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Saturday April 15, 2023 - 07:28:00 PM

THE BERKELEY ACTIVIST'S CALENDAR, April 16-23 Kelly Hammargren, Sustainable Berkeley Coalition 04-15-2023

A BERKELEY ACTIVIST'S DIARY: week ending April 9

Kelly Hammargren

Wednesday April 12, 2023 - 04:27:00 PM

The Berkeley City Council’s recess ended Tuesday, April 11 and from this corner that spring break was not nearly long enough.

Item 9 on Tuesday’s City Council agenda from Kevin Fong, Director Information Technology adds $105,000 to the contract with Rolling Orange Inc. for additional website maintenance and support. That brings the total to $674,300. The document submitted by Fong is full of Rolling Orange accolades and states, “Rolling Orange has provided excellent implementation services and continues to provide the same level of ongoing technical support.“

Excellent implementation is in the eyes of the beholder. If the intent was to disappear years of reports, studies, approvals, council business, commission and board work then the new website with colorful pictures is an absolute success. For those of us who actually need to research historical information on city actions, the new website is a disaster. The question needs to be asked is: Are the people working for Rolling Orange grossly incompetent or do we need to look straight up the city chain of responsibility to Dee Williams-Ridley, City Manager for creating this mess?

Thursday, City Council goes into closed session on the appointment of the Chief of Police. With no news of any effort on the part of the City Manager of a search for a chief candidate other than Jen Louis. Williams-Ridley is bringing back interim Chief Louis for the chief’s position with the city council’s stamp of approval on the expectation that the public will have forgotten the scandals and complaints from last October and December and Williams-Ridley’s cleansing of Louis’s personnel file. For details see: https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/berkeley-mayor-responds-to-sexual-harassment-allegations-against-interim-police-chief/

Leadership does matter. How does a compromised Police Chief lead a department and take disciplinary action when necessary, as in the case of the leaked racist texts from the Berkeley Police Downtown Bike Unit? Was there ever any action about what the Berkeley Police did to Jorge Colon for hanging Black History Month Decorations While Black under Louis’s watch as interim chief? For that matter how does a City Manager recommend installing a comprised Police Chief without a thorough search? See https://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2022-11-20/article/50077?headline=A-BERKELEY-ACTIVIST-S-DIARY-Week-Ending-November-20--Kelly-Hammargren

This coming Wednesday, Scott Ferris, Director for Parks, Recreation and Waterfront, is scheduled to give the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission (PRW) a presentation on the Waterfront Specific Plan, and Commissioner Abshez follows from the commission subcommittee. It should be an interesting meeting. The PRW which is described in the City website with “Advises Council on parks, recreations and the Waterfront” was denied the opportunity to comment as a commission on the plan by the consultants, Hargreaves Jones Landscape Architecture before it went to City Council.

I’ve read and reread the special meeting transcript updating City Council on the marina trying to figure out what we’re getting for the $1,048,596 contract with the consultants. The project did get a new title. The Berkeley Marina Specific Area Plan (BMSAP) is now redefined to the Waterfront Specific Plan. https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/our-work/capital-projects/waterfrontspecific-plan

I looked through the images of Hargreaves Jones projects on their website. The firm has actually done some impressive imaginative expansive large-scale projects, but from this corner that $1,048,596 contract with the City of Berkeley says more about the two ends of the contract than the outcome, which is unimaginative and at best accompanied by reports which are deficient in information.

The Tidelands Area is all landfill, so it would seem that investigating the land and sea level rise would have been the first report on the list instead of still missing.

Berkeley City Council and city staff including those with titles and responsibilities seem to be dazzled with importance that comes with hiring a big firm with a national reputation for a small local project. And it appears Hargreaves Jones isn’t above stooping to a little project to keep everyone busy if the local government entity is willing to cough up the fee.

The entire premise of developing the Tidelands Area formerly called BMSAP is to make it a financially self-sustaining enterprise. There is nothing that requires the marina to be self-sustaining. That was settled during the Budget and Finance meetings for the 2023-2024 budget. It is a choice in the budgeting process.

It is also a budget choice that the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenue from the Doubletree Hotel in the marina floats into the city general fund, to be apportioned out to bolster departments across the city, with only a portion going back to the marina. The bid from the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission during that same 2023-2024 budget cycle to keep the TOT in total in the Marina Fund lost under pressure from Dee Williams-Ridley, with Mayor Arreguin acquiescing.

The grand ideas to make the marina financially self-sustaining are: add wayfinding (another spot for kiosks), improve signage, charge for parking, build a boutique hotel (120 – 200 rooms), fix/replace deteriorating docks, dredge the bay so boats can get in and out, add more options for food as spelled out for “casual and upscale” [emphasis added] dining, dress up the area for the upscale use, consider a launch for small crafts, i.e. kayaks, encourage outdoor events, look at increasing the parks tax and/or a bond. The pier and ferry were not touched for the presentation.

It is a bit of budgeting gymnastics to insist that the marina is an enterprise fund that pays for itself and at the same time assign recreation programs that take place elsewhere to the marina and take away a source of revenue (income), and then to suggest that a second hotel is going to resolve the solvency problem, when proceeds from a new hotel if it is successful will just send money to the general fund, to be dispersed to other departments with a fraction going back to the marina.

Not mentioned in the presentation to City Council was the amazing wildlife at Cesar Chavez Park, as documented in the Chavez Park Conservancy website. https://chavezpark.org/ One hundred ninety-five (195) species of birds have been identified by birders and one hundred seventeen (117) are pictured on the conservancy website. It is quite amazing.

Councilmember Wengraf was still holding on to the idea that evening events wouldn’t conflict with the area being a “park” in the daytime. Of course, if part of the desire of being in a park is to have a glimpse of nature and not scare off or chase away resident and migrating birds, then night time events are off the books. Nocturnal wildlife doesn’t mix well with evening events.

It should be no surprise that the presentation of the design from Hargreaves Jones and subcontracting consultants makes no mention of how to expand and fill the area with native plants to support resident and migrating birds. After all, Berkeley is a city where the two city foresters are filling the city with non-native trees. Every time I go out the door for a walk, I find another non-native city planted tree.

Just as Dana Milbanks wrote in The Washington Post on Friday , April 7 in “I’m no genius with genuses, but your garden is killing the Earth… When it comes to the world’s biodiversity crisis — as many as 1 million plant and animal species face near-term extinction because of habitat loss ― I am part of the problem. I’m sorry to say that if you have a typical urban or suburban landscape, your lawn and garden are also dooming the Earth.”

I am part of the problem too. Now that I know better, I hired a gardener to dig out non-native plants, but I didn’t get the cardboard and mulch down fast enough, so the removed non-natives area is now filled with a different non-native invasive that found the empty space. I am not giving up. The oaks mentioned in Milbank’s article are for the eastern U.S. We have different choices which can be found at https://calscape.org/

What we are getting at the marina is gentrification of landfill and the former city dump, when what we need for our own health and the health of the environment and wildlife is the restoration and creation of habitat and ecosystems,

The pier and ferry were not touched in the presentation, though they did come up in discussion. Replacing the pier would cost $37,000,000 with or without the ferry.

Spectacular views, water, paths for walking, an off leash dog area, fishing, and nature are not big moneymakers. There is a basic tug and pull. Are parks a place to escape the increasing creep of cement and buildings covering our neighborhoods or are parks created to feed the city coffers as entertainment and commercial venues? The nature lovers lean to the natural environment with the untidiness that gives cover to wildlife.

The update for the Civic Center was another special council meeting. According to my records the contracts with the consultants Siegal & Strain expired on Friday, March 31, 2023, but other members at the Community for a Cultural Civic Center (CCCC) believe the contract ends when the final report is turned in in June. Either way it didn’t sound like there were any plans by the consultants to step out of the picture.

The three highest priorities from the public for the Civic Center Park were more nature with enhanced biodiversity and protection of the mature trees, new seating and tables and daylighting the creek. During public comment, Erin Diehm spoke to daylighting the creek complete with pictures and delightful stories from parents and children who love Strawberry Creek Park. Diehm’s presentation brought giant smiles to councilmember faces.

A small performance venue and food and beverage options hit near the bottom with only 29% of respondents supporting these choices as a priority. Siegal & Strain’s plan to put MLK on a road diet also met with public objection. (MLK is an emergency access and evacuation route.)

The Turtle Island redesign of the historic ,fountain was not part of the update, though the latest design with a water feature was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission last week. There is no cost estimate for the Turtle Island project, though this is promised to arrive in the coming weeks. I would feel a lot better about this project, if a cost estimate were part of it. Just the engineering aspect to create a water reservoir to pump water up through the circular black granite cap on the fountain and then drain the water into the irrigation/sprinkler system for the park sounds like a challenging expensive engineering feat.

The updated plan gives City Council new chambers attached to the back of the Maudelle Shirek Building (Old City Hall). CCCC asked for the addition to be multi-purpose, not just a singular use for City Council. CCCC opposed moving city offices into a restored Maudelle Shirek, instead favoring the Berkeley Historical Society & Museum, Berkeley Community Media and meeting spaces for commissions that includes videoconferencing and teleconferencing equipment. A real question is: Now that most of us have learned how to use zoom, and council meetings are hybrid (online and in-person), how big does a new council chamber actually need to be? The presentation suggested 200-300 seats. Since the advent of ZOOM and the option of joining council meetings online or in-person, few are opting to attend in person. The old council chambers that seated around 120 would be more than adequate.

The Veterans’ Building is planned as an arts center for performances, exhibitions and related classes.

The consultants are suggesting that the Veterans’ Building be seismically braced to the lowest level, providing safe exit during an earthquake, but that may leave the building unrepairable and bracing Maudelle Shirek to the highest level of seismic reinforcement, immediate occupancy. CCCC recommends the middle “damage control” for both buildings which in a major earthquake leaves the buildings standing and repairable.

Just as the presentation of 2190 Shattuck was about to begin at the Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB), City staff announced that the property had a new owner, Landmark Properties. This was the third property owner according to my count since the plan to demolish the Walgreens store at Allston and University and build a high-rise with student housing hit Berkeley.

This was definitely bad news. PGIM, which is committed to E.S.G. principles, was listed as the owner in the meeting documents. E.S.G. stands for Environment, Social and Governance and is a philosophy that says companies should be concerned with how their businesses affect society and the environment, not just profit. This is a hot button issue with Republicans, who declared E.S.G. is “WOKE Capitalism” and Wall Street has been taken over by the left. More than $18 trillion is held in investment funds that follow the E.S.G. principles.

The PGIM Real Estate mission statement starts with “PGIM Real Estate believes that doing the right thing for our people, the environment and our communities leads to better results for all our stakeholders.” With an E.S.G. commitment, bird safe glass for the whole building was possibly within reach. The new owner Landmark Properties also owns Stonefire on University and Milvia with dead planters in front. Landmark Properties formed a $2 billion student housing venture with a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in 2022.

It went downhill from there.

The new owner developer representative stood in front of ZAB declaring their commitment to the community with 32 units for very-low-income households while failing to mention that it is those 32 very-low-income units that qualified the project for the density bonus and seven additional floors for a total of 25. The developer also declared their commitment to spreading those units throughout the building as generous while failing to mention that it is a requirement ,not an option. I counted twelve in the team from Landmark Properties and they brought their attorney with them.

City Planner Sharon Gong used the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Report West Berkeley Project Response to Comments and Revisions to SEIR prepared by Debra Sanderson in April 2012 to add a bird safe requirement. Sanderson who is now a ZAB member voted in favor of the project with the rest making it unanimous. This was the added requirement:

10. Bird Safety

A. Create visual markers and mute reflections in the glass features of buildings. Glass treatment e.g. modifications in transparency, reflectivity, patterns and colors) shall be on at least the first 12 meters, or to the anticipated height of the majority of vegetation at maturity, whichever is higher. Applying these solutions to the entire building is preferred.

B. Reduce light pollution which disorients migrating birds by choosing exterior light fixtures that project light downward rather than toward the sky, by turning off interior lights at night, especially during spring and fall migration periods and by locating interior plantings away from glass areas that are lit at night.

C. For structures such as greenhouses, skyways, free-standing glass walls and some balconies, require that 100% of glass be treated.

The group from Landmark Properties was not about to give on anything. There was a long list of concessions given to the project and the city got nothing in return except a 667 square foot community room that we are probably never going to see. Even a hint that they might not walk away with everything they wanted sent their attorney rushing to the podium. Jason Overman, who is Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin’s long ago roommate (when they were UC students) was there representing the project.

Thirty-nine feet of bird safe glass is not enough. It should be 100%. More than this building, we are in a crisis with populations of birds heading toward collapse, all because of the refusal to do what is responsible and necessary.

Inconsistent application of when and where bird safety applies is exactly why the bird safe ordinance needed to be passed months ago and go into effect immediately.

600 Addison right at the edge of Aquatic Park has bird safe glass only one side not all four sides. Where were these standards hiding or should it be where was city staff hiding when that was approved? Erin Diehm was there asking. I was there asking.

How we live, how we build, how we plant is killing the planet. Solutions are within our reach if we just choose them.

Press Release: Tell the Berkeley City Council: Do NOT Promote Jen Louis to Permanent Police Chief!

Catherine Huchting, Friends of Adeline

Wednesday April 12, 2023 - 06:00:00 PM

On Thursday, April 13, it’s time to express your concerns about the Berkeley City Council's rushing to vote on the promotion of Berkeley’s police chief, Jen Louis. The Council meeting is at 3:00 pm in the Redwood Room on the sixth floor of City Hall, 2180 Milvia Street, or on Zoom.. To join by phone: Dial 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (Toll Free) and enter Meeting ID: 161 801 7241.

Berkeley residents are entitled to constitutional policing and officers who will be held to account if racist or other inappropriate behavior is displayed. Under the interim Police Chief Jen Louis, the 150+ officers under the chief’s command had arrest quotas, designs to target people of color, inappropriate claims for overtime, and insensitivity to poor people suffering from Covid-19 or homelessness. It is a department failure not to end a culture of police racism and bias. The City Council must appoint a police chief who will manage the Police Department in a way that reflects Berkeley values, those of justice, equity, and equal application of the law.

Berkeley City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley promised the residents of Berkeley and the City Council that the permanent hire of the Police Chief, would be suspended until the completion of full investigations by an independent law firm, Swanson and McNamara, and by the community-based Police Accountability Board. Neither investigation is complete.

Act now to tell the City Council to vote NO on appointing Louis as permanent police chief.

Difficulty of Addressing Gun Violence

Ralph E. Stone

Wednesday April 12, 2023 - 04:31:00 PM

Like many Americans, I am appalled at the level of gun violence in this country. Therefore, I favor reasonable federal gun control measures to limit such violence. While in the U.S. Army, I was trained in a number of small arms, including the M-16 rifle, the military version of the AR-15. As an officer, I carried a .45 caliber pistol during the Vietnam War. As a civilian, I never saw the need to own a gun, but I understand that other law-abiding citizens must have their guns.

“AR,” by the way, stands for "ArmaLite rifle," after the company that developed the gun for use by the U.S. military in the 1950s. (The military's version, nearly indistinguishable from the AR-15, is called the M-16.) “Bump stock” firing is a well-established capability that uses the recoil of a semi-automatic firearm to fire multiple shots in rapid succession

Background

America has more guns per capita than any other nation in the world. There is estimated 400 million guns in the United States between police, the military, and American civilians. Over 98% of these guns are in civilian hands, the equivalent of 120 firearms per 100 citizens.

Today, the AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States. According to polling data from The Washington Post and Ipsos, about 1 in 20 U.S. adults — or roughly 16 million people — own at least one AR-15. Today, the industry estimates that at least 20 million AR-15s are stored and stashed across the country.

On March 27, 2023, a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at the Covenant School, in Nashville, Tenn. The shooter had legally purchased seven firearms from five local gun stores. Three of those weapons — including two assault-style firearms — were used in the shooting. Including this shooting, in 2023 there were at least 39 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 17 deaths and 30 injuries.

On April 10, 2020, at a bank in downtown Louisville, Ky., an employee killed five people and wounded eight others. The gunman used an AR-15-style rifle that he legally purchased locally. He was killed by the police after exchanging fire with them.

Gun Control Legislation

In 1994, Congress passed a ban on the sale or manufacture of 14 categories of semi-automatic assault weapons, but with a 10-year sunset provision. In 2004, Congress refused to extend the ban. Gun massacres fell 37% while the ban was in place, rose by 183% after the ban expired.

The 1997 Dickey Amendment prohibited the use of federal funds to "advocate or promote gun control," leading to the elimination of all CDC funding to conduct firearm-related research -- limiting what we know today about gun violence.

The 2003 Tiart Amendments amendments prohibit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from releasing firearm trace data. They require the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to destroy all approved gun purchaser records within 24 hours. The Tiahrt Amendments also prohibit the ATF from requiring gun dealers to submit inventories to law enforcement.

Finally, in 2019, Congress reached a deal to fund research on gun violence for the first time in over two decades, allocating $25 million — split evenly between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health — each year.

In 2022, congress passed the very modest Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to help states administer red flag laws; closes the so-called boyfriend loophole by barring individuals from possessing a firearm for at least five years if they are convicted of a misdemeanor crime of violence involving a current or former romantic partner; enhances background checks for gun purchasers between the age of 18 and 21(but not those older); and makes obtaining firearms through straw purchases or trafficking a federal offense.

The Act also provides about $11 billion to improve mental health programs. While money for mental illness programs is needed considering that less than half of Americans with a mental disorder get adequate treatment. It is unlikely, however, that the Act will noticeably curb the gun violence in this country. Jeffrey Swanson, a psychiatry professor at the Duke University School of Medicine who studies the intersection of gun violence and mental illness said of the Act, "It’s kind of a gun safety law wrapped in a mental health bill.”

It is unfair to blame those suffering from mental illness for the cause of gun violence in this country as research shows that of all the violence that occurs in the United States, 96% is due to risk factors other than mental illness. In fact, people with mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of violence than perpetrators of violence.

Court Cases

Regrettably, in 2008, the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller held that Americans have a Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.” However, this does not mean that federal and state governments cannot pass and enforce gun control laws. In fact, most gun control laws have been found to be valid after this Supreme Court decision

However, in 2022, the present conservative Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assoc. v. Bruen striking down a New York concealed handgun law makes further gun control laws iffy at best.

Following the Bruen case ruling, a federal court district judge in San Diego is expected to rule again in Bonta v. Miller that

California’s assault weapon ban is unconstitutional. This case is notable for the Court’s comparison of an assault rifle to a Swiss Army knife.

Gun Violence as a Public Heath Issue

Gun violence in this country should not be a political issue; it’s a public health issue. Congress should embrace science in the fight for gun-law reform. Unfortunately, too many politicians view gun violence as senseless, random, or an unsolvable issue.

With adequate resources to study and fight gun violence not as a constitutional issue, but as a public health epidemic. The World Health Organization already considers violence a public health threat, whether a firearm is involved or not. And days after the deadly mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, the American Medical Association adopted a policy calling gun violence in the U.S. "a public health crisis.”

Congress should start with a Congressional ban of AR-15-type semi-automatic weapons (with buy-back provisions), safe gun storage laws and universal background checks. No self-respecting sportsman would use an assault rifle to hunt quail, deer or even a bear. Assault weapons are designed for the military to kill enemy combatants. Banning assault weapons is no more a limit on the Second Amendment than a ban on a citizen’s right to own surface-to-air missiles, land mines or hand grenades.

Gun Control is Now the third Rail of Politics

The influence of the National Rifle Association; the unfortunate interpretation of the Second Amendment by the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia vs. Heller finding that individual Americans have a Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms;” and the present conservative Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assoc. v. Bruen, makes efforts to pass reasonable gun control legislation nearly impossible. Regrettably, gun control measures have become the third rail of politics, especially among Republican politicians.

Longtime Tenant Activist Eleanor Walden of Berkeley
Passed Away Friday, April 7, 2023

Lynda Carson

Wednesday April 12, 2023 - 01:22:00 PM

It is with deep sadness that I am reporting that my longtime dear friend and tenant activist Eleanor Walden of Berkeley, passed away last Friday, April 7, 2023.

Eleanor, of Redwood Gardens in Berkeley, a mother of 5 children, and grandmother, a long time folk singer, tenant activist, civil rights and social justice activist, former Board Member of the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, member of the East Bay Gray Panthers, member of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT), member of the Save Section 8 Tenants Group in Berkeley, a member of the Resident’s Council at Redwood Gardens in Berkeley, and other groups, will be missed by many of those who knew her, and were friends with her through the years.

She was very active in the tenants' movement, and she had a passion for advocating for tenant's rights, and protecting tenants from eviction.

She was around 92 years of age when she passed away.

This remembrance first appeared on the IndyBay website. For much more information about Eleanor Walden, see here.

What Has Happened with Hopkins, and Why

Kelly Hammargren

Monday April 10, 2023 - 02:52:00 PM

If you haven’t been following the Hopkins Corridor Project, the redesign to replace parking with bike lanes along the section of Hopkins with the Monterey Market and locally owned shops has created an uproar across Berkeley and into north of Berkeley cities. There is a sharp divide between the neighbors, shoppers, seniors and disabled people who support maintaining the parking and offer an alternate Ada Street bypass and the organization Walk Bike Berkeley, which is a key player in pushing the bike lanes.

When I saw the first forwarded email with the letter from Dee Williams-Ridley, Berkeley City Manager, to Mayor Arreguin, saying that the Hopkins Corridor plan was on hold, I thought it must be a late-arriving April Fools prank. I even emailed a response to the sender, “Are you sure this isn’t a fake?”

It was real. The City Council April 18 Special Meeting on the Hopkins Corridor Project (known on the City website as the Hopkins Corridor Traffic and Placemaking Study) was cancelled, for now “postponed” with staffing and fire code listed as the reasons.

That leaves a lot of questions:

How did a project that started with a referral from Councilmember Hahn in January 2018, followed with the first community meeting listed as October 22, 2020 get this far without meeting the “Fire Department related statutory (state law) or best practice requirements”?
How is it that Berkeley transportation planning employee Farid Javandel did not investigate state law and local fire code before embarking on the Hopkins Corridor Traffic and Placemaking Study? (Javandel, Deputy Director of Public Works, leader of the project was once called the transportation czar in a Berkeleyside article about his bicycle accident. )
How is it that three consulting firms (Parisi Transportation Consulting, PlaceWorks and PGA Design) moved along on this project without recognizing there was a problem with not meeting fire code for evacuation?

Now that (according to Mayor Arreguin) the City of Berkeley has figured out that “State law prohibits road modifications that do not provide safe access for emergency wildfire equipment and civilian evacuation,” what about the current road diets and the other plans throughout Berkeley for road diets? Can we be assured the City will put those on hold?

It is not like the Hopkins Corridor Project happened in a vacuum. Margot Smith and former Mayor and Disaster and Fire Safety Commissioner Shirley Dean have been sounding the alarm for months: The Hopkins Corridor is an emergency access and evacuation route. Dean brought the issue to the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission which voted to send a letter to City Council on January 25, 2023.

You will not find that Disaster and Fire Safety Commission letter anywhere on the commission’s webpage. Finding it requires going to the City of Berkeley website “records online” and searching through every council regular meeting supplemental (where letters are catalogued and posted) after January 25. I found it in the March 14 “regular” list under Hopkins Corridor.

What the commission requested was:

“[I]mplementation should stop regarding major changes to the Hopkins Corridor and any other street designated as providing Emergency Access and serving as an Evacuation Route until the Fire Department has formally commented and produced a written evaluation of the impacts of the proposed changes on their designated function or at least determined a process for putting in place such information or regulations regarding fire apparatus access roads that are contained in California Code Regulations, Title 19, Division 1, apply in Section 503.2.2 regarding width, and Section 503.4.1 regarding traffic calming devises and any other Sections that are applicable…”

The letter also references an attached map of evacuation routes. However, the secretary for the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission Khin Chin evidently did not attach the map, as it is not with the record. Nor did Chin include a link to the map.

It should be noted that almost every street already altered, marked or in the sights of getting a road diet to narrow traffic lanes and slow traffic are the same streets /routes designated in the City of Berkeley map as the “Emergency Access and Evacuation Network. Here is the link: https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Berkeley-Emergency-Access-Evacuation-Routes-06-2011.pdf

Fire codes and staffing are not the end of the story. What is not being included in the City Manager’s letter or the emails from Arreguin and Councilmember Hahn is that the City, with Farid Javandel as the lead on the Hopkins corridor, was in a rush to secure final City Council approval and award the Hopkins Corridor Project before July 1, 2023, in order to avoid complying with the new San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board stormwater treatment and green infrastructure regulations. This is the kind of infrastructure that would reduce stormwater runoff from the polluting impact on Cordornices Creek and Aquatic Park.

The February 23, 2023 letter from Friends of Five Creeks to the Mayor, Council, City Manager, Public Works, Transportation Manager Farid Javandel, the Transportation and Infrastructure Commission and the Environment and Climate Commission includes these comments:

“[T]he City of Berkeley should be ashamed to having planned this project with no effort to reduce the street’s polluting impact on Codornices Creek, our area’s only trout stream, running just a half block north. This is a particular disgrace to a city that claims environmental credentials. The Monterey Market area is the exact spot where foam from a city fire truck ran in a short, straight storm drain to the creek in 2019, wiping out nearly the entire population of threatened steelhead trout…Transportation Director Farid Javandel has admitted, in writing, that the City is rushing this project to contract in order to dodge stiffened pollution-reduction requirements that go into effect on June 30.”

The last day to avoid the new regulations is June 30, 2023. The new regulations go into effect on July 1, 2023.

I confirmed with Susan Schwartz, President, Friends of Five Creeks, that this letter was sent to all the parties listed on February 23, 2023.

The Five Creeks website is a little busy, but if you go to the bottom of the home page you can catch the link to the full letter under “F5C recent letters to agencies.” https://fivecreeks.org/

I attended the Environment and Climate Commission meeting on March 29, 2023. Though communications were listed in the meeting agenda and the commission would have received both the February and March letters on the Hopkins Corridor Project from Five Creeks by the March 29 meeting, neither letter was included in the agenda packet, nor was the content of the letter on pollution and reducing the environmental impact on Cordornices Creek discussed in the meeting. Instead, commission chair Ben Gould confirmed there was a speaker representing the commission in support of the Hopkins Project for the April 18, 2023 Special City Council meeting.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Commission, of which Javandel is the staff secretary, includes in the March 16, 2023 commission meeting agenda packet a March 7 Walk Bike Berkeley letter and two March 16, 2023 emails from Pamela Webster on the long term network of bicycle boulevard. It also includes Javandel’s responses to Webster, but NOT the February 23, 2023, letter from Five Creeks on the Hopkins Corridor Project. Walk Bike Berkeley, as its name says, is the key community supporter of the Hopkins Corridor Project with its controversial bike lanes. Given Javandel’s friendly response to Pam Webster she is evidently another strong supporter.

The regulations going into effect on July 1, 2023 are no surprise. In fact, it was on May 11, 2022 the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board passed the new regulations Order No. R2-2022-0018. The order states under C.3.b.! (3) “Any pending Regulated Project that has not yet been approved as of June 30, 2023, and for which a Permittee has no legal authority to require new requirements under Government Code sections 66474.2 or 65589.5., subd. (o) is subject to the Provision C.3 requirements in effect on the Permit’s effective date.”

The full order with all the provisions can be read at: https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/sanfranciscobay/board_decisions/adopted_orders/2022/R2-2022-0018.pdf

Contra Costa is under the same regulations. A quick summary can be found in the Contra Costa Clean Water Program with this link: https://www.cccleanwater.org/development-infrastructure/development/stormwater-c-3-guidebook

The new order requires projects of 5000 square feet or greater to comply with stormwater infrastructure. Previously the threshold was 10,000 square feet.

The important message is that the Hopkins Corridor Project is a mess, but for anyone who thinks the Hopkins Corridor Plan is dead, it was listed in the agenda packet for the Monday, April 10 Agenda and Rules Committee on page 179 under Unscheduled Workshops and Special Meetings. This bears close watching.

This isn’t the first bungled project with Javandel’s fingerprints on it. Remember that Milvia had to be revised after it was constructed, because the turning radius of large vehicles had not been taken into account. And then there is the disaster at the intersection of Hopkins and Alameda with floating curbed islands that has been a source of complaints for years.

One would hope there would be some internal housecleaning.

On the bicycling and pedestrian side, what actually makes a street safer? This is not a settled question, and yet Walk Bike Berkeley and like organizations, plus planners and consultants and City staff including Javandel are pushing street redesigns with road diets and protected bike lanes and two way bike lanes as if it were settled.

Vision Zero, Complete Streets and Road Diets are the buzz words for redesigning streets to make them safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Liz Amsden wrote about increased pedestrian deaths after Los Angeles embarked on Vision Zero, traffic calming designs in the article, “Artificial Gridlock: Who Put the ‘DIE’ in LA Road DIEts?” https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php/cw/los-angeles/24745-la-traffic-who-put-the-die-in-road-diets And you can watch what happens with road diets and emergency vehicles in this YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PamppHOHTs

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) states under Urban Stormwater Guide, “A flooded street is not a complete street. During storm events, people walking, bicycling, and using transit are the first users to encounter barriers and lose access to the street, and are the last to regain it. Green street design tools, which integrate stormwater control and management within the right-of-way, are a critical component of complete street design, ensuring the street remains usable and safe for all people during storm events, regardless of mode.” https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-stormwater-guide/streets-are-ecosystems/complete-streets-green-streets/

I certainly wouldn’t put all my eggs in the NACTO basket. The second picture on the front of the 2018 NACTO Annual Report is an example of the exact problem my bicycling friends cited with the curb on the bicycle lane in downtown Berkeley. It is a place where debris collects. Leaves, especially wet leaves, create a slick surface for dangerous spills. In fact, the friends I spoke with say they avoid Milvia whenever possible, because they are trapped in the bicycle lane with the curb and have no place to maneuver to avoid debris and hazards in the bike lane.

John Newton went further in his response in Berkeleyside as a bicycle commuter “…I find the protected bike lanes to be a hazard to my safety. The more protected/separated they are, the less they are cleaned by street sweeping and the more they accumulate dangerous debris…” Newton referenced glass and needles.

Another problem for bike lanes is drivers backing out of driveways looking at the camera in the dash in front of them instead over their shoulder and missing when there is a bicyclist headed their way.

There is a fantasy that if new housing is built without parking and Berkeley residents have no place to park their cars, they will give up their cars, get on bicycles and take mass transit.

Thomas A. Rubin’s March 11 2023 presentation Land Use, Housing and Transportation – Wishing Will Not Make It So to Livable California challenges not only the fantasy of people giving up their cars, but also that complete streets is another fantasy. Traffic lanes, bicycle lanes, bus lanes and parking do not “play well together.” More than that, Rubin points out the difficulties with getting where someone wants to go on transit and the amount of time it takes to do it. And the poor, low income employed, people with jobs that require using equipment need cars and trucks the most. https://www.livablecalifornia.org/transportatio-expert-tom-rubins-presentation-to-livable-california/

None of this is easy.

We should know by now we are in a climate crisis and we must decrease our CO2 emissions. Yet each day the measured CO2 level is higher than the year before. Today it was 422.37 ppm. A year ago, it was 420.85 ppm. In 2008 when Bill McKibben started 350.org CO2 was at 385.46 ppm. We are obviously headed in the wrong direction.

According to the EPA from a 2020 analysis, 27% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) in the U.S. came from the transportation sector and 57% of that from our cars and light duty vehicles (18-wheelers, medium and heavy duty trucks are 26%).

There is or a least should be a push to get us walking (if we can) and onto mass transit, bicycles, tricycles and whatever mode of moving will get us out of our cars, SUVs, vans, and modest sized trucks. And if we aren’t making that move to at least get us into EVs (electric vehicles).

Remote work is here to stay at least for part of the week. Offices in San Francisco are 27% to 29% vacant depending on the day and which article one picks up to find the figures. People are back in their cars and bridge traffic is at pre-pandemic levels, while low ridership is pushing mass transit off a financial cliff.

There are no simple solutions.

I couldn’t make it to the San Pablo Avenue Corridor Project open house with poster boards and no presentation on March 30. I was attending another City meeting, I only heard second hand that it had good attendance and the plan is for bicyclists to use the quieter parallel streets.

I didn’t hear that the San Pablo Corridor Plan considered what it would look like if people actually took to the variety of modalities that are already at our door, electric bikes, pedal bikes, scooters and adult tricycles. These all travel at different speeds and don’t fit together in protected bike lanes.

It is a good thing that the bike lanes have only an occasional rider as none of the planning that I have seen so far is actually a plan for all these different modalities together and broad utilization.

Several things are clear. The singular focus on a narrow group of bicyclists, brushing aside the warnings of our wiser elders, ignoring fire codes and rushing to beat regulations with which the City should be anxious to comply is not working and leaves a very bad taste.

How this will all turn out is still a question.

SMITHEREENS: Reflections on Bits & Pieces: SmitherLaws/Flaws&Causes

Gar Smith

Monday April 10, 2023 - 04:45:00 PM

It Helps to Have a Pass to Trespass

On Good Friday, April 7, 2023, a group of anti-war protesters were arrested and cited for trespassing at the Nevada National “Security” Site (NNSS, the government's bomb-testing-range) while calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Members of the Nevada Desert Experience's Sacred Peace Walk were confronted by Department of Energy security teams and the Nye County Sheriff’s Department. The eight arrestees included Berkeley's George Killingsworth (an unlikely surname for a peace advocate).

In related news, two other protesters—Brian Terrell and John Amidon—were set to appear in Beatty Justice Court on April 10 to answer for previous trespass citations stemming from an NNSS protest staged in October 2022. Both argue they were not guilty of "trespass" on the government site. Why? They had been granted written permission for their anti-war stroll from the Western Shoshone National Council—the legal Indigenous owners of the land.

No One Is Above the Law?

We're hearing that catchphrase a lot these days but it's just wishful baloney. You know who's above the law? Plenty of folks. Here's a shortlist. Presidents. Kings. Autocrats. Dictators. Corporate CEOs, members of the US Supreme Court. (Police use to be untouchably beyond the reach of the law, but that's now changing. Used to be that if a cop killed an unarmed civilian, they were rewarded by being placed on "paid administrative leave"—aka "paid vacation.")

There's a reason it's called "Sovereign Immunity" (aka "Executive Privilege") and DJ Trump knows this only too well. Look at all the rogue lawyers and political tricksters he pardoned in the closing days of his misadministration. Running for reelection was Trump's best strategy for facing justice and avoiding the jailhouse. If he could just get reelected, he would regain legal protection against the courts and claimants who found him "well-suited" for a lawsuit, a trial, and a sentence.

A Verbal Quibble for Our Friends at FOE

The 2022 Annual Report from Friends of the Earth (FOE) includes a lot to cheer about including:
• A $100 million sustainably produced plant-based lunch program for California schools
• Suspending gas leases proposed for 1 million acres of the Central Valley
• Protecting Alaska's Tongass Forest from loggers and road-builders.

One kvetch: A leading, long-lived US environmental organization should be on the watch for words and phrases handed down from landgrabbers and stakeholders.

Two examples from the Annual Report: "When you and I work together, we can move mountains" and "Your donations gave our campaigners the resources to… conduct groundbreaking research."

Fashion Plates

Some personalized license plates spotted around town.

GMC: RD WAVE (Road Wave? A Red Wave MAGAvoter?)

Silver BMW: FOZBOOT (The nom de post of a Flickr/Twitter user)

White Honda: KHUSHI5 (Parked in front of a 7/11. Belongs to Khushi, one of the employees)

Blue Range Rover: FIKERTU. (This looked potentially salacious, but I noticed the driver was still in the vehicle and asked about the plate. Turned out the driver was a pleasant fellow from Ethiopia and he had named his car "after my mother, who died a year ago.")

BumperSnickers

Witches Parking: All Others Will Be Toad

A Woman Voting Republican Is Like a Chicken Voting for Colonel Sanders

Don't Laugh at Your Partner's Choices: You Were One of Them

Drive Like You Passed the Test

We Were All Immigrants Once

I'd Rather Be Excluded for Who I Include than Included for Who I Exclude

There Are 10 US Bases in Syria but "No US Soldiers on the Ground"?

A UN Deputy Spokesperson has been caught up in a blatant lie. "It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious," one viewer noted, adding: "Of course, it takes a foreign journalist to ask the tough questions."

Spokesperson Farhan Haq's awkward response (heck, let's just call it "a bald-faced lie") prompted this tweet from Glenn Diesin, Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, and Editor at Russia in Global Affairs:

"A very strange video! The US is illegally occupying Syrian territory and its occupation forces are openly stealing Syria's oil. Now, US army bases in Syria have been attacked. Yet, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq suggests there is no evidence of a US military presence in Syria."

Farhan Haq's bumbling reply—including his assertion that "There are no US armed forces inside Syria"—has been enshrined on Twitter at this link: https://twitter.com/i/status/1640934896267919362

Ukraine, Russia, and the CIA

US covert interference in Ukraine's internal politics goes back well before the US-backed coup in 2014. According to Operation Ukraine: America's Fingerprints, a new documentary now airing on RTD, an official Russian news site: "As soon as World War II ended and the Nazis were defeated, US intelligence agencies built ties with former Hitler collaborators to work together against the Soviet Union and then Russia… to form an armed underground movement in Western Ukraine dubbed 'Aerodynamic'. Their task was to sabotage nuclear plants and dams on Ukrainian territory in an effort to separate it from the Soviet Union."

According to RTD, these CIA-backed far-rightists staged acts of terror that claimed at least 35,000 civilian lives. Members of the Bandera and Azov terror movements allegedly relied on a handbook that included 135 different forms of torture.

Corroboration for much of these claims is provided by RTD's on-air interviews with Frank Wisner, a "co-founder of the CIA" and the first chief of the CIA’s covert-operations unit. Warning: Much of the content is graphic and horrifying.

The Daily Kos Has Concerns

One April 4, this note from The Daily Kos: "[T]he news media is badly failing us. Giving Marjorie Taylor Green a platform to call Democrats a "party of pedophiles" without pushback, ignoring one of the most chilling antidemocratic moves in recent history, all while giving wall-to-wall coverage of Trump's plane as he flies to New York for arraignment. Traditional news outlets seem almost incapable of seriously covering the Republican Party's open embrace of fascism.

For What It's Worth….

A letter to Congress:
Since the end of WWII, the Pentagon has launched illegal military attacks on a host of other countries—Vietnam, Libya, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq—causing millions of civilian deaths and leaving behind chaos while withdrawing in defeat.

War is a scam that only benefits powerful corporations and the millionaires that profit from wanton destruction.

We are weary of war. We are wary of war. We want an end to war.

Climate change, fed in large measure by the "fumes of war," is powering hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and tornados that are destroying entire US cities. No state has remained immune from the invasion of devastating climate assaults. THIS is the real threat to the "homeland."

As your constituent, I urge you to publicly commit to voting No on ever-increasing military spending. It's time to spend our tax dollars on "defending the homeland" from eco-Apocalypse. Dedicate federal funds to protecting US citizens at home instead of killing civilians abroad. I urge you to publicly encourage your colleagues to do the same.

UK Ships Radioactive Weapons to Ukraine

My fellow World BEYOND War board member, Alice Slater, recently sent an email link to an article she had written that appeared in the book, Metal of Dishonor, "dealing with depleted uranium in 1986 in Iraq and Bosnia and the need to manage and protect ourselves from the toxic legacy of the Manhattan Project! Hard to believe barely anything has changed and we’re doing it again with the UK planning to supply Ukraine with depleted uranium (DU) ammunition!"

Alice followed up with the following message—which I would love to see displayed on billboards across the planet:

"We should say 'Stop doing it!' with one powerful voice around the world! Stop all the wars, the corporate pollution, don't make one more drop of nuclear material—give life on Earth a chance. Take back the media and universities and thinktanks! Devote science and intellect to restoration and recovery. Time for a shift out of the Anthropocene to the Gaiapocene and global cooperation before it's too late!"

Big Pharma's Bad Karma

More Perfect Union's Faiz Shakir recently emailed some "good news and some bad news" about the country's pharmaceutical overlords. First, the good news:

"The three Big Pharma corporations that control insulin manufacture have each agreed to lower their prices after a massive public pressure campaign, from the grassroots to the White House."

After Pharma giant Eli Lilly agreed to lower its prices, More Perfect Union led a campaign that sent a flood of emails to the CEOs of Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, the other two insulin manufacturers. "Not long after, both companies lowered their prices as well."

But here's where the bad news kicks in. Faiz explains: "The day after their announcement that they were lowering insulin prices, Sanofi’s lawyers contacted More Perfect Union to threaten legal action over the 'waves of unsolicited emails that our CEO, Mr. Paul Hudson, has been receiving since March 14th, 2023.'"

Sanofi's letter continued: "Your action has led to the sending of more than 4,000 unsolicited emails and this number continues to grow to this day, disrupting the professional activity of our CEO."

MPU notes that "the 'professional activity of the CEO' had up to that point included price-gouging people over a life-saving medicine. Because Sanofi is now acting to lower insulin prices, people who can now afford insulin will live instead of dying. Seems like a worthwhile disruption.

"But now More Perfect Union has to deal with Sanofi’s lawyers. That’s the bad news."

An Open Letter to Barbara Lee

Dear Congressmember Lee:
As you have no doubt heard, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg has been diagnosed with a spreading cancer and has just 3-6 months left to live. In response, Dan's many friends are organizing Daniel Ellsberg Week: April 24-30—a week-long tribute for our beloved Kensington neighbor.

Daniel Ellsberg's life is to be celebrated on many levels. I've already approached the Berkeley City Council (Ellsberg is a resident of neighboring Kensington) and have received word that the council has placed consideration of some formal recognition on its upcoming agenda.

Ellsberg's warning about the particular risk of "launch-on-warning" ICBMs is especially critical as tensions rise between the US, Russia and China. What will it take to avoid a "push-button Apocalypse"?

Could you and other rational members of Congress consider promoting an "Ellsberg Resolution" endorsing steps to lower the nuclear threat?

This would be a great way to pay tribute to Dan—particularly if the resolution were designed to reduce the threat (and devastating fiscal burden) of "modernizing" our suicidal Nuclear Arsenal.

Thanks for your thoughts and actions as we honor a true American hero.

The Club Takes a Hammer to the Drillers

An alert from the Sierra Club:
"Last year, California passed SB1137—a historic bill that would end neighborhood oil drilling by creating 3200-foot setbacks between oil infrastructure and homes, schools, parks, hospitals, and other sensitive receptors. Then the oil industry immediately got to work to try and reverse this historic legislation. The industry shelled out 20 million dollars to pay for enough signatures to successfully begin a referendum process on SB1137 and send the issue to a ballot vote in November 2024—effectively stalling the implementation of this critical ban."

The Sierra Club carries a big club and it's not afraid to use it. "We cannot let the oil industry use their wealth to potentially veto life-saving regulation of their polluting, climate destroying business model. We have less than two years to ensure that every California voter knows that the oil industry is doing everything in their power to keep killing us for profit, and we all need to vote to protect setbacks next year."

If you want to bring down the hammer on oil drilling, you can Register for our upcoming kickoff call on Monday, April 17 from 5:30PM - 6:30PM.

A Dandy Randy Trumpy Roast from Rainbow's Array

If you haven't seen/heard it yet, here is a great political parody that was launched last week and, after 4 days, had racked up 1.2M views.

But first, enjoy the Andrews Sister singing the 1941 hit tune that inspired the parody:

• Andrews Sisters: "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B!"

And now get ready for a way gay takedown of Donald Trump

• Randy Rainbow: "Grumpy Trumpy Felon from Jamaica in Queens"

ON MENTAL WELLNESS: The Mental Health Treatment System is my Frenemy, Part II

Jack Bragen

Monday April 10, 2023 - 04:47:00 PM

This week's column concerns how the mental health treatment system is designed to manage the "population" of mentally ill people and to exert some levels of control. I believe the purpose of the system is not only to help us, but also to keep us walled off from society-at-large, so that people will not be bothered by us. The more we enter the arenas of "normal people" the more of a perceived "problem" we become. We can't have mentally ill people showing up at Starbuck's in the a.m. when people are about to go to their jobs. We could seem too weird for people, especially if we're having some level of symptomatic behavior. A weird person at Starbuck's before work will distract people from doing their jobs, because it will be the subject of controversy and gossip.

Many in the general public consider mentally ill people a nuisance and/or threat. Therefore, the treatment system is saddled with the task of exerting a level of control. Secondly, the modern mental health system does some P.R. for us, such as NAMI's "Sweep away stigma."

This next point doesn't have to be food for paranoid thinking for the reader, or, for that matter, for me. Yet I have seen a recurring pattern, one which could easily be my own problem--created by me. The pattern is where I'm repeatedly thwarted in my efforts to reintegrate. And I've seen other mentally ill people go through the same thing, with variations.

Decades ago, Olanzapine was marketed as a miracle drug. Eli Lilly, the manufacturer, began a public campaign touting that people on olanzapine could "reintegrate" because of how well people were doing who were prescribed this drug. In modern times, you never hear of reintegration. Now it is about segregation and pacification, yet this is unspoken. If we have a job, it is in conjunction with the mental health treatment system. If we socialize, it is among other mentally ill people. Where we live is often designated as either disabled housing or mentally ill housing. We are in different categories, legally, than those who have never been found mentally compromised.

The condescension is boundless. But also, we don't have as much liberty as someone who is not identified as mentally ill. But this is a tradeoff. We receive money to live on, and we receive services. And we generally don't have to pay for any of this. It is not our fault that we got sick. Yet, the world doesn't owe us a living. Thus, in some ways, we are fortunate, and we could consider having some level of gratitude.

The restrictions under which we live, at least in the SF Bay Area, are not extreme, and are usually reasonable. This doesn't mean we shouldn't want equality.

This is a better situation than the state hospitals of the past, so well described in the horror-evoking book, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I read the novel as a teen, and it was written from the perspective of the Native American patient who in the movie version was huge, and who, toward the end of the book, smothers to death the character played by Jack Nicholson, and then throws a massive appliance through the window and leaves the accursed place.

And now, we are finally bringing Donald Trump to justice, who himself belongs in a place like that, and who calls mentally ill people "crazies" and who wanted to reopen the state hospitals.

Mentally ill people should be dealt with in a compassionate, tolerant manner, and we often aren't. If the treatment system can do some P.R. on our behalf, if they can assert some level of control while making us appear nonthreatening, we are better off. An intolerant society is the enemy, not those who make their living giving us treatment, even if treatment is often a bitter pill or a shot in the butt of antipsychotic.

But that should never stop us from striving for something better.

Jack Bragen is disabled, is a writer, and lives in Martinez, California.

Open Gaza

Jagjit Singh

Monday April 10, 2023 - 05:13:00 PM

The tension in the Middle East has reached new heights following Israel's bombing of southern Lebanon and Gaza. The attack comes in the wake of repeated attacks by Israeli police on Palestinian worshippers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem. These events are taking place as Israel continues to impose a violent crackdown in the occupied West Bank, where they have killed 94 Palestinians this year alone. Israel's raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan have sparked international condemnation.

The escalating violence in Palestine is the result of "the larger settler-colonial enterprise" of the decades-old Israeli occupation. These tensions do not happen in isolation from the larger military occupation that Palestinians are forced to live under. It is time for President Biden to break his long silence and immediately suspend all economic and military aid to Israel and demand an end to the occupation and lift the siege of Gaza, the largest open-air prison in the world.

Mezzo-Soprano Sasha Cooke and Guitarist Jason Vieaux at Herbst Theatre

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean

Monday April 10, 2023 - 05:10:00 PM

On Saturday, April 8, two-time Grammy Award winner Sasha Cooke again teamed with guitarist Jason Vieaux in a recital at Herbst Theatre under the auspices of San Francisco Performances.

Styled “From Spain to Sondheim,” this recital featured works spanning many different styles of music, from popular Spanish songs to Brazilian Bossa Nova, and from lieder by Franz Schubert to songs by Steven Sondheim. There were even two songs by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

Sasha Cooke has performed often with San Francisco Opera, where she has distinguished herself as a mezzo-soprano with a luminous voice and dramatic flair. Guitarist Jason Vieaux has been hailed on National Public Radio as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation.” Cooke and Vieaux have performed together several times previously to great acclaim. Opening this recital were Manuel De Falla’s Siete canciones populares espanõlas/Seven Popular Spanish Songs. Though these songs are best known in an arrangement for violin and piano, Cooke and Vieaux performed them in De Falla’s original version. The best-known of the seven songs is simply called “Jota,” which designates a lively dance in triple time from the Aragon region. In this “Jota,” Jason Vieaux’s guitar imitates the sound of castanets. In “Nana,” a lullaby from Andalusia, Sasha Cooke crooned this lovely cradle song, which De Falla cherished as his first memory of his mother singing him to sleep with this lullaby. Next on the program was a work by Pat Metheny written especially for Jason Vieaux, who performed the second movement from Metheny’s Four Paths of Light.

Following this came two songs by San Francisco-based composer Peter Scott Lewis, “What Day Is It Now?” and “Going Out to Meet the Moon Whales.” The former is set to a poem by Robert Sund, and the latter to a poem by Haitian-born Paulé Barton. After singing this lovely pair of songs, Sasha Cooke recognised Peter Scott Lewis in the audience and encouraged him to stand and take a much-deserved bow. Next on the program was the song “Azulaõ” by Brazilian composer Jayme Ovalle. I first heard this lovely song when I spent a week in Mozambique in 1964 and bought a small 33 1/3 vinyl record of Alice Ribiera singing Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, and on the flip side was “Azulaõ.” Although these two works are usually sung by a soprano, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke did an excellent job, especially in the “Cantilena” from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, which closed out the first half of this recital.

After intermission, Jason Vieaux performed “A Felicidade” by Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, who came to fame as a brilliant composer in the Bossa Nova style. This arrangement of “A Felicidade” was by French guitarist Roland Dyens; and In the nimble hands of Jason Vieaux, this was a refreshing tour de force. Next came four songs by Franz Schubert, elegantly sung by Sasha Cooke. The first was “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” which Schubert wrote at the tender age of 17. Second was the lullaby “Schlummerlied” also known as “Schafflied.” Then came “Nacht und Träume,” which was followed by the masterful “Auf dem Wasser zu singen,” a lovely meditation on the evanescence of beauty and of life itself. Sasha Cooke splendidly performed these great Schubert songs.

Cooke then turned to two songs by Steven Sondheim, “Children will listen” and “Losing my mind.” The former is a cautionary tale, and the latter an obsessive memory of a long-lost love.

The final works on the printed program were two songs by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, the former’s “I will” and the latter’s “Julia.” McCarney lauded “I will” as a particularly felicitous melody, one of his favorites.” John Lennon’s “Julia” is a loving recollection of his mother, written ten years after she was killed in an auto accident when John was only 17. As an encore Cooke and Vieaux performed another song by Steven Sondheim, closing out a splendid recital that paired the mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and guitarist Jason Vieaux.

Mezzo-Soprano Sasha Cooke and Guitarist Jason Vieaux at Herbst Theatre

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean