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

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/ -more-

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. -more-

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. -more-

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. -more-

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: -more-

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? -more-

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. -more-

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. -more-

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. -more-

Worth Noting:

The draft agenda for the April 25 City Council Regular Meeting and the agenda for next Tuesday, April 11 City Council meeting follows below this calendar of city meetings.

• Monday: The Agenda and Rules Committee meets at 2:30 pm, the Youth Commission is at 6:30 pm and the Housing Advisory Commission meets at 6 pm. Speaking Up for Point Molate from 6 – 7 pm on the Richmond Port looks interesting.
• Tuesday: City Council meets at 6 pm with item 36 from Councilmember Harrison The Labor Peace Policy Minimizing Labor/Management Conflict in Berkeley Marina and item 37 from the Finance Department on unfunded liabilities. The Police Accountability Board meets at 6:30 pm. Both meetings are hybrid with online and in-person options.
• Wednesday: The location for the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission has changed, note that the meeting is at the Live Oak Center at 7 pm. The agenda includes a presentation and discussion of the Waterfront Specific Plan.
• Thursday: Note the changed time for the FITES Committee. FITES meets at 9 am in the hybrid format. City Council will be in closed session at 3 pm.
• Saturday: The Berkeley Neighborhoods Council meets at 10 am in the virtual online format. The recording of the South Berkeley Town Hall with Ben Bartlett and Kate Harrison is available until April 23.
• Sunday: The Holocaust Remembrance Day observation will be an online gathering at 2 pm. Register with Eventbrite.