A couple of months ago I heard the buzz of saws and found that the magnificent tree with an incredible canopy that provided much appreciated summer shade was coming down. I watched as the large healthy tree with a thick trunk, probably near 100 years old, the age of the houses on this block was fed into the chipper. I couldn’t stop thinking about what a waste it was to grind up a trunk that could have been milled into lumber for any number of projects.

Margo Schueler took a different approach when she had to remove what she called a wonderful tree, a canary pine and wrote it up in NextDoor.

“Last month we had a large non-native pine taken down from our West Berkeley home. There were many compelling reasons to remove this wonderful tree but we had struggled with this decision for over a decade. Fortunately, we found Mike Hudson on Nextdoor and he was able to mill 5 - 10 foot sections into wonderful lumber now drying in stacks for future building. Cost 65% of the bid to grind and dispose of the tree. Very happy with this direction. Even happier on reading this article ; “Reforestation Hubs Are Saving Urban Trees From Heading to Landfills” Did you know that the US is losing 36 million [urban] trees every year? Several organizations have stepped up with creative solutions to save the wood, reduce carbon emissions and create jobs.

“More wood from cities goes into landfills than is harvested from US National Forests,” says J. Morgan Grove, a research forester at Baltimore Field Station, USDA Forest Service. Thank you Mike!

I went to see the stacked drying wood for myself, amazing! -more-

In a 3 X 6 piece of cardstock mailed to me in a mass mailing from NAMI, soliciting donations, they hit the nail on the head. The message on that card emphasized the essential truth that an acceptable housing situation is essential for a mentally ill individual to recover. This is the first time I've seen something from National Alliance on Mental Illness that resonated with me to such an extent. -more-

In the 2017 re-edition of her 1986 novel The Handmaid’s Tale, in which American women are reduced to being mere bearers of children, with no rights of their own, Margaret Atwood noted that, “In the wake of the recent American election” (the 2016 election of Donald Trump) “fears and anxieties proliferate. Basic civil liberties are seen as endangered, along with many of the rights for women won over the past decades and indeed the past centuries.” While hesitating to predict the future, either back in 1986 or in 2017, Margaret Atwood has here expressed exactly the problems we now face after the Trump-packed Supreme Court revoked Roe v. Wade and opened the door for states to ban all or almost all abortions, thereby eliminating a woman’s constitutional right to choose whether or not to bring a pregnancy to term, regardless of the circumstances in which she became pregnant, even in some states if it was by rape and/or incest. -more-

Basic fundamental Jewish teachings, in Leviticus, states categorically, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Torah outlines some specific ways that this mandate can be put into practice: “You shall not steal; nor shall you deal falsely nor lie to one another…. You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him…. -more-

On Saturday, August 20, the War Memorial Opera House hosted the 2022 Merola Opera Grand Finale. This event showcased the 31 young artists of this year’s Merola program, which is widely regarded as the foremost opera training program for young singers, pianists, and stage directors.

Swiss conductor Patrick Furrer, who recently appeared at the helm of New York’s Metropolitan Opera in their French-language Don Carlos, led the San Francisco Opera Center Orchestra in this Merola Grand Finale. The stage director was Matthew J. Schultz. The program began with Patrick Furrer conducting a brisk rendition of the Overture to Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. -more-

“Iacta alea est.” That’s what Julius Caesar is supposed to have said when he led his army across the Rubicon river in his bid to take over Rome.

“The die is cast.” We’ve gone over and we can’t go back. The deadline for becoming a candidate for the Berkeley City Council was last Friday, August 12, and now not only have the dice been thrown, the hats are in the ring, Well, District 8 candidates got an extension to August 17 since incumbent Lori Droste isn’t running, but now their time is up too. And it turns out that hats in Berkeley are in short supply this time around.

You can see the spreadsheet listing those who filed the required paperwork here:

Lucky you. Finding it cost me three phone calls to city staff plus seven clicks guided by a pleasant fellow in the City Clerk’s office, the last of which produced a chart obscurely entitled “Roster of Candidate Activity.” Yes, the COB’s new web interface is as bad as they say it is, but when you get there this is an informative document.

What can we learn from it? Well, we already knew that four council seats will be on the November ballot. It seems that no one has the nerve to challenge Kate Harrison, the darling of the progressive planning wonks who care about District 4, the downtown center of the city. That’s the one which has been most adversely impacted by the BUB Boom, aka the Big Ugly Box Boom, even though Councilmember Harrison has valiantly tried to control it.

Next, we have the other heavily BUB impacted district, District 7. That’s the one that was set up by former councilmember Kriss Worthington and now-mayor Jesse Arreguin as a sinecure for ASUC leftovers who want to move slowly into the adult world.

It’s the “student district”. What that means is that it has the lowest registration rate as compared to population, and the smallest turnout among registered voters in any council district. Apportionment is based on population, not numbers of actual voters. It turns out that most students don’t care much about voting in Berkeley.

If you believe that, short of malfeasance in office, incumbency provides a massive advantage in any election, and I do, Rigel Robinson (former or perhaps current Association of Students of the University of California External Affairs Vice President) looks like a shoo-in, though his undergraduate days are behind him. He admits to liking tall buildings, and gets support, financial and otherwise, accordingly.

Nobody is running against him either. Few students want to commit to staying in Berkeley for a four-year term as a councilmember, and there are few non-students in District 7, so Robinson attracted only one potential opponent, recent UCB graduate Aidan Hill. -more-

Thanks for asking--those of you who have wondered why there's no new issue this week. The Berkeley City Council has entered its long vacation, and much of city government has slowed to a crawl. Submissions to the BDP are also lagging. I've decided to slow down myself for this couple of weeks. When interesting articles come in, I'll just add them to the current issue when I get around to it. -more-

A Pox on Kiosks Redux

Worries over the pandemic problems raised by the prospect of towering electronic bulletin-board kiosks installed on Berkeley sidewalks has receive some validation. The concerns are that the IKE Kiosks—designed to attract passersby and encourage them to touch the interactive screen repeatedly in search of information on local businesses and entertainment—could become viral "superspreaders."

This concern has now spread to another potential virus-vector—street lights with pedestrian "walk" buttons.

At intersections around town, public announcements have been appearing above the "Walk/Don't Walk" buttons on heavily trafficked intersections.

The signs read: "Don't Spread Covid-19! Don't Push the Button! Walk sign is now automated. Wait for [symbol of a pedestrian] to cross. APS push button still works for blind or visually impaired." -more-

Things are different now, and it's time for thoughtful reconsideration.

People's Park itself is different, having suffered UC's chainsaw display destroying hundred year-old redwoods, oaks, and pine. Community resistance and a court-ordered stay put an end to the destruction. It's still People's Park, but now resembles the park some of us remember from 1972, a park with a lot of work to do to restore gardens and replant trees after UC's repeated efforts to destroy the garden that stopped a war.

The awareness level of community-wide resistance is different now, too. Few acknowledged before today the fact of the potential for violence over the park despite years of historic battles more famous than the university itself. Whoever it is among the UC regents, UC's administration, or city leadership who thought twelve stories of construction on People's Park would be easily accomplished knows what the Alameda County Sheriff's Office has plainly stated: this will not be easy and could cost lives.

But there's another important consideration, especially for a Berkeley City Council which has yet to even meet with representatives of the People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group (PPHDAG)[1], a group which successfully envisioned not just the historic Park's retention as open space but its use as the primary vantage point for the wealth of more than a dozen landmarked historic properties surrounding it like a necklace of architectural jewels.

The People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group's success in getting unanimous support at the California Historic Commission's hearing and the admission of People's Park to the National Register of Historic Places accomplished at least two crucial things. First, Berkeley's internecine squabbles over the Park's use, abuse, and future are no longer as important as its recognition as a national historic resource now belonging to the nation, not just the UC administration, a crucial repository of shared history.

The second is the recognition which should obligate the Berkeley City Council and the university to respect a national review process different from what little local process was offered to the public before this moment, a moment severely compromised by the pandemic in any event. People's Park is nationally recognized as a significant representation of our shared history, and its alteration or loss is now the legal purview of a much wider group of people who recognize the site's historic importance along with that of Kent State.

The Berkeley City Council lit the fuse, covered its eyes, and put its fingers in its ears long before People's Park's recent inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. It's time to listen and to reconsider. They can choose a bloodbath on southside. Or they can mark this moment by honoring the scholarship and research this effort took years to bring about with an appropriate ceremonial recognition when the Berkeley City Council comes back from its recess. It's time, at the very least, to recognize that we don't need to destroy parks to create housing given the abundance of alternative locations both on and off campus for not just more housing, but more parks, a recognition which is required by CEQA. The more housing we create, the more parks we need.

You may have heard the astounding statistic estimating that about one in four adults suffer from some type of mental condition in a given year. Additionally, if my memory serves me, one in three hundred adults suffer from a schizophrenic-type illness. -more-

Comedian and activist, Jon Stewart arrived in Washington with a clear agenda, - passage of the PACT Act to help veterans suffering from health problems related to toxic burn pits. Jon’s rapid-fire diatribes shamed Republicans who had previously blocked passage of the bill claiming there was insufficient funding. Jon exposed the hypocrisy, blatant falsehood and flip-flopping forcing Republicans to acquiesce and support the bill. -more-

I think I love August with city council on vacation. This coming week looks wonderfully light. -more-

On August 8, 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) served a court-authorized search warrant on Trump. The focus of the FBI search of Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago seemed to be focused on records Trump admitted failing to return to the Archives after he left office for obstruction of justice, violating the Espionage Act and the removal or destruction of records. -more-

Worth Noting:

Monday – The noon Community for a Cultural Civic Center meeting really does meet for only 1 hour and looks to be updates. Peace and Justice Commission meets in the evening at 7 pm. I will be attending only because I try to track city meetings and summarize what happened for you.

Wednesday - WETA (ferry service) has a planning workshop at 10 am in the morning and board meeting in the afternoon at 1 pm. If you don’t attend, which I expect you won’t, use the link to take a quick cruise through the budget/financials and see that it is federal assistance and bridge tolls that is keeping WETA afloat not fares.

Thursday – is the “preliminary design review” (first introduction) of two 4-story mixed-use (commercial and housing) at the Design Review Committee at 7 pm. The Landmarks Preservation Commission is expected to announce a special meeting for Thursday – there is no posting, check later.

Friday - Commission on Health Entheogenic Plants Subcommittee meets at 2 pm.



Attorney Tom Lippe (excellent reputation) is representing Peoples Park Historic District Advocacy Group. That is how the stay was secured to stop construction. The group needs your help for continuing court battles. Donate online or send a check https://www.peoplesparkhxdist.org/donate-now/



Save Cesar Chavez Park petition https://chavezpark.org/petition-to-save-chavez-park-from-bmasp/



As always check https://berkeleyca.gov/ for short notice/late postings during the week.



Monday, August 15, 2022 -more-