It’s not just the special interest money—over $300,000 so far-- it’s the whoppers. The Yes on L campaign has filled our newspapers and mailboxes with a series of false claims. The latest was in a letter from the mayor, printed in the November 3, 2022, East Bay Times, claiming “Measure L expenditures would be guided by existing city plans developed with years of community input.” Uh, no. The most recent adopted plan, the 2014 Resilience Strategy, promised to prepare plans. It promised the city would develop “… a next-phase, comprehensive Stormwater Master Plan.” That plan was to be collaborative and identify and prioritize projects that would help the streets, flooding, and deliver cleaner runoff. The Strategy also promised to develop “a robust wildfire evacuation control plan for the Berkeley Hills. “ With Measures GG and FF, and the clean water fee that voters have approved, the City had the money to develop those plans. When it put a $100 million bond on the ballot in 2016, Measure T1, the council further directed the staff to “develop program plans to address …infrastructure needs beyond the $100 million … bond…[that] identify the priority of improvements…” None of those plans have been completed. The marina? Bogged down in controversy over commercializing Cesar Chavez Park. At least two years behind schedule. -more-

Above all, remember these three important truths:

(1) We essentially live in a one-party state; a one-party county; and a one-party city.

(2) All are part of the Big Democratic Party Corporate Machine — the BDPCM.

(3) If you live in a one-party government such as ours, there’s no way you have anything like real democracy — because it’s literally impossible under such conditions.

If you doubt that we do live in a one-party city, just look at all of the election flyers, brochures, and mailers you’ve been receiving. You’ll see that all of the Democratic candidates just keep endorsing each other! It’s a closed circle.

What we have in Berkeley is a system of patronage, very similar to Tammany Hall, the powerful corrupt political machine that essentially ran New York City throughout much of the 19th Century.

(Look it up — it’s fun to notice all the parallels between New York City in the 1800s and Berkeley today!) -more-

On Thursday night, Council will consider adding 540 “No Right Turn on Red” signs at every intersection in Berkeley with a traffic light (Item 27: Budget Referral: No Right on Red Signs).

The stated goal of this item is to decrease carbon emissions by de-prioritizing cars and incentivizing cycling.

While I applaud the authors of this item, Councilmember Taplin and Councilmember Wengraf, for addressing pedestrian and bike safety, this item may result in unintended consequences. -more-

A row of suitcases on an otherwise bare stage,that clouds of steam soon reveal to be a railway platform. Travellers in bulky overcoats grab their suitcases and fall into line. This will become a recurring image, in a show about many kinds of exile. When projected signs; ( "Warsaw'", "1902’) and plaintive klezmer music tell us these migrants are Jews in 20th c. Europe, it is impossible not to think of later trains, rolling to Dachau and Auschwitz. But the music turns gay and the line beomes a whirling dance--the migrants become a troupe of travelling actors, and a rush of joy and energy onstage disperses dark thoughts. If Yiddish theater was often as electric as Paula Vogel imagines it in INDECENT then I wish I'd been born a generation sooner, and not so far from New York. -more-

Halloweened Homes

Halloween is believed to have begun some 2,000 years ago with the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Trick-or-treating was added to the mix in the 18^th century. The practice of granting spiritual protection in exchange for gifts caught on with some Christians in ha tradition known as "belsnikling."

Today, many local homeowners deserve a prize simply for the effort they put into decorating their front yards for the Halloday. Here are two Halloween haunts worth checking out: One at 1017 Colusa Avenue and another at 1371 Dwight Way—at the northeast corner of Dwight and Valley (best known, on most days, as the site of Whitney's sidewalk cookie mart).

The second involves a mini-haunted house in the driveway that you can enter and explore—if you dare. -more-

Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, finally closed his purchase of Twitter for about $44 billion.

Musk has described himself as a "free speech absolutist" and has criticized what he sees as excessive moderation on online platforms. Human rights groups are concerned that less moderation on the platform could lead to a rise in disinformation and hate speech. The fear is that Musk will restore rights to use Twitter for those now banned from Twitter like Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Sydney Powell, David Duke, Milo Yiannopoulos, George Zimmerman and Ye also known as Kanye West. (Although Kanye West appears to be back up on the platform, a day after Musk took ownership of Twitter.) -more-

If you experience a lot of stress through things that don't seem to bother other people, I think you deserve validation because everyone experiences stress differently, and if you are like me, meaning sensitive to stress, you could have been slammed for it by people. And this is wrong.

Stress really exists, and it kills. If you work in a corporate environment, the term "easy does it," will probably not be allowed. You are expected to crank out work as though you are a machine. You are expected to regurgitate the prevalent cynical, power-oriented attitudes. You are expected to be tough, or at least project that, so that you can survive in that environment. Corporate work environments are often hostile environments.

I am mentally ill; however, I have worked before--at real jobs. In my past I've done electronic repair and worked alongside and competed with other technicians, usually without disclosing a disability. I am not without that experience under my belt. In my twenties, I went through several jobs in which the social atmosphere was difficult enough that I couldn't focus on the work at hand well enough. Most people probably would not consider them to be "hostile environments." But how I experience things differs from how others do, because my psychiatric condition makes me a lot more sensitive to environments. -more-

Worth Noting:

Don’t forget to check during the week for meetings, events, webinars posted on short notice at https://berkeleyca.gov/

Monday – The Agenda and Rules committee meets at 2:30 pm to plan the city council agenda for iNovember 15. No evening meetings on Monday

Tuesday – no meetings – council really is scheduled for Thursday at 6 pm

Wednesday - My go to meeting is the Planning Commission at 7 pm with Southside zoning changes and local density bonus on the agenda. The other meetings of the day are the Civic Arts Commission Grants Subcommittee at 10:30 am, e-bike webinar at 5 pm, Library Trustees at 6:30 pm, and the Homeless Services Panel of Experts and the Planning Commission at 7 pm.

Thursday is an impossible day starting with FITES at 1 pm, WETA at 3 pm, council at 6 pm with Fair Work Week on the agenda, home hardening for wildfire at 6:30 pm and LPC at 7 pm.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday – no meetings – last weekend to get out the vote

Monday, October 31, 2022 -more-