Editorials

Taking a cue from indefatigable civic watchdog Kelly Hammagren, who almost never misses an important public meeting and compiles a calendar every week for those who’d like to join her, I’m taking the holiday weeks off.

Local government is taking its own extended winter holiday, except of course for the ticketing brigade. Beware of street sweeping in particular, even on Christmas Eve. But don’t try to reach anyone at City Hall for a while.

The federal government is busily going to hell in a handbasket, ably steered by the looniest chief executive the country’s ever seen. Nothing we can say in Berkeley will do anything to stop the madness—we’ve already sent them our best and brightest in Barbara Lee, and if she can’t save us no one can.

Our representatives in Sacramento are not up to her standard. They’ve been busy hatching schemes to deliver local governments into the clutches of Big Development and it’s not clear how to stop them, but presumably they’ll take a pause for holiday observances after the office parties are over. Nothing we can do about them now, in any case.

So let’s just relax, take a walk in the clear winter air, watch the winter birds and re-charge our batteries. We’re not going to publish a new issue until January—maybe things will have calmed down by then,.