Public Comment

On Saturday the Berkeley Neighborhood Council sponsored a public forum, Can Berkeley be a Livable City for All?, which featured Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin and Berkeley Planning Director Timothy Burroughs explaining their current thinking and actions in the key field of land use, followed by an open no-holds-barred opportunity for participants to question and address them on all kinds of topics. The meeting was the best possible illustration of how the city’s public meetings, which typically limit citizen comments to meaningless one minute soundbytes, serve little or no purpose in informing officials, both hired and elected, about what’s happening on the ground in Berkeley.

This gathering, which was held in the community center in South West Berkeley’s San Pablo Park, gave the city’s many articulate thinkers as long as they needed to talk about what’s right and what’s wrong with the way the city is being run these days, at least in matters which involve land use. Thanks to volunteer videographer Christine Schwartz, there’s an excellent public record of what was said, and it’s worth the time to watch the whole three hours of it. (Yes, that’s what I said, three hours!).

It can be found on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/307RuIpEgkQ

It would be great if someone, a reader perhaps, could create an index to highlight particularly cogent comments—any volunteers? A transcription or summary of high points would also be good—I might try that myself later in the week.

Meanwhile, take the time to take a look. Mayor Arreguin’s summary, very early in the video, of all the activity in Sacramento aimed at usurping local control over land use, would be a good place to start.