Yesterday’s special 4:00 pm Berkeley City Council was well attended with over 200 people logging in and it felt like everyone commented. My error in retyping the zoom code incorrectly into the weekly activist’s calendar did cause some irritation for a few, (I am so sorry) but everyone managed to find links and join.

There were six emergency items added to the agenda and we managed to get through five and never moved on to the rest of the plan for the special meeting. There were many new voices commenting and most of those new voices spoke out to defunding the police. Things were going relatively smoothly all things considered, the budget referral for an Office of Racial Equity passed, the resolution to direct the Police Review Commission to submit a revised Berkeley Use of Force Policy passed, the painting of BLACK LIVES MATTER and Ohlone Territory on the street passed and then it happened.

This is the text exchange with my best friend in Palm Desert:

(me) Up now at council banning tear gas and our Berkeley Police Chief just said if he didn’t have tear gas the only choice is live bullets. No wonder the kids want the police defunded. I said this is when the rubber hits the road when the council has just spent 4 ½ hours on [how] much everyone cares about black and brown lives and now will they cave?

(Jodi) This just proves the point the protestors are making. The police can only think in terms of power and domination. How do you reform such an organization from within? You can’t. I’m not totally onboard for abolishing the police but radical change is needed and they need to have less power over the citizens and especially over the cities/counties who live in fear of their political clout.

I’ve heard these kinds of threats before from Chief Greenwood, though not as jarring whenever police actions or attempts to rein in policing are considered. Usually they are more veiled with the underlying message, if you block me from what I want something terrible will happen and it will be your fault. The Council caved last week in a 5 (Arreguin, Kesarwani, Hahn, Wengraf, Droste) to 4 (Harrison, Robinson, Bartlett, Davila) vote to approve a curfew, the Council caved September 12, 2017 in a 6 (Maio, Bartlett, Hahn, Droste, Arreguin) to 3 (Davila, Harrison, Worthington) vote to approve pepper spray.

Last night after much discussion, public comment and the beginning of calls for Chief Greenwood to resign, the Council voted unanimously for an outright ban on tear gas and a temporary prohibition on pepper spray or smoke for crowd control with further review of these agents by the Council Public Safety Policy Committee.

All this is a move in the correct direction, but at the core the question remains. How can a police chief lead a department when his own lens is limited to the only choice for crowd control if tear gas is taken away is live ammunition? Is there no other way to respond than to don riot gear, grab the batons and guns? 

My friend Jodi and everyone who has been out on the street is right. Radical change is needed and the first step here is to ask for Chief Greenwood’s resignation if he doesn’t come to that conclusion himself first. 

#Greenwoodhasgototgo

America continues its downward slide pummeled by the Coronavirus, civil unrest and failed military adventures costing $trillions and sending thousands of Americans and foreign civilians to their early graves. Following his inept and anemic response to the deadly virus, President Trump is now threatening to use the US military to quell civil unrest in a desperate effort to prove his manhood. This is the same mean that dodged the Vietnam draft by claiming heel spears. Miraculously, they seem to have healed at the end of the war. 

This is the same man who 31 years ago praised the Chinese military crackdown at Tiananmen Square, calling the students “vicious, and horrible. That shows you the power of strength.” 

Trump now threatens to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act which would provide him unlimited powers to crush civil dissent, the bastion of our democracy. 

He assured governors that under the leadership of Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, protestors would be crushed and commented the “National Guard crackdown in Minneapolis was a beautiful thing to watch.” This is a time when America has e more than 100,000 deaths and 50 million lost jobs. The death rate is three times Germany’s and the unemployment rate four times Germany’s. According to the Daily Beast, Trump was contemplating sending in tanks precipitating a possible civil war. It is time the American people raise their collective voices in November and scream “Mr. Trump you’re fired” and that would be beautiful!

Everyone is pleased the May unemployment rate dropped to 13.3 percent from 14.7. But no one was more pleased than the president who crowed, "There's a great thing that's happening for our country." Not to be outdone by his own rhetoric, he concluded his June 5 presser with, "Today is probably, if you think of it, the greatest comeback in American history."

Nevermind that 30 million people are still unemployed, and Black and Asian American unemployment actually rose.

I don't trust trump's celebratory numbers.

Remember when Florida's Governor DeSantis announced on May 20 that a Department of Health data analyst was fired for insubordination? In fact, she refused orders to manipulate the database that keeps track of epidemiological data. She refused to make it say Florida was safe to reopen business when the underlying data didn't support that conclusion. She had the professional ethics and moral strength to say "no," although it cost her job. Do those who feed us good employment news from the White House have as much integrity?

The Labor Department has said, due to limitations in data gathering (many unemployed people are misclassified as being employed), the true unemployment rate could be three percent higher than currently estimated.

Many years have passed but the theory has not changed. Love thy neighbor to get the best out of our shared human connection. War stirs fear and hatred; it cannot succeed as a method for turning neighbors into friends. Maybe we should begin to practice Gandhi’s method. Whenever he went into a troubled situation he listened deeply to everyone involved. He talked to those who were oppressed and he talked to the oppressors. He provided an example of what thoughtful listening was like. He understood each point of view before feeling his way to human justice in a tense situation. To everyone involved in the tense situation he provided the cooling example of open listening. Can we begin right from home and school by becoming open listeners?

“Listening deeply to a fellow human being I brought peace to the world.” M.Gandhi

One day last week I got an email from my neighbor across the street inviting me to join her and others in what she described as “a #blacklivesmatter #endwhitesilence ‘honk and wave’” at the nearest big intersection, the corner of Ashby and College. British-born, she’s a recently naturalized U.S. citizen, so this was her chance to exercise her newly-minted first amendment rights (and duties) in the company of friends. 

Since at our house we’re older these days than we once were, we hadn’t joined any big marches as we might have done earlier in the last 60 years, so we appreciated the opportunity to speak out close to home. What’s been so remarkable about the actions all over the world this week in response to the death of George Floyd is how spontaneous they’ve been, with no apparent international central organization. 

This one was BYO sign, but my neighbor, a skilled graphic artist, generously offered to make one for us. What should it say? 

Well, Black Lives Matter, of course, but what about Ending White Silence? It’s true that my personal gene pool came from in Europe in the last millennium or so, and my skin is melanin-challenged, so I’m certainly White. 

But I’m seldom considered silent on any topic. Here’s what came to me instead: Black Lives Matter to All of Us. 

What’s seemed different to me, as I watched a revolution being streamed as well as televised, is the huge representation of non-Black demonstrators, especially the young ones. It was not like this in the civil rights demonstrations in the 60s, perhaps with the exception of college towns like Ann Arbor and Berkeley. 

What I see, both in the media and when talking to the two generations behind mine, is that many ordinary people are just plain fed up with the racism that they see all around them. They genuinely appreciate everything that Afrocentric culture has contributed to their lives: music, fashion, sports, food, the whole nine yards. And even if they are White, they’re tired of seeing Black people abused. 

This phenomenon has caused understandable unease among Black people, particularly African-Americans. They fear that their White supporters (now politely called allies) might turn out to be, in the words of Thomas Payne, summer soldiers and sunshine patriots who will get going in the winter when the going gets tough. 

A number of Black writers have expressed this concern in op-eds in the last week or so. 

Here’s the headline on a column by my favorite, Charles Blow, in the New York Times: 

Allies, Don’t Fail Us Again 

“Many white people have been moved by the current movement, but how will they respond when true equality threatens their privilege?” 

That’s a good question. But when I look at the spectrum of faces in the demonstrating crowds, and also at the faces around the Thanksgiving table at our house, I see a different answer from the one the inimitable Mr. Blow worries about. 

Many families like ours, especially in the United States but also in Europe and even in Asia, are already firmly multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-national (not all the same thing.) The hard line which once separated descendants of enslaved Africans and their European-descended allies is fading in the upcoming generations. 

Black Lives Matter to All of Us because they are all of us. That’s the future, and we celebrate it. 

But when the sins of the past are still perpetuated against our children and grandchildren because some of their ancestors were brought to this country in slavery, there’s work for all of us to do in the present. 

Where to start? The ultimate precipitating event has been the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police. In the United States, the criminal justice establishment is the most visible and shocking manifestation of racism, in everything from policing to incarceration to capital punishment. The Floyd video supplied graphic evidence in every medium everywhere in the world. 

Police oppression of minority residents exists world-wide, especially of those with dark skins. A French friend of African descent, now a U.S. citizen, says that in Paris where he was raised he is continually stopped and searched by the police for no particular reason--he was once kept in jail for a weekend because he protested a raid on an African party in a public park. He prefers the United States, where he’s been stopped just a couple of times, because he firmly believes that police don’t have the legal right to do so, even though they still do it illegally. 

But our police can find plenty of quasi-legal excuses for harassing African-Americans. George Floyd was killed because he might or might have tried to pay for some cigarettes with a twenty-dollar bill which he might or might not have known to be counterfeit. 

The solution du jour is the demand that police be defunded. I agree with my old friend George Lakoff, the advocate of effective framing of political messages, on this one. He’s quoted in the Chronicle as saying” ‘defund the police’ is a terrible phrase.” 

It’s a terrible phrase because it’s endlessly subject to misinterpretation.  

It’s true that police forces consume huge percentages of the normal city budget. Policing is 44.5% of Berkeley’s fiscal year 2021 General Fund budget, as outrageous as that seems. 

But even worse than the expense, police officers now do a huge number of duties that they’re in no way trained or qualified for. They are asked to be social workers, mediators, psychologists and even medical providers when they’re dealing with addicts. They’re tempted to use force to solve these problems because that’s all they know how to do. 

Yes, the part of the police budgets that now pays them to perform these services should be redirected to professionals who are appropriately trained. If that’s what “defund” means, well and good, but unfortunately the average Joe (including Biden) takes it to mean that when you call 911 no one comes to help. It's supposed to mean that the right kind of help arrives, most often not armed. 

But now even the traditional “crime fighting” role of the police is done wrong much of the time. The problem is not just budgetary. 

At Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting, Police Chief Andrew Greenwood said, perhaps somewhat sarcastically, that if he wasn’t allowed to fire teargas canisters at demonstrators he’d just need to shoot them. That’s pathetic. 

He and police in general sorely need training in conflict avoidance and strategic retreat. The whole militaristic culture that infects police officers in this country must go. In the time that I've been working on the Planet, I've reported on all too many instances where Berkeley police have relied on a show of force when patient non-violence would have worked much better to solve a problem. 

Let’s ask Charles Blow to chime in again: 

“We will have to come to see and accept that this system of oppression has been actively, energetically designed and deployed over centuries, and it takes centuries of equally active and energetic efforts to dismantle it.” 

Exactly. Americans of African descent have been oppressed for 400 years. There’s no silver bullet for that, no easy two word slogan, as resonant as “Defund Police” sounds when chanted. 

Defining problems specifically should come before solutions are delineated. It will take a while for us to fix this mess, even if we can manage to work patiently together on complex long term solutions. 

But this week has shown that there’s a new will shared among many different kinds of people to get started with “active and energetic efforts”, and where there’s a will there’s a way. Recent polls show that Black lives do matter to almost all of us. All over the world this week, many of us have made it clear that we need racial justice as well as peace, and the time is now.

While Californians have been in lock-down, worried about their health, their job, and their finances, working from home and home schooling their kids between Zoom meetings on too slow internet connections, the mice in Sacramento have been busier than ever. For State Senators Wiener, Atkins, Skinner, and Marin’s own Mike McGuire, among others (the “Senators”), this has been the perfect opportunity to advance an anti-suburban, anti-single-family housing, high density, ultra-progressive agenda.

Overview

The push to pass major legislation to override local control of zoning and planning started in earnest in 2008 with the passage of SB 375, which decreed that high density development was good for the environment. That trend continued, unabated, up until the colossal failure of Senator Scott Wiener’s SB 50: a law that attempted to remove almost all local control of municipality zoning and planning about density and heights and other “restrictions” to unlimited urbanism. But the push back on this aggressive agenda was even too much for some of Wiener’s historical allies.

So, the cabal of Wiener, Atkins, Skinner, McGuire, et al went back to the drawing boards. In that transition, Marin Senator Mike McGuire, in particular, appears to have made a deal with the Devil that he’ll support Wiener's agenda in a new piecemeal fashion, if they allowed him to appear to “stand up” to their agenda in public appearances. 

Their emergent strategy now is to break the whole up into more “digestible” pieces, so as to put the compounding, cumulative impacts of new laws out of sight and mind. The strategy now is “death to the suburbs by a thousand cuts.” 

In all this, we need to ask ourselves a fundamental question, which has nothing to do with affordability or lack of it. 

Do we want a society in which decisions about how communities grow and achieve share goals to be micro-managed by centralized control and preset political ideologies or do we want to empower cities and counties with the tools and funding to enable them to meet those shared goals? 

This is no longer a theoretical, an "it might happen someday" kind of question, but one that is being decided as I write this. 

Density, Density, and More Density 

Last year, Governor Newsom signed legislation that allows accessory dwelling units (ADUs) “by right” in single-family zoned neighborhoods with “ministerial” review (no public notice or hearings). This legislation overrode local ADU laws, most of which were well-crafted to deal with the unique circumstances of each municipality and limit increased density that put residents at risk (i.e., flood, wildfire, emergency response access, etc.). 

Those sweeping, by right provisions are now under considerable challenge by local governments. The argument, in part, is that protecting the health, safety, and general welfare of residents is constitutionally mandated and must be a consideration by which government actions are measured. 

But the Senators remain undeterred. Their endless stream of proposals are designed to leap past those objections so quickly that by the time local counter-arguments are heard, it will already be too late to matter. 

The Senators' Endgame 

The Senators are well aware of the fact that residential development is generally a revenue negative proposition for cities, especially if density is increased while commercial and retail zoned parcels are converted to residential use. The lost tax revenue from sales and business taxes reduces funding for public services, infrastructure, schools, and everything else cities do. Cities are left to either raise local taxes and fees (which voters are becoming more and more resistant to) or dramatically cut services and costs (which can be impossible considering their pay and outstanding pension benefit obligations). 

For years the Senators, YIMBYs, and their corporate donors have had two major items on their wish list: getting rid of CEQA and getting rid of the homeowner protections under Prop. 13. As I’ve written, they are well on their way to achieving the first goal, but being able to open the floodgates to massive tax increases has eluded them, so far. 

As more of these high-density schemes are signed into law, more and more cities will face bankruptcy. This would set the stage to push for legislation to repeal Prop. 13 and create an investment gold rush to convert single-family neighborhoods to high density, multifamily. 

So, the best way for force the repeal of Prop. 13 is to drive California cities to the verge of bankruptcy, which they consider a small price to pay for the "greater good." 

The Senators are also aware that the huge tax increases that would result from the repeal of Prop. 13 would force the elderly to sell their single-family homes (what Prop. 13 was passed to protect against). But, again, they consider this a good thing, because it will free up more housing units as the elderly are relegated to diminished living conditions. YIMBY leadership has even suggested that we need legislation that forces anyone over 65 to sell their single-family homes and move into condos or apartments. 

The Legal Landslide 

Among the new laws California legislators are currently working hard to push to a vote are the following (to help readers get a quick take, text is bolded to highly the major provisions of each law): 

Senate Bill 1120 – Doubling Single-Family Land Use 

SB 1120 intends to double the density of homes on single-family zoned parcels, by allowing two homes where only one stood, originally, by splitting a lot in half. This would also be allowed by ministerial review (no notice, no public hearings) and turns single-family zoning into duplex zoning (e.g., attached townhomes) and possibly more. 

The only significant conditions the proposed law puts on this development is that the resultant lots be no smaller than 1,200 square feet and the proposed housing development does not require “demolition or alteration requiring evacuation or eviction of an existing housing unit that is subject to a recorded covenant, ordinance, or law that restricts rents to levels affordable to persons and families of moderate, low, or very low income.”[1] 

Another twist in the law is that this new development is not subject to the requirements and protections of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), because CEQA does not apply to projects approved by “ministerial” review. And the law has no affordability requirements on the new units. 

Marin Senator Mike McGuire, SB 1120’s principal coauthor with Senator Wiener, is asking us to believe that doubling the number of full sized homes on a street would not have any cumulative impacts on traffic, parking, water runoff, air pollution, infrastructure, etc.. 

Finally, as is now standard for all these new bills, the Legislative Counsel notes, 

“The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.” …And therefore, “This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act.” 

The full text, as written the law, states, 

“SEC. 4. The Legislature finds and declares that ensuring access to affordable housing is a matter of statewide concern and not a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution. Therefore, Sections 1 and 2 of this act adding Sections 65852.21 and 66411.7 to the Government Code and Section 3 of this act amending Section 66452.6 of the Government Code apply to all cities, including charter cities. 

“SEC. 5. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.” [Emphasis added] 

Senate Bill 1085 

Written by Senators Skinner and Caballero, with principal coauthors Mike McGuire, Lena Gonzalez, and Susan Rubio, SB 1085 changes the State Density Bonus law. 

The bill purports to increase affordable housing by increasing the density bonuses, incentives, and concessions offered by cities to developers. This includes some minor adjustments to require more affordable units in a project, in order to qualify for a density bonus, and it requires more reporting by local agencies to the state. However, the most significant change to existing law relates to environmental impacts. 

As discussed in my recent articles, the demise of environmental protections in California continues, unabated. As noted by the Legislative Counsel, 

“Existing law authorizes a city or county to refuse a [developer] concession or incentive if the city or county makes a written finding, based upon substantial evidence that the concession or incentive would have a specified adverse impact on public health and safety, the physical environment, or real property listed in the California Register of Historical Resources. 

“This bill would remove the specified adverse impact on the physical environment from the list of reasons for which a city or county is authorized to refuse a concession or incentive.” [Emphasis added] 

The negative consequences of removing adverse impacts on the physical environment, regardless of their scale and scope, as a legitimate argument for a city to deny a developer the right to build more density, needs no explanation. 

It is contradictory to the fundamental premise of CEQA and is literally a license to decimate the environment. 

Senate Bill 902 

Senate Bill 902, as written and amended by Senator Wiener, is the shortest but perhaps the most egregious of all the newly proposed bills coming forward. Much has been written about its troublesome provisions and impacts, one piece in particular is by Sharon Rushton of Sustainable Tam/Almonte, which can be read by clicking here. 

In a nutshell, under the guise of promoting affordable housing, the Legislative Counsel sums it up as follows: 

“This bill would authorize a local government to pass an ordinance, notwithstanding any local restrictions on adopting zoning ordinances, to zone any parcel for up to 10 units of residential density per parcel, at a height specified by the local government in the ordinance, if the parcel is located in a transit-rich area, a jobs-rich area, or an urban infill site, as those terms are defined. 

“In this regard, the bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research, to determine jobs-rich areas and publish a map of those areas every 5 years. 

“The bill would specify that an ordinance adopted under these provisions is not a project for purposes of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act.” 

In other words, a group of unelected, clandestine bureaucrats in Sacramento (translation: political appointees) will sit around and make up a map delineating, in their sole opinion, which areas should be designated to be “jobs rich” or “transit rich,” or is an “urban infill site,” and developers will then be able to force density of up to 10 units “per parcel” (regardless of how small that parcel might be). 

All of this will be categorically exempt from CEQA review or requirements. 

The absurdity of this proposal is beyond the pale. 

As it reads, every single-family zoned parcel in California within the prescribed types of designation areas – transit rich, jobs rich, and urban infill – could be filled with ten unit buildings. For example, in downtown San Rafael, in Marin, 5,000 square foot, single-family parcels with an existing 35 foot height limit could be displaced by 10 unit micro-apartment developments, packed cheek to jowl. 

And since parking, traffic, infrastructure, schools, lack of public services, and other impacts are no longer assessed or grounds for denial, there’s not a thing local government or residents can do about it. 

Senate Bill 1385 

This bill[2], called “the Neighborhood Homes Act,” would permit multifamily housing on land currently zoned for office or retail commercial use. The bill would require housing density of at least 20 units per acre.  

SB 1385 claims that new housing development would still be subject to the local residential multifamily zoning (if that exists), parking requirements, and design review and require public notice, comment, and public hearings. However, most of the other laws being proposed and laws passed in the last 10 years have added language that has already removed most of these requirements, in most cases, for reasons unaltered by SB 1385, making this “local control” pledge hollow. 

In fact, in the context of other existing laws, this legislation is so poorly written, so filled with micro-managing formulas, percentage benchmarks, and allowance definitions that it is almost undecipherable. 

Development approval would also be streamlined, provide a ministerial approval process, and would void any existing conditional-use requirements, if a building site is already zoned for mixed-use development. 

This means all the existing, well-crafted, local standards for allowing residential conditional-use are thrown out. Nonsensically, the Legislative Counsel goes on to say that 

“…the proposed development is also required to be consistent with objective zoning standards, objective subdivision standards, and objective design review standards in effect at the time the development is submitted to the local government.” 

But what are “objective standards?” The bill fails to offer a definition. And how can new mixed-use, residential development “be consistent with” the “standards in effect at the time,” when no such standards exist in commercial zones? 

Worse still, commercial and retail zoning makes up a significant percentage of any city’s land use and its major source of sales tax and other types of business tax revenues. To suddenly zone all of it multifamily residential is civic suicide, to put it mildly. 

This proposed law would have direct, negative impacts on every city in the Bay Area. 

For example, in Mill Valley, the city and community spent years developing a “conditional use” zoning ordinance to allow mixed-use, residential multifamily development on Miller Avenue, a one mile arterial that contains a significant amount of the city’s commercially zoned land. These regulations carefully consider things like the infrastructure demands and how traffic and parking impacts the viability of retail and office uses. It was tailored to the specifics of the town and the businesses in it, in order to develop a plan that benefited all. 

Now all of that would be wiped away. And for what? 

Part of the answer to that brings us back to my comments above about how replacing retail and commercial zoning with more and more housing will eventually bankrupt cities and force the repeal of Prop. 13. 

Senate Bill 995 

This proposed legislation, ostensibly being promoted as an “environmental protection” law, is a revision to previously proposed legislation that was called the “Environmental quality: Jobs and Economic Improvement through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011: housing projects.” It comes to us courtesy of Senators Atkins and Wiener, who are both fond of taking older, failed legislation and using it as a “shell” within which to do as they please. 

Put simply, SB 995 says, the state should be able to pay cities (with taxpayer funds) to do a “master environmental impact report,” when a city does a “general plan, plan amendment, plan element, or specific plan for housing projects,” in order to “streamline and expedite environmental review for housing projects,” which results in reducing the environmental protections for those same taxpaying residents. 

On its surface, SB 995 appears to be an innocuous technical revision to existing law, but it is much more than that. SB 995 deals with a controversial issue regarding the respective requirements of “Program EIRs” and “Project EIRs.” 

As it is today, cities and government agencies do Program EIRs when they write land planning and zoning regulations, such as for a General Plan. Then when a specific project (e.g., an apartment proposal) is presented, the agency decides whether a Project EIR (specific to that individual project) is also required. The city decides this based on what the Program EIR covered and by making project specific findings about what potentially significant environmental impacts might still need to be addressed. 

Generally, developers try their best to convince the city that no Project EIR is required, and cities often bend over backwards (translation: they make backroom deals) to avoid the lengthy public process involved in doing a Project EIR. 

SB 995 undermines the requirements to do a Project EIR and benefits no one but the developer. 

A good example of why this is not advisable can be found in Marin County: the infamous 180 unit “WinCup” project, now known as the Tam Ridge Apartment, in the town of Corte Madera. 

This project was approved by relying on a General Plan Program EIR that did not even mention the Tam Ridge Apartments parcel by name. Even though the previous parcel users manufactured Styrofoam products in a factory on the parcel, a process that uses known carcinogens and produces carcinogenic waste, the project was approved and built without even doing a soils report to test for residual toxins on the site. 

This is the kind of “environmental protection” Senators Wiener and Atkins want to apply to all multifamily development, and they want you to pay for it. 

They want to strengthen the ability for a city to streamline development approval by relying on program EIRs in order to avoid project specific and cumulative environmental impacts assessment. 

[1] https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB1120/id/2187021 

[2] https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB1385/id/2187036 

Bob Silvestri is a Mill Valley resident and the founder and president of Community Venture Partners, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community organization funded only by individuals in Marin and the San Francisco Bay Area. Please consider DONATING TO CVP to enable us to continue to work on behalf of California residents. 

"We do not need to militarize our response to protests." - Former Defense Secretary James Mattis, The Atlantic, June 2020

A plaintive voice, apparently from the chair of the Police Review Commission, asked the Berkeley City Council on Tuesday, June 2, 2020, to please, please allow the commission to meet. The commission has apparently been shut down for weeks in a moment when the whole world is writhing over the pain of yet another black man murdered by a police officer in plain view, even videotaped, while other police officers stood casually by or held him down.

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin referred the matter to the City Manager. The more pressing matter for the mayor was the establishment and extension of a curfew, the ham-handed approach to this international turning point. And establishing special permits for the very businesses who've been urging the city to clear the streets of anyone visibly poor so they can use public space for their own profit. 

Meanwhile, the public fencing of open space at the intersection of Telegraph and Dwight, at the University edge of 4th Street, under the Gilman underpass where people could at least shelter from the rain goes unremarked. Even People's Park is threatened primarily on the grounds that visible poverty is just such a downer. 

Arreguin embraces these optics for the same reason Ronald Reagan did; politically, it sells like hotcakes. The good news is four members of the Berkeley City Council objected at least to the curfew being instituted at the same moment other cities were putting theirs away in recognition of the larger constitutional right and need of people to gather to mourn, to protest, and to organize. 

Thank you, Berkeley councilmembers Ben Bartlett, Cheryl Davila, Kate Harrison, and Rigel Robinson for recognizing the international clarion call eluding our tone deaf mayor. Other elected officials are rejecting choke holds, pepper spray, CS gas, and other police tactics as inherently dangerous in a system which is inherently racist. Other elected officials are redirecting the funding of militarized police forces toward community needs. Would that the brave example of these councilmembers inspire the rest of the council. 

Known as the Trump Effect, President Trump’s presidential election has had a substantial impact on personal relationships. In various articles and newspaper reports on this issue we learn of the many friendships and marriages that have come to end. In one highly publicized instance, for example, a woman who was a California prison guard divorced her husband of 22 years when she was 73 because he voted for Trump. She explained that she felt “betrayed”. 

During difficult times many Americans over the years change their political perspective. One woman complained that her husband of 24 years shifted to the political right. Although she tolerated his politics for a long while his support for Trump was too much. When she filed for divorce she explained, “I just couldn’t see sharing a bed with somebody that agreed with what Trump was doing”. 

Undoubtedly, marriages that are built on a strong foundation are unlikely to break up because of political differences. On the other hand politics is not only very important to many Americans. It has been becoming more so. In fact, one lawyer claims that she has not seen so many couples fighting over politics in her 35 years of practice. 

According to the research, 11 percent of married couples have ended their relationship because of political differences. Among younger couples, 22 percent broke off because of political tensions. If we take into account the aggregate adverse impact of political tensions on both marriages and partnerships, almost 30 percent of Americans are engaged in unhappy relationships. 

Although there is certainly an overlap with regard to how couples react to Trump and Trumpism, there tends to be a marked gender difference. The majority of women, 60 percent, vote for Democrats, which suggests that they favor a liberal perspective. But only a minority of men, 47 percent, vote for Democrats. How do we account for the difference? According to a Pew research poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that women are more compassionate than men. As the evidence confirms, that’s right. They are also more empathetic. By applying their strengths to their political activities, it is likely that women will play a major role in unseating Donald Trump this November.

Numerous persons who've suffered from severe mental illness, some, people of color, others white, are not unfamiliar with brutal treatment at the hands of cops. And I am one of them. 

Don't get me wrong; I'll call the police when they are needed if there is a life-threatening situation, if there is danger, or if someone is brutal to the point of breaking a law. I'm often the first to call them. I respect police--they carry weapons, and I am not about to go punching any of them in the nose. Most are brave and kind individuals and have entered police forces driven by the desire to serve and having acknowledged they are proficient at dealing with bad guys and/or bad situations. 

However, on a 5150, police ethics and fair treatment are often put to the test. And some have failed miserably. 

While I am white, actually a descendant of Russian Jews (100 percent, in comparison to the 50 percent of the former officer who brutally murdered an innocent man) I can understand what it is like to be on the receiving end of forceful treatment. I would like to speak on behalf of all Russian Jews (even though many may not feel I am qualified to do so) and say that this is uncharacteristic of how we behave toward human beings. Racial origin of the murdering officer is not relevant, and it does not say anything about Jewish people. 

But the main thrust of this week's column is this: How are mentally ill people supposed to deal with all of this? We've been strained by a society that has been trying to fight off a deadly pathogen, for the past several months. Now, we are seeing social unrest, and this unrest is because a first responder heinously abused his position of power. This is not the first time this has happened. The difference is that we have it recorded on video, available for almost anyone on Earth to view. 

Mentally ill people have a lot to deal with. If you are mentally ill and nonwhite, you have a lot on your plate. I think that now, more than at any time, the community needs to step up and assure those of us suffering from mental illness that we will be cared for. We are a vulnerable category of people, just as seniors are vulnerable, just as people with any substantial disability are vulnerable. 

If the reader has ever been on the receiving end of a 5150, this kind of incident can bring up past trauma. Police are trained in use of Judo and other Martial Arts so that they can restrain and subdue people. They have Tasers, they have batons, and they have firearms. This can be frightening. This is a lot of power in the hands of an individual who almost certainly is unfamiliar with the context of what you are facing. Errors will happen, in some instances, deadly errors. However, murder is not an error; racial profiling is not an error; brutality is not an error. These behaviors must be eradicated from members of police forces and sheriffs. 

We will not have a law-abiding society when police themselves are not obeying the law. We must have major reform in how police are trained to behave. We must have reform in the punitive nature of the "criminal justice" system. The concept of punishing people doesn't work. When you lock someone in a cage and tell them daily that they are worthless, how is that supposed to make them a better person? 

We need another system. As a man in his thirties who was a coworker in an early job I held, told me (he was in school and hoped to become a Presbyterian Minister) "There's got to be a better way." The comment was about something at the job, but I am nabbing it for this essay. 

My friends, there has got to be a better way. 

Getting Back to Normal

In what looks like another sign that America Amok may be returning to "normal," the San Francisco Chronicle has been running a print ad that harkens back to the good ol' pre-pandemic days of yore. It has appeared daily on page 2, placed in a prized position directly below the Chron's "To Our Readers" editorial statement. It reads: "Attention! This Weekend. Fairfield Gun Show. June 6 & 7. New and Used Firearms. Bulk Ammunition. 1^st Time Buyers Welcome. Under 18 Free w/Parent."

The ad was adorned with an illustration of a revolver and a photo of someone wearing a full-body hazmat suit.

It's time for a new normal. 

Another Sign of the Times 

On June 1, the same day Donald Trump addressed the DC press corps in the Rose Garden to proclaim himself "the President of Law and Order" (and announce his planned military take-over of US cities), Trump's social-networking, ego-machine was working overtime. 

Across the Internet, shocking images of urban looting and disturbing videos of clashes between protesters and police were suddenly being covered over with pop-up ads announcing "Happy Birthday President Trump"—and inviting viewers to "Sign the Card." 

It's Hell on The Hill 

On Monday, I participated in a Zoom-hosted conference call with a congressional aide in Washington, DC. Working from his apartment outside the Capital, he lamented that little legislation or other communal business was happening because of the pandemic. Pieces of legislation that once would have garnered scores of co-sponsors within a day of introduction now wither with the legislative chambers largely empty. 

The staffer mentioned one progressive bill introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA): "Ordinarily, he would have asked all his buddies to sign on and would have had 40 co-sponsors in on day one. Now? Zilch!" 

The staffer also noted that many routine operations on The Hill have been slowed by concerns over the spread of COVID-19. Apologizing for being ten minutes late in joining the call, he explained that he had been having trouble with his computer. "Tech support used to involve simply yelling for advice over a cubicle wall," he groaned, "Now it takes hours." 

Plying Your Trade … With Plywood 

It's not just Walmart and Target stores that have been boarded over to discourage attacks by roving bands of thieves. Trader Joe's outlets also have undergone a looter-takeover-makeover with their glass windows now hidden behind acres of recently installed plywood sheets. At the same time, most adjacent stores have taken no defensive measures to protect their plate glass. 

Does this give rise to mixed feelings? I mean, if I were managing a store that wasn't shielded with plywood, wouldn't I feel bad sending a message that my store didn't have anything anyone wanted to steal? If so, I might be tempted to install some plywood just to create the illusion that my goods were as steal-worthy as those of my neighbors. 

Recommended Reading 

Check out UC Prof. Robert Reich's stinging op-ed in London's The Guardian. Entitled "Fire, Pestilence and a Country at War With Itself: The Trump Presidency Is Over," it reads, in part: "You’d be forgiven if you hadn’t noticed. His verbal bombshells are louder than ever, but Donald J Trump is no longer president of the United States. By having no constructive response to any of the monumental crises now convulsing America, Trump has abdicated his office. He is not governing. He’s golfing, watching cable TV and tweeting. . . . He is no longer president. The sooner we stop treating him as if he were, the better." 

Trump's Latest Lies (as of June 1) 

On Friday, May 29, according to "multiple senior sources familiar with the matter," Donald Trump retreated to the safety of an underground bunker while protesters rallied in nearby Lafayette Park, across from the White House. Fearful of looking fearful, Trump claimed that he only dropped in for an "inspection" and only spent a "tiny, short period" of time hunkered below. 

On Wednesday, June 1—in an apparent attempt to repair his "strong and presidential" image—Trump arranged to stage a "photo op" holding a Bible in front of a nearby church. Only one problem: There was a large group of Americans in the way—celebrating the First Amendment and their constitutional right to Assemble Freely and Petition the White House for a Redress of Grievances. 

Reporters on the scene described how the peaceful protesters were driven from the park by Military Police and National Guard troops who attacked with tear gas, smoke bombs, rubber bullets, and pepper balls. Demonstrators and reporters alike were beaten by police batons as they fled the park. 

When news of the violent attack on a peaceful protest triggered a blowback of outrage, Trump denied he had ordered the forced removal. "When I said, 'Go to the church,' I didn't know protesters or not," Trump garbled. "Nobody tells me that. They say, 'Yes sir, we'll go to the church.'" 

One of the reasons to distrust Trump's denial of any foreknowledge of the violent attack on the peaceful protest can be found embedded in the video of the press conference that proceeded Trump's walk to St. John's Church. 

As members of the press have reported, "Tear gas canisters could be heard exploding as Trump spoke in the Rose Garden." And therein lies the proof of Trump's second lie. 

 

Even though the explosions are clearly audible, Trump showed no sign of surprise or alarm. Similarly, no members of Trump's security team rushed forward to escort POTUS to safety. All clear evidence that both Trump and his enablers clearly anticipated an outburst and knew the attack was underway. 

And what were Trump's words, as the bombs were bursting in the air over Lafayette Park? Just what you would expect—another lie: "We cannot allow the righteous cries of people protesting to be drowned out by an angry mob." 

Colbert Bares the Unbearable: Trump Exposed as a Fascist Twit 

 

Social Distancing: How to Wing It 

Waiting in one of those long shopping lines that circled around the block, we finally reached the point where we were supposed to make the turn toward the final block-long stretch. We'd been carefully heeding the six-foot-realm-of-separation so we were not prepared when the store orderly in charge of crowd control suddenly barked: "Stop! Hold it right there! Back up! Quick!" 

"What's up?" We asked. "There's plenty of room between us and the folks ahead!" 

"It's not them," he apologized, "It's the birds." 

He pointed to a blackbird silhouetted on a nearby rafter. "There must be a nest nearby. That bird's been dive-bombing people who get too close." 

Turns out this is not just a local inconvenience. The Wall Street Journal reports that bird attacks have been on the upswing in recent years—quite possibly another result of Climate Chaos. Here are some bird-bombing incidents filmed on the streets of San Francisco. 

 

Hug-a-Cop 

Given the endless stream of videos showing cops punching, beating, tazing, and firing weapons at unarmed civilian protesters (and the occasional journalist), it's kind of hard to repeat the meant-to-sooth mantra, "We're all in this together." 

But recently there's been a counter-stream of cellphone videos showing police — from Portland, Oregon, to the District of Colombia — reaching out to hug a protester or bending down to "take a knee." 

The later gesture has prompted two quite disparate reactions. In some video clips, protesters step forward to shake the hands of the kneeling cops. In other clips, the solitary kneeling cop is hauled to his feet by his comrades who proceed to "pound some sense into him." 

In one viral vid, a tall and lean black protester goes down a long Blue Line and gives a hearty hug to each officer on duty. Every one, from the beefiest to the smallest, responds with a vigorous back-slapping embrace. 

These are images that warm the heart. Until one remembers (GASP!) … COVID-19! What's worse, pandemic-wise, than a group of hundreds of police and protesters gathering to confront each other in the streets? In a word: hugging! 

Clearly, we're all in the mood for an overdue Kumbaya Moment but it's really got to wait until the coronavirus death count has peaked, flattened, and finalized. 

Related Note: Scientists are warning that tear-gas can accelerate the spread of the COVID-19 virus because it provokes tears and choking among scores of people in close quarters. Teargas and other air pollutants can also act as "carriers" that allow viral elements to "hitch-hike" over greater distances. 

The Deathknell of the Kneel? 

When Colin Kaepernick first "took a knee" in 2016 to protest racially targeted police violence, he explained that the gesture was borrowed from the military where “soldiers take a knee in front of a fallen brother’s grave." He went on to explain: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. . . . There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” 

Kaepernick could not abide the thought that Americans live in a country where a police officer accused of murdering an unarmed civilian is rewarded with a "paid vacation." That's what typically happens when a cop is accused of a crime: he/she is placed on "administrative leave" (which is just another way of saying "paid vacation"). 

But now that we have images of police officers publicly dropping to one knee in a show of sympathy with protesters, the messaging gets murky. 

Same gesture; two messages. 

What we are hearing is the sound of symbols clashing. 

Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin has dramatically co-opted Kaepermick's memorable embodiment of remorse. The message behind the image of Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck stands in absolute opposition to Kaepernick's message. 

In the Bay Area last week, a female police officer restrained a protester by placing her knee on the victims' neck. It could be that this gesture (let's call it "Chauvin's Blue Kneel") is being adopted by rightwing police officers who sympathize with Derek Chauvin and believe that their job requires that they continue to "dominating" and subdue people of color. 

How do we know what's in the minds of the kneeling officers? How can we be sure whose meme is in their minds? Are they saluting Kaepernick or (like Trump advisor Steven Miller and his covert White Power hand sign) are they secretly sending a Chauvanistic message. 

Derek Chauvin has managed to take Kaepernick's powerful expression of solidarity (standing up for the poor by stepping down) and has wrenched it into a twisted embrace of racial hatred. 

A Sad but True Haiku 

His name says it all 

Derek Chauvin — another 

White Male Chauvinist 

Not an Honorable Death 

A US newspaper recently called for "honoring the deaths" of Americans who had died as a result of police violence. But is "honoring" the right word? These unfortunate people were victims. Their deaths were tragic. Their deaths are to be mourned, not "honored." They did not lose their lives while committing selfless acts like bringing food to war zones, fighting wildfires, rushing into burning buildings, or treating COVID-19 victims inside hospital emergency rooms. 

To use the word "honor" deflects and mistranslates the emotional message of these deaths. The verbal switch creates the false sense that the victims died in a "positive" manner while accomplishing something of significant social worth. There is nothing "honorable" about being murdered because of the color of your skin. 

As Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student and mass-shooting-survivor Emma Gonzalez put it: "We call BS!" 

A "Barbicide" Aside 

There is a hair-styling salon in El Cerrito Plaza called Sola. Posted on its entrance is a sign that proclaims: "All our Sola Pros are Barbicide Certified." 

Barbicide? I'd never seen that word before. It sounds like a term Richard Nixon might have muttered in the '60s while ordering a dark plot to destroy Berkeley's feisty anti-war weekly, the Barb. 

Or was "barbacide" a reference to removing unwanted facial hair and/or beards? ("Barba" is Spanish for beards.) 

None of the above, says Wikipedia. It turns out that Barbicide is "a disinfectant solution used by barbers and cosmetologists for disinfecting grooming tools such as combs and hair-cutting shears." It's also EPA-approved and is reported to be effective against the COVID-19 virus. (But don't slip-and-slide your backside with Barbacide unless you are Certified.)

I too am saddened and outraged at George Floyd’s senseless in-custody death by a Minneapolis policeman, which has ignited protests and riots in Minnesota, across the U.S. and even abroad.  

A protest is a peaceful public display of displeasure or disapproval, usually carried out by marching, chanting and/or holding signs with messages on them while a riot is a violent public disturbance. Too often protests are infiltrated by a small group of individuals who turn peaceful protests into riots during which they destroy public and private property, loot stores, and where injuries often occur. These infiltrators are not demonstrating their First Amendment rights — they are committing acts of terror. Unfortunately, the media tends to show the violence while the peaceful protestors’ message about the unchecked police brutality against people of color in this country may be diluted or even lost.  

Protests “yes,” riots “no.” 

Minneapolis has a persistent and rising Covid-19 infection rate as do many other parts of the country. Now the city must deal with an unjustified police killing, riot damage and a pandemic, which is disproportionally effecting the Black community. 

Meanwhile Trump is fanning the flames of the unrest over George Floyd’s death with no mention of the systemic racism in this country. After bringing troops to the District of Columbia, he staged a photo opportunity holding a Bible upside down in front of boarded-up St. John’s Episcopal Church. 

Worth Noting:

The City of Berkeley has updated the Shelter-in-Place order increasing the requirement for facial coverings while reopening more services and business beginning June 8.

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/covid19-health-orders/#health-order-2020-08



Remember the COVID-19 pandemic is not over and the incidence of new infections in California hit a new high of 3600 new cases recorded June 5 [source www.worldometers.info]



At the same time California records a new high of new infections the State has slipped to 28^th in the nation in number of tests per million population 56,653 behind Georgia 58,990, Minnesota 57,156, Iowa 57,386, South Dakota 59,483. Rhode Island leads the nation with 161,172 tests per million population.



Please wear facial coverings when out.



June 6 – June 14 – There are eight City Meetings, one town hall and the June 6 March to Bury Racism.

Monday - The first meeting of the Community Advisory Group on housing at Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations is Monday. 

Tuesday - City Council Budget 10 am, 4 pm, 6 pm 

Wednesday – Homeless Panel of Experts and Police Review Commission 

Thursday – Disaster and Fire Safety Commission and Zoning Adjustment Board 

June 16 City Council agenda follows calendar of City meetings 

 

Saturday, June 6, 2020 

Town Hall from the Mayor at 12 noon, Watch live at jessearreguin.com 

 

Berkeley March to Bury Racism Funeral Procession, 3:30 - 5:30 pm, start at Malcolm X Elementary School 1731 Prince St – end at Civic Center approximately 1 mile, hosted by Ben Bartlett, Inga Bard, James Chang, Rigel Robinson,  

https://www.facebook.com/events/1239422319756276 

 

Sunday, June 7, 2020  

No City meetings or events found 

 

Monday, June 8, 2020 

Ashby and North Berkeley BART Community Advisory Group (first meeting) 6 – 9 pm 

Board members and information https://www.jessearreguin.com/bart/cag, 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/bartplanning/ 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/95585860581 

Teleconference: 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 955 8586 0581 

Agenda: 2. Project Overview and Context, 3. CAG members, 4. CAG “How We Work Together,” 5. Development Considerations and Existing Conditions, 6. Public Comment 

 

Tuesday, June 9, 2020 

City Council Budget & Finance Committee, 10 am, 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Budget___Finance.aspx 

Videoconference: https://us02.zoom.us/j/85412353866 

Teleconference: 669-900-9128, Meeting ID: 854 1235 3866 

Agenda: 2. FY 2021 Budget Update, 3. Councilmember Budget Recommendations, 4. Homeless Services Report. 

 

Special Council Meeting, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm, 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Agenda_Index.aspx 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8904765600 

Teleconference: 669-900-9128, Meeting ID: 890 4764 5600 

Agenda: 1. PUBLIC HEARING #2 FY 2021 Budget Update, ACTION: 2. FY 2020 Mid-year update, 3. Presentation and discussion community survey results for possible ballot measures, 4. Charter Amendment (11/3/2020 Ballot Measure) to change status of Mayor and Council to Fulltime with fulltime salaries, 5. Ballot Measure to Create Climate Action Fund, 6. Proposed Amendment to Minimum Wage ordinance to reinstate minimum wage exemption for youth job training setting wage at $14.50 (packet 304 pages) 

 

Special Council Meeting – ZAB Appeal, 6:00 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/2020/06_June/City_Council__06-09-2020_-_Special_Meeting_Agenda.aspx 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8904765600 

Teleconference: 669-900-9128, Meeting ID: 890 4764 5600 

Agenda: 1. ZAB Appeal 1155-1173 Hearst Ave 

 

Wednesday, May 10, 2020 

Homeless Services Panel of Experts, 6 – 8 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=16852 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/99570526705?pwd=YkxPTDBwdjNBRFhrOVdBb3JjUjFCQT09 

Teleconference: 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 995 7052 6705 Password: 202527 

One Tap mobile +16699006833,,99570526705# US (San Jose) 13462487799,,99570526705# US 

No agenda posted https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Homeless_Services_Panel_of_Experts.aspx 

 

Police Review Commission, 7 – 10 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Police_Review_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83201402184 

Teleconference: 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 832 0140 2184 

Agenda: 7. Subcommittee Work a. Use of Force, b. Standard of Proof, c. Lexipol Policies, 11. Closed Session - Consider whether to close case #2469 due to failure to timely issue notice of allegations 

 

Thursday, June 11, 2020 

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission, 7 – 9 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Disaster_and_Fire_Safety_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/97910573100 

Teleconference: 669-900-9128, Meeting ID: 979 1057 3100 

Agenda Action: 1. Recommendation to City Council on the Measure GG Tax Rate Adjustment 

 

Zoning Adjustment Board, 7 pm 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/zoningadjustmentsboard/ 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/97239456243 

Teleconference: 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 972 3945 6243 

2023-25 Shattuck – demolish remaining structure following fire and construct 7-story 73’5” mixed-use building with 48 dwellings (including 4 dwellings available to very low income) no parking 34 bicycle spaces, on consent 

1635 Tacoma – enlarge existing 1531 sq ft 3-story single family dwelling with 77 sq ft addition average height 22’9” with non-conforming setback, on consent 

2338 Telegraph – Eliminate a residential Hotel Room to create common kitchen and modify another Room to provide a replacement room, on consent 

1346 Ordway – Appeal Zoning Officer’s approval of Administrative Use Permit to legalize additions on 4,480 sq ft lot with existing 1-story 1152 sq ft single family dwelling, 9 ft wood fence with14 ft hedge, legalize 128 sq ft 12’2” tall habitable accessory building, legalize 9 ft tall 5’ x 21’ trellis located 3” from south property line, locate front yard off-street parking space by modifying AUP and Variance requirements, recommend approve 

 

Friday, June 12, 2020 

No City meetings or events found 

 

Saturday, June 13, 2020 

Expect a Town Hall announcement from the Mayor at 12 noon, Watch live at jessearreguin.com 

Since questions need to be submitted in advance by 9 am on Saturday using this form and there is no live interchange with the public watch anytime on the Mayor’s YouTube site or watch as it is live streamed on jessearreguin.com. 

 

Sunday, June 14, 2020 

No City meetings or events found 

_____________________ 

 

June 16 City Council Agenda - email comments to council@cityofberkeley.info 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/2020/06_June/City_Council__06-16-2020_-_Regular_Meeting_Agenda.aspx 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81458990553 

Teleconference: 669-900-9128, Meeting ID: 814 5899 0553 

Agenda CONSENT: 1. 2^nd reading Lease for 235 University – YOONACO.Inc dba Hana Japan term 5 yr, 2. 2^nd reading agreement Doubletree Hotel, 3. Adopt temporary City Council rules of procedure. 4. Appointment Liam Garland as Director of Public works, 5. Urgency Ordinance Declaring Fiscal Emergency in Response to Pandemic, 6. Contract $11,906 total $107,154 with Paw Fund for Spay Neuter Services, 7. Assessments Berkeley Tourism Business Improvement District, 8. Temporary Appropriations $50million for FY 2021, 

Items 9 – 19 FY Tax Rate (9. $0.0125/ sq ft of improvements for funding procurements of disaster fire equipment - Measure Q, 10. Neighborhood Branch Library Improvements - Measure FF Nov 2008, 11. T1, 12. Measures G,S & I, 13. Library services $0.2272/sq ft dwelling units, $0.3435/sq ft industrial, commercial, institutional, 14. Business Licenses Large Non-profits $0.6659/sq ft improvements, 15. Measure O, 16. Measure M, 17. Maintenance Parks, City Trees, Landscaping $0.17.93/sq ft improvements, 18. Measure E Emergency Services for Severely Disabled $0.01699/sq ft improvements, 19. Emergency Medical Services Paramedics $0.0397/sq ft improvements, 20. Contract $106,428 with Kings View for Mental Health Reporting Services, 21. Grant Application $500,000 for state Local Early Action Planning (LEAP), 22. Contract $210,000 for 1600 new recycling carts and $3,850,384 for 1yr extension, total $4,060,474 with Ecology Center, Inc. for curbside recycling, 23. Referral to FY21 Budget Process: Housing Retention Program - $1,000,000 and Basic Needs Fund - $250,000, 24. Referral to CM lessons learned regarding organizational response to COVID-19, 25. Support Collaboration between US and Cuba in fighting COVID-19, ACTION: 26. Re-establish North Shattuck Business District, 27. Levy and Collection of FY 2021 Street Lighting Assessments, 28. RPP 2900 Block Lorina, 3100 Block Deakin, 29. ZAB Appeal 2650 Telegraph, 30. Charter Amendment Ballot Initiative to repeal residency requirement for sworn members Berkeley Fire Dept, 31. Contract CycloMedia for GIS Infrastructure Asset Data, INFORMATION REPORTS: 32. Refunding General Obligation Bonds, 33. 2^nd Qtr Investment Report (ended Dec 31 2019), 34. 3^rd Qtr Investment Report (ended March 31, 2020), 

_____________________ 

 

 

Public Hearings Scheduled 

1155-73 Hearst 6/9/2020 

2650 Telegraph 6/16/2020 

0 Euclid 7/7/2020 

1449 Grizzly Peak 7/7/2020 

1533 Berkeley Place 7/14/2020 

Use Permits and the Appeal End Date 

1037 Creston 6/18/2020 

1001 Dwight 6/16/2020 

1380 Hearst 6/23/2020 

920 Heinz 6/16/2020 

977 Keeler 6/25/2020 

2139 Oregon 6/18/2020 

1700 Seventh 6/16/2020 

1500 Shattuck 6/16/2020 

1549 Shattuck 6/9/2020 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/planning_and_development/land_use_division/current_zoning_applications_in_appeal_period.aspx 

 

LINK to Current Zoning Applications https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Current_Zoning_Applications.aspx 

 

___________________ 

 

WORKSHOPS 

June 23 –, HOLD – Special Meeting on City Budget 

July 21 – Crime report, Climate Action Plan/Resiliency Update 

Sept 29 – Digital Strategic Plan/FUND$ Replacement Website Update, Zero Waste Priorities 

Oct 20 – Update Berkeley’s 2020 Vision, BMASP/Berkeley Pier-WETA Ferry 

 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Vision 2050 

Ohlone History and Culture (Special meeting) 

Presentation from StopWaste on SB 1383 

____________________________________ 

 

To Check For Regional Meetings with Berkeley Council Appointees go to 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Committee_and_Regional_Body_Appointees.aspx 

 

To check for Berkeley Unified School District Board Meetings go to 

https://www.berkeleyschools.net/schoolboard/board-meeting-information/ 

 

_____________________ 

 

This meeting list is also posted on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website. 

http://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet under activist’s calendar http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com 

 

When notices of meetings are found that are posted after Friday 5:00 pm they are added to the website schedule https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html and preceded by LATE ENTRY 

 

If you wish to stop receiving the Weekly Summary of City Meetings please forward the weekly summary you received to kellyhammargren@gmail.com, 

We are doing another couple of #blacklivesmatter #endwhitesilence ‘honk and wave’ actions to show solidarity with the black community, and our determination to banish the status quo.

Friday, June 5, 4 to 5pm, at the Ashby and Telegraph intersection in Berkeley

Monday, June 8, 4 to 5pm, at the Ashby and College intersection in Berkeley

Join us if you feel safe to do so. Bring signs, water and masks for a safe, socially distanced protest. Spread the word!

A person who came to the last one emailed this response to us “Your action has had such positive ripple effects for me and inspired me as well.” It feels great to join with others to stand up for justice and safe communities.

Maybe all those other things we want to happen in the world like tackling climate change and other social or economic change cannot happen without shifting the system that keeps our problems in place.

Hope to see you there!

Berkeley councilmembers, residents and local artists are planning to lead to a funeral procession in honor of George Floyd and other victims of racism on Saturday.

The Funeral Procession to Bury Racism, a Family Friendly March is scheduled for Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Berkeley councilmembers Ben Bartlett, Cheryl Davila Kate Harrison and Rigel Robinson are slated to attend the march along with artists and residents.

The New Orleans style funeral procession will begin at Malcolm X Elementary School at 1731 Prince St. and will travel to Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park at 2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

Participants will also gather and read the names of Floyd and other victims of racism.

Floyd, a black man, died while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. Four police officers are facing charges in connection with the death.

.