Public Comment

I've lost count of how many times the city of Berkeley has destroyed our traffic circle garden. The most recent was on of June 30 when I went out and stopped the subcontractors (a group of Spanish speaking laborers) from scrapping to the wet, swampy, mud the garden our community has worked so hard to create. Ironically, just a few weeks previously a neighbor asked on the local neighborhood email list: "I have no idea who is responsible for the wildflowers that are growing in the round about but thank you! It has never looked better." 

The photos below show what it looked like after the city sent out a crew to "weed" it on June 30. I stopped them before they killed every one of the bee and butterfly plants we'd carefully planted, tended to, and nourished for the past several years. The viability of bees and butterflies is more than an issue of aesthetics. The health of such creatures are a signal and a warning of our own health and long term survival.  

Linda Franklin served on the city's circle task force, so you'd think they'd reach out to her before destroying what so many of us have worked so hard on, spending substantial sums of money and uncountable hours... but no, it's all burn it to the ground in our town. Hopefully this will not happen yet again. Linda and I spoke with Mr Griffin this morning and he swore we would be contacted before another city worker was sent out to destroy what so many of us worked so hard to create.