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. -more-
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:
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. -more-
(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.
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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.
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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. -more-
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.
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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. -more-
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
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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 -more-
