The University of California at Berkeley announced today in a press release that construction of a 1000-bed privately developed dormitory on the site of People's Park will begin in 2020.

According to the release:

"As part of a comprehensive effort to address challenges facing the campus and its urban neighbors, UC Berkeley will redevelop and revitalize People’s Park. Today, Chancellor Carol Christ announced the university’s plans to build on the site a new residential facility for students and make land available for the construction of permanent supportive housing for members of the city’s homeless population. Plans also call for setting aside part of the 2.8-acre property for open and recreational space, as well as a physical memorial honoring the park’s history and legacy.

"With as many as 1,000 beds planned, the new student housing represents a significant step towards meeting the chancellor’s stated goal of doubling the campus’s residential capacity. At the same time, supportive housing will be located in a separate, independently operated building and will have 75 to 125 apartments that will provide safe and supervised living for homeless Berkeley residents.

"More information about the plans and proposals can be found here." -more-

At around 2:00pm BPD responded to the 2300 block of Acton Street for a dispute between family members. No one was injured and there is no threat to the community. The investigation will continue but we have left the scene. -more-

Please avoid the 2300 block of Acton due to police activity. Shelter in place for residents 2300 block of Acton.

[No further information is available as of 3:08 p.m.] -more-

Dave Margulius has launched an ambitious new project, Watch Berkeley, which is curated excerpts from the video record of Berkeley City Council meetings. If you want first-hand information about what's going on in Berkeley, this promises to be an invaluable news source.

Click here to take a look at his introduction.

And here's an excellent example of what you can see, Councilmember Ben Bartlett's proposal that Berkeley try a novel "microbond" financing scheme: -more-

Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods filed suit today against UC Berkeley (Cal) for increasing its student numbers by five-fold more than allowed in Cal’s 2020 Long Range Development Plan (2020 LRDP). The citizen organization charges the excess increase of more than 6,500 undergraduates has led to student homelessness and skyrocketing rents for student housing. -more-

Joined by several dozen supporters, including a majority of the Berkeley City Council, Igor Tregub yesterday launched his campaign for Berkeley City Council in District 1. Video of the kickoff is available here. -more-

We could call it the Vampire Ordinance. In the 45 years since I came back to Berkeley the attempt to get poor people out of our civic face has surfaced, Un-Dead, what, three, four, five times under different guises. As I’ve said all too many times, I still have in the rafters of my garage a sign that proclaims Assemblymember Tom Bates’ support for Measures N&O, a particularly pernicious incarnation of this vampire which attempted to ban asking for spare change.

I suppose there’s been some progress—the implementation of that version was stalled in federal court on First Amendment grounds. But now it’s time to round up the usual clichés to describe the latest attempt to wish away ugly beggars, something that’s been part of our historic culture for centuries and never seems to die.

It’s “Groundhog Day.” (From a long ago movie where the same thing happened over and over again, every day. Like the Vampire Ordinance.)

“Déjà vu all over again.”(Old timey baseball player Yogi Berra emphatically describing an all-too-familiar occurrence. We’ve seen this one before.)

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing all over again and expecting different results.” (This popular aphorism has been attributed to everyone from Albert Einstein to Mark Twain, but it’s an insult to the interestingly insane folks I know, most of whom have more sense than that.)

There’s no possible excuse for dredging up yet another anxious parsing of the various rules intended to mollify Berkeley burghers who are frightened by encounters with street people. The latest round, which surfaced at a special Berkeley City Council meeting on Thursday of this week, would come under the heading of “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."

In this case, it’s not even all the deck chairs on the whole ship, but merely a small subset of them on a little part of one of the lower decks.

Last night we heard from just a few of the many speakers yet another iteration of Berkeley exceptionalism: the quasi-religious belief that vagrants and blackgards come from all over to partake of the wonders of Berkeley’s extra-special social services. I follow the civic fortunes of Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles and New York City in the online press to a degree, and I’m here to tell you that every one of these cities has the same self-righteous burghers who believe that their town is uniquely burdened by the poor and doufless.

Guess what? There are many, many transient, homeless, mentally ill and/or unemployed (choose your adjectives) people everywhere these days. Not only that, they’ve been here and everywhere for a long, long time. There are global reasons for this, and blaming Berkeley is not the answer. -more-

A policy is a statement of principle against which the actions of the City and City staff are judged. -more-

What can you do when a state legislator declares war on her own city?

Vote. Very carefully. Specifically, in the June 5 primary to represent Assembly District 15, which includes Berkeley and several surrounding cities. Also in the governor's race, on the same ballot. So that we don't get fooled again.

The legislator in question is Nancy Skinner, elected in 2016 to the state Senate. Of the 12 candidates competing for the open Assembly seat that Skinner once held, only one – Andy Katz, no relation to this writer – has straightforwardly opposed Skinner's just-defeated SB 827, which would have crippled local governments' control over land use. -more-

Weak-kneed legislators bowed to political pressure and special interest groups, this week, and voted to advance Senate Bill 828 to the Appropriations Committee. As amended, the latest version of Senator Scott Wiener’s bill, which was heavily supported by development interests, would increase every city’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment quota for low income units by 25% of the existing requirement. More significantly, it also changes that quota from a planning goal to a mandatory housing production quota, with heavy penalties to cities that fail to meet it.

This completely nonsensical and arbitrary legislation, primarily driven by “politically correct” rhetoric, may have very dire economic, environmental and social consequences for all San Francisco Bay Area cities, except for San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland. -more-

Except for the newcomers, the people at the Special Meeting of the Berkeley City Council on Thursday, April 26th, 2018 at Longfellow Middle School probably wondered if they hadn't already had this bad dream. The fix is in. The seats are uncomfortable. Anybody who can't hike a flight of stairs is scattered across the floor. And one voice from the Downtown Berkeley Association's business group is considered the rough equivalent of hundreds of voices from the rest of the town. -more-

The persistence of gender inequality in the workplace ranks high among the disgraceful and shameful traditions in American society. According to the US Bureau of Census, the average income for women is about 80 percent of male earnings. For full time year round workers, women would have to work 44 additional days a year to close the gap. -more-

Once again, US made weapons sold to our “good friend”, Saudi Arabia are raining down on innocent men, women and children in Yemen. How can we call ourselves an ethical, law abiding nation when we continue to remain silent when such atrocities are being committed on a daily basis? WE ARE COMPLICIT IN THE MOST HEINESS WAR CRIMES. Donald Trump and his enablers in Congress and his supporters are guilty. I shudder to think how they will explain their silence when they come face to face with their creator. The feigned reverence for God and Jesus Christ is gross hypocrisy in light of our obsession for trade, profits and lack of concern for innocent lives. -more-

It is extremely doubtful whether Mr. Trump really understands the complexities of the Iran nuclear deal. It was all about taking cheap shots (the deal is insane” and “ridiculous”) at his predecessor and acting as the “tough guy” with his war mongering posse, John Bolton et al, likely dragging America into another dangerous conflict. Both “tough guys” evaded the draft. -more-

When I was a teenager, my grandfather Harry used to dine with us most nights. After dinner he would deliver a homily, usually, "Beware the Russians!" Grandpa Harry warned us about the Russians because they had no ethics: they would say and do anything to win. If he was alive now, Harry would still fear the Russians, but he would also warn of Christians, because some of them are willing to say and do anything to win. Witness their support of Donald Trump. -more-

Since I know almost nothing about biochemistry and am not a doctor or pharmacist, I could not reliably tell you the specific combinations of pharmaceuticals, and/or alcohol that can cause sudden death. However, I have learned to some small extent about the scenarios in which this can happen, because I've looked at mass media news outlets with their stories about famous people who have died, and because I personally knew one or two individuals to whom this happened. Pharmaceutical errors are in some cases failures of the pharmacies, and in other cases, it is hard to pinpoint who is responsible. -more-

This past week, President Trump and House Republicans took initial steps to cut back the social safety net, arguing that such spending is counterproductive and wasteful, and that eligibility must be tightened for programs including food stamps and Medicaid. They also argue that welfare benefits are far too generous, and work requirements much too lax. -more-

At SF's Embarcadero Cinema

Godard Mon Amour is a Left Bank RomCom about the iconic French "New Wave" director and his teenage paramour. The plot in a nutshell: Jean-Luc Godard (embodied by Louis Garrel) casts Anne Wiazemsky (French actress Stacey Martin) in one of his films and winds up marrying his 17-year-old star. Over the course of their 12 years of marriage, the couple collaborates in some of Godard's best-known films (La Chinoise, Weekend). But as Godard evolves, Anne resolves, and the marriage dissolves.

It's easy to see why Godard would fall for Wiazemsky. She was smart, irresistibly cute, and totally devoted to the director. But devotion can take you only so far.

-more-

Worth Noting and going:

• Sunday – Endorsement meeting of Berkeley City Council Candidates and City Auditor
• Tuesday – City Council regular meeting 6:00 pm, 22. Microbond Blockchain initiative 26. Emergency shelter/encampments
• Wednesday – Human Welfare & Community Action Commission, this is a commission that has moved into strategic planning and is worth tracking and attending. Block grant information is in the packet along with a very full agenda
• Thursday – Housing Advisory Commission
• Saturday – Tiny House village plan for Berkeley homeless Youth presentation and discussion