is helpful background. Put your attention on Appendix B and Sites. 

Draft: https://raimi.konveio.com/city-berkeley-housing-element-update-public-draft 

Housing Element Update Webpage: https://berkeleyca.gov/construction-development/land-use-development/general-plan-and-area-plans/housing-element-update 

Rent Board - Ballot request deadline extended to Monday, July 11 at 11:59 pm Friday. Ballots must be turned in by July 15 at 11:59 pm. For full information go to the Berkeley Tenants Convention website https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOAqWds54-w3W7J_UGPWqhdTRARFOGf6JmfCJa8xMJTFsw-w/viewform 

Two BART meetings are included in the calendar. Monday at 4 pm BART Police Citizen Review Board if you are interested in incidents on BART and Tuesday at 2 pm BART Justice subcommittee on parking policy. 

Monday, July 11, 2022 – Juneteenth Holiday 

City Council Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community Committee at 10 am, (Hahn, Bartlett, Kesarwani) 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87886171626 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 878 8617 1626 

AGENDA: 2a. Commission on Labor - Fair Workweek Ordinance, 2b. CM – review and evaluate impacts and costs, 3. Taplin, co-sponsors Harrison, Hahn, Robinson – Office of Racial Equity: Re-Entry Employment and Guaranteed Income Programs. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-health-life-enrichment-equity-community 

Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm (Arreguin, Wengraf, Hahn) 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88608674408 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 886 0867 4408 

AGENDA: Public Comment on non-agenda and items 1 – 7. 1. Minutes, 2. Review and Approve 4/12/2022 draft agenda – use link or read full draft agenda after list of city meetings, 3. Berkeley Considers, 4. Adjournments in Memory, 5. Worksessions Schedule, 6. Referrals to Agenda Committee for Scheduling, 7. Land Use Calendar, Referred Items for Review: 8. COVID, 9. Return to In-person meetings, Unscheduled Items: 10. Discussion Regarding Design and Strengthening of Policy Committees, 11. Supporting Commissions, Guidance on Legislative Proposals. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-agenda-rules 

BART Police Citizen Review Board at 4 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84514563579 

Teleconference: 1-833-548-0282 Meeting ID: 845 1456 3579 

https://bart.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx 

Tuesday, July 12, 2022 

4x4 Joint Task Force Committee on Housing: Rent Board/City Council at 10 am 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81457454729?pwd=QlQvSVQxWi84Q09neU1pU20rRytjUT09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 814 5745 4729 

AGENDA: 6. Possible recommendation to Council regarding Relocation Ordinance and suggested additions regarding Tenant Habitability Plan, 7. Discussion regarding pandemic “eviction cliff” 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/4x4-joint-task-force-committee-housing 

City Council CLOSED Session at 4 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87495949850 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 874 9594 9850 

AGENDA: Appointment Director of Police Accountability 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81476464690 

Teleconference: 1-699-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 814 7646 4690 

AGENDA: use link and HTML to see agenda and document details, or go to end of this post for full agenda with key items highlighted in bold and underlined. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

Civic Arts Commission Grants Subcommittee at 10 am 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88687977292 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 Meeting ID: 886 8797 7292 

AGENDA: 5. a) FY23 Individual Artist Projects, b) FY23 Festivals grant fnding 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/civic-arts-commission 

BART Environmental Justice Advisory Committee at 2 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82538552999 

Teleconference: 1-833-548-0282 Meeting ID: 825 3855 2999 

AGENDA: Parking Policy Update 

https://bart.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx 

Wednesday, July 13, 2022 

Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront Commission (PRW) at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89908872760 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 Meeting ID: 899 0887 2760 

AGENDA: 7. Director’s Report (Ferris), 8. City-adopted PRW 2023/24 Operations and CIP Budget Update, 9. Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan (BMASP), check proposed development https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022-03-16-FINAL-Mtg_deck-CW2-Deck_0.pdf 10. PRW Roadmap a long-term action plan, 11. In-person meetings. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/parks-recreation-and-waterfront-commission 

Police Accountability Board at 7 pm 

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

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

AGENDA: 3. Public Comment on agenda and non-agenda item, 4. Minutes, 5. Chair and Board members reports, 7. Chief of Police, 8. Subcommittee reports, 9. A. Continue reviewing draft of proposed permanent Regulations for Handling investigations and complaints, 10. a. Transition to permanent Director of Police Accountability, b. Attendance at NACOLE Annual Conference Sept 11-15 in Ft Worth, TX, c. Consider recommendations of Controlled Equipment Subcommittee regarding Policy 709, Military Equipment for transmittal to City Council. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/police-accountability-board 

Home Hardening for Wildfire: Vents and Property Clean Up at 6:30 – 8 pm 

Hosted by Berkeley Fire Department use link to sign up for workshop. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/home-hardening-wildfire-vents-and-property-clean 

Thursday, July 14, 2022 

Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86404007773 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 864 0400 7773 

AGENDA: 1585 University – on consent - add distilled spirits 

1818 Milvia – on consent – demolish existing detached garage, lift 2-story duplex and construct major residential increase the number of bedrooms on property to 8, establish one off-street parking spot within an attached garage on the ground floor, lot is nonconforming to lot coverage, density and setbacks 

1822 Milvia – on consent – demolish existing garage and unpermitted portion of the existing dwelling, lift the building to create a 3rd floor, add 6th bedroom, relocate the existing parking within an attached garage on the new ground floor, lot nonconforming to lot coverage and setbacks, 

1643 – 1647 California – staff recommend approve – create a new lower basement level, construct a new 2nd story, modify the existing duplex layout, resulting in a 3,763 sq ft duplex. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/zoning-adjustments-board 

Friday, July 15, 2022 

Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force at 9 am – 12 pm 

Go to website to register, event is free, donations suggested 

Agenda: 9 am - welcome, Militarism & Climate, 10 am - Petrochemicals, PFAS, Plastics & Climate, 11 am - Wildfires in the Wild & City. 

https://www.cemtf.org/ 

Saturday, July 16, 2022 & Sunday, June 17, 2022  

++++++++++++++++++++ 

AGENDA AND RULES COMMITTEE at 2:30 pm (Arreguin, Wengraf, Hahn) 

DRAFT AGENDA FOR JULY 26, 2022 REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88608674408 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 886 0867 4408 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-agenda-rules 

CONSENT: 

1. Resolution continues local COVID-19 Emergency
2. Continue Meeting via video and teleconference
3. Minutes
4. 4 Downtown YMCA membership for city employee
5. Contract $750,000 with Lehr for Emergency Response Vehicle Supplies/Equipment and Installation Services, term 8/1/2022 – 9/30/2022 with option to extend for 5 additional years
6. Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) 2022-2023 Annual Update,
7. Amend Contract add $93,600 total $109,200 with Sonya Dublin Consulting to provide evaluation services and extend from 6/30/2022 to 6/30/2025
8. Shelter Plus Care Program Renewal Grants
9. Contract Amendments Mental Health Services Act Community Services, Supports Prevention and Early Intervention total $1,571,966
10. Revision of Tool Lending Specialist Classification
11. Amend Contract add $312,000 total $552,432 with Robert Half International/Protiviti for professional services in support of the cyber-resilience projects through 6/30/2023
12. Amend Contract add $154,927 total $2,549,482.53 with Superion, LLC for AS400 Software Maintenance and Support 7/1/2006 to 6/30/2023
13. Purchase Order $350,000 with Protiviti Government Services for GS-35F-0280X
14. Amend Contract add $140,000total $2,294,769 with ESI Group for the IBM Hardware and Software Lease6/2/2003 to 6/30/2023
15. Donation from Caltrans New Sign at entrance to Berkeley Waterfront
16. Contract $900,000 with AE3 Partners, Inc for architectural services for the African American Holistic Resource Center (AAHRC) 8/1/2022 – 7/31/2025
17. Extension of Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with Innovation Properties Group for 199 Seawall Drive (His Lordships in Berkeley Marina),
18. Accept Grant $112,337 from CHP Cannabis Tax Fund Grant Program to Reduce Impaired Driving in the City of Berkeley7/1/2022 to 6/30/2022
19. Amend Contract add $100,000 total $175,000 with DC Electric Group, Inc. for On-Call Electrical Services and extend thru 6/30/2025
20. Amend Contract add $75,000 total $255,000 with Berry Brothers Towing for on-call towing services and extend thru 1130/2025
21. Amend Contract add $400,000 total $700,000 with Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, Inc. for on-call environmental consulting services extend thru 11/30/2025
22. Amend Contract add $100,000 total $287,401 with CycloMedia Technology, Inc. for Geographic Information System Infrastructure asset data acquisition and ongoing data access and extend thru 12/30/2025
23. Grant Application to California Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) Cycle 11 for Protected Left-Turn Signals at multiple signalized intersections for up to $6,000,000
24. Disaster and Fire Safety Commission - Approval for one additional meeting for Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meeting
25. Youth Commission - Add Youth member to the Environment and Climate Commission
26. Taplin – Council Expenditure up to $500 to support Young Lives Matter Foundation and Berkeley Junior Jackets 6th Annual Jr Jackets Day
27. Robinson – Resolution support Living Wage Act of 2022 to increase CA state-wide minimum wage to $18 on a gradual timeline.

ACTION: 

28. CM – Adopt Resolution and Ordinance for a Personal Delivery Device Permit Program
29. BPD Chief Jennifer Louis - Accept Surveillance Technology Report, Surveillance Acquisition Report and Surveillance Use Policy for Automatic License Plate Readers,
30. BPD Chief Jennifer Louis – Police Equipment & Community Safety Ordinance Impact Statements, Associated Equipment Policies and Annual Equipment Use Report
31. Arreguin – Authorize 3 Additional Homeless Services Panel of Experts meetings in 2022,
32. Bartlett – Outcomes Based Funding, Pay-for-Success and Social Impact Bonds

INFORMATION REPORTS 

33. CM – Sanctuary City Contracting Compliance Report
34. LPO NOD 2733 Buena Vista Way
35. LPO NOD 2200-block Piedmont
36. LPO NOD 8 Greenwood
37. LPO NOD 2113 Kittredge
38. 2022 Commission on Aging Work Plan
39. City Auditor FY 2023 Audit Plan (Employee Retention, Rent Stabilization Board, Homelessness, follow-up on prior reports)

++++++++++++++++++++ 

CITY COUNCIL REGULAR Meeting JULY 12, 2022 at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81476464690 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 814 7646 4690 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

CONSENT:  

1. Annual Appropriations Ordinance FY 2023 $754,176,624 (gross), $625,939,999 (net) 

2. goBerkeley SmartSpace Pilot Program Implementation Recommendations 1. Adopt an Ordinance repealing and reenacting Berkeley Municipal Code Chapter 14.52 Parking Meters to enable demand-responsive paid parking for non-RPP permit holders in the 2700 blocks of Durant Avenue, Channing Way, and Haste Street and the 2300-2400 blocks of Piedmont Avenue (a portion of Residential Preferential Parking Program Area I) for the duration of the grant-funded goBerkeley SmartSpace pilot program, and allow payment via license plate entry pay stations (“pay-by-plate”) to improve convenience and enforcement; 

3. Voting Delegates – League of CA Cities Annual Conference, 

4. Formal bid Solicitations $3,620,000 

5. Amend Contract add $10,000 total $60,000 with Waters Moving & Storage to move Aging Services back to North Berkeley Senior Center, 

6. Amend contract add $110,000 total $380,000 with Bartel Associates, LLC for Actuarial Consulting Services thru 12/31/2023, 

7. Amend contract add $28,679 total $64,990 with Vestra Resources, Inc for Geographic Information System (GIS) Services 9/15/2018 – 6/30/2024, 

8. Amend contract add $300,000 total $500,000 with Hamilton Tree Service, Inc. as needed tree services, 

9. Amend contract add $200,000 total $700,000 with West Coast Arborists, Inc. for as-needed tree services, 

10. Amend contract add $26,000 total $1,145,580 with OBS Engineering, Inc. for John Hinkel Park Amphitheater Area Improvements Project, 

11. Auditor’s Financial Condition (FY 2012 – FY 2021): Pension Liabilities and Infrastructure Need Attention, 

12. Arreguin – Amend Contract $78,000 with Szabo & Associates for Communications Consulting Services thru 6/30/2023, 

13. Arreguin co-sponsors Robinson, Hahn – Resolution joining House America, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to form partnerships with state, tribal and local governments to rehouse people experiencing homelessness, 

14. Taplin, co-sponsor Hahn – Support for Assembly Constitutional Amendment 3 – CA Constitution currently prohibits slavery, but includes an exemption for involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime Amendment 3 removes the exemption for involuntary servitude, 

15. Taplin - Support for AB-1816 Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program – in CA it costs $100,000/yr to imprison one person and $25,000/yr for permanent supportive housing, 

16. Robinson, co-sponsor Hahn - Support for SB 1063: Flexibility for Energy Innovation authorize CA Energy Commission (CEC) to make new technology standards effective sooner – removes 1 year delay requirement for new technology standards, instead allows flexibility in effective dates, 

ACTION:  

17. CM - Zoning Ordinance Amendments Title 23,  

18. Droste, Taplin – Revision to Section 311.6 Warrantless Searches of Individuals on Supervised Release Search Conditions of the Berkeley Police Department Law,  

19. Hahn, co-sponsors Taplin, Bartlett, Harrison - Restoring and Improving Access to City of Berkeley Website and Archival Materials,  

20. Rent Stabilization Board – Ballot Initiative Proposed Amendment to Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance, 

INFORMATION REPORT: 21. Youth Commission Work Plan 2022. 

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LAND USE CALENDAR: 

NOD – Notices of Decision 

2328 Channing re-locate building – 7/14/2022 

2213 Fourth St construct parking garage 7/14/2022 

747, 787 construct R & D building and parking lot 7/19/2022 

Public Hearing to be scheduled 

1201 – 1205 San Pablo construct mixed-use building - 9/29/2022 

2018 Blake construct multi-family residential building - TBD 

Remanded to ZAB or LPC 

1643-47 California – new basement level and 2^nd story 

1205 Peralta – Conversion of an existing garage 

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

Bad news on tracking approved projects in the appeal period. Samantha Updegrave, Zoning Officer, Principal Planner wrote the listing of projects in the appeal period can only be found by looking up each project individually through permits online by address or permit number https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/Online-Building-Permits-Guide.pdf 

The website with easy to find listing of projects in the appeal period was left on the “cutting room floor” another casualty of the conversion to the new City of Berkeley website.  

Here is the old website link, Please ask for it to be restored  

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/planning_and_development/land_use_division/current_zoning_applications_in_appeal_period.aspx 

WORKSESSIONS: 

July 19 – 

July 26 – Special meeting at 4 pm on ballot measures 

September 20 Residential Objective Standards for Middle Housing (start 4 pm) 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant Program 

Kelly Hammargren’s on what happened the preceding week can be found in the Berkeley Daily Planet www.berkeleydailyplanet.com under Activist’s Diary. This meeting list is also posted at https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website. 

If you would like to receive the Activist’s Calendar as soon as it is completed send an email to kellyhammargren@gmail.com. If you wish to stop receiving the weekly summary of city meetings please forward the weekly summary you received to kellyhammargren@gmail.com. 

If you are looking for past agenda items for city council, city council committees, boards and commission and find records online unwieldy, you can use the https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website to scan old agendas. The links no longer work, but it may be the only place to start looking. 

 

Worth Noting:  

Check the new city website for late postings https://berkeleyca.gov/ but don’t count on the City to publish all the Berkeley City meetings that are important. 

Monday – daytime meetings only, no evening meetings – 10 am Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community takes up Fair Work Week and Office of Racial Equity, 2:30 pm is Agenda planning for July 26. 

Tuesday – 7 am January 6th Hearing, 10 am 4 x 4 on Relocation Ordinance, 6 pm City Council regular meeting with warrantless searches as item 18. 

Wednesday – 6:30 pm Fire Dept webinar on home hardening, 7 pm Parks Commission item 9 is the Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan more appropriately described as the Berkeley Marina Commercial Development Plan, 7 pm Police Accountability Board item 10 c. is Controlled Equipment. 

Thursday – 7 pm Zoning Adjustment Board, 3 projects addition to / expansion of existing buildings 

Friday – 9am Climate Emergency Task Force webinar focuses on the environment & climate with 3 presentations, military & climate, forever chemicals and wildfire. 

DEADLINE July 14, 2022 to comment on standards for new housing in the Housing Element Draft go to Appendix B (size – height, mass – how much of lot is covered), Check Site Map and comment on suggested locations for new housing, Chapter 4 - Housing Constraints in Housing Element Public Draft starting on page 67 is helpful background. Put your attention on Appendix B and Sites. 

Draft: https://raimi.konveio.com/city-berkeley-housing-element-update-public-draft 

Housing Element Update Webpage: https://berkeleyca.gov/construction-development/land-use-development/general-plan-and-area-plans/housing-element-update 

Rent Board - Ballot request deadline extended to Monday, July 11 at 11:59 pm Friday. Ballots must be turned in by July 15 at 11:59 pm. For full information go to the Berkeley Tenants Convention website https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOAqWds54-w3W7J_UGPWqhdTRARFOGf6JmfCJa8xMJTFsw-w/viewform 

Two BART meetings are included in the calendar. Monday at 4 pm BART Police Citizen Review Board if you are interested in incidents on BART and Tuesday at 2 pm BART Justice subcommittee on parking policy. 

Monday, July 11, 2022 – Juneteenth Holiday 

City Council Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community Committee at 10 am, (Hahn, Bartlett, Kesarwani) 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87886171626 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 878 8617 1626 

AGENDA: 2a. Commission on Labor - Fair Workweek Ordinance, 2b. CM – review and evaluate impacts and costs, 3. Taplin, co-sponsors Harrison, Hahn, Robinson – Office of Racial Equity: Re-Entry Employment and Guaranteed Income Programs. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-health-life-enrichment-equity-community 

Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm (Arreguin, Wengraf, Hahn) 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88608674408 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 886 0867 4408 

AGENDA: Public Comment on non-agenda and items 1 – 7. 1. Minutes, 2. Review and Approve 4/12/2022 draft agenda – use link or read full draft agenda after list of city meetings, 3. Berkeley Considers, 4. Adjournments in Memory, 5. Worksessions Schedule, 6. Referrals to Agenda Committee for Scheduling, 7. Land Use Calendar, Referred Items for Review: 8. COVID, 9. Return to In-person meetings, Unscheduled Items: 10. Discussion Regarding Design and Strengthening of Policy Committees, 11. Supporting Commissions, Guidance on Legislative Proposals. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-agenda-rules 

BART Police Citizen Review Board at 4 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84514563579 

Teleconference: 1-833-548-0282 Meeting ID: 845 1456 3579 

https://bart.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx 

Tuesday, July 12, 2022 

4x4 Joint Task Force Committee on Housing: Rent Board/City Council at 10 am 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81457454729?pwd=QlQvSVQxWi84Q09neU1pU20rRytjUT09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 814 5745 4729 

AGENDA: 6. Possible recommendation to Council regarding Relocation Ordinance and suggested additions regarding Tenant Habitability Plan, 7. Discussion regarding pandemic “eviction cliff” 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/4x4-joint-task-force-committee-housing 

City Council CLOSED Session at 4 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87495949850 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 874 9594 9850 

AGENDA: Appointment Director of Police Accountability 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81476464690 

Teleconference: 1-699-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 Meeting ID: 814 7646 4690 

AGENDA: use link and HTML to see agenda and document details, or go to end of this post for full agenda with key items highlighted in bold and underlined. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

Civic Arts Commission Grants Subcommittee at 10 am 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88687977292 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 Meeting ID: 886 8797 7292 

AGENDA: 5. a) FY23 Individual Artist Projects, b) FY23 Festivals grant fnding 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/civic-arts-commission 

BART Environmental Justice Advisory Committee at 2 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82538552999 

Teleconference: 1-833-548-0282 Meeting ID: 825 3855 2999 

AGENDA: Parking Policy Update 

https://bart.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx 

Wednesday, July 13, 2022 

Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront Commission (PRW) at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89908872760 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 Meeting ID: 899 0887 2760 

AGENDA: 7. Director’s Report (Ferris), 8. City-adopted PRW 2023/24 Operations and CIP Budget Update, 9. Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan (BMASP), check proposed development https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022-03-16-FINAL-Mtg_deck-CW2-Deck_0.pdf 10. PRW Roadmap a long-term action plan, 11. In-person meetings. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/parks-recreation-and-waterfront-commission 

Police Accountability Board at 7 pm 

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

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

AGENDA: 3. Public Comment on agenda and non-agenda item, 4. Minutes, 5. Chair and Board members reports, 7. Chief of Police, 8. Subcommittee reports, 9. A. Continue reviewing draft of proposed permanent Regulations for Handling investigations and complaints, 10. a. Transition to permanent Director of Police Accountability, b. Attendance at NACOLE Annual Conference Sept 11-15 in Ft Worth, TX, c. Consider recommendations of Controlled Equipment Subcommittee regarding Policy 709, Military Equipment for transmittal to City Council. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/police-accountability-board 

Home Hardening for Wildfire: Vents and Property Clean Up at 6:30 – 8 pm 

Hosted by Berkeley Fire Department use link to sign up for workshop. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/home-hardening-wildfire-vents-and-property-clean 

Thursday, July 14, 2022 

Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86404007773 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 864 0400 7773 

AGENDA: 1585 University – on consent - add distilled spirits 

1818 Milvia – on consent – demolish existing detached garage, lift 2-story duplex and construct major residential increase the number of bedrooms on property to 8, establish one off-street parking spot within an attached garage on the ground floor, lot is nonconforming to lot coverage, density and setbacks 

1822 Milvia – on consent – demolish existing garage and unpermitted portion of the existing dwelling, lift the building to create a 3rd floor, add 6th bedroom, relocate the existing parking within an attached garage on the new ground floor, lot nonconforming to lot coverage and setbacks, 

1643 – 1647 California – staff recommend approve – create a new lower basement level, construct a new 2nd story, modify the existing duplex layout, resulting in a 3,763 sq ft duplex. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/zoning-adjustments-board 

Friday, July 15, 2022 

Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force at 9 am – 12 pm 

Go to website to register, event is free, donations suggested 

Agenda: 9 am - welcome, Militarism & Climate, 10 am - Petrochemicals, PFAS, Plastics & Climate, 11 am - Wildfires in the Wild & City. 

https://www.cemtf.org/ 

Saturday, July 16, 2022 & Sunday, June 17, 2022  

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AGENDA AND RULES COMMITTEE at 2:30 pm (Arreguin, Wengraf, Hahn) 

DRAFT AGENDA FOR JULY 26, 2022 REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88608674408 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 886 0867 4408 

https://berkeleyca.gov/y

In my July 2 review of the recent San Francisco Opera concert in which music director Eun Sun Kim conducted music by Verdi, I took note of General Manager Matthew Shilvock’s introductory remarks situating that concert’s excerpts within the overall arch of Giuseppe Verdi’s long and illustrious career. Indeed, this perspective struck responsive chords in me, and long after that wonderful concert I continued to pursue thoughts about the overall trajectory of Verdi’s operas. In this endeavour I was aided by owning several brilliant videos of late Verdi operas, most notably, the Metropolitan Opera’s 1980 production of UN BALLO IN MASCHERA with Luciano Pavarotti and Katia Ricciarelli; and the 1958 production at Teatro San Carlo in Naples of LA FORZA DEL 

DESTINO with Renata Tebaldi, Franco Corelli, and Boris Christoff. As for DON CARLO, which is one of my all-time favorite operas, much of it is deeply ingrained in my musical memory, and these memories were reactivated by the splendid singing of Nicole Car and Etienne Dupuis as well as the stirring conducting of Eun Sun Kim as they performed excerpts from DON CARLO in SF Opera’s recent concert. So here I offer my continuing thoughts on the overall arch of Verdi’s work, particularly as manifested in the latter part of his career. 

 

UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, as many observers have noted, deals with the competing threads of personal and public pressures on a ruler of state. Whether portrayed as Governor Riccardo in the early American colony of Boston or as King Gustavus in Sweden, the principal character of UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, in whatever version, endlessly deliberates over what he should do about his secret love for Amelia, the wife of his best friend and political ally, Renato. In this deliberation he must weigh his personal desires against his duties to his best friend and to the people he governs. This is an intensely inward drama, taking place in the psyche of this opera’s principal character. This inward concentration gives UN BALLO IN MASCHERA remarkable cohesion. 

 

LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, whether in the 1862 version or the 1869 revision, is a sprawling work. It lacks either the cohesion of Verdi’s preceding UN BALLO IN MASCHERA or the condensed yet flawed revisions of his subsequent DON CARLO. Right from the start of FORZA, indeed, right from the overture, there is an valiant attempt by Verdi to posit a hoped-for unity to this sprawling drama by emphasising tin the orchestra the relentless musical theme of the force of destiny. This almost works. In fact, its frequent musical recurrence throughout the opera does indeed lend a seeming coherence to this sprawling drama. However, let us look closely at the drama itself. 

 

Right from the opening scene of FORZA, it is clear that the two main characters, Leonora and Alvaro, are from very different backgrounds. Leonora is a young, unmarried daughter of a noble Spanish family. Alvaro, however, is a half-breed from the Spanish colony of Peru. Son of an Inca princess and a Spanish colonial Viceroy father, Alvaro has come to Spain to argue that his father’s joining of a failed Inca rebellion was a noble venture. Once in Spain Alvaro has fallen in love with Leonora di Vargas, a noble young woman who returns his love despite the difference in their origins. Leonora’s father, however, the Marquis of Calatrava, vehemently opposes this love of his daughter for the Peruvian half-breed, 

 

Often LA FORZA DEL DESTINO is staged in ways that obfuscate this undercurrent of colonialism and racism, making it seem, instead, that this is just a matter of a dispute between two aristocratic families from Spain, rather than one involving two different races, one Old World aristocracy and one New World aristocracy, the latter of which, needless to say, is not acknowledged by the former. One might also note that two different patriarchal societies are here involved, the Spanish and the Peruvian, for in the actions that ensue in FORZA both sides argue in patriarchal terms. 

 

On Leonora’s side, her father argues against the love of Leonora for Alvaro because of their vastly different racial and social origins. Moreover, when Leonora’s father accidentally dies when struck by a stray bullet from the gun Alvaro has thrown aside, it is Leonora’s brother Carlo, who in patriarchal fealty subsequently seeks to avenge his father’s death by pursuing Alvaro and vowing to kill him. On Alvaro’s side, we recall that he came from Peru to Spain to argue on behalf of his father who was unjustly imprisoned and executed over his participation in an Inca rebellion against oppressive Spanish colonial rule of their land. 

 

Although it has been said that unlike in UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, where the misfortunes of Riccardo/Gustavus stem from within his own impetuous nature, in FORZA the trials and tribulations of Leonora and Alvaro all stem from without, that is, from the strictures of a patriarchal aristocratic society that imposes its will as an implacable destiny for anyone who opposes it. While in some ways this is true, I want to emphasise, however, that FORZA offers a vivid and nuanced portrayal of how different individuals respond inwardly, either accepting or resisting, these external strictures of a patriarchal society. In many ways, FORZA seems to me, like UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, an intensely inward drama. Following FORZA’S opening scene, the principal characters are never again seen together until the opera’s final scene. Instead, they are seen either alone, pondering inwardly their fate or, as in the case of Leonora, in dialogue with someone who may (or may not) agree to help once she has has fled her family home in fear of her brother and not knowing what has befallen Alvaro once he fled the opening scene in horror over the accidental death of Leonora’s father. 

 

It is interesting to examine Verdi’s attitude toward the Church both within FORZA and in his subsequent opera, DON CARLO. In FORZA, two characters represent the Church, Fra Melitone and Padre Guardiano. The former is officious, lacking pity for the oppressed and resentful of his underling status in the Church hierarchy; while the latter, his superior, is full of compassion for the desperate plight of Leonora, who has come to Padre Guardiano’s remote mountain monastery to seek a haven where she may spend her life in religious devotion. Without divulging to the monks of his monastery Leonora’s identity or story, Padre Guardiano offers her a safe haven in a cave near his monastery, which Leonora thankfully accepts. In sharp contrast to the magnanimous and compassionate Padre Guardiano in FORZA Is the Grand Inquisitor in DON CARLO. This latter Church figure, who Verdi insisted in notes to the libretto of DON CARLO, should be portrayed as “very old and nearly blind,” is clearly the embodiment of the Spanish Inquisition’s iron-willed attempt to root out any hint of heresy or resistance against the strict interpretation of Church doctrine. 

Much of the sprawling character of FORZA comes from the various crowd scenes in which the character of Preziosilla is so central. These scenes all involve the common people, who are depicted as marginal to the affairs of the aristocracy. The common people are either soldiers, displaced peasants, religious pilgrims, camp followers, unscrupulous merchants (Trabucco), or gypsies. Preziosilla herself seems to be a gypsy, as she practises fortune-telling, a traditionally gypsy function in Spain. Preziosilla repeatedly sings the praises of war even for those common soldiers who fight blindly for aristocratic causes they do not understand. However, her praise of war is simply that it offers the common soldier a chance to achieve glory in battle and thus gain promotion in the military and thereby attain a better, more prosperous life. In fact, Preziosilla seems to embody the wisdom of society’s marginals like herself. When she listens to the disguised Carlo’s attempt to pass himself off as a student named Pareda, Preziosilla shrewdly sees right through Carlo’s ruse and declares to herself that he is no student. In short, these crowd scenes, and Preziosilla’s role in them, reveal Verdi’s desire to make this story more than just an aristocratic dispute and instead to paint a wider musical canvas that includes the common people and marginals like Preziosilla. Further, let us not forget the all-important fact that Alvaro himself, in spite of being the son of an aristocratic Spanish father, is considered a marginal in Spanish society by being a half-breed from Peru, where his father was executed for betraying Spanish colonial rule. 

Seen in this larger context, it is clear that in LA FORZA DEL DESTINO as well as in his next opera, DON CARLO, Verdi was deeply concerned with portraying serious humanitarian issues as they unfolded in the private lives and loves of individual citizens. While the personal fates of Verdi’s characters in these two operas command the forefront of our attention, they are clearly set against the backdrop of wider social and even racial issues such as colonialism in FORZA, and another form of colonialism or, if you prefer, imperialism, this time against the people of European Flanders, in DON CARLO. In these two late operas, Verdi clearly aligns himself with the oppressed marginals who seek to free themselves from discrimination and rule by others.